Summer Playlist: Part 6

Summer Playlist: Part 6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Summer Playlist: Part 5

Summer Playlist: Part 5

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Summer Playlist: Part 4

Summer Playlist: Part 4

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Summer Playlist: Part 3

Summer Playlist: Part 2

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, we are back with it again today, our summer playlist series. This has been a fun one to kind of collaborate with and put together and think about. But what would be Father's Day this morning without a couple of dad jokes to get us going, right? All right. Why can't dinosaurs clap their hands? They're extinct. Come on guys. But why did the computer get cold? It left its windows open. No, no? Okay, this is really gonna kill right here. What kind of birds stick together? Velcros. Yeah, Velcros. Wow, those were way better in my head when I wrote those down yesterday. Man, it's all right. We love our dad jokes here. We love our funny sign on the corner. We get so many people who comment about that and ask us for that. So we just kind of wanna have a fun, lighthearted kind of church. This is kind of how we are. I see God as joyful and playful and fun. And so I think church should be the same as well.

But our series here, Songs in the Bible, does anybody know how many songs are actually recorded in the Bible? There are upwards of 185 to 190 songs written in the Bible. There's a couple that scholars debate about whether it's a prayer or an actual song that was sung. But there are 80% of them are actually in the book of Psalms. And there are other song books in the Bible, two of which are the Song of Solomon, or the Songs of Psalms, which is an epic love song between a bride and a groom. And then you have Lamentations, which is actually a set of five dirges, which is a song mourning the fall of Jerusalem. How about this? The longest song in the Bible is 1,732 Hebrew words. Any idea where that's at? Psalms 119 is actually that long. It's unbelievable. And it's a psalm of Bible study anthem. And it talks about how important the word of God is. The shortest song, how many words do you think is the shortest song? Oh, that's close, five. Seven Hebrew words. And there's actually two of them you find in the book of 2 Chronicles 5 and 20. The first person to sing a song that's recorded in the Bible was Moses in Exodus 15, as he celebrated the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and finding their freedom out of slavery out of Egypt, he praised God for all that he had done. And then the last song in the Bible recorded in Revelation 15 is actually also the Song of Moses, which is pretty awesome. That John, the writer of Revelation, he writes this and he sees those who have overcome the beast in his vision. And he sings the song of Moses. The lyrics are slightly different, but the idea and the message is very, very similar. There are over 1,000 mentions and references in the Bibles to songs, music, instruments, singing. It's absolutely incredible.

And we know the power of music, right? Pastor Andre and Pastor Lauren, last couple of weeks, they've talked about this, how we can have a major connection between our memory and a song, a sound, especially music. And that it does something special inside of us, right? It's like when you hear a song, somehow it takes life in this moment and like this memory and like locks it down. But then later that song is like the key that unlocks that memory and all these emotions come flooding forward. There's something powerful about music. And actually live music especially, it can trigger profound emotions, more so than any vinyl or tape or CD or iPod or app you stream on your phone. There's something about live music that connects us with our emotions. And songs are shared from generation to generation. They're kind of passed down through the years. My parents passed down to me a love of Motown music and music from the 70s and 80s rock bands like Genesis, Phil Collins, Santana, Temptations, Earth Wind and Fire, to mention a few. Yeah, yeah, give them some love. That's some good stuff. I was raised on some good stuff. Of Chicago, of course. Who could forget Chicago, 25 or 6 to 24. But Lauren and I have, we have a speaker in our kitchen kind of living room area and we love playing music, especially music that we grew up on. And all of a sudden out of nowhere with no cue or nothing preemptively, we can just start singing off a song. And the faces that our kids have, it's just priceless. They look at us and they're like, who are you? What are you doing? You're the weirdest people in the world. I said, exactly, I'm doing my job as a parent. But songs that we loved growing up, maybe some Justin Timberlake, some Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson, John Mayer, dare I say Usher. You guys are totally judging me now. But I have my Christian bands, okay? Okay, I had Switchfoot, Olivia, Sherwood, Jars of Clay, KJ52 and my favorite of all, Grits. My life be like, ooh, wah, ooh wah. No, no, anybody? Okay, there's a couple in here. You've heard that one before. You know it if it came on. But these songs that are passed down from generation to generation are incredibly powerful. We have a few songs that we actually sing to our own kids. One of them was passed down from my mother-in-law through my wife. And it has a song that we sing and we've put our kids to bed singing. Whoever is rocking them says, ♪ Daddy loves Laia ♪ And then we would literally go through the family. So mom, dad, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and we have a very large family. So we usually don't have to get through all of them before the kid's asleep. But we pass down these songs. My mom has an incredible song she sings with the kids. ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ A bushel and a peck ♪ You guys know that? ♪ A bushel and a peck ♪ ♪ And a hug around the neck ♪ They love singing those songs. I grew up, my mom singing a song to me of, ♪ You are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪ You guys, there's these songs that are passed down and they remind people of their identity and how they are loved.

Israel passed down songs and prayers, reminding them of the love of God. And we're gonna be in Isaiah chapters 34, or 36 and 34 this morning. But during this time, it was the Babylonian exile. This was a horrific time for the Israelite people that the Babylonians had come in and overtaken, actually had destroyed Jerusalem around 587 BC. And the Israelites were ripped apart. Some stayed in Jerusalem, others were sent around the globe. They were sent to Babylonian captivity. And it was a time of despair and displacement. They questioned God's covenantal promises. And as the people, they felt just this abandonment. And yet they've been told their whole lives that they were God's chosen people. And so in Isaiah 63 and 64, it was written near the end of their captivity, probably somewhere around 540 BC. But Israel was so broken. Their temple was destroyed. It was in ruins, their identity, where they had seen God physically in front of them, did not exist anymore. And they began to sing this prayer in these chapters, calling God their father. A reminder of the truth that had been passed down to them from generation to generation. And after Cyrus of Persia, he conquered the Babylonians. He let the people return back to Jerusalem. We read about this in Ezra chapter one. But when they returned these early refugees, they found themselves with a city in desolation. There was economic hardship, spiritual delusion, disillusionment. The restoration wasn't happening the way they had hoped or what they had hoped to find when they came back. These chapters here remind Israel and the Hebrew people of who God is. Pointing to his eternal love, generation after generation after generation, reminding them of the character of God, despite the world that they saw all around them. So for us, I think of Father's Day, I find it fitting that we honor our dads in our lives and those around us. But we also lift up God as the ultimate heavenly father. Whose love endures forever like Pastor Andre shared with us. And is seen in this song and fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah. We get the big picture of not just like a moment in a few years in the Old Testament, where we see the fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And he embodies this perfect father-son relationship that ultimately he invites us into his family.

Before we keep going, I'd love to pray with us before we dive in. Jesus, thank you for this morning. God, we thank you for time of worship. God, we thank you for time of celebration. God, honoring those who have faithfully served you for many years. God, honoring those who are stepping up in new faithful service. And God, as we honor our dads here at Spring Valley, God, I pray that ultimately we would see you as our heavenly father, that we'd be reminded of your love and your compassion and your faithfulness, maybe despite our earthly relationships that we have. God, remind us of your truth today. We love you. Amen.

Isaiah 63:16 says this. For you are our father. Though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us, you, O Lord, are our father. Our redeemer from of old is your name. Israel is singing a song of identity. They're reminding and acknowledging God as their father. Even when human lineage of like Abraham and Jacob and Isaac and all those things that they read about these prophecies and these covenants and these commitments from God, even when that seems broken, they are reminded of who God is. I picture Israel maybe in captivity in Babylon, miles and miles and miles away from their homeland where they grew up, where their family used to live, singing of God as their true father, even in the midst of captivity. There's something about song, like I said, that locks in memory. And these people were reminded of who God was when they were a child through song so that they could carry that with them no matter where they were in life. No matter where they found themselves, whether free or slave, lost, home, wherever they were, they could sing a song and be reminded of the truth of God. I think of us like today, we sing hymns about God, how great thou art, great is thy faithfulness, amazing grace, awesome God. We sing these songs and sometimes out of nowhere, right, it just pops into our head and we just start singing it. That's the power of music, to take us back to a place and time where God was so evidently faithful right in front of our eyes, to be reminded maybe in a moment where it's like, oh, I'm really struggling here, God, I don't understand what's happening. We can be reminded of his faithfulness.

Our songs today echo Israel's exiled hope. I love what it says there, the redeemer from of old. See, this shows God's love is eternal, it's never ending, it's everlasting, and that it's rescuing his people from slavery and sin and exile, God's enduring love. I can envision Israel maybe in chains, clinging to God's redeeming love, crying out to him through song, that even when they might have felt abandoned, no home, no hope, they cried, you are our Father, trusting God's redeeming love, just as we too trust him today. I think of the story from Jesus of the prodigal son, but I think from the perspective of the father, the son goes off, squanders his inheritance, gets to the point where he is lower than low, he's fighting pigs for food with just like junk scraps, he's rummaging through garbage just to find something to eat to survive. And he thinks, my dad will never accept me when I come home, I left such a horrible way. And yet he goes, you know what, if I just go home, I just beg dad to just be one of his workers, I just beg dad to be his janitor. And yet he walks home and the father sees the son from afar, it says in scripture. And the dad just belts, just flies to him and embraces him. And his son's like, dad, I don't deserve this. But the love from the father, despite his son's rebellion, this is a picture, an image of the love that God has for his people, even in exile, and for you today. This mirrors God's steadfast love.

Today being Father's Day is really tough for some people, honestly. Earthly fathers have failed us. Maybe for you, your dad just wasn't the best example of a father, or maybe you didn't have a father growing up at all in your life. And in turn, because of that, it's hard to think of God as a father, right? I know people who have wrestled with this for a long time in their life. And I know some who still wrestle with it. And I know some, by the grace of God, have been able to overcome some of those preconceived emotions and thoughts and mindset, trying to overlay their earthly father with God, their heavenly father, it just doesn't add up. But even when our earthly fathers let us down, God never does. If you're walking away with one thing today, know that God will never let you down. You may go through some really, really hard stuff. You might find yourself exiled like the Israelites. I don't know. But God will never let you down. And I see this faith that Israel has in God's fatherhood, despite their circumstances. And if I can this morning, I wanna encourage all of us dads in the room, all of us dads who are listening, to reflect the love of God in your roles like a mirror. See, being a father is probably the hardest thing that I've ever done in my entire life. Every single day is filled with challenges, surprises, twists, turns, ups, downs. And that was just Tuesday. And in those times where I just feel so overwhelmed, I am so thankful that I don't have to have it figured out. I don't have to be the perfect dad. I know a perfect dad. And all I have to do of when I can't sometimes even feel like standing up, all I gotta do is hold a mirror of God's love and reflect that to my children and my wife. That's our calling. Rely on God for the strength, just like Israel relied on the hope, even while in Babylon, of the father that they knew that they can trust. See, and in this song, the people recall God's most like past mercies as their redeemer. They're reminded of God as their warrior, their fighter, their protector, and God their father. And then things shift a little bit in chapter 64. They start pleading for God to intervene dramatically where they are. They confess sin. They confess their wrongdoing. They plead with God to move like he's never moved before.

Isaiah 64:8 says, "But now, O Lord, you are our father. "We are the clay, you are our potter. "We are all the work of your hand." This now becomes a song of creation. Israel's prayer here likens God to a potter, shaping the people with care, sung to recall their dependence on him. I imagine this time in civilization, pottery was huge. It was the only way that you could find a bowl or a plate or a cup or anything made to hold food, sustenance, water, life, hydration. And they would probably see out in the markets, people working the pottery wheel and shaping the clay and doing all of that. This was a physical reminder of who God was in their lives. And this imagery of the potter passed down to teach the humility and the trust in God's creative fatherhood. I think of a potter making something to start with nothing but shapeless clay and to work it over and over and over again until it's made into something absolutely beautiful, something with an identity, something of value with worth, to go from nothing to artwork is an incredible image. See, this is God. He wants to shape us into who He wants us to be, something that's one of a kind, unique, special, His created. I think of the song, "Change my heart, oh God, "make it ever true, change my heart, oh God, "may I be like you. "You are the potter, I am the clay, mold me and make me, "this is what I pray, change my heart, oh God, "make it ever true, change my heart, oh God, "may I be like you." These are our prayer songs today that we pray and we work through.

Our worship continues this image of Israel's trust in God. See, 'cause as the potter, God forms us with purpose and with love, knowing every single detail of our lives. We read that in Psalm 139. Picture God here shaping Israel, even in the midst of the exile ruins, that the returnees at this time were faced with a desolate land in opposition. They were leading to prayers for God to form them, to move as He did in the past, to shape them and to reshape their shattered nation. I feel their hope as they return to Jerusalem, even facing what they're looking at in just ruins and desolate land. See, when making pottery, there's no shortcuts. There's no quick way to do it. If you rush it, you will ruin it. And that it takes time, it takes focus, it takes energy. And there's nothing that the clay can do to hurry it up. The Israelites trusted God with His hand and they rested in the process and the design. One of the biggest roles as fathers we can have is as God shapes us, we in turn help shape our children. We shape them in love, we shape them in patience. We imitate God's careful, creative care with those at which He has entrusted us. I envision even in the exile, the fathers of the Israelite people teaching their children about God, about the days old, about the faithfulness, about the love, about the care, the deliverance for their family. And see, for all of us as believers, we are all God's handiwork. And we're called to trust God in His fatherly design for us.

Love the quote from Henry Nouwen, a modern spiritual writer. He says this to remind us of God's unconditional love as a father. The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God's voice saying, "You are my beloved." God is the father who loves us, not because of what we do as shapeless clay, but because of who He is. This imagery here in Isaiah 64 of the potter is profound. And as God shapes His loving children, we celebrate that this Father's Day. Fathers, love your children as God loves you. All of us trust His design for your life, no matter where you are in the shaping process. God is working. And so for the Hebrew people, God was continually working, not only before exile, not just during captivity, but also ultimately after exile, moving them towards the Messiah, the coming savior, the Jesus Christ.

We see this direct connection as we read in Isaiah, so many prophecies about Jesus, who's the son of God, would be revealed in the heavenly father in a perfect way. It says in John 14, nine, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus says. Jesus reveals God the Father in so many incredible ways. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's fatherly love here on earth, face to face. Israel's, or Isaiah's hope for a redeemer here is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who shows a father's heart. I love this. And makes us His children. Jesus shows us what fatherhood looks like. It's full of compassion. It's sacrificial. It never ends. Jesus, our savior, answers Israel's ancient cry. Jesus also shows us the father-son divine relationship. It says in John 10, 30, "I and the Father are one." Jesus and God share this incredible, perfect, eternal relationship of love and unity. And I can only imagine those who were Jews at the time of Jesus, who had heard the stories of old, and had hoped and had prayed with their grandparents and their great-grandparents and their great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents for a savior, for a Messiah to come. And the moment they met Jesus face to face and realized who this man in front of them was, mind blowing that they could see the fulfillment of God's love promised all the way back to Abraham. And this father-son relationship is a model for us as fathers with our children, showing how to build trust, how to grow in obedience, to grow in love.

I think of a father-son working in perfect unity and harmony. I've had the privilege to do a lot of projects with my father growing up. And it started with me, just a little kid, helping him build fences, to work on the cars, and to fix stuff around the house, to do so many projects and to be right by his side, to the point now that even just this last weekend, we were in my backyard working on sprinklers. And there's this somehow, and I've had people tell me, and I can't fully comprehend it, but there is a unspoken language and flow that my dad and I have with each other that we're just like in lock sync, just working on a project. And that didn't happen overnight. That took a lot of patience on his side with me as a kid getting in his way, messing things up, making the project last three times as long. I experienced that now with my son, Oakland. But to the point that it comes to now to where we can just think about, oh, hey, we're getting to this part of the project, I need this tool, okay, I'm gonna go grab this. Hey, what wrench do you want? Okay, I got it right here. Okay, screw it, okay, yeah, boom, got it. We're right here, back and forth, just boom, just flowing, just jiving. And I've had people tell me, be like, there's something between you and your dad, man. There's something going on there. And I know that's not perfect. I mess up, I still get in his way. I still destroy things, trying to fix them. But it's just this glimpse in the picture, I think, of the relationship that God the Father and Jesus have. Now, they have a God-like, supernatural, intellectual connection. I don't have my father. But these are the examples of what we see here on earth, where we can see God's love in Jesus Christ. But it doesn't stop there with us just looking in on the inside of God and Jesus together and their relationships.

We are actually adopted, as it says, into God's family as God's children. It says in Romans 8:15, "So you have not received a spirit "that makes you fearful slaves. "Instead, you receive God's spirit "when He adopted you as His own children." And now we all can call Him Abba Father. Through Jesus, we cry Abba Father through the Holy Spirit, being adopted into God's family. You can feel the joy and just the relief from the Israelite people as they understand that they are God's children. Song in Isaiah reminds us of God as a Father and the full fulfillment of that in Christ, who makes us heirs with Him. We don't just get invited to the dinner table. We share in the inheritance. And this song comes to this epic crescendo. Some would say, "fortississimo," which is a fancy musical term in Italian that means crank that baby up as loud as you can, if you didn't know sheet music. And that we get to rejoice in Jesus's victory today, right now in this moment.

St. Augustine, a fourth century bishop, captures our longing for this relationship. He says, "You have made for us yourself, for yourself, "O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." God's fatherly love endures, shaping us through life's ups and downs, and it's all seen in Christ's redemptive work. Find rest today. That even if you don't have a earthly father or you don't have a relationship with them, you don't have a good one, you have been adopted into a family with God. You have been adopted into a family with a perfect father. And that is your true loving father. Timothy Keller has an incredible quote, and says, "The only love that won't disappoint you "is the one that can't change, that can't be lost, "that isn't based on ups and downs of life "or how well that you live. "It is something that not even death can take away from you. "God's love is the only thing like that." These songs of Isaiah 63 and 64 were sung through generations, proclaiming God's position as our heavenly father, our redeemer, our creator, whose love endures forever. And in Jesus our Messiah reveals the father perfectly, inviting us into his family. Dads, imitate God's love and patience and care in your family today. Like the fathers here in Isaiah, showing God's love to their children through this song. And for all of us, we need to trust God as our heavenly father, to sing his praises and to live as his children through faith in Jesus Christ. We join, I love this, we join in Israel's ancient song of trust today. We'll leave you with this verse, 1 John 3:1, it says this. "Consider this, the father has given us his love." Remember, his perfect, perfect love. And he loves us so much that we are actually called God's dear children. And that's what you are. You are God's children.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for your truth. We thank you for the reminder of your salvation. We thank you for the faith that the Israelite people had, that even in the midst of chaos and slavery and destruction and ruin and chaos and shattered hopes and shattered dreams, lost friends and family, that they could still call you their father. That's so powerful. And so, Jesus, I pray for us today that we would be reminded of this, that was even 2,500 years ago. Israel sang this song to you in their darkest hour. And today, God, we can sing in that same truth and the fulfillment in Jesus Christ as you, our father's greatest gift ever given to us. Isaiah 63 and 64, God, it calls us to you, our Redeemer, whose love endures forever. And God, this Father's Day, I pray that we would be able to sing maybe a little bit louder and live a little bit bolder in your love, trusting you as our heavenly Father. And maybe for some of us here this morning, we've never put our faith or our trust in you. And right now, hearing the faithfulness and the hope of the Israelite people in their worst moment, thinking about how they could still continue to trust you, that maybe that they need to put their trust in you this morning.

And so this morning, maybe you would say, "Hey, Chris, I need this Jesus. I need to know my heavenly Father. I need to know my Savior. I want that hope and that love and that salvation today." If maybe that's you this morning, I just ask you, just look up at me. I want to pray for you. You would say this morning that I need to make this decision. I want to trust you. I need you, Jesus. I need you, Jesus, in my life. Thank you. Jesus, I pray that those who are wrestling with this in their heart, God, that they may pray this prayer alongside of me. And I pray, honestly, God, that all of us, we would pray this prayer out loud together. I don't want anybody praying alone. So for all of us who have put our faith in Jesus before, God, I pray that we would pray this prayer aloud to be reminded of your love. Let's pray this together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your love. I thank you for your everlasting presence and compassion and that the care that you have for me as my Father. I'm sorry for the things that I've done that haven't honored you as my dad. I confess these to you today and I live in going forward in your salvation, in your hope, and in your love. Thank you for Jesus. May I live reflecting your love to all those around me. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 2

Summer Playlist: Part 2

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, good morning! I am Pastor Lauren if I haven't had a chance to meet you. And we are in our summer playlist series where we are talking about the different songs in the Bible. There are actually a ton of songs in the Bible. I don't think we always realize this because it's written down and we don't have the music for it. So I think it's easy to forget or not even realize that there are so many songs in the Bible or that they were written for the purpose of praise and worship and even prayer through song. So Pastor Andre last week kicked off our series and talked about Psalm 136 and kind of explained the purpose of music and how music and songs allow us to express ourselves. It helps with memory and memorization. It allows us to recall things, past experiences. You hear a song and it takes you right back there, right? Song is such a beautiful thing that God created for us in our human experience. He also shared some particular songs that allow him to recall experiences and it got me thinking about some of my own.

And so I was thinking this week, I was like, "What are songs for me that draw up some experiences?" So the first one I thought of was the song "Come What May" from the movie "Moulin Rouge!" It was our first dance at our wedding song. So anytime I think about that, I think about our wedding. And in the movie they are dancing on clouds. And so Chris surprised me with a smoke machine under the table. And so we're dancing and all of a sudden we have clouds all around us. And so it takes me back to that moment. Oh, I know. It was all three. I distinctly remember listening to the Hamilton soundtrack while I was in labor with Oakes. I hadn't even seen the musical yet, but I loved the music. So I was laboring for several hours with some Hamilton. The song "Dive" by Steven Curtis Chapman is an old Christian song. It's a great song. But my parents actually started a church when I was about 11 called the River Church. And so at our grand opening we sang this song "Dive" and it was on repeat in our house for weeks. So it always takes me back there. Even just artists like Britney Spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys. Didn't think we were talking about boy bands today, right? Backstreet Boys, Destiny Child. Those are the soundtrack of my middle school and early high school days, right? You just you hear those songs and it just takes you back, at least for me, if you're a millennial, takes you back there. And I'm sure we all have those artists or those songs that take us back to those moments.

