Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, we give you thanks and praise that you have revealed
yourself on this planet, that you have revealed yourself to us. We give you thanks and praise,
Father, that you are God. We ask that your Holy Spirit would continue to move gently and powerfully
within us. May you pour out the Holy Spirit upon us, that we might be drawn ever deeper into your
presence, that we might know truths about you, and even more importantly, that we might know you
and open ourselves to be known by you. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and
our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.
So people who know me, I mean, some of you might, probably not a huge surprise, but I am in some
ways a little bit like a bipolar person. And I don't mean bipolar in the technical, medical sense,
but there are sort of at least two Georges that struggle within me. One George, and it's captured
by two particular apologists and thinkers that I'm very, very fond of. Part of me is very close to
this fellow by the name of David Woods. I don't know how many of you have heard of the apologist,
David Woods. But David Woods, he's just very blunt, and he's not at all embarrassed of just calling it
like it is. Like, he'll just come out and say in his video, he's mainly known for dealing with atheism,
but primarily he's known about dealing with Islam. He'll just come right out and say, Allah is a false
God. And he'll say other things about Muhammad. He's very, very blunt. And normally this is hidden
from you folks, those who know me well know that I have very much a David Woods side to me. When it
comes time for me to resign as the rector of this church, if you decide to do a roast, I'm going to
hope that none of my staff are allowed to speak at it because then you will get that other side of me
that comes out in staff meetings and other types of things. It's why Amy Van Hemmen said regularly in
our staff meetings, and once again, George, that is why you are not allowed to have a Twitter account.
The other part of me, which is what you would see more, but you might wish you could see more of it,
is I really love Gavin Ortlund. And Gavin Ortlund, temperamentally, is the complete opposite of
David Woods. He is unfailingly kind, unfailingly gentle, unfailingly expecting and giving the best
possible motive of other people. Always gives a steel man argument, always ironic, always gentle.
And I mention all of this because when I was first looking at the text that we're going to look at
today, which is Psalm 100, there was all this David Woods activity in my mind, and I was thinking of
all the things that I could say about it. But the Holy Spirit convicted me that this is a perfect time
for me to try to be more like Gavin Ortlund. And that's because the psalm we're looking at, Psalm 100,
contains a type of creed within it, a six-line creed, which is very, very profound. And if you haven't,
if you're interested in having like a good 80, 90-minute video explaining the Apostles' Creed,
look up Gavin Ortlund's YouTube video on it. If you'd like an 80 or 90-minute explanation of the
Nicene Creed, look up Gavin Ortlund's video on it. Very, very, very good. He just enthuses, you can just
tell he falls in love with it. And I confess that as I've spent the week meditating upon this, I never
realized before that it had a creedal element to it. It is just so beautiful and so powerful,
this creedal element of the psalm. So take out your Bibles and return to Psalm 100. The words of
the psalm will be on the screen, but it's always good to have your own Bible with you, to be able to
make notes, and just to check that I'm not taking things out of content, out of context, because that's
that's the big goal is for you to, of course, know God and be known by Him and to know His Word better
yourselves. That's one of my great hopes as I do these sermons. And okay, and here just, okay, another
thing, a little tiny nerd moment. It's hard not to have nerd moments when you talk about the Psalms, because
most of them have these fascinating nerdish grammar things about them. So just a brief nerd thing,
hopefully not the non-nerds won't fall asleep. It's unfortunate that the verses which were added
later were added in the way they were, but it's a very simple 12-line poem in the original language.
And it's, so there's three lines of a call, then there's three lines of truths that you are to
contemplate, then there's three lines which are a call, and then there's three lines of truths to
contemplate. And there's, so there's these three, the call is three verbs, commands, then the beginning
of the creedal part that you're to contemplate, then three more commands, the call, and then the
conclusion of what you're to contemplate. That's how it's structured. We'll just read it very quickly,
and then we'll start to dive in. And it goes like this. So the first bit is the call bit. You'll notice
it goes, make a joyful noise to the Lord, Psalm 100 verse 1. This is one of those times the ESV hasn't,
the translation won't lead anybody astray, by the way. And it is, making a noise is a big part of what
it says in the original language. But it's actually better to translate it, because the actual command is,
I'm going to step away from the mic, shout! That's what it's actually saying. Like in the original
language, it's saying to shout, shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. That's like the first command.
And then the next call is to serve the Lord with gladness, verse 2, come into his presence with
singing. Three things, three calls, to shout, to serve, to come into his presence. And then we get
the first part of the creed, which goes, know, verse 3, know, that's the only verb there. Know that the
Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Three lines, creedal type of lines. Then into another call, enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Another, bless his name. And then the final three
things to contemplate, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness
to all generations. Now, verse 3 is the heart. In fact, if you just had the whole heart of the psalm,
would be the first line in verse 3. Know that the Lord, he is God. Know that the Lord, he is God.
And one of the things which is so neat about this, I mean, we have a couple of young, you know, we have
some young kids in here doing their activity sheets or whatever. You could say to a very young child,
you know, you're to know that the Lord, he is God. That's what God wants. This is God speaking to you.
He wants you to know that he is the Lord, and he is God. And that's a very simple thing. You could tell
that to a two-year-old, a five-year-old. They'd be able to learn it. But if you're the world's most
profound poet, the most profound artist or creative, if you are the world's most profound philosopher or
thinker, you can't exhaust that command to know that the Lord, he is God. It's a deep and profound
truth that can speak both to the most learned and to the most simple. But here is where if I'd wanted
to, I could go full-scale David Woods. But there is a, on one hand, this is a very profound and deep
truth, but it has an edge to it, which is very sharp. Look at it again. Know that the Lord, he is God.
