I'm going to be in verse three
and speak out of that today. Now, if you've not been with
us, if you've missed a few weeks or I really encourage you, this
is sermon number eight in this text and we're going to take
it from the large overview and then going to dig down deeper
from week to week into some of these things. Now, when we think
of the word worship, A lot of things come to mind. Cultural
changes have created different types of worship. I know that
in a lot of us, as we have come through life, we think about
worship being something very formal, very stoic, very stodgy. We see the classical liturgy
of the Orthodox churches throughout history and sometimes we think
that's so regal, it's so amazing. And then I know that evangelically
in the Protestant movements, we have seen that sort of move
into what we call the high church of today. Where, you know, high
church is you dress up, you dress up well, and you dress up often.
And then, I don't know, there's something a little powerful about
walking into a big room that's set up with great type of decor
and having sort of the reverb roll through with a pipe organ
playing. I honestly can say that I love that ambience, but not
in my worship. As a musician in music school,
you know, we performed and practiced constantly. It was hours, sometimes
three and four o'clock in the morning in the practice room
because it's the only time you could have after taking six classes a week
and you're, you know, You wonder why you do it. Why in the world
am I doing all of this? Who cares about all these different
modes and scales and patterns? Why am I playing until my hands
hurt, until my lips bleed, until my eyes go blind? But then performance
day comes. And you're standing up there,
and you tune, and you begin. And it's like you're transported
to another place. So sometimes worship in the church
is sort of like that. It's something we feel, it's
something we experience. It's this unexplicable just tension
between I'm still in this world, but there's some part of me that's
in heaven. But you know, I get that same
thing when I hear an opera that is absolutely pagan. I get the same feeling when I
stand sometimes and I look at the vastness of of creation or
I stand at the base of a building that has been built by the brain of an architect. Or I get that little silent whisper
of a poem in the thousands that ring through my ears every moment
of my life and that never-ending narrative that is my conscience.
Sometimes it runs up the back of my spine thinking, profound. So worship is neither about the
grand gesture of it all or even the experience in and of itself
because sometimes the greatest worship, as we saw in 1st Peter,
is just an expression of joy that is inexpressible. Sometimes
it's the subtle, I don't know what. Je ne sais quoi. I don't know what I'm experiencing. I can't put it into words, but
it is not something that is in me or of me or around me. It is something that is beyond
me. Now I have a little terror in expressing myself this way
sometimes. Number one, because it's quasi-vulnerable. You get to see a little glimpse
inside the production mind of my innermost thoughts and feelings. but I'm still posturing. I'm
still doing that because it's what we do innately. We stand
and even when we're greatly expressive, the only time that I'm absolutely
vulnerable is when I'm broken or when I'm angry. And that's okay. And I will tell you in the greatest
moments of fear and pain and anger, usually my anger is a
result of my pain. There have been some of the greatest
opportunities of worship in my entire life. I remember standing in my study
in Oakland, California, some short season after a dear family
member had passed, and just not knowing where I was. You ever
been there? I've been there a couple of times in my adult life. Everything that I thought was
about to come to me was not given to me because the Lord was sovereign
in it. And I trashed my study. Physically trashed it. I cleaned
the desk off. I pushed the CRT monitor, almost
broke the floor. You know, those big CRT monitors. Wounded it and blew the house
up. And then I was like, I'm just going to throw my Bible.
And I wasn't going to throw the Bible, because when you buy bougie Bibles,
you don't throw them. You know, a little calf had to
die to get this. So instead of throwing it, I
threw it open, and I dared God to show me something. I'm like,
what have I not read? I've read it all a billion times.
There's nothing in here I don't know. And I opened the Bible.
I haven't read Hebrews in a while. Sorry, I don't even know who
wrote that thing. Why are we even reading it? You know, that was
where I was at that time. sort of little, and I open it up in
Hebrews 1, and many times in many ways God has spoken to us
through our fathers, but in these days he has spoken to us through
his son. And whom he created, through
whom he created all things, and the reality of all of that sort
of set in, that was worship. Worship sometimes is when we're
driving down the road and everything's great, and the kids are sitting
in the back, and it's been one of those normal mornings of not
being able to fix hair, or I don't like this toast, or this milk
tastes funny, it's the same milk you drank last night, shut up
and drink it. Or you and your spouse just have your normal
days, and you're driving down the road, and you just notice,
you know what, I'm settled. Thank you God. That's worship. So what I want you to see in
all that is that there is times of worship when it's regal and
grand, there's times of worship when it affects us deeply, there's
times of worship when it's all inside, and there's times of
worship when it's really, really good, and there's times of worship
when you wish you could die. But one thing that never changes
in that is the God to whom all praise is due. He never changes. And so when we find ourselves
in the economy of grace and we say, what's going on? I feel
bankrupt. It's only because our perspective has changed because
the riches of glory are still in our account. The righteousness
of Christ is still ours and can never be erased. The love of
God, no matter how alone we are in this world, will never fail
us. And so as we looked at verses
one through nine last week, We unpack that in a general sense
as the scripture has taught us to do so that we might embrace
it. And today I want to slow down
and I want to give you a glimpse at how I intersect and relate
to the Word of God personally. And I believe it's how the Lord
has intended for us to do it. Not because of all the hermeneutical
teachings or trainings. Those things were always wanting
for me. I don't know if you've ever read the hermeneutical spiral.
For those of you who are academic in the theological realm. I always
think of a toilet flushing when I see the cover of that book.
You know, the spiral. Because that's what That's what
the sterile academic theologies has done to me in every season
of my life, is they have flushed my joy. Now, it may not be the
same way for you. I know some people, and there
are some things that I learn and I've gotten, but the process
of pursuing them took away my joy. Why? Because I'm a romantic,
I'm a poet. I'm a creator. I like novelty,
but I also like deep substance. And so I'm having to find the
richness of everything. You can't have a simple conversation
with me, right? You ask me a question that the
answer is like a half a sentence, and you're going to get 20 minutes
of a roadmap to get you there. And I apologize for that, and
I try so hard. So those of you who get the 20
minute answer, it was an hour. That's very succinct. One of the greatest insults that
I ever got was a gentleman, a senior at old actually, said, you know
what, James, you are verbose. And my wife doesn't use that
word, but she always comes in sometimes and she'll ask or we're
talking and she goes, and I don't want the long answer. I won't let your yes be yes and your
no be no. I don't care about why or what the map was to get
there. Or the etymology of the word,
just yes or no, you know. But Peter, talking to these people
who are suffering, don't lose sight of it. Starts verse three
with this doxology. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now does your Bible have an exclamation
point there? I hope it does. Because the syntax in which we
speak our language begs for an exclamation point.
And so if we put our theater chops on and we read this in
the context in which I believe Peter wrote it with Peter, with
first sermon remember eight weeks ago with Peter's zeal and personality. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. See that did something for you,
right? But don't mistake what you feel
and the emphasis for spirituality. How you express worship is going
to be different than me. How you engage in worship is
going to be different. And remember the opposite side
of the regal. Almighty fortresses are God. Boom, like some explosions, you
know. I love that stuff, but at the same time, I'll never
forget the first time I went to what they call a contemporary church.
And it was really contemporary. And it was really free. I mean,
people are dancing over here. People are playing cards over
here. I mean, it's just like, wow, this is great. Worship God
in any way you want. But God does prescribe some things,
right? He does say, here are some boundaries.
Here's some things that we need to do in the fellowship of the
saints. But otherwise, an act of worship is something we can
do in every moment and every breath of our lives. But the
outside of that, we see. And I'll never forget me being
raised in, The ideology, I don't even want to say raised, but
me growing up with the cultural ideology that, you know, worship
was, whoo, it's formal. You be quiet. You don't talk. And people were yelling and screaming
and laughing and having a good time. I'm like, man, I'm missing
something. And so at that moment in my life, and I was 19 years
old at the time, at the university and in the music program, and
all the best musicians were in that church. And we got seven
songs for our set today. Start at 10 at noon, the pastor
take the pulpit, you know. Songs, 10 minutes a piece, 20
minutes a piece, don't matter. How about a reprise? The pastor
better get going, because if he pauses, they might start back
up again. Wait a minute, what was that? And then it's over,
and everybody starts singing. Dude just needs to sit down.
I mean, that was impressive. I'm like, wow, these people are
really, I thought I was missing something, because I wanted to
worship like they were worshiping. I wanted to feel what they were
feeling. But beloved, don't fall into that trap. Don't try to
be like Peter here. Don't say to yourself at the
end of the sermon, you know, I've never just wanted to exclaim,
blessed be you God. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I've never felt that. I've always thought, oh. And
then you're going to beat yourself up. You're going to create in
yourself a guilt that God has not put there, nor wants of you. But how can Peter say something
like that? What is praise anyway? I mean, we all do it, right,
in our own way. I remember the first time I thought
I was real slick coming up with this little turn here where everyone
in the world is an evangelist, everyone in the world is an apologist.
And I would put that out there and all these hundreds of people
would go, really? And I could see the old guys
who'd retired from the railroad, you know, well, I'm not an apologist. And one of them told me that
one time, and I said, really? I said, how many times at breakfast in
the last two years have you sat here and beat your drum about
labor unions? Or like the one guy who's retired
Navy, and he's proud of his country, he's proud of his service, and
I'm glad that he is. But no matter where, I mean, if you were talking
about fried chicken, somewhere along the line, the colonel would
come in, and then before you know it, The Navy was in the
conversation and the service to the country and where the
country is. And I'm like, dude, you're an apologist for your
patriotism. You're an apologist for your
career. You're an apologist for your children. You praise what you love. You talk about what's important,
even if it's in the negative, even when people are like just
so frustrated about something. Do you know frustration and anger
in and of itself is an expression of passion and love? Because
we're not gonna sit here and get an elevated heart rate and
blood pressure issues and anxiety over something we could hardly
care for, or as we often say incorrectly, couldn't care less.