And that's really what these songs are in scripture. It's the playlist or the soundtrack of God's story throughout the Bible. His story of creation and love and redemption. And so when we look at them, it puts us more in awe of who God is, of what He has done. And it helps us to recall His goodness, His love, and His creation. We are going to be in 1 Samuel today, so feel free to turn there in your Bible or on your phone. We'll have it up on the screen if you need a Bible. There's some in the chairs as well. But we are talking about the song of Hannah. It's listed in the Bible as a prayer, but through Jewish tradition, they actually refer to it as Hannah's song. It was meant to be sung. So a little backstory. Hannah was a Jewish woman who was married to Elkanah and she was one of two wives, because that's what they did then. And she was barren. She wasn't able to have any children. But the other wife, Peninnah, was. She had children and she did not let Hannah forget it. She berated her. She put her down. She was unkind to her, because Hannah couldn't have children. In that day, that was the worth of women, was bearing children, particularly sons. And so Hannah was distraught and she cried out to God for a child. And she promised that if God gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord. She would dedicate him to the Lord. So that's where we find Hannah here. She had a son, Samuel. And here in chapter 2, she is singing a song as she is dedicating Samuel to the Lord. And by dedicating, I mean she was literally, after he was weaned, literally giving him two services in the temple. He was going to be raised by the priest in service to God. So we're going to pick up here. We're just going to go section by section.

But we're going to pick up here in chapter 1, right off the bat. Then Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord, my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God." Hannah starts by rejoicing in the Lord. Pause with me here though because she's literally leaving her young child in the temple, never to be living in her home again. And yet, she is starting with rejoicing. This really caught my attention because she was barren and it was this long struggle. And she finally conceived and was given a son. And now she's giving him up to the Lord. It was a good reason for her to give to the Lord. If anyone's going to take care of your child, it's going to be the Lord. But she was relinquishing him being in her home. And yet, she was rejoicing. She wasn't rejoicing in her circumstances though. She was rejoicing in God, in who He was. She starts her prayer with personal praise and it focuses her on who God is. And it reminds us to focus our praise on God too. She wasn't focused on the circumstances or even that they changed. She wasn't praising Samuel or even necessarily celebrating the gift that he was. She was celebrating the giver. She was worshiping the God who saved her and loved her. In the first verse, it says that her horn, the Lord, in the Lord, my horn is lifted high. And this idea of a horn being lifted up in scripture is the idea of strength being restored. Like I said, in that time, not being able to bear children was terrible for women. And so for her to bear a son was her strength being restored. Her role in society as a wife, as a mother, as a woman, she was being restored. Her position was restored in bearing a son. Hannah, in this passage, has really similar language to another song. It is a psalm of David in Psalm 18. It says, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Like David, Hannah is focusing on praising who God is. Out of this gratitude for what he's done for her, she praises because he is the deliverer. He is the restorer. He's the one who raised the horn of her salvation. He is the one who is holy. There is no one else like him. He's the rock that she can count on. And so her prayer reminds us to take the focus off ourselves and even off of our circumstances, good or bad, whatever's going on, and put it back on God, the one who has no equal, who there is none like him.

Moving on to verse 3, it goes from more of a personal prayer to a more broader public praise. It says, "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance. For the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumble are armed with strength. Those who are full hire themselves out for food, but those who are hungry are hungry no more. She who was barren has born seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away." Hannah cautions the listener here to not boast himself, but to understand that God is all-knowing and is the judge over all. Her song for us is a call to humility. Humility, just general definition, it means to be freed from pride and arrogance and to have a right view of oneself. She knows that it's only by God that anything has happened to her, that her circumstances changed, that anything came to pass in her life. It was only by God. No amount of effort or work on her part, there's no Pinterest hacks or things she could do to get herself pregnant. She knows that it was only by God. She's simultaneously praising God for being the all-knowing judge and encouraging her people to practice humility, to enter into worship with a humble heart. God knows the hearts of man. He's the only one who is all-knowing, who is the judge. And that truth, frankly, should humble us. It should bring about humility in our own hearts to realize that He is omniscient. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. I wonder how often we think that anything that has happened or anything that we have accomplished is in our own strength, that we've done it, we've pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps or we've made it happen, we've pushed through. And to be sure, we are not helpless, we are not useless. God has a role and work for us to do, but it is not dependent on us. And so we must approach God with humility in understanding that it is Him who knows all things. It is Him who judges the hearts of man. In summarizing an idea from C.S. Lewis' book, Mere Christianity, Pastor Rick Warren wrote that, "True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less." And that's reality. We don't have to think that we're useless, we just have to think about ourselves less. By elevating who God is and coming to Him with humility, not that we are nothing, but that He is everything. Hannah is giving credit where credit is due. She's having a right view of herself as she worships and prays and praises God. And we should do the same. It should cause humility in us to do the same. The third section, the last part of her prayer, is really more poetic. It's not metaphorical necessarily, but it is poetry. And it's a beautiful, especially in the original language, it's a beautiful message of the actions of the Lord and of what He has done for Hannah and in the lives of Israelites.

Verse 6, "As the Lord brings death and makes alive, He brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth, He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's, on them He has set the world. He will guard the feet of His faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the Lord will be broken. The Most High will thunder from heaven, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His anointed." This section of Hannah's song encourages us to surrender to God's sovereignty. It talks about how the Lord does this, the Lord gives, the Lord strengthens, the Lord lifts up. He is the one who is sovereign and encourages us to surrender to His sovereignty. For those of us who like to be in control, this is a tough one to handle. I know for me that I struggle, not that I believe that God is sovereign, but to just let Him be sovereign, that I don't have to be in control. Hannah has such great confidence in the Lord because she knows He is who He says He is. She knows that He is worthy of her confidence because of His sovereignty. And really, there's actually so much peace in that truth. Because when we don't have to be in control, when we don't have to feel like we have to have it all figured out, that brings us so much peace. When we are able to really relinquish this illusion of full control and surrender to God's sovereignty and His control, His supernatural peace is able to come upon us. And honestly, we won't always understand the why or the how of things and of situations or circumstances. It won't always make sense.

In fact, it reminds me of Job, who was a man in the Bible who literally lost everything but his life. And in Job 1:20, it says, "Then he fell to the ground in worship." He already lost things, right? "He fell to the ground in worship and said, 'Naked I come from my mother's womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.'" Even in the midst of losing everything he worshiped, he sang a song of praise to God. Again, here, Job is not celebrating his circumstances. His joy is not found in the fact that he has lost everything. His joy is in the Lord. God's will doesn't always make sense to us. We don't always understand it, and it can mean walking through really hard things, really hard circumstances. But because we know that He is good, we know His character, and that the Bible says, "In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, we can surrender to His sovereignty." In His all-knowing sovereignty, we can trust Him. We can trust that He will judge rightly. We can trust that He knows what's best for us. We can trust that He will have good for us. Even if it doesn't feel good, it's for our good. Back to what I said earlier, Hannah wasn't praising God for the circumstances or praising the gift. She was praising the giver, the one who is sovereign over all. And it means, it shows us that we can do that too. That if we're praying for a circumstance to change and it doesn't change, we can still praise God. And if it does change, we can still praise God. Regardless of where we're at, if we are flying high and things are going great, or we're in the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us and He is worthy of our praise because He is sovereign. When we are surrendered to God's sovereignty, we're better able to praise Him because our praise is not dependent on our circumstances, but on the character of God. So Hannah's song reminds us to focus our praise on God. It calls us to humility and it encourages us to surrender to God's sovereignty. And truly, all of this can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can't do anything without His work in us. Even to be able to praise or to choose humility or to surrender, that is all done by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, of Jesus' Spirit in us. Lastly, the final verse here in Hannah's prayer is looking forward. It's actually prophetic. We're going to talk about that a little bit.

Let me read verse 10 again. This is, "The Most High will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth." That's very much end times revelation language, right? "He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His anointed." The interesting thing here is that at this time of Hannah's prayer, Israel didn't have a king. They were ruled by judges. So who is she referring to when she talks about His King? And the phrase in there that says His anointed, the word is Messiah in Hebrew. So she is prophesying out of this place of praise and humility and submission. She is talking about the coming King of Kings. So when we choose praise, when we choose humility and submission, it causes us to worship as well. It really, truly makes room for the Holy Spirit to move. By His power, He is able to move in ways that maybe there isn't room for if we're trying to grasp things so tightly, if we're trying to hold on to control. But He's able to move in mighty and powerful ways, just like He did here in Hannah's prophecy. Something I think that is really important that is shown throughout this whole passage is that God is the God of the great reversal. His kingdom is nothing like any earthly kingdom here in this world. So when Hannah prays phrases like, "He raises the poor from the dust," "He lifts the needy from the ash heap," "He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor," she is acknowledging that His is the upside down kingdom. It is totally different. We're lowly, we'll be great, and the poor will eat with princes. That can only happen in God's economy. That can only happen in His kingdom.

This prophecy is also what we like to call a hyperlink. It is hyperlinking us and telling us to go look somewhere else. It is in Luke 1. In Luke 1 we have Mary's song. Mary, the mother of Jesus, sings a song of praise when she is pregnant. It's interesting because there are so many themes and parallels to Hannah's song in Mary's song. Even so much that scholars think Luke modeled, Luke who's the author of Luke, modeled Mary's song after Hannah's. So it's something to take note of because we see Hannah prophesying about the anointed one and then we see Mary who is carrying the anointed one sing a very similar song. But it's interesting because it's actually later in Luke that we have another hyperlink. There is another song, Zechariah's song, later in Luke. He's the father of John the Baptist who's Jesus' cousin. He sings a song when John the Baptist is born. And in verse 69 it says, "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us." So we have Mary who's carrying the anointed one singing a song similar to the prophecy about the anointed one. And then we have Zechariah praising God for the horn of salvation that has come. We know that the horn of salvation is Jesus. He is our ultimate strength. He is the ultimate restorer of our strength.

So Hannah's song points us to Luke 1 and Luke 1 reminds us of the prophecy in Hannah's song. And Jesus coming to earth as a human is the ultimate reversal. He not only took on human flesh but then through his death and resurrection he took our sin away. He paid the price for our sins. So Hannah is praising God for the coming King of Kings whom she hasn't even known about yet. When we pray to God with praise and humility and submission, it allows us to glorify God for the works that he has done and has yet to do because we know he will. We know the end of the story. Because of the great reversal of our sin, we are able, like the authors of the Bible, we are able to sing songs of praise to God for what he has done in us, what he has done through us, what he's doing in the world and what he will do in the world to come. What a powerful way to honor and glorify God through singing, through worship, through a praise of thanksgiving for who he is, for his character.

I have a challenge for us today. Pastor Andre challenged you all last week to write your own Psalm 136. So I hope you all did that. But if not, you still can do it. We're not going to check. But it was great. I did it this week and it was really powerful to take the time to do that. I encourage you to do that. Our challenge, or my challenge for you this week, is to pick a song in the Bible. Maybe it's Hannah's song. Maybe you go find another one. Maybe it's a Psalm that you really know or love. And I want you to read it out loud every day this week. The same one. Read it out loud. We don't have the music, so if you want to put your own music to it, by all means, that's great. But just read it out loud. So much of scripture is meant to be spoken aloud. It was passed on so much through oral tradition. And so to say it over and over again is really powerful. It is the word of the Lord. So when you say it out loud, you are literally speaking God's words over you. You can even, like Hannah here, read it as a prayer. Use it as a prayer back to God. Praising Him for who He is. Honoring Him. Glorifying Him. Making a request of Him. And as you do this, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more of Himself and more of His word to you, because He is good on that promise. When we are in the Word, when we are reading it, when we are studying it and memorizing it, when we are speaking it, He is good to reveal who He is to us. Well, speaking of prayer, we are going to begin a new practice here. Right now we're going to do it about once a month. Maybe in the future we'll increase that frequency. But we are going to start this practice of an extended prayer time as a response for us to respond to how the Lord spoke to us during worship and the Word. So Pastor Chris and Daryl are going to come up and they're going to play a song, another song for us. So you're welcome to just worship from your seat if that's what you want. But Pastor Andre and I are going to be up here at the front and we just want to pray with you. We want to pray with and for you and to be available to you.

I find it appropriate that today is Pentecost Sunday. For those that don't know, this is the day that we celebrate when the Holy Spirit, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. And now we as believers are all given the Holy Spirit. We are all indwelt with Him. And we are going to pray by the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that there is so much power in prayer. And so there's nothing necessarily magical or particularly special about Andre and I praying with you. We just want to come alongside you and stand in agreement with you about whatever it is that the Lord has put on your heart to pray for. So as the worship song is praying, come on up. We also have prayer team standing by if we need more help, but if not, you can also just form a line and we would love the opportunity to pray for you. We're not in a rush. We'll stay as long as we need. But we want to respond to what the Lord has spoken to us today through prayer and through worship.

So let me pray for us as we head into this time. Father Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you for who you are. Thank you for your character and that regardless of our circumstances, we can come to you in humility and surrender and praise you because you are good, because you are all knowing, because you are sovereign. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for coming, for indwelling us so that we have a guide. We have one who intercedes on our behalf to the Father, that we are not left to our own devices, but we are given everything we need for life and godliness. I pray for this time of prayer that you would move in a powerful way, that you will speak to the hearts of those who seek you, God. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

Summer Playlist: Part 1

Summer Playlist: Part 1

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are starting a new series called Summer Playlist. Summers are filled with, hopefully I think for many of us, playlists for summer road trips, backyard barbecues, maybe just quiet evenings. There are certain albums and bands that maybe you're like, "Summertime, we gotta play this music." I know for me, certain things bring me back to certain summers, like Beach Boys, for me is always a road trip up to Montana to visit my grandparents. We played a lot of Beach Boys. Reliant Kay and Michael Bublé, if you know Reliant K or Michael Bublé, that is driving in Washington State. We had a summer there and that was on the CD player in the van nonstop or in my headphones because my family didn't want to listen to Reliant Kay. It's totally okay. And then for me, just one, Shania Twain. Anyone Shania Twain? That's a summer in the Philippines when we were kids just stuck in traffic. It was on the radio nonstop. So yeah, I wasn't going to say it.

But the Bible has its own playlist of songs and poetry that speak to a full range of human emotion and experiences. And so this series is going to explore some of these songs, showing how they resonate with us today. This series is going to invite all of us to reflect on how songs within Scripture can become part of our personal playlist, our personal spiritual playlist, encouraging us to draw closer to God through worship and through reflection. So it's a perfect summer, we thought, to do that, to whatever road trip or whatever vacation you have planned. And I'm also going to encourage a time of getting to know our spiritual song list. I'm really looking forward to having Pastor Chris back to a real musician to get into this series about music because I am not a musician. But I'll do my best this morning to intro some of these insights regarding the relationship between Scripture and music. And I briefly want to cover music and songs in Scripture, music and songs in the church, and then music and songs in our personal transformation.

So first, music and songs in the church. Where do we see music in the Bible? Well, I think an obvious one would be Psalms. And we usually, we've talked over many years about how Psalms are often songs. And they're meant to be sung. But really, there is music all over the Bible, Old Testament to New Testament. We see that music is important to God throughout Scripture, that music is created by God, and that it's even instructed by God to be a part of music. There's a couple passages in the Old Testament of God instructing the people to make instruments. Numbers 10 is one where he's telling the people, "Here, here's some trumpets. Make these trumpets. Give it to these people. These people are going to be trumpet players." And there's a whole other instruments and other people who are designated to, "Music is your job. Music is something that I have given you skills for." Music in Scripture is paired with moments full of emotion, highs and lows of the human life, different situations that bring out different songs. We may think, again, of the book of Psalms or maybe the song of Solomon because it's got the word "song" in it. So maybe we assume there's some songs there. But really, again, there are songs all over Scripture, songs of deliverance, songs of lament, songs of rejoicing, songs of unity.

And so we're going to explore in this series a vast array of different songs throughout this summer. What about music and songs in the church? Where do we see these songs today? Well, we see renditions of songs in our worship sets today. Christian artists throughout time have done everything from complete modern interpretations, just saying, "Hey, I read this, and this is my own words of what this Scripture says," to literally verbatim, word-for-word Scripture, songs that we sing. And they've just put a melody to it, and we sing those songs. So there's anything in between. It can be like, "Hey, this song that I wrote hints to a passage in the Bible, but it doesn't quote it." And then, again, there are songs—I can't think of anything off the top of my head—but there are songs that we're literally singing words of Scripture, and it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful reality to have so many songs and different styles of songs that turn our gaze to God. Now, why do we still use these songs and make songs from Scripture in church today? A couple reasons.

First is that it amplifies our understanding, our appreciation, and comprehension of who God is and what He does. Our understanding, our appreciation, and comprehension of who God is and what He does. Some people connect more deeply, intellectually, emotionally to music, rather than just reading words off a page. Some of us really connect. We read Scripture, and they're like, "I just studied that. That was really good. I soaked up so much." Some others of us are reading it, and we're like, "That was good. I feel like there's more there. I didn't get everything." But if we listen to a song that gets into the truths of that passage, that may speak to us in different ways. It also helps us communicate and express our faith and the unity that we have in the gospel. Sometimes it helps share. There are people, there are creatives. Maybe some of you in this room are a creative type, where through art, through painting and drawing, or through writing music, you're a musical creative, that you can't just express your words just by saying it. You have to create something to help express what you know, what you believe, what you're passionate about. And so worship is a form of that, is helping express the truths that we know. And then it can also, it makes truths more memorable, easier to recall, because of the way that it imprints on our minds and hearts in a helpful and different way than just being told to memorize something. I don't know if you go back to school, or maybe those who are just fresh out of school, you in history class or something, you're memorizing dates. You're like, "This war happened on this person, and this, this, and this date." And it's just up there, it's just information. But when you wrap that into a song, you can recall that easier so much later. You know, everyone here knows maybe your ABCs. And if you could, do you just say your ABCs or do you sing your ABCs? I think we all sing the ABCs. There are things that are easier to recall and to know and to have by heart when we sing them. Music is proven to engage both sides of the brain, where reading mainly engages the left side of our brain. And so even just that, our whole entire head, our brain is being engaged and used when music is a part of learning or memorizing or hearing something.

People throughout time have recognized this. It's why Luther, Martin Luther, himself, he had written 40 or so hymns, and he was intent on linking his teaching and music together as an integrated whole in order to convey the gospel essentials through a variety of coexisting and cooperating channels. Bob Coughlin, who is a worship leader in the Midwest, he's written many books, he says, "Vibrant singing enables us to combine truth about God seamlessly with passion for God, doctrine and devotion, mind and heart." And even further, while we do sing on our own, we can also listen to worship music, obviously individually, but mostly we sing as Christians at church in a corporate setting together. And Sandra Maria Van Opsal writes, "To worship is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of gathered community. It is breaking into the glory of God or better yet, being invaded by the glory of God together as a church." Really, moments of worship through corporate singing are a glimpse of heaven. It's what we're going to be doing in heaven. You have those passages that tell us that we're going to be singing these choruses of hallelujah to God for eternity. Now, it's not all we're going to be doing. I don't want us to get the idea and the boring of like, I just sing for eternity, but we're going to love it. I mean, some of you are like, "Please no. Your voice will be made perfect in heaven. Everyone's going to want to sing." We'll get into another what heaven is like later, but singing is a huge part of it. It's clarifying God. For moments here on earth where we sing together as a church, it's a glimpse of what heaven is going to be like. I have moments in my life of corporate worship experiences that I truly felt like this is a glimpse of heaven. I remember 2016, I was at a pastors' conference in Louisville with 10,000 other pastors. We sung "All Glory Be to Christ," one of my favorite songs. All the instruments cut out. You could just hear 10,000 voices praising God. I truly, I got emotional at that time. I was like, "This is heaven." This is a glimpse of heaven where everyone is praising God. I remember in high school going to summer camp and being at Hume Lake near Yosemite out in the woods by a bonfire, looking up to the stars. At that height and that elevation, you can see all the stars and all the galaxies. We were singing "God of Wonders." Just how true that was, singing those words, seeing the wonders that God created. And I'll never forget that. All to say that it isn't just a feeling, but these truths and the faith that grow in moments of worship, memories are made and are buried deep in our heart. And we don't even think about it, but sometimes we'll sing that song and you're brought right back to that moment. And that truth that you were singing about, all of a sudden it comes afresh on your mind and your heart. And you're reminded of who God is and what He does. I hope and pray that many of you have similar experiences of worship and songs that bring you back to a moment or a truth about God. Which brings me to music and transformation.

What can happen when we engage with scripture musically and through worship? Well, the Spirit can use it to continue transforming us to be more and more like Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we all who with unveiled faces can contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." When we sing these truths together individually, we are focusing on God. And that is always a good thing to be focusing on God. Bob Coffin again, he writes this. He says, "Worship through music and song, worshiping God should make us humble. Worshiping God should make us secure. Worshiping God should make us grateful." I think we have these slides. Do we have these slides? There we go. Worshiping God should make us holy. Worshiping God should make us loving. And worshiping God should make us mission-minded. And he ends by saying, "Genuine worship changes lives." Working with parts of Scripture as we are meant to is to engage with the world of music. And portions of Scripture are meant to be sung. This is part of God's design for His Word and for us, is that we are singing some of these truths. And as we sing, we can be drawn even closer to Him. I hope that that serves as a helpful background for our series of music and how important it is to our faith and our lives, a reminder of why we sing. It's part of why we're excited for this series, is to highlight something that we do every Sunday together. We sing, we worship together, but we're going to take a moment just to focus on why that's so important and highlight some of the truths that come from that experience. I want to begin our summer playlist series with a certain song in the Bible that is more of an upbeat praise song. And that is from Psalm 136. This is a corporate praise song meant for a group setting. The psalmist rehearses Israel's sacred history, focusing on the events of Exodus and entry into the Promised Land. And in the Jewish tradition, this is often referred to as the Great Halal, which is the great psalm of praise. If you are familiar with any modern worship songs, Chris Tomlin's "Forever" is based on this psalm.

So let's go ahead and read. We're going to read bit by bit, and then we'll cover some things along the way. So Psalm 136 verse 1 says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His love endures forever. We'll stop right there for a second. We are being called to praise God for His goodness and His power over all that exists. He's reminding us and telling us that God is sovereign. Everything is under His control, and He has power over everything. He is the God of gods, the Lord of lords. And then we see this repetition, this verse, "His love endures forever." Maybe now you can hear that Chris Tomlin song going off in your head. The word here for love is the Hebrew word "hesed." We've talked about hesed before if you've been around Spring Valley. It's one of our favorite Hebrew words because the Hebrew word is a steadfast love, a faithful love. It's not just the love that is poured out, but it also speaks to the person who is loving and how loyal they are, how steadfast they are. So God is steadfast in His love. He is loyal. There is nothing that can keep God from loving those whom He loves. This phrase is meant to wash over us as we read this psalm. And when you listen to the song, it's a truth that is meant to sink into the depths of your being. That you know this, that you're going to be able to say this automatically for the rest of your life. His love endures forever. His hesed love, His steadfast, faithful love endures forever. It's to serve as a reminder, a comfort. Maybe we need this comfort. We need to know this. We're reminded of this and an encouragement. Let's continue in our psalm. It says in verse 4, "To him alone who does great wonders, his love endures forever. Who by his understanding made the heavens, his love endures forever. Who spread out the earth upon the waters, his love endures forever. Who made the great lights, his love endures forever. The sun to govern the day, his love endures forever. The moon and stars to govern the night, his love endures forever." Right now, the psalmist, the writer, is inviting us to see God as creator, creating all the cosmos. And when we think of creation, we often think of authority, we think of intelligence, the power, the creativity. That is good, that's a good thing to think of. And He is the one that we owe everything, our existence, and all that we see, we owe it all to Him. But maybe lost in the thought of creation and God taking the time to create the world that we live in, in us, is that He did so with love. I love that this section ends every part with His love endures forever. Again, we think of creation, and maybe we think of it like in an apologetic mindset of saying we have to prove that creation happened. And I'm all for that, but we cannot forget the love that God created with. And so this song, this part is highlighting the Genesis creation story, the maker of the heavens, the earth, the stars, the moon, the sun, all of it. All that we see, all that we breathe in, the world around us, it all comes from Him. And it's sustained by Him with His love.

Let's continue, verse 10, it says, "To Him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, His love endures forever, and brought Israel out from among them, His love endures forever. With a mighty hand and outstretched arm, His love endures forever. To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, His love endures forever, and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever. But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea, His love endures forever. To Him who led His people through the wilderness, His love endures forever." So now we're invited in the story of Israel, in the story of history, we're invited to see God, God's relationship with Israel, and how He guided and delivered them from slavery in Egypt and through the wilderness. He is their rescuer, their savior. And for us today, we're reading this and we know that this is foreshadowing to further salvation that God is going to bring to all of humanity. But this is a pivotal moment in Israel's history. They were facing extinction. Pharaoh was moving toward genocide. He had the order of killing all the infant boys. And so this is a moment in Israel's history that is absolutely dire. They know that if God doesn't intervene now, it's over. And so this is, again, the Old Testament is full of moments harkening back to God doing what He did for Israel in Egypt. And they're crying out and they're crying out, "And God answered, delivering them from Pharaoh, performing miracles along the way like parting the Red Sea, bringing all of Israel through the Red Sea, and then destroying Pharaoh's army by having that sea crash in on them." Moments that only God could have done. No one else. There's no credit to Moses. This is God at work. This is God being the rescuer and savior. And so the psalmist is looking back upon Israel's history and saying, "This, this is the God we worship." And through all that, He was loving us. His love endures forever.

We come to verse 17, it says, "To Him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever, and killed mighty kings, His love endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, His love endures forever. And O, king of Bashan, His love endures forever. And gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever. An inheritance to His servant Israel, His love endures forever." This is the part of Israel's story where they come into the Promised Land now. The Promised Land that was promised hundreds of years before to Abraham saying, "I'm going to give you a land for your people. This is the land." And we see God as Victor. No battle won without Him. The land is being given to Israel. They came out of the wilderness, wandering for 40 years into the Promised Land. And that land wasn't empty. It was full of other people and other kingdoms that were there. And at first, some of them were scared, like, "I don't think we can do this." And God says, "I've got you. I've promised this to you. I love you. Now follow Me." And He gives them the land. Battle after battle, they go in and it says, "God gave them the victory. And God gave them the land." And through all of that, He is loving Israel. He's loving His people. And the psalmist ends the passage with this, "He remembered us in our lowest state. His love endures forever. And freed us from our enemies. His love endures forever. He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever." This last section is a series of brief statements that echo various themes through the sections of Psalms. And it emphasizes that God is the God of heaven, of eternity, and that God sees us and provides for us every need that we have. He sustains us. Not just us, but all of creation. He is sustaining the world around us. No animal, He gives food to every creature. He made the world the way it is and for it to work the way that it works. He is our provider, our sustainer, and God is our friend. Even in our worst times, God is there with us. I love that verse 23, "He remembered us in our low estates.”

I think of Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd." When we are feeling at our lowest, at our worst, when we are feeling like we have no worth, like the world has abandoned us, we feel isolated. God is with us. And in the midst of those times, His love is enduring and endures for us. So this is a beautiful Psalm, Psalm 136. Again, meant to be sung by the people of Israel together as a chorus. So at this time, I'm going to ask you guys, no I'm just kidding, we're not going to sing. Did you guys think I was going to? We're not going to sing. I can't lead. It's not happening. But hopefully understanding how music and truth can come together to form powerful memories and store truths in us in such secure ways, I hope that this Psalm hits different than it did before. Or that it's reminding you of certain things that you needed to hear today. I want to ask some questions of us right now. First is, do you need to see God as Creator? In a time where the world can seem so chaotic, so undone, so backwards, where life in the very world we live in seemed to be doomed. That's all we hear, right? This world is doomed. We're uncertain if there's going to be enough in the world. We just talked about having a scarcity mindset. The world around us lives in a scarcity mindset. Is there going to be enough oil? Is global warming going to be our undoing? Is every natural disaster a sign that the world is going to end very, very soon? But in the midst of all that and all the worry and the chaos that comes with those things, do we remember that God is the Creator, sustaining His creation? He's holding this world together. Do we believe that He is? Do we take comfort and rest in the truth that He is holding this world together? So do we need to be reminded that He is the Creator? Are we too focused on the creation rather than the one who created it? I think sometimes we get in this mindset that God created it and backed away. God's still there. God's right there holding this world together. So do you need to see God as Creator this week? Do you need to see God as your rescuer? Is our hope in the only one who can truly rescue us? Or is our hope in someone or something else? Is it in ourselves, in our own ability to save ourselves, to make a living, in our plans and schemes that we have to live the life that we think is best? Are we too busy trying to save ourselves to see that God is truly our rescuer? Maybe it's in someone or something else, a world leader or a party or a country. Are we putting our hope in someone or something thinking that they have all the answers to all the questions, that they have it all figured out? Or do we see that God is the one with truly all the answers who knows to all the questions that we can think of and all the ones we can't? God knows He is our rescuer and He is in the process, in the midst of rescuing us constantly, daily. Do we see that God is the one who saves, who guides us through the desert and the seasons of wilderness in our lives, who can work miracles where need be? Do we hope and trust and see as God is our rescuer? Or do we see God as our victor? In whatever battles we face, and there are a lot of things that we are facing daily, a lot of battles that each of you, I know, are battling. It can be an inner battle, battles with sin, lust, pride, apathy, gluttony, greed. It could be a mental health battle, battles of self-worth, self-image, isolation. It might be the battles of everyday life, having to be enough, having to have enough to be a good parent, a spouse, a friend, an employee, a student. Do you see God as your victor, as the one who is going to provide what you need to get through each day, to help you overcome whatever battle you are facing? He is the one who will deliver you from that anxiety, that stress, or that chaos.

So I love how this song, Psalm 136, reminds us that God is the creator, our rescuer, our victor, all because His love for us endures. I have a couple suggestions for us this week. First is, I would love to encourage you to listen to some worship music this week. Radio, Spotify, I want you to engage with worship and scripture in the way that God intended us to. For some of you, you're like, "This is easy. I do this all the time." Great. Done. For others, maybe this is more uncomfortable. Maybe you don't listen to music or you don't listen to worship music. Maybe you don't consider yourself a singer, so you're like, "I'll listen to it, but I'm not going to sing it." But try it on a drive, in the privacy of your car, while you're preparing dinner, whatever it is. Play some music. Sing some worship music. And I want to push you even farther. Sing it out loud, not just in your head or in your heart. Sing some worship music, some truths from scripture, because they're going to embed in your heart and mind in a different way than you just reading your Bible. Sing God's truth this week. And you'll see, maybe not immediately, maybe not this week, but at some point in your life, you are going to be grateful for having done this. And that song is going to come to you in the perfect time. I think we often pray, "God, can you speak to me? God, can you? I want to hear from you." I think oftentimes it comes through music. It comes through a song that we're listening to, or in a moment, our hearts are drawn to a song. And that is God speaking to us saying, "This is the truth I need you to know right now." So sing some truths, listen to some worship music.

Second suggestion, there's only two. You have to do both. I'm just kidding. You should. I encourage you. The second one is even more. I'm pushing you even farther. I would love for you to write your own song. Ah, you guys are like, "No, not happening." I want you guys to write your own personal rendition of Psalm 136. Now, I don't mean writing like chords and a melody. You don't have to perform it. If you do, please, I would love to hear your rendition. If you're a musical and you, this is like, I can't wait for this. Love to hear that. But what I'm encouraging you to do is to read Psalm 136. And what are the stages of your life? Write them out. Take time. Pull out your iPhone, your notes app, get old fashioned pen and paper. What are the things that you have experienced, that you have endured, that you have enjoyed in life that you're going to praise God for? Maybe it's something like, "God, I give thanks to you because you helped me get through COVID. Your love endured forever. You provided enough for me to get through a recession. God, your love endures forever. You healed me when I was sick and I was in the hospital. Your love endures forever. God, you were by my side when I lost a loved one. Your love endured forever." Maybe it's more on the praise side. "I give thanks to the Lord who has blessed me with family and friends. Your love endures forever. God, you were there on my happiest occasions, the wedding, the birth of my child, the graduation, when I got that new job. Your love endured forever." But what would you write? What would your song of praise be? And again, we think of praise, we think of happy times, but that's not always what a praise song is. It's praising God for being on the other side of that and saying, "God, you were with me through everything, the good and the bad." So again, I know this is different, but I would encourage you, take some time this week. Maybe it's just five minutes and you're just going to say, write down a list of things. But what would your Psalm 136 look like? What would it mean for you to have this list in your mind, in your heart, to be able to see and reflect on God has been a part of my life? I didn't realize until I took the time to reflect back on my life and see all the things that God has been with me through, how He's loved me through everything. All right, are we going to do it? Are you guys going to join me? We're going to listen to some worship music and we're going to write our own Psalm 136. All right. There's no homework. It'd be so cool if we all did, right? Okay.

I want to end our time with reading Psalm 136 again as an encouragement to us, as a reminder of what God has done for His people and to inspire us as we go about our week. So you guys can listen one more time. I'm going to read all the way through. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords as love endures forever to Him who alone does great wonders. His love endures forever, who by His understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever, who spread out the earth upon the waters. His love endures forever, who made the great lights. His love endures forever. The sun to govern the day, His love endures forever. The moon and the stars to govern the night, His love endures forever to Him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, His love endures forever and brought Israel out from amongst them, His love endures forever. With a mighty hand and outstretched arm, His love endures forever to Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, His love endures forever and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever, but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea, His love endures forever to Him who led His people through the wilderness, His love endures forever to Him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever and killed mighty kings, His love endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, His love endures forever and O king of Bashan, His love endures forever and gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever. An inheritance to His servant Israel, His love endures forever. He remembered us in our lowest state, His love endures forever and freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever. He gives food to every creature, His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven, and would you guys say it with me this time, His love endures forever. I want to end with this quote. Bob Coughlin again says, "Worship matters. It matters to God because He is the one ultimately worthy of all of our song and praise. It matters to us because worshiping God is the reason for which we were created.”

Let's pray. God, thank you for your gift of music. I can't imagine how boring life would be without music. To encourage us, to uplift us, to rejoice, to be able to lament with certain songs. God, music is such an integral part of our life and it's a part of our spiritual life. So God, I pray that through this series that you would heighten our understanding, that you would take us to deeper depths of singing and music and appreciation for it integrated with our faith. And I pray that as we sing the truth through worship songs, God, I pray those truths would embed so deeply in our hearts and minds that we would know them truly, that we'd be able to stand on them firm. It's our foundation. So that when those tough times come, these songs come to our minds to remind us of your goodness and how your love endures forever. Be with us this week. And I pray that music would be an encouragement to us this week. And I pray that everyone would take time, whether they write it down or not, to think of how you have been present in their lives, how you have provided for them, sustained them, have you have rescued them multiple times. God, I pray that at the end of this week, at the end of our time, that we would have all the more reason to give you praise and to sing your praises. We look forward to being with you in heaven one day, singing with the millions of voices that are going to be praising you. We pray this in your name. Amen.

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 5

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 5

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, we are going to get started. I'm going to switch places with you here because I can steal your notes. This is our last week on this series and we have been in the Lost Art of Generosity series. Okay, I'll get my own notes. I guess he's taking my notes. Oh, I thought that was us. All right, I'll grab my own. We have spent several weeks talking about the idea of being generous and we've really talked a lot about the why. Why should we be generous or even why do we struggle with the idea of being generous? Why is that hard for some of us? But then why we as Christ followers should be generous. We really dive deep into that. First, we talked about that there's more joy in giving than in receiving. And then we went into the idea of being on the lookout, the importance of being on the lookout for greed because it sneaks up, especially when you're trying to be generous. When you're making that effort, it just kind of sneaks that greed in and he wants to derail that, those efforts. And then we dug into how everything we have belongs to God. And for some of us that may be a hard concept to get, but for others that could be really freeing. It's like, well, it's all God's anyway, so why not be generous, right? And then last week we talked about being generous to the poor. What that looks like, why should that be a value for us and the importance of that. So today, we're going to be diving more into the how. How should we put this into action? We've learned a lot, we've talked about a lot, but now how do we actually put feet on this and go do something with what we've learned? So today we each have some practical steps for you that we want to share with you as you journey on this generosity practice, as you make it a practice, a regular thing in your life. Now, we want to acknowledge too that practicing generosity does require a measure of faith. It can be hard, especially if you're really just trying to get started, that can be really difficult, and it does require faith. Faith that God's going to provide for you when you're being generous to others. Faith that God is going to use whatever you are giving, however he sees fit.

But we actually, in our preparation for this series, we heard this one quote from John Timber, he said, "Faith is spelled R-I-S-K." And sometimes, taking those risks and stepping out in faith does reap huge rewards. And we believe that as you practice generosity, as you implement these things, you're going to witness miracles. God loves to show his hand when it comes to generosity and moving mountains and providing for his people. So when we give, we become these vessels, these conduits for God to show his love to other people. We get to be a part of that. And so, we just want to encourage you that as you endeavor to do this, it will be risky, it will take a measure of faith, but he is good to show up, to be generous to us as we show generosity to others. The reality is though, living a generous life, it requires a plan. It'll happen spontaneously occasionally here and there, but it's not going to be a consistent practice for you if you don't plan. So the reality is that the foundation you need is your budget. What does that look like for you? Creating some sort of plan to give. We will have some practical things for you, but none of those are going to happen really well or consistently if you haven't created margin in your life and in your budget for giving, for generosity. So that's kind of the foundation that we want you to start with. If you have never practiced generosity, or at least on a consistent basis, start there. Start by creating a line item for giving. Create space, margin in your life, in your budget to give. We want to help you build a life of generosity, just like an architect has blueprints for a house. Creating a budget with generosity in mind will be a blueprint to practice generosity consistently.

Yeah, so to integrate some of these biblical practices that we've been talking about, I want to ask a couple questions on behalf of us that are important for us to think about. And the answers to these will help us again lay that foundation. So the first one is maybe one that you've already been asking yourself, which is when should I start to give? And the answer is pretty simple. It's now. You may be saying, "But I don't have enough," or "I'm not there yet. My budget..." Again, take what Lauren was saying. But the answer is now. It's easier to give a little now than when you think you'll have more in the future. Proverbs 23, 4 through 5 says, "Don't wear yourself out to get rich, because you know better. Stop. As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears. It makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky." Wealth is uncertain. There is no guarantee that you will be able to give later on. If you don't let your heart be formed in generosity now through practicing it, you may not have the heart later to be able to practice generosity. Even though you're going to tell yourself that. You're going to be like, "Hey, when I have more, that's when I'll be generous." If you don't start now, it's like a muscle that we work out. You won't be able to do that when you have more on your plate. You need to start now. We might have thoughts that say, "I don't have the wealth to give away." Honesty is for those who have more than I do. But did you know that the most generous demographic of people in America are working-class Christians? Because there is a deep value and belief in what Jesus teaches that speaks to us and our need to give like Jesus gave. So, again, some of the lies are that the more people get, then the easier it is to give. So really, the more people get, the less they are to-- they tend to be less generous. So don't be a statistic or a person who makes more just to spend more. Start now, even if it's very small, but go on this journey of a lifetime of being generous. So that's the first question. When? Well, the answer is now.

Secondly, where should I give? We answered this throughout the couple weeks, but we're going to come-- this is where we're going to spend most of our time today, but just really quickly, the answer is where you want to give to the poor, to the church, and to the advancement of the gospel. We'll talk more about those in just a second.

Lastly, again, this is maybe a question that you've asked throughout this series, is how much should I give? Pastor Andre, Pastor Chris, Pastor Andrei, I need a number. Give me that number. We don't have a number for you. Jesus and the New Testament do not have an equation that tells us, "Input this and this, and at the end you will get the exact number that you are to give." That would be very easy. That would make it, again, just a lot easier, but it would kind of take out the faith. It would take out the belief and why we're doing it. Paul talks about the need to listen to the Spirit in what you are to give. Don't just base it off of what you think. Your heart is sinful. Your heart is selfish. Listen to God. Pray to God. Go before Him and ask for help in discerning how much to give. And this is going to look different. It's not the same for everyone in this room. A high school senior who just got a job and they're giving is going to look different than someone who's retired in a different stage of life. A person who makes so much and another person who makes maybe a lot more, the giving is going to look different. And that is okay. And we're not here to judge other people's giving. But we are here to be obedient to God. We want to be coming before Him in prayer and saying, "God, how much do you want me to give?" And another way of saying this, too, is that question that we asked a couple weeks ago, "God, how much do you want me to keep?" So those are some questions that maybe you've been wondering about, and those are the answers that will help us. We look at this art of generosity and begin to really dive into specifically where there are things we are to give to.

I love what it says in the Word of God when He talks about in Deuteronomy, there's this concept in this ancient biblical theology practice called first fruits. And the basic idea here is that whenever we receive income, we immediately give a portion back to God. And traditionally, a lot of this has been seen as in Deuteronomy, as the Old Testament or in the life of the Israelites, that that house of God to God was seen specifically in the temple of God. And so when Jesus, when God was setting up the Israelites and He brought them out of slavery in Egypt, He's establishing them as a people group, He begins to give them some rules of life of how to live and the rhythms and practices that He wants to see in their lives. And the first of which of that He talks through is the first fruits. And so the question in this is, we give to God our first fruits with special attention to the poor, the gospel, and specifically the church. And this happens right away. This doesn't happen after we've paid all of our bills or when we finally bought everything on our wish list or we have an empty Amazon card. It happens and it's giving the first portion. It's not the leftover, it's the good stuff. It says in Deuteronomy specifically where the currency of the time was grain, it was oil, it was the things that they grew, it was even down to the shearing of their sheep. The first wool of the sheep would be given to God for the use in the temple for the Israelite people. And maybe in this, this first portion is something new for you. Maybe you've never heard of something like this before. My wife, Lauren, and I, we practice this by the first thing that we spend money when a paycheck comes in is a check to the church. It's the very first thing that we spend our money on. When it comes in, it's the first thing that goes out. And it's hard. This is really hard because you think about it, you go, "Okay, God, am I going to have enough this month?" And I'll tell you, the times where I've thought that and I've held back wasn't enough. But those times that we were faithful in our first fruits to give the first the best, there was always enough every single month. And maybe for you this is a percentage that you give, maybe it's in the tithe, maybe it's a little less, maybe a little more. But what matters, the amount that changes in situation to situation, praying about it in God, but it is the first. It is the very first. And so then the question becomes, as Andre asked this morning, it's like, "How much? How much are we supposed to give? Is there a perfect mathematical equation in Scripture?" There isn't, but we have some different Scriptures that talk about some key elements in that, and that would be, "How much do we give?" The first answer would be, "At least some." At least some. That is the starting line.

And when we look in the Scripture in Malachi 3.10, it says, "Bring the whole tithe," maybe you've heard that word before, "into the storehouse or the temple, that there may be enough food in my house." These are the words of God himself. And this word here, tithe, means masar in Hebrew, and it actually means a tenth, one tenth. And this is the ancient practice in the Israelite people of giving 10% of our income away to God. And I've heard so many conversations with this in the church. The question of, "Is it gross? Is it net? Does it have to be exactly 10%? Is this still a mandate or a prerequisite or a requirement for followers of Jesus today? Does it get divided up? Does it only go to the church? Does 10% get split how I want to see it split?" And many followers of Jesus for a very long time have found this practice of tithing as a baseline for a lifestyle of generosity. And frankly, I know some of you, you're doing some numbers in your head right now, right? You know what your paycheck is and you think about the 10% and you think, "Pastor Chris, there is no chance." You seen the cost of eggs and bananas lately? We had a sign out here that said, "How can this be the cost of living when Jesus paid it all?" We were making fun of like, "The reality of life is expensive right now, right?" And all the looming tariffs and oil refineries shutting down and everything like that, gas could be $15 in California. Like, we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, but you know who does? And so for some of us to start our tithing journey in generosity, it may start with 1%. It may start with having to take a real hard look at what we spend our money on every single month. And we had talked about this before, it beginning to create margins. And for some of you, cutting 10% is easy. Pastor, I can give it to you right now, no problem. And I think for some of us, if you're in that boat, 10% isn't enough. And we see this baseline in scripture that this isn't the end all be all. You go, "God, I gave you my 10%, I'm good to go, I don't have to do anything else, I'm done." But for some of you, it needs to be like you're talking about faith being a risk. You got to step out in faith. There's months where I cut that child check for 10% and it's like, "That's good, it's easy." And there's other times I'm signing my name at the bottom of that check going, "God, I'm going to need you to show up. I need you to be there." Because this 90% in my math right now in my mind ain't going to happen. I've heard incredible stories of people who start working towards a 10% and maybe every year they add a percent. And so every year they get there and then they find themselves at the 10 mark and they go, "I'm not going to stop." And they continue to go on in 11 and 12 and 13 and 14. I've heard stories of people giving 80% away because all they need is 20% to live on. And like Andre said, this is going to look different for every single one of us. But what we need to do is step out in faith and trust God and what He is calling us to. There's a principle here in the New Testament when they had the early church that as their income increased, they gave more and increased their percentage of giving. The more you make, the more you're able to be generous with God.

An example of this might be something called a generosity fund, where you begin to in your budget put away 50 bucks maybe. And you have that ready to go and Lauren and Pastor Andre are going to talk about some other ways to be kind of like spontaneous generous with people. But the idea here maybe is to take 1% above your tithe and to set aside as a blessing fund just to bless people. Wouldn't that be amazing? That each and every one of us had 1% of our budget in our income just sitting around to just bless people. Man, that would be absolutely incredible.