What does that mean amongst other things? Well, it means something very positive, that the Lord,
he is God. But it also means this. Allah is not God. Krishna is not God.
The gods of the nations aren't gods. There's only one God, and that one God is the Lord.
And that's, of course, a very uncomfortable thing for us Canadians to get our minds around. It's one
of those things where we could easily say, well, it's very important to say that to know that the
Lord is God. But if somebody was to say to you, well, does that mean you're saying that Allah is not
God or that Krishna is not God? We get a little bit, as Christians, a bit uncomfortable. Those of you who
are maybe watching or hear who are outside the Christian faith might know that often Canadian
Christians get a little bit uncomfortable about that. But it's in fact, not only is it,
is that what the statement is saying, and by the way, if it's hard for us Canadians to say this,
it was even harder for the people for whom this psalm was first written to say it. So part of the reason
we have trouble with it is because we know that in Canada, all the smart people would say that that's
a foolish thing to say, that all the smart people would either say that there is no God,
or if they said there is a God, you can't really know him. Or if there is a God, then all the
different gods are different ways of knowing the gods. And that's what all the smart people say.
It's what they'd say in cabinet. It's what they'd say in the Supreme Court. It's what they'd say in
CBC. It's what they'd say at the University of Ottawa or Carleton or University of Toronto. It's what all
the smart people say. And so it feels uncomfortable for us to go against what all the smart people say.
It almost feels like it's a sign that we're dumb. But when this psalm was written, all the smart
people knew that there were many gods, that every nation had its own God, that every river and stream
and bush had its own God. And it was just as hard then as it is for us now. But it is a profoundly
reasonable and hopeful and beautiful thing to say. It's something really important for us to grasp.
And the more we grasp the truth and the beauty of it, the more we realize that it's like
to be able to say that to others is to enter into a path to deliver people from, just to be
frank, just confusion. And it's going to take them away from knowing the longing of their heart.
Well, what do I mean by when I say that? So here's the problem that we have in Canada.
That by and large, when most people in Canada think of what God is like, they think of something
like a power or a force. And if you think about it for a second, a power, it's ridiculous to think of a
power having only one name or only one way to describe a power. Like think of something like money.
Money is something very, very powerful. It's something very powerful that people desire to have.
But it would be ridiculous to say that the only way to describe money is by saying it's Canadian
dollars. You can have United States dollars, you can have Israeli shekels, you can have European euros,
you can have British pounds. And going all around the world, the different types of currencies.
There's lots of different currencies. There's lots of different analogies. For those of you who are
really depressed about your financial situation, you can say, whenever I think of money,
I think of the blues, where those sad country songs where, you know, your wife is left, the truck is
gone, the dog has died, and you're completely and utterly alone. And others of you who are really
excited say, no, no, no, no, it's like a Pat Metheny jazz piece, really excited. That's what's money like.
And we'd all, anybody who said that it has to be one way would be completely and utterly,
we'd realize that that doesn't make any sense. And it's even seen, like I just, my wife and I this
week, we were watching something on Netflix. And there's this like two minute little bit with a
very moving bit to explain native spirituality from a First Nations to a white guy. And they talked about
how for them, the land, the spirits of his ancestors are in the water and in the trees and in the streams
and in the mountains and in the soil and in him. And that when he dies, he, his spirit will merge and
join with all of these. And that all sounds, you know, very, very, very moving. But once again,
and you could see that if that's how you sort of understand God as sort of like this type of a,
of a, of a, the combined spirits of the deceased that infuse everything, then it would be ridiculous
if a person who's Algonquin insisted Algonquin mythology has to be the only way to describe it,
not Iroquois, not Cherokee, not Navajo. Obviously, all these different ways of describing it and,
and the language and the gods can, they can all be different. But notice again what the Psalm says,
chapter three, verse one, know that the Lord, he is God. God is described as a personal being.
The Lord is a personal being. In fact, you know, when I said that if you, this is why it's so important
that we grasp this and know this and enter into it and realize that if we're silent about that,
we're actually robbing people of knowing the desire of their heart. Like you capture that a little bit
in the spiritual thing of the, the native spirituality, the way I described it, because really on,
if you really press into it literally, they're just describing impersonal forces and impersonal realities.
But by saying spirit, they try to sneak in something which is personal, because at the end of the day,
what we really long for, I mean, human beings long to have personal relationships with each other,
and we long for the universe to be personal. We long for there to be a personal God that we can have a personal
relationship with. And as soon as you understand that God is a person, you realize that
that persons have uniqueness and an edge. So for instance, Josiah is not sitting here anymore,
but if somebody was to say, oh yeah, I know Josiah Haynes. He's like seven foot tall. I think he's
about 22. I'm not quite sure. I think he's about to start playing in the NBA. He has dreadlocks all the
way down to his, the bottom of his, of his butt. He's spectacularly athletic, and he's going to be in
the NBA any second. And you might say, I don't think we're talking about the same Josiah Haynes.
Like that's not what he looks like at all. Where if somebody was to describe him, but say, oh yeah,
yeah, I know Josiah Haynes very, very well. Like he's a, boy, you wouldn't believe, I see him walking up and
down Bank Street screaming and yelling at people and just causing a fuss. He's been kicked out of a whole pile of
coