WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.919 All right, we'll read God's word together from Psalm 105, the first six verses. 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:05.919 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.600 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered. 00:00:35.899 --> 00:00:40.219 O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones. 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:44.759 All right, I'm going to reflect with you just for a few minutes on the psalm. 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:54.179 The psalms are the musical prayer book that God's given us in the Old Testament for the church to sing throughout all the ages. 00:00:54.500 --> 00:00:59.600 And when you read through the psalms, there's a real unity amid diversity of psalms. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:05.700 So sometimes we sing psalms of lament and grief and times of sorrow. 00:01:05.939 --> 00:01:10.200 And sometimes we sing psalms of celebration and times of festival, Thanksgiving. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.060 So there's all different types of psalms. 00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:17.519 The one we just read, Psalm 105, is a psalm of praise, a psalm of worship. 00:01:17.960 --> 00:01:23.480 So there's a whole category of songs in the Old Testament called songs of praise, psalms of praise. 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:33.340 And praise, worship, we sing because all we mean by that is ascribing value and praise to he who is praiseworthy. 00:01:33.340 --> 00:01:38.299 So we give value in life to things that are worthy to be called valuable. 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:41.579 Or praise to things that are worthy to be praised. 00:01:42.100 --> 00:01:45.200 And the psalms just say something very simple over and over again. 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:46.320 Praise the Lord. 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:48.040 Sing to the Lord. 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:50.180 He is worthy to be praised. 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:52.860 So we ascribe praise to him who is praiseworthy. 00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:56.240 And that's what the psalms of praise do to tell us, sing. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:57.960 Sing to God because he's worth it. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:58.500 He's valuable. 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:03.420 He deserves for his name to be glorified through songs. 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:07.160 So we human beings, God made us to worship through singing. 00:02:07.700 --> 00:02:08.760 We can't help it. 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:12.920 Whether it's to God or something else, we worship through singing all the time. 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:18.679 And it's not just because we want to sing, but singing also shapes us. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:22.500 So if you've ever watched The Sound of Music, what do they sing? 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:25.139 They say, I don't sing because I'm happy. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.299 I'm happy because I sing. 00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:28.259 Right? 00:02:28.379 --> 00:02:34.199 So as much as we sing because we desire to sing and ascribe praise, singing actually shapes us. 00:02:34.619 --> 00:02:39.219 It directs us in a certain way towards that which we sing about and that which we praise. 00:02:40.119 --> 00:02:41.239 What do Christians sing about? 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:45.719 Well, there's so much we sing about truth, goodness, and beauty. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:50.260 We believe that God has made truth, goodness, and beauty in our world. 00:02:50.379 --> 00:02:55.439 And so when we see truth, goodness, and beauty, we ascribe value to the one who has given that to this world. 00:02:56.100 --> 00:03:04.620 But here in Psalm 105, there's this moment, this really important moment that tells you why we sing to God very specifically. 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:14.560 In the Old Testament, when the Israelites would come up to the temple, they'd come up for festivals and pilgrimages every year to the temple. 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:17.980 And often there would be a choir in the temple court. 00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:21.500 And the choir in the temple court would sing psalms like Psalm 105. 00:03:21.819 --> 00:03:23.960 And they would say to the people, sing to the Lord. 00:03:24.099 --> 00:03:25.360 And it would be antiphonal. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:27.580 And then the people would sing something back. 00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:28.980 And it would go back and forth. 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:31.440 I thought about trying it, but I just don't know. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:33.340 Maybe one day we'll try it here. 00:03:33.540 --> 00:03:35.360 But lots of the songs are antiphonal. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:38.580 So the choir would sing and then the people would respond. 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:49.280 There's a church tradition, oftentimes in subcultures of Christianity, especially in the United States, that are a bit more vocal in church. 00:03:49.460 --> 00:03:53.600 And the minister, the pastor will often say to the people, God is good. 00:03:54.120 --> 00:03:56.700 And the people will say, all the time. 00:03:57.320 --> 00:03:59.520 And then the minister will say, all the time. 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:01.460 And the people will say, God is good. 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:02.820 God is good all the time. 00:04:02.880 --> 00:04:03.980 All the time, God is good. 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:06.140 What are they saying when they sang this? 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:13.579 What was the choir doing when it was saying, sing praise to the Lord and the people would return antiphonally and say something back to the choir? 