But this takes practice. This isn't something we learn overnight. It isn't immediate. It takes time. It takes faith. It takes daily decisions. It takes risk. You have to completely change the way that we spend our money every single day, week, month, and year. That's just how it happens. And as you step further into your walk with Christ, not just in trusting Him and saying, "I trust you God in word," but trusting God through our actions and managing what He has blessed us with the way that He wants us to. For some it might be you have to start packing lunch to work. You might have to change the subscriptions you have every single month. You might have to cook more food at home. You might have to drive your paid off car rather than trading in for a new one that comes with a payment. You might have to stay where you live right now and not upsize your house or apartment. You might have to wear the same clothes that you've worn for a couple years instead of buying brand new ones, or you might need to simplify your wardrobe. You might just have to be in a season of just saying no to things because you're saying yes to generosity in God and going, "No, not yet." I'm telling myself that right now. There's a couple things I've been saving up for. I've been saving for a truck since 2018. I'm still saving. Price of trucks are going up faster than my savings. And I see them on the freeway all the time and go, "Oh, that would be sweet in one of those babies." But I know God's like, "Not yet. I need you to trust me." And so I continue to trust God. Because when we live under our income or under our means, there is capacity and margin for us to give more away. I want to be known as a person who is generous with everything that they have. Christ was ultimately generous with His life, right, on the cross for us. So we too, in turn, can be generous as well. Some of the most generous people I know are the most joyful, carefree, happy, cheerful people in the church. And I don't think it's a coincidence that it's tied to how they handle their finances. The life that Jesus calls us to is one that He promises hope, joy, peace, and freedom. And the world promises the gathering of more things, right? Just empty promises and failed promises. I want to be people who are known by their generosity and by people who change the world with what God has blessed.

All right, well, Pastor Chris covered about giving locally to the church and bringing our tithes to the storehouse. But I'm going to dive into giving to the poor. And I know we touched a lot on this last week. We talked about why we give to the poor and that we do it because one, it's an expectation of Christ's followers. It's just an expectation that we have. Two, it supports the body of Christ. When one of us is in need, someone else can meet that and that supports the body. And then three, because Christ gave to us first. And that's ultimately why we give is because we received. We were the poor that were received from Christ. And so out of that, we are generous to others. And as I said earlier, making a plan is going to be pivotal to this. I think a lot of us genuinely want to give. We want to be generous with what we've been given. But it may not just come naturally. And so I asked this last week, what is stopping you from being generous to the poor? Specifically, what is stopping you from being generous to the poor? And I hope that you took that to heart. But I really do think that I would offer that one of those reasons is that we don't have a plan for it. And so as we take this to God, as we seek Him and what He wants for us and how we choose to be generous, I would encourage you to seek Him in how you can plan for it. What does this look like? How can you divide up your generosity fund in order to include the poor in this?

First John three, 16 through 18 says, "This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." We can express love through words, but someone is going to fully experience our love and God's love through actions. When we can actively show love through our generosity, He is going...when we meet their needs. All right. Oh, it's still going. It's a little dance break. Okay. When we meet the needs of people, the poor specifically, we are going to show God's love. Like I said, we are those conduits for Him.

So real quick, just some practical ways that you can give to the poor. And this is something you can start right away. So real quick, number one, keeping cash on hand, or maybe if that is hard for you, maybe go purchase some gift cards that you can keep gift cards on hand. Gas, groceries, fast food places, whatever you feel the need to. You get to pick the denomination, but keeping some of those in your car or your purse or your wallet that you can meet a need as you encounter it. Number two, giving to an organization consistently. Maybe you set up auto pay so you know what's coming out every month, but you can give to an organization. One that we love is World Vision, and they help people who are in poverty. They are meeting their needs. And so that is something that you can participate in by giving to an organization. Similarly, but slightly different, is sponsoring a child. There are some great organizations that connect you to a kid, usually in another part of the world, who needs help. And World Hope is one that we would recommend, and they are actually really focused on providing education and getting rid of barriers to education for children. And so when you are connected to a child, you sponsor them, you help them get what they need in order, uniforms, books, ways to get to school, all of that, you help them. Number four is donate to a local food pantry. Feeding the foothills, it was formerly Plaster Food Pantry, but feeding the foothills is a local thing that you can give to. You can even be generous with your time and serve there as well. But donating to those who are right here in Plaster County who need some extra help. And lastly, this is kind of a more fun one that I think is fun, you can do it as a family, is making everyday essentials bags. And this is just maybe a gallon-sized bag, so big if you want, but start with a gallon-sized bag, fill it with everyday essentials that someone perhaps on the street or really struggling could need. Toothpaste, toothbrush, bar of soap, washcloth, granola bars, water, a poncho, whatever the season might call for, and keep it in your car. And as you encounter someone, you don't have to give them money in that case, but you are still giving generously because you purchased those things. So do that, assemble them with your family, maybe get together with some other families and pool your resources and create these bags so that you have something really tangible that you can help meet the needs of the poor right in our area.

Again, the reality is we live in a consumeristic culture with marketing that tells us to get more when we have real needs right around us that we can meet, we can participate in that. So I want to just wrap up my time here with a verse that you are all probably pretty familiar with. Matthew 6:19-21 says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So far you've heard a couple places where to give your money to the church, to the poor. I'm going to end with talking about giving to the advancement of the gospel. Traditionally in the church, money has been given for the sake of spreading the gospel. Paul in the early New Testament would deny money for himself, but would accept money for helping him plant churches and spreading the gospel around the known world at the time. Today we do so in a similar way by giving to missionaries, those who are going out into the world, into the unreached places to spread the gospel. I want to spend this morning specifically highlighting an organization called Wycliffe Bible Translators. Maybe you've heard of them. They do just that in the name. They work to translate the Bible into all the languages that are needed around the world. And so a couple facts for you. As of late last year, October 2024, around the world there are 7,300 known spoken and signed languages in the world. As of last year, 980 languages begun translation for the very first time. Last year, Wycliffe was involved in 2,146 language translations. And 1.8 billion people in 103 countries are being served through active projects. Currently there is Bible translation being done in more than 4,000 languages worldwide. This is an extensive project, one that is, it takes a really long time. I don't know if any of you are bilingual, have worked on translating, but an unknown language on top of that is just work. You have to go there. You have to begin to understand. Then you have to, once you understand, the Bible as a book is a whole other thing. You have to capture the nuances, the words that are used at that time that aren't used anymore. You have to figure out how to best say that in their language. And so it is just a slow, tedious process. And on top of that, we want to make sure that the Bible is accurate, right? Accuracy is very, very important when it comes to scripture. And so again, I'll have to say that it is slow, difficult work. And really, the translation world has come a long way in the last 20 years.

A New Testament translation in 1999, it was on pace to take decades to complete a New Testament translation. And for all the languages that were known at the time, Wycliffe projected that it was going to take another 150 years for Bible translation to just start on the languages that were left that had not begun to have a Bible in their language. But from May 2019 to May 2021, a new language was being engaged every 120 hours. That's pretty quick. That's a lot faster pace than it was decades ago. And then from 2021 to 2023, a new language was engaged every 30 hours. And today, on average, a new language is engaged every 14 hours. Now engaged, you might be wondering, what does that mean? That is as simple as going to a place with a new language and just beginning to understand, engaging in their language. And oftentimes, Bible translators don't just say there, "Hey, I need words. Give me words. Help me understand." They're already introducing the gospel in different ways, maybe a VBS or teaching biblical principles once they can speak and communicate in that language. And so engaging these other cultures with these other languages, engaging scripture, a New Testament is still far, far away, but they're starting to understand the teachings of Jesus. So about Wycliffe specifically, they made a bold decision in 1999 to have a translation program in progress and that every language still needing one would have one by the year 2025. And I'll share this really quickly. That 131 countries have achieved that vision that every language in that country has a Bible, a New Testament begun, not finished, but it has begun. Forty-three countries have one remaining language. Twenty-four countries have two to five remaining languages. And 16 countries around the world still have six or more languages that need to be engaged with the Bible.

So it's a lot, but we can also praise God for the work that he's doing, that that many people are going to be hearing about God. And this stems from, I'll just read a couple of verses. Psalm 86: 9-10 says, "All the nations you have made will come and worship before God. They will bring glory to your name for you are great." Revelation 7:9 says, "And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne of God." We are working as a church and specifically the Wycliffe organization and other translation organizations are working to see that heavenly picture come to fruition. That every person from every tribe, nation, and tongue would be there in heaven praising God. So we share all this with you today. I want to let you know that you heard a lot of different places. You can get an email at the sometime today with links to all the organizations that we mentioned. We encourage you to go click on that link. If there's one that's specifically stirring you, we know that not everyone can give to all of these things. So we encourage you to give to the church. And then if you have that margin to give elsewhere, consider maybe God's stirring you that you want to be a part of what he's doing around the world in taking care of the poor. Or maybe Bible translation really speaks to you. You want to be a part and partner with the work that is being done. You'll have an opportunity to click those links later.

So we have a really quick question that we want to ask that you guys is the last chance around tables. And so Pastor Chris. Yeah, we got two more questions. We're going to spit fire through these, but we want you to talk at your table. What is your biggest takeaway from these past few weeks on generosity? And then what next steps do you feel God is leading you towards being generous financially? So we're going to take one or two minutes around the table. Let's go real quick and share and then we'll be back to close out.

All right, I hope those conversations have been good and you we pray that God is stirring and will continue to stir in you next steps for generosity. You want to end by saying a prayer, a guided prayer for the practice of generosity. So if you've done guided prayer, you know this is if you haven't, I'm just going to lead us and you can just reflect on the words that I'm going to be praying for us. If you guys want to bow your heads right now, encourage you to listen and submit your heart. Lord, when our hearts have shrunk and are giving with them, Holy Spirit come. To the fears that restrain us and our anxiety for material things, Holy Spirit come. To our other blindness and the busyness that causes it, Holy Spirit come. That we may overflow in abundant generosity, Holy Spirit come. That our giving may transform the world, the poor, the church and us, Holy Spirit come. That we may know you greatly through the expansion of our offering, Holy Spirit come. Father, you are the embodiment of giving is better than receiving. We want to be like you. We praise and love you, honor and desire you with all our being now and forever. Amen.

Well, I'd love to send you guys out with a benediction this morning. This comes from the word of God. It says, "May God bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times you may have all that you need. May you freely scatter your gifts to the poor. May God who supplies seed for the sower and bread for food also supply and increase your store of seed and enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. May you be enriched in every single way so that you may be generous on every occasion. And may your generosity result in thanksgiving to God." Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 4

The Lost Art of Generosity: Part 4

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

If you haven't been around or maybe you've missed a week, just a reminder we are in our Generosity series. We called it The Lost Art of Generosity and I kind of love this title. I didn't come up with that so I can say it. I really like this title because I think that generosity in our culture has gotten a little lost and it really is like an art form. It's how we give, where we give, how much we ... All of it, it plays into it and it's a very nuanced conversation. I love that we are talking about this and trying to regain this lost art. I know so many generous people. Even in our time here at Spring Valley, I've just been blown away by ... It is just a church filled with generous people. Our family just alone has been the recipients of your guys' generosity. I think that while maybe many of us are naturally generous, there are parts of this conversation that perhaps we struggle with and we could use a refresher because the reality is we live in a world that is a consumer culture. We have multi-million dollar marketing campaigns and we have influencers and we have social media and it is all about getting more. We are told that we need more, that we don't have enough. I think this whole conversation, this whole series is such a good refresher for us. As a reminder, we have gone over. The first week we talked about how there is more joy in giving than in receiving. If you have generously given, you've experienced that, that there is more joy in giving than receiving. Next week we talked about being on the lookout for greed and how in our world of telling us we need more, greed can just be so sneaky that we don't feel like we have enough and we need more. We've got to be on guard against greed. Then last week we talked about how everything we have belongs to God. It is all from Him and so therefore we can be generous because it's His anyways and He can do with it and have us in obedience do with it whatever He pleases.