And if you say, I could care less, that means you care a little
more than you could. It's couldn't, I could not care
less, is the end of that. No, we care about a lot of things
and we make known about those things. And some of us, depending
on our personality and how God's made us, we express those things
differently. Some people are just like, mm,
or smile. Other people will talk and sing
and dance and create. Some people get into themselves
and just sort of sit still, and others make a lot of noise. Peter's
one of these people that makes a lot of noise. So we always
know the, the knuckle-headedness of a guy like Peter because he
never ceases to keep his mouth shut about everything he's passionate
about. Surely you don't have to die!
And then Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. Man, I'm just trying
to tell you, man, we got your back. You trying to call me the
devil? Oh my gosh. And Peter probably went and sulked.
I'm chopping this dude's jaw. Chopping ears, boy, we're chopping
ears. You're not taking my man to jail.
Jesus puts the ear back. Peter, come on. See, I find that
ironic. If you're there to arrest some
dude who claims to be God and your ear comes off and he puts
it back, I'm thinking like, I'm going to reevaluate the context
of this arrest warrant. I think the judge made a mistake
here. Pretending to be God. Well, I
think he just proved he was. Much like the fact that they
decided to kill him after he raised Lazarus from the dead
because that was just too much. Let's kill the guy who can bring
people back from the dead. Worship. What do you worship?
What do we praise in our life? We praise ourselves sometimes.
Not if we're humble. Then we praise our humility,
which is praising ourself. We praise our spouse. I'm so
proud of my wife. I'm so proud of my husband. Look
what they've done. Look what they've accomplished. We praise our children. Well,
you remembered to get dressed today. I'm so proud of you. You
brushed your teeth. Oh my goodness, the heavens are
open. You finished your schoolwork and you didn't lose your book.
Awesome. Not being funny. Our children are amazing. They
teach us things that we could never learn without them, and
we wouldn't be able to learn, even if we heard the stories
of others. We could not learn the wisdom that our children
teach us. And we praise them. We praise, we talk about them,
we're proud of them. We praise the circumstances.
We praise God. We praise what we love. And there's
a reason that we do it, and there's a reason that we love sometimes,
right? But we've learned already that love is a daily and almost
hourly choice to actively participate in the well-being of another,
looking to the positive. I thought about it this past
week, and I've done a lot of reframing over the last two years. And if you don't know what that
means, it's that little voice inside your head when you gnaw
on all the negative things that have happened to you in the world,
like these Jews here in the dispersion. Can you imagine sort of like
when Moses took the people out of Egypt, and they started to
complain and moan and complain and moan and complain and moan?
All of that complaining about their present situation took
their eyes off the promise of what God was doing for them and
what God had done for them in the year or so prior through
the plagues. To the point where the blessing
and the promise of God and the manifestation of his power present
with his people right then, how many more Ps can I get out of
that sentence? They decided that it would be better to be slaves
back in Egypt than to be free in the desert. Reframing would
be, I know this is tough, I know this manna is not finger-licking
good, but oh my goodness, we are free. And we are walking
next to the presence of God. I mean, how awesome is that,
that at night you have a fiery tornado reaching into the heavens,
guiding your path? And as far as the eye can see,
you know, traveling across country, the nine times we drove completely
from California to Georgia and back, we, sometimes out in the
middle of all those deserts, you don't know where you are
and your GPS is flying you off in the outer space and the moon's
showing up and all that kind of stuff. So you just keep going,
you turn off your lights, you see the faint glow of a city
somewhere. And you know at least you're
not going to die alone. Well, imagine the manifestation
of God's presence as a fiery tornado to be seen as far as
the eye could see. It's greater than that now. It's greater than that in that
the presence of God, the Spirit with us is permanent and forever.
And the Word of God is forever present with us. So are we meditating
on the truth of who God is? And if so, then our praise will
come. We begin to see what we're able to do. Reframing our life
focuses on what we do have and who is in our life and what they
truly are. But it's very easy for all the
negative things in life to overpower the balance of the good. And I've done a lot of writing
in the last few years. And what I've learned is that
if I take all those journal entries I don't know if you journal.