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:14.739 What were they saying? 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:20.459 They were saying what Psalm 105.2 directs us to for the reason to sing. 00:04:21.159 --> 00:04:26.599 And it says in Psalm 105.2, we sing because he has done wondrous works. 00:04:27.419 --> 00:04:28.259 That's what the text says. 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:29.639 We sing, sing to the Lord. 00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:29.919 Why? 00:04:30.219 --> 00:04:33.379 Because he has done wonderful works, wondrous works. 00:04:33.379 --> 00:04:40.120 Now today, in our bulletin and the way we've ordered this service a little different than normal, we've had four parts. 00:04:40.339 --> 00:04:41.379 God calls us. 00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:43.100 God forgives us. 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:44.540 God speaks to us. 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:46.920 And then God will send us in just a few minutes. 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:47.759 Why? 00:04:48.339 --> 00:04:54.040 These four sections are describing the fourfold movement of God's wondrous works. 00:04:55.079 --> 00:04:58.040 So the Psalm says, sing to the Lord for his wonderful deeds. 00:04:58.120 --> 00:04:59.399 What are those wonderful deeds? 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:02.199 And God calls us into worship. 00:05:02.359 --> 00:05:02.519 Why? 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:04.099 Because first he created us. 00:05:05.459 --> 00:05:07.560 So if you ask, where did that come from? 00:05:07.620 --> 00:05:09.139 The Bible says God made you. 00:05:09.239 --> 00:05:09.899 You were his. 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:15.879 So come when he calls to worship and make joyful noise to God, the maker, the creator. 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:16.779 God created you. 00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:18.639 So he calls you to worship because he made you. 00:05:19.239 --> 00:05:19.979 God forgives you. 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:20.120 Why? 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:23.540 Because we rebelled, yet he redeems in Christ. 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:25.879 And then God sends us. 00:05:26.300 --> 00:05:30.400 God speaks to us and God sends us until he makes all things new. 00:05:31.379 --> 00:05:36.780 Now if you break that down into its four parts, this is what we call the wonderful works of God. 00:05:37.620 --> 00:05:40.180 The fourfold movement of his mighty deeds. 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:41.680 He created the world. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:45.699 We rebelled against him, but he did not destroy this world. 00:05:46.860 --> 00:05:49.860 He redeems us, even though we don't deserve it in Jesus Christ. 00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:55.800 And he promises not to give up on this place, but to renew the creation and to make all things new. 00:05:56.100 --> 00:05:58.660 To kick sin and evil and death out of this world forever. 00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:00.500 The fourfold movement of history. 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:03.120 The fourfold movement of God's wondrous works. 00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:04.199 He created us. 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:06.000 We fell, but he held on to us. 00:06:06.460 --> 00:06:08.540 He redeems us and he will bring new creation. 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:12.740 We call that creation, rebellion, redemption, new creation. 00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:16.260 Seeing because God has done wondrous things. 00:06:16.740 --> 00:06:20.000 It's the movement of history and that's what the psalmist is talking about here. 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:21.700 We call it the biblical narrative. 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:25.400 But as Christians, we believe it's also the story of world history. 00:06:26.100 --> 00:06:33.160 Not just the narrative that comes from a text, but the text describes the objective order of world history even. 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:37.400 We praise, Christians praise, we praise tonight because of that. 00:06:37.399 --> 00:06:39.939 Now, let me finish with this. 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:51.319 In 1979, a man named Jean-Francois Lyotard, a French philosopher, he wrote a very important book called The Postmodern Condition. 00:06:52.379 --> 00:06:56.379 And in it, he coined a very famous term. 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:01.199 He made popular a very famous term that we now use a lot, metanarrative. 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:15.699 And in this book, he talked about how people, human beings, create metanarratives, big stories for where we come from, what's wrong with the world, who we are, what's our identity. 00:07:16.599 --> 00:07:18.539 We ask questions like, do I have meaning? 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:19.620 Do I have value? 00:07:19.779 --> 00:07:20.839 Can I be loved? 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:21.800 Is there purpose? 00:07:22.159 --> 00:07:25.219 Is there hope beyond the sad things of this life? 00:07:25.220 --> 00:07:29.700 And he said around those enormous questions, he called it metanarratives. 00:07:29.840 --> 00:07:35.920 We create meta-big narratives, stories of who we are and where we've come from and our destiny, stories of destiny. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:51.600 But alongside a number of other philosophers in the middle of the 20th century, he called it a metanarrative because he said the word metanarrative means, describes the fact that every single one of these stories that we create are merely opinions. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:08:21.580 That's what he said. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:22.500 He pointed out in the past. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:37.139 Is for a person to stand back and say all the philosophies of this world, all the big stories of where we came from and where we're going, all the religions that have been believed in throughout world history. 