If you've been here, we've had some discussion questions. We're going to circle up at our tables here and have one more discussion question. Our question for today is how has our Western culture and even the American dream impacted how we practice the art of generosity? Circle up, chat about it a little bit, share your thoughts.

I'm going to call us back together. I hope your discussions were good and fruitful. I'm actually, I mean, I'm very interested to hear what you guys came up with so come tell me after service. But one answer that I felt like I came up with for me in answer to this question was that our culture, our Western culture and even the American dream can really limit us in our generosity to the poor specifically. So that is our topic today is how and why are we generous, should we be generous to the poor? If you're like me, maybe you hear the topic of this and you're like, I mean, I know we're supposed to be generous to the poor but how are we going to have a whole sermon on this? Well, let me tell you, the Bible has a lot to say about it. Just a quick Google search on scriptures about generosity and about specifically caring for the poor were seemingly endless. I could just stand up here and just read scripture to you the whole time. I won't but I could because there's so much that the Bible and that Jesus has to say about it. Jesus encouraged generous living but he also encouraged his followers to care for the poor. But the idea of this didn't start with Jesus in the New Testament, it started in the Old Testament. If we look back on the Old Testament and when God was creating the nation of Israel, he instructed Moses to teach the people how to live generously. In Deuteronomy 15:10 it says, "Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart," it's important, "then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to." So right off the bat, he's creating the nation of Israel and he's like, "You're going to live generously." But then if you continue on in the Old Testament, there are Proverbs and Psalms and in the prophets they talk more and more about caring for the poor. I'm just going to do a little rapid fire here. Proverbs 21:13, "Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered." Proverbs 21:25, "The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing." Proverbs 11, "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched and the one who waters will himself be watered." When we are blessing, we will be blessed. Proverbs 14, "Whoever is kind to the needy honors God." I could go on and on, we'll just stop there for now. But there's so much packed into the Word of God because God is generous. It is part of who he is. It is his heart for the widow and the orphan and the one who is in need. I think most, if not all of us, desire to be generous.

We want to have a heart of generosity, but putting it into practice, I think, can be a struggle for some of us. And if that's not a struggle for you, praise God. I love that for you. I want all of us to be like that, but I think that it can be really hard for some of us. There can be some resistance. Maybe it's because of how we grew up, maybe how we were taught about money. Maybe we have this idea of the American dream, like you pull yourself up out of your bootstraps and you earn your way and that's yours. Or maybe it's just you don't know where this money is going to go. If you give to someone on the street, you don't know how they're going to spend it. And that can be really hard for us to relinquish that control. And we have to be wise in how we give. We have to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to be sure. But we can't let these limitations or these hindrances stop us from being obedient and giving to the poor. So whether this is a tough topic for you or not, I pray that this time together will be encouraging and it'll be a good refresher for all of us. So really our overarching question today is why should we give to the poor? I think we all kind of know this intellectually, but I want to dive deep in why specifically we as Christ followers should be giving to the poor. But before we really get into the nitty-gritty of that, we have to answer the question, who are the poor? It's the first question. Who's the poor? Who are we talking about? Who are we talking about? So let's answer that question first. Well, thankfully for us, the author of Luke, it also authored the book of Acts. And so we're going to look at Acts 4. I'm going to actually jump to verse 34. And it says, "For from time to time, those who own land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to anyone who had need." So the poor, Luke tells us, is anyone who had need. Earlier, it says that there were no needy persons among them. So it was the poor were needy persons or someone who had need. This could be just about anybody in different circumstances. But if there is anyone who has need around you, then there is work to do. As a Christ follower, we have work to do. This person who is in need could be kind of the natural person that comes to mind, maybe someone who is in a third-world country, who doesn't have access to maybe clean water or food regularly. It could be someone you've encountered maybe on a missions trip. It could be homeless or someone who is in need through seeking rehabilitation for addiction or maybe they're seeking help for an unplanned pregnancy. These can be kind of some of those people who are in need that we naturally think of. And those are. Those are the poor and the ones in need that Jesus is talking about and that the scriptures talk about. In the US, I did a little research for us, in the US, nearly 16% of children live in poverty. And food insecurity affects around 33.8 million people, including over 9 million children. That's just in the US. And we're a wealthy nation. So that's crazy to me. Globally, over 828 million people go to bed hungry every night and nearly 2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water. 2 billion people. That is a wild statistic to me.

So maybe it is those people that we think of when we think of the poor or those in need. And maybe it's someone that you are close to. Maybe it's a friend or a family member that is struggling. Maybe they're in between jobs or just got laid off and they need help paying the bills or getting some groceries and putting some food on the table. Maybe they're going through a really tough season and they could just really use a good cup of coffee and a listening ear. Maybe you have a neighbor who is elderly and physically can't care for their lawn or you could cook them a nice meal and take it to them. Because they are in need of that. They are in need all around us. And please hear me, this doesn't mean you individually have to meet every single need. But we are all called to do something. We are all called to give to the poor.

So back to our first question. We know who the poor are now, but why should we as Christ followers give to those in need? We give to those in need because one, it's an expectation of those who follow Jesus. At first I didn't really like this word expectation. I was like, oh, it feels like cringey to me. But the reality is it is. It is an expectation of those who follow Jesus. Second Corinthians 9:6-11 says, "Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." There it is again. "And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, God, will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God." There's a lot packed in here, but what I want to focus on is that it's an expectation. It's an understanding. Paul here is writing assuming that the church, the people he's writing to, are already giving, that this is already a thing that they're doing. He says, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart." They've already decided what they're going to give. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of how much. It was already an expectation that the people of Jesus were going to live generously. They were going to give. Even though we know and we see that generosity and caring for the poor is a command in scripture, it is an expectation of God's people, it's not out of this compulsion or erode obedience. It is out of an overflow of a surrendered heart. Paul expects that the people are giving and that they're doing it with joy, that they're a cheerful giver, that they're doing it freely, not out of compulsion, and that they're doing it because of who they are in Christ. Because God is generous and we were made in His image, that was also put into us. We are made to be generous. Paul is not questioning whether we will give, just how much. He also assures us in this passage that God will provide for our needs. He will enrich us to continue the kingdom work He's already called us to do. Giving to the poor is expected and it will bring glory to God. He will take care of our needs as we live generously. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. He's not going to call us to be generous to the poor and then leave us hanging. But it's an expectation of all of us who call Jesus our Lord.

We give to those in need because it supports the body of Christ. We're going to go back to our Acts 4 passage and read a little bit longer because this is the early church. This is talking about the first church and how they lived. So I'm going to read this for us again. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to anyone who had need. The government at this time, the Roman government at this time, didn't have any sort of system in place or programs to care for the poor. And as far as I understand it, it wasn't like even on their radar. Like this was not something they were worried about or looking to solve the problem of. So it wasn't, to them, it wasn't a government responsibility or political responsibility. And so if the poor were going to be taken care of, it was going to be done by the church, by the people of God, those who follow Jesus. But the beautiful thing is that they lived in such a way that they were able to meet those needs. They didn't claim their possessions as their own. They lived in community. They served one another. They made sure everyone had what they needed. And it was by God's grace. It says God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. So it was God's grace, His all-sufficient, all-powerful grace paired with their obedient communal living where they distributed as anyone had need. And there was no needy among them. That is so wild to me that they were able to do that, that everyone had what they needed. I love this verse, though, too, because, or this section of scripture, because a lot of our reasons for not giving to the poor are addressed here. I think the main two reasons are that we have a desire for more. We want to keep for ourselves. Maybe we just want to store up for ourselves or make sure our family is provided.

Or two, it is out of fear of lack or scarcity. And so this verse, or these verses fly right in the face of that because we're not meant to just consume. We're not meant to only gain for ourselves. We are meant to share. We are meant to be generous. And we have no reason to fear because the scripture says that by God's grace, we will have all that we need. So those two arguments are null and void if we live by what the word of the God says. When we give generously to those in need, it builds up and it supports the body. It allows kingdom work to continue. Because the reality is when a part of the body is hurting or in need, the whole body is less effective. I think of like our physical bodies. When we have something that is wrong, an injury or maybe a chronic issue, I get occasionally, thankfully it's not very often, but occasionally I will get these headaches that take me out. And I need to like lay down. I need a hot pack. I need some medicine. I need some water. I need to close my eyes. And I basically become useless at parenting, at taking care of the house, at cooking. I just need a minute to lay down. And I become virtually useless because I am so focused on my current need. So when there is someone in the spiritual body of Christ who has a need, we all are crippled in a way. We become less effective. And so then when we as a church meet that need, not only are we being the church and being obedient to what God has called us to, but then we allow that person to also become effective because they no longer have that need. It has been met. And they can be effective once again for the kingdom. One statistic I read said that if all Christians, all of those that follow, claim to follow Jesus, gave 10% of their income, there would be over $1 trillion available annually to tackle global issues. That's a trill- trillion. Annually, just year over year, it would be another trillion the next year. If every Christ-following believer just gave 10%, whether that's to the local church or to an organization or a cause, to maybe sponsoring a child, whatever that looks like, gave 10%, there would be over a trillion dollars available to tackle some of these issues we talked about earlier. I'm no math whiz, but I feel like a trillion dollars would do some damage, right? Taking care of some of these people who need some water. That would be amazing. And that's not even counting the non-religious groups that are contributing to the solution of the problem. God wants us to be generous to those in need.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, we give to those in need because Christ gave to us first. One of my favorite passages in scriptures, Philippians 2, starting in verse 3, it says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." Jesus gave up the wealth of heaven to be generous to us. He had everything at his fingertips. As the creator of the universe, he lacked nothing. And yet he came to earth, he took on human form, he humbled himself, and he gave so abundantly and so generously to us. When we operate from that truth, when we start there and operate from the fact that Jesus gave to us first, it not only compels us, but then it propels us to be generous to the poor because we were the poor. We were the ones in need. We were the ones who need saving. So we give out of love because we were loved first. I want to be clear, we don't give to the poor out of pity or some savior complex that we think we can save them or save the world that they even need saving. That's Jesus's job. We give out of love, out of compassion, out of a heart for generosity because we have a savior that loved us and came to us, that gave up the wealth of heaven for us. So maybe our question today isn't so much why should we give to the poor. Maybe the question we need to wrestle with is what's stopping me from giving to the poor generously, or giving more if that's something you already do. What is stopping me from giving to the poor more generously? I encourage you to reflect on this question this week. Talk about it with a friend or your spouse. Bring it to the Lord. Ask Him to bring up anything in your heart that is resisting this idea. Ask Him to give you a heart of generosity because we know it's clearly commanded in scripture. It's obviously an expectation of Christ's followers. We understand how it can meet practical needs and we can see how Jesus so generously gave to us first. So what is holding us back? What is stopping us? Ask the Lord to reveal that to you and to give you opportunity to serve and to give generously to those who are in need.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you were generous and loved us first and that out of that love we in turn can go be loving and generous to others. God help remind us of the gift that we have received to be so consumed with gratefulness for it that we turn around and in turn out of a surrendered heart to you we go and we give to anyone who has need. Help us to trust you. Help us to be courageous in this and be trusting you in this and guide us in where and how and how much you want us to give, Lord. We praise you for who you are in your name. Amen.