I've journaled most of my life, but I've journaled a lot in the
last two years. If you take all the journal entries
that are just really like curses, like the Davidic Psalms of woe,
like Pastor Trey was talking about earlier, would you just
burn them all down, God? And I take all of those and I
put them in a stack. They're thick. They're thick,
but if I take all the joyous ones and put them in a stack,
they're thicker. They really do outweigh it, but for some
reason, this stack is so much thicker, and the reason it is
is because I write it in broad tip marker, two words a page. Shout it to the rooftops of my
own conscience. I shout it into my head, and
then I ruminate on that stuff until that small little sticky
note of a pain, of a terror, becomes a treatise, becomes a
dissertation, becomes a billboard, for which I have no container
to hold." That's the context of 1 Peter
chapter 1. You see how if we drive this
too much to the theological ends, academically, we lose sight of
how it even matters in our lives? This is how I read the Bible,
y'all. And this is how I pray that in
your own personality that God has given you, you would read
it. question now is what in the world is this doxology? What
does it even mean? You know, praise God from whom
all blessings flow. It really means a praise, an
outpoured expression of goodness because of the goodness of God.
And there's three things that I'm going to show you like 20
times today. is that we praise God because
of who He is and His goodness. And we also praise, in praising
God, things change for us in our relationship with ourselves
and those around us. And then finally, when we praise
God, we are empowered because of the gospel of grace. Now,
it won't be that clean, but that's what I'm trying to say today. That's what I'm trying to say.
So blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
we have a what? We have a reason. According to
his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept
in heaven for you who, by God's power, are being guarded through
faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
There's that breath. But I'm just going to talk today
about blessed be God. The goodness of God. Now I stopped
this week when I got to 22 different Psalms, because I realized, so
Psalm 1 all the way to the end offers some type of praise or
doxology to God. But just to get our hearts and our minds
in the right place, Psalm 150, this final psalm is a powerful
exhortation to praise God with every musical instrument. You
know, you can praise God with musical instruments. You can
praise God, Romans 12, with your mind. You can praise God with
your life as a living sacrifice. You can praise God with your
love and act of service. You can praise God with your
patience. You can praise God with everything. You can praise
God in everything. Psalm 150 highlights the manifold
ways to express our adoration. I probably should have just preached
that psalm today. Maybe I'll do it next week. Are
we in a hurry? We're not. Psalm 145, David writes
this and he extols God's greatness over and over again. Mercy, his
care for his creation. This psalm emphasizes the acts
of kindness and the fact that God's kingdom will never fail.
Praise you God because of these things. Psalm 103. This is a
place where David really gets personal. He praises God in the
depths of his heart because God has forgiven him and healed him
and redeemed him. It reminds us of God's mercy
and compassion. Psalm 148. You know this. Psalm
148. Everything that has breath, praise
the Lord. Everything that's created. Let the planets, let the stars,
let the frogs, praise God. The field, the trees of the field
will clap their hands. And so on and so forth. Psalm
34. David, he pretended to be mad, remember? To crazy. And in doing so, he got away. And this is where we see the
words that we often use without knowing the context where David
says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Folks, you can't
get away from that. You can't get away from someone
telling you to taste and see that the Lord is good. There's always trepidation with
our children, you know, when they're little. You got to taste
this. Just taste it. I don't want to. I don't want
to taste. Just taste it. You'll like it.
We had that last night. I made a dish, and I'm not too
keen on making dishes that taste good. But this one actually was
an exception. But my youngest did not want
to take the opportunity to try it. I just don't like that stuff,
sir. Ruby puts it in her mouth, and
she does this. Is it bad? No, I like it. Didn't
want to admit it. Takes to see that the Lord is
good. We worship in that context. Psalm 96, all the earth, sing
a new song to the Lord, praise him for his salvation. Psalm
113, praises the name of the Lord from sunup to sundown. that
He is over and sovereign and transcends all things. Psalm
117, the shortest psalm in the Bible. It calls all nations and
people in all the earth to praise the Lord for His steadfast love
and faithfulness. Psalm 8 is a focused meditation
on God's majestic name, on creation, on the marvel at how He cares
for humanity despite the vastness of His works. This struck me,
and I'm going to close my sermon today with a comment that I thought
and wrote down from that psalm. Psalm 19, the heavens declare
the glory of the Lord. Psalm 29, as scribes to the Lord
the glory do his name, the powerful voice in creation and strength
to his people. Psalm 33, calls the righteous
to praise the Lord with harp and song because of his trustworthiness. Psalm 66, an invitation for all
the earth to sing the glory of his name. It also shares a personal,
the anecdotes of how God has listened to him and responded
to him in prayer. Psalm 92, a song for the day
of rest. It is good to give thanks to
the Lord, to sing praises to his name and to declare his steadfast
love. Psalm 98, urges us to sing a new song because of the marvelous
deeds. Psalm 104, a meditation on God's
creation and providence from the heavens to the depths of
the sea, celebrating his wisdom and care. Psalm 111, praises
the Lord with wholehearted devotion for his works, his faithfulness,
and the enduring legacy of his promises. Psalm 136, known for
the refrain, his steadfast love endures forever. It recounts the history of God's
goodness and his mercy to his people, even in their rebellion
and lack of praise. So we see just the Psalms paint
a picture, sort of like what Peter is saying, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise you, Father. You
are good, you are blessed, you are mighty, you are awesome.
For what you are and who you are and what you've done for
us and your people, you are worthy to be praised. But God is worthy
to be praised no matter what He's done, no matter what it
does for us. But because we are the beneficiaries
of His power and His purposes, all the more we have praise.
And like I said, you can't praise like Peter, you can praise like
you. It may be inexpressible. So as we see Peter do this, he's
praising. God for His mercy. He's praising
God for the hope that we have. For the what? For the imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading inheritance that is ours. For the joy that
comes through these things. This whole thing unpacks as a
doxology to the Lord. In Psalm 23, one that I didn't
mention earlier, we see the praise of God as a shepherd, as a guide,
as one who leads us and guides us and comforts us and provides
for us. So we can praise God. You might
say, well, what am I gonna praise God for? Let me give you a couple
of things to think about according to the New Testament and a few
more Psalms. We can praise God for the fact
that he does comfort us, that he gives us what we have. And in doing so, we can love
Him in this way that what we have, we can also share with
others. Our time, our voice, our friendship, our finances,
our food, whatever it may be, our prayers. Just because it's not physically
tangible doesn't mean it's not needed. In Psalm 100, for the Lord is
good, we can praise God for His love. We see Paul talking about
that in his letter to the Romans, in Romans chapter 8. And we know
that those, for those who love God, all things work together
for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Now
I don't know if you've ever read that text before and thought,
wait a minute, I'm not sure I really love God like I should. Of course
not. If you're not loving yourself
through the lens of how our Father sees us, then you're not loving others.
You can't respect anyone any better than you respect you.
And you can't respect you until you see who you really are in
Christ, from a spiritual sense. We can
trust in God's goodness. And we know that Christ, in all
of this, is the central reality of God's goodness. He's alive,
beloved. James has something to say in
his letter. He says, every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, James 1, 17. Coming down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
So we praise God, as I've already said this morning in my introduction,
for his unchangedness. for His immutability. He is the
same forever and always. So that means that no matter
how our circumstances, how our perception, how we're framing
the world around us, what we're feeling, what we're experiencing,
God has not changed His love for us. He has not changed His
place among us. He has not shifted to the left
or the right or the front or the back. He has not turned His
gaze. I put way too much stock on facial
contact, way too much. There's something about me that,
you know, in the world, especially when I was in my 20s and 30s,
there was just something about me that invited a butt kicking
or the attempt. I never really understood what
it was until recently. I watch people. So when you're
staring at somebody they want to like find out what's going
on and I didn't realize I was doing it but I was in a restaurant
the other day picking up some chicken for the family and I'm
just I'm just overrun with the processes of that kitchen. And
I'm watching these people, and I'm watching them work, and I'm
watching them move, and I'm watching them hand these things off. And
it's just like this amazing human machine that's just incredible
in every personality. You know, the cook's stoic, and
he's just doing his job. The manager's like, I could have
a cigarette or a beer. I would. Oh, I was about to go
crazy. But never misses a beat. One of the girls at the cashier,
she's doing here and they're just working. It's just, I find it fascinating.
I also watch ants, so it's not that impressive. But then all
of a sudden the cook turns around and he says, I'm like, sorry
dude, I'm just impressed. Oh, thanks. So maybe that's the
point, but I put way too much attention with people who I love
and care about and are around me if they're looking in my face. You know why? Because I was raised
as a very young boy to make eye contact. And so you probably
see that sometimes in my teaching. I'm looking in your eyes. Is he looking at me? Yes. And subconsciously, I've created
a baseline for every one of you. I know how you typically are,
and when you're not that way, I'm aware of it now, but I used
to not. Why am I feeling stressed out? Did I say something wrong?
What's going on? Yeah. Hypersensitive people do
exist in the world. And so when I think about the
Lord, if he turned his gaze from me,
I would be destroyed. And by the way, I'm working on
that. It's not as important as it used to be, but you can't
undo 50 years of programming in an instant. You have to give
time. It's okay. Some people can't
look you in the face. But the scripture says that God
attends to us, that He looks at us. He leans down to us. He condescends to us. But see,
that word has a negative connotation. But it's not like that. How does
He do it? He comes into the world as part
of the creation that He made for His own glory to be seen. And He invites Himself to be
part of it, that He may redeem us. That He may love us. That He
may be with us. And you probably get where I'm
going with this whole message. We've heard this text over and
over again, but Ephesians 2, God being rich in mercy. because
of the great love with which he loved us even when we were
dead and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ
by grace you have been saved now consider that reality is
that when we were dead and in a spiritual sense we look at
the narrative of scripture we look at the poetry we look at
the writing we look at the metaphors we look at this metaphor in this
way that we don't have to worry about the judicial reality of
what the eternality of justification and all that kind of stuff is
and That stuff is not for us to have a place to land that
we may have assurance. That stuff is for hobby nerds
who love doctrine. And that's okay. You can be that
guy or that gal or that kid. But what we're supposed to see,
what we're supposed to see, is that even while we were dead,
God looked at us and was looking at us. And we're seeing us. Do you know the greatest thing
in life? I'm telling you right now, and you may not know this,
you might not even believe me, but I'm gonna tell you right
now, the greatest thing in life is to be known by those who love you.
Fully. Not superficially, not in a way
of escape, not frivolously, not specifically, but entirely. You
know what's crazy? You can't know me if I don't
know me. And if my identity is not clear
in Christ, you're not gonna see any truth of me. And the sad
thing about that is that I'm not gonna see any truth of me
and I'm gonna walk through life in a way that I think is me until
I hit the wall that is not me and then I ask the question,
who am I? Are you lost yet? And that's going to burn down
every relationship that you have starting with your own mind.
and your theology will follow, and your worship will fall. And beloved, that's one of the
reasons we're here every single week, so that we might be encouraged
in these things. God looked at me when I was a
decrepit, decayed, nothing, and he said, that's my child, he's
worth everything. Trey and I tried to talk for
a couple hours yesterday on his drive back. Can you hear me now? No, I can't. And that's one of
the things that he brought up is that sometimes we really don't
emphasize enough the fact that God sees us in a way that the
culture of Christianity teaches against. We need to see ourselves
as God sees us. But it sounds, you probably heard
me last week. Listen to the sermon again from last week. It probably
sounds so new agey. It sounds a little bit off the
kilter. It probably resonates a little
bit with those of you who have had any experience with some
of the online teachers or the TV preachers with large mass
of congregants about how awesome you are and how good you are
and how pleasant you are. But beloved, we need to see ourselves in that
light. Knowing the reality of what we truly are in our flesh,
we need to know the better reality of what we are called and how
we are seen. Because if you're just a worm
that God hasn't smashed yet, that's all you'll ever be. And Jesus didn't die and give
his life and come out of glory to suffer. for something that
He considered to be a worm that He should smash. Remember the love of God we talked
about from verse 2 a couple of weeks ago? The Lord is good to all and His
mercy is over all that He has made. In Lamentations chapter 3 we
hear these words. The steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new
every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I
wrote that on a little tablet that hangs over my coffee maker.
And it's been there for so long I don't even see it. You know
what I mean? We don't even see that stuff. We need changing
signs. because mercies are new every
day. The context there, if you know much about lamentations,
is not a pleasant thing. It's a very hard time, much like
the people here, much like many of us this very moment, there
are hard things. Even though our life may be good, as we look
at the overview, there are small little things that are boldly
screaming like billboards when they should be sticky notes. John says, we have come to know
and to believe the love that God has for us. And God is love,
and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.
So we can praise God for His abiding love. And the fact that
we are, in a real judicial sense, loveless, we are not loveless,
because God has loved us everlasting. Forever. You've heard me say
this a hundred times, that before you were, God loved you. The prophet Micah. Has he told you, O man, what
is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice
and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? Zephaniah, the Lord your God
is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice
over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love.
He will exalt you over with loud singing. Even in the context
of justice, God's love prevails. So it's never remiss for us to
say that God is love in all that He does and all that He desires.
In every aspect of every manifestation of God's sovereignty in everything,
God's love is the point. And there are times in our lives
where we don't want to hear that. There are times in our lives
where we don't want to even think about it. There are times in
our lives where we scoff at the very nature of even any spiritual
or biblical thing. Why? Because we live in a world
that has taken all that is good about God and created something
else from it. And we have all been a victim
of that at some time or another. But God hasn't changed. Because God loved the world in
this way that He gave the only Son, the only one that He had.
That those believing in Him will not perish, but they do have
eternal life. So we can hear the teachings
to the Church of Philippi where Paul writes, do not be anxious
about anything. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to
God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We can praise
God for the peace that surpasses all understanding. And beloved,
this isn't a permanent fixture amongst our minds. I want you
to hear this. This peace, this rejoicing, this
stuff that we're going through now, we're just talking about
praising God for who He is today. That's all we're doing. Nothing
else. That peace ebbs and flows, arrives
and vanishes. Because we are a fickle bunch. We're a fickle bunch. We are
the leaf tossed to and fro by the waves. We are the dust that
is blowing in the wind. And the way we feel more structured
in our spiritual lives is we try to be more controlling in
our physical lives. And we try to engage in such
a way that we think, this is what righteousness requires of
me. I'm going to put my hands on these areas, and I'm going
to put down a track. Not a highway, not a field, not
even a fenced-in ranch, a track, a one-way track. It's the second
railroad metaphor this morning. to be a trolley track. But this
is the only way we can go. This is the only way we can speak.
This is the only way we can think. This is the only way we can look.
And if we spear off of this, we've failed. And if we fail,
then the love that God has for me is less. And the reason that
I'm suffering is because of that, because I can't get back on track.