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:42.779 If you're going to say they're all opinion, none of them can be verified. 00:08:43.019 --> 00:08:44.220 None of them are true. 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:47.540 What kind of a position are you taking to say something like that? 00:08:47.539 --> 00:08:58.139 You're standing back and creating a totalizing theory, a metanarrative that says all of your opinions, all of your beliefs, I should say, are just opinions. 00:08:58.439 --> 00:09:00.480 And I know it because I know better. 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:01.579 Right? 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:05.080 And so the claim falls upon itself. 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:07.800 And all I want to do is finish with a simple claim. 00:09:07.900 --> 00:09:08.379 And that's this. 00:09:08.700 --> 00:09:09.700 Christians sing. 00:09:11.060 --> 00:09:18.980 Not because we believe we hold a personal opinion about the meta story, the mega narrative of history. 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:20.620 That God created the world. 00:09:20.740 --> 00:09:21.280 We rebelled. 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:23.360 God's redeeming all things in Christ. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:26.740 And he's kicking all the sad things out of this world one day in new creation. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:33.100 We don't believe that because we say it's my personal opinion and it adds value to my life. 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:42.519 Instead, we come and make that claim because we believe that God himself has actually entered world history and done these wonderful deeds. 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:44.879 So it's not a subjective claim. 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:45.879 It's an objective claim. 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:56.799 It's a claim that says not only has God done it, but God then wrote about it in a book so that generations afterwards could continue to read it and see it, the Bible. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:09:59.519 And so let me invite you to something tonight. 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:08.659 Whether you are a Christian, and many people are in this room, and perhaps you're here tonight and you're not a Christian but you're curious or you're a skeptic, 00:10:09.059 --> 00:10:13.720 the invitation I have for you tonight is to do something maybe if you've never done it before. 00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:19.740 And that's take the step of asking questions like, where did I come from? 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:22.820 Is there hope beyond the grave? 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:27.160 Is there meaning that stands above my subjective opinion? 00:10:28.460 --> 00:10:32.740 Is there a story, an objective story that can make sense of my life and ultimately give me hope? 00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:38.080 And when you come to a question like that, even if you're a Christian and you've never really dug deep into that, 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:43.759 you've never really looked for questions of truth, both intellectually and existentially. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:48.240 It can reignite your faith or perhaps give you faith for the first time. 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:52.420 And so when you're doing that, let me just give you one qualifier, and it's this. 00:10:52.520 --> 00:10:58.920 Don't ask when you search for something that can make sense of your life, make sense of the world, and actually give you hope. 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:01.539 And I believe that is the Christian story. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:07.299 But when you search, don't ask, is this a value-added belief for my life? 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:12.779 Instead, ask this question, what grand story makes sense of reality intellectually, 00:11:13.899 --> 00:11:18.360 is historically reliable, and existentially satisfying? 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:28.200 So what philosophy, what religion, what worldview is intellectually true, historically credible, and existentially satisfying? 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:33.740 Ask that question, and take a dive into that journey, if you've never done that before. 00:11:35.019 --> 00:11:42.379 We Christians believe that the only right answer, the only real hope for that, is through God who has done wonderful things. 00:11:42.379 --> 00:11:49.220 God, our maker, God our redeemer, God who will recreate the heavens and the earth, and kick sin and death out of this world. 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:52.399 But, I'll finish with this final word. 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:56.519 We sing, we sing tonight, if you're a believer tonight, you'll know this. 00:11:56.620 --> 00:11:58.639 We sing, not because it's easy. 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:04.179 We, boy, becoming a Christian is actually a really hard thing, in fact. 00:12:04.500 --> 00:12:05.779 It's a hard realization. 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:09.320 This is just how objective and not subjective it remains. 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:12.460 It's because, when you become a Christian, you have to say something like this. 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:16.220 I sing, because the world does not revolve around me. 00:12:17.940 --> 00:12:21.900 I exist, because God made me, and I'm here for his glory. 00:12:22.260 --> 00:12:23.200 It's so objective. 00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:24.240 It's so grand. 00:12:24.460 --> 00:12:25.120 It's so big. 00:12:25.140 --> 00:12:28.260 And you have to say, boy, I'm not who I should be. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:31.120 To become a Christian, you have to say, I'm not who I should be. 00:12:31.280 --> 00:12:33.840 But thanks be to God for his grace. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:40.639 And so, the objective story of grace can be your story of grace.