And that's a state of misery. And it's not just misery for
us. It's misery for everyone around us. And then when we come out of
that state, those little tiny places, we go, oh just praise
God, it's almost a joke. It's almost a joke. Paul writes of it. The Lord told Paul, he says,
my grace is sufficient for you, 2 Corinthians Chapter 12, verse
9. For my power is made perfect
in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the
more gladly about my weakness. Why? So that the power of Christ
may rest upon me. When I am weak, He is strong. So we take every mathematical
and scientific equation on that. The reciprocity is this. When
I'm strong, he is weak. It doesn't mean that he's weak.
Like we see in 1 Corinthians chapter one, the weakness of
God is greater than the strength of men. It's a play on words. God is never weak. But when we
are strong, we are not relying upon the strength of God. And
in that, God's power isn't resting. How do we know? Because we're
not resting. How do you know you're not spiritual? Because
you're not at rest. How do you know you're not mature? Because
you're not at rest. You're laboring. Mary chose the
better way. Why? Because the rest is the
promise of God and His power. So you heard all these things,
you see it, that we praise God. We have reason to praise God.
We have reason to say that blessed be the God and the Father of
the Lord Jesus Christ, but almost every one of these opportunities
comes from a place of hurt or suffering or pain. Now I don't
want to get too tongue-in-cheek and play on words and things,
but I saw something a couple of weeks ago that was a little,
it made me pause and I'm still paused. It is a play on words,
but it says, you know, pain is inevitable. Suffering is a choice. But I see those words as equivocal.
We are going to suffer. The question is, are we suffering
for suffering's sake? Are we suffering for Christ's
sake? How do we know the difference? The Spirit of God brings out,
even when we're running, even when we're trying to dismantle
and disentangle, everything. God's peace surpasses all understanding. God's peace surpasses every journal
entry. God's peace surpasses every experience. God's peace surpasses every hurt,
every ill word, every horrible terror. And when we settle in that place,
and sometimes it's, you know, a season, sometimes it's just
a couple of times a week, sometimes it's never, it feels like. But when we apply all this to
our lives, there is something that, this is my own words, this
is a look inside of where I am. So the application may be the
same, different, more or less, But when I find these moments,
and sometimes I always want them to last, you know, when you have
something good going on, you want it to last. You want to stay, you want to
settle, you want to rest in those areas that sort of take you away
from the reality of life. But beloved, in the spiritual
sense, we can find that rest in the midst of the most hard
labor. And so when I find these small
things, there's something that I'm learning to do. And I'm sharing
with you the practical application, no, the practical systemization
of what I should be doing, not a confession of what I am doing.
Let me say that in a better way. I'm telling you what I hope to
accomplish, not showing you that I'm doing it, okay? You got me? The first thing is
thankfulness. I can worship God with my thankfulness. Colossians 3, and let the peace
of Christ rule in your heart to which you indeed were called
in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your
hearts to God, and whatever you do in word, whatever you say,
whatever you do in deed, whatever you're doing in your life, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God as you do it, the Father through Him. And I know that the hardest thing
to do is be thankful. So I put that first for a reason.
Because I think that is, we see the command to rejoice, we see
the reality of rejoicing, we see the joy is often inexpressible
because we just don't know how to handle it, but we settle in
it. So how do we express an inexpressible joy in the midst of some stuff
that we just wish the whole world would catch on fire with? Some
of you have come to me at certain opportunities in my life and
said, hey, let's burn this thing down. I got the matches. They're all weather matches.
They'll strike on your forehead in a rainstorm. It won't feel
good, but they'll strike. Burn it down. What's the anecdote
of that? Thank you, God. I don't have
anything to thank God for. Yes, we do. Thank you, God, that
you've not abandoned me. Thank you, God, that you've loved
me. Thank you, God, that I have learned to see you and to see
your love in its pure light. The second part of that application,
I could just preach a whole sermon on thankfulness, is to have a
focus, an opportunity for focus. Now that I'm being grateful,
I'm worshiping God and don't even know it. I'm just trying
to find the positive and reframe everything in the context of
God's sovereignty, so that the Spirit of God has done a work
in me and continues to do a work in me, that my mind is focused. Looking to Jesus. What is focus?
Looking to Jesus. Not looking to the chore. Not
looking to the relationship. Not looking to the bank account.
Not looking to the physical health. Not looking to the context of
our success or failures. Not looking at how a good parent
we were or not. Looking to Jesus. The founder
and perfecter of our faith. Who, Jesus, for the joy that
was set before Him, endured the cross, the wrath of God, the
death of His body, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God. And what does that do? The same
thing it does in our relationships with our spouse. We become thankful for who they
are, no matter what it is. And we begin to look at what
they do right. It doesn't negate what they've
done wrong. You've got to be accountable for what you've done
wrong. But oftentimes, we don't want to do that. Fear, persistence,
doesn't matter. But when we become focused on
those things, then what happens? Our love rekindles. The same
thing for the Lord. And I would say this way, that
if we do this spiritually, all the other things will take care
of themselves. Why would you say such a silly thing? Because
Jesus said it. to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things will be added unto you. We labor for
the wrong thing, forgetting who our Father is, who holds all
things in His hands. We're mining for something that's
too deep in the core of the earth for us to even obtain. I had
that conversation yesterday. I had this idea that I would
do X in this amount of time, and it's actually physically
impossible, so I gotta just put that to the side and don't do
it anymore. I don't wanna run a fool's errand in my spiritual
life. But there's nothing that is impossible with God. But I have this against you,
Jesus says to the church of Ephesus, actually. You've abandoned the love that
you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, change
the way you're thinking, the word repent, and do the love
that you did at first. If you don't do this, I'm gonna
come and take away your light, I'm gonna take away your effectiveness,
I'm gonna take away your joy. And it's not like he comes and
takes it away, it's just a natural consequence of this. So when
I'm able to be thankful, my focus is on Christ, and when my focus
is on Christ, my love for Him is rekindled, and then the love
that I have for others is on fire. To the point that sometimes
I have these epiphanies, oh my goodness, I love this person
more than I've ever loved them before in my life. In a real
tangible way, not in an emotional way. And then the emotions come,
right? It reminds us of our love. We
love God and it reminds us of worshiping, thankfulness. All
this stuff reminds us of God's love for us. How can I love Him? Because He first loved me. Christ died for me. And what
does that do? What I just read out of Philippians
4. Do not be anxious about anything. It's just a full circle, right? So this type of discipline settles
my anxiety. It'll settle yours. It's a promise
of the Lord. If you'd asked me three years ago,
do you suffer from anxiety? I don't like, are you kidding
me? Cool as a cucumber, I wasn't. And some of you even tried to
tell me that through the years. I'm like, I'm not anxious about,
I'm not worried about nothing. Because I had a bag over my head. And what does it do then? What
does it do to the world around me? Okay, so we've got the spiritual
life in tune or attuned. What is it going to do about
my issues? Well, it enriches all of our
relationships with the world. With ourself, with our spouse,
our significant other, or our partner, with our children, with
our job. with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing one another in love, eager to maintain the
unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And what's the end
of that? You know what I'm gonna say.
We rest. Nap time with God. That'd be
a good children's book, wouldn't it? Nap time with God, because
you hate nap time as a kid. You know, early grade school
and all, time for nap, you hate it. Oh my gosh, if we rolled
out of cot right now and said, nap time, shut the lights out.
I'd do it. We need to rest. Come to me,
all who labor, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I'm gentle. I'm lowly in heart. This is Jesus,
the God of the universe. I'm lowly in heart. And you'll
find rest for your soul. See, my yoke is easy, my burden
is light. I'm not asking anything of you. Because Jesus is bound to the
yoke of righteousness. Jesus is bound to the yoke of
justice. Jesus was bound to all of that
on the cross, and He's free from it. And His blood testifies greater
and louder than the blood of Abel. We're free, beloved. We're free, and oh how I want
it now. I want to undo a lifetime of
bondage right this minute, but it's not gonna happen. But through
the subtle disciplines, through the prayers of each other, through
small little intimate moments, through the touch of God's word
and His kindness through each other, we will become more and
more free. And the freer we are, The more
restful we will become. It's like a new fish we have
in our tank. We can't see him. He's been hiding in a rock for
three days. But the safer he is, the more we'll see him. Beloved, you are safe in Christ. You do not have to hide from
God. You do not have to hide from yourself. And you do not
have to hide from each other. But until you're comfortable,
you stay right where you are. Because in God's timing, he will
bring you out. Let's remember all this when we take the table
in a moment. Let's pray. Father, there's so many burdens
in my heart right now. But I thank you that those burdens
have not tethered me to a hopelessness. That through suffering, through
pain, through growth, that there is hope. It's so weird that I can say
so many things that I cannot apply to my life. It's so weird
that you can teach us stuff that we know is true that we struggle
with. And that some of these things that we will never perfect.
But you have promised us this one thing that will and is perfected. Is that the love that you have
for us is perfected in us when we thank you, when we rest, And
when we do the disciplines that you've called us to, and Father,
the beauty in that is even when we can't, you will. How? Through
the hearing of your word, through the power of your spirit, you
are working in us this very moment, and it's not for us to get up
off of this time of worship and decide to be better. You are
going to grow us. Some quickly, some not so quick. Some of us are like Peter, and
we think we're there, and we just pop off at the mouth, and
we jump up in praise, but only to find ourselves back into the
hole. But it's okay, because even in
the darkest depths of every place, you are there. So Father, as I think of the
vastness of the cosmos and how it stands to show us just how
insignificant we are in our being through such infinite comparison,
Lord, when I see your love for me, when I see your love for
us, I'm challenged to call the cosmos
finite in comparison to us, your people. So we thank you for this beauty.
We thank you for your love. In Christ's name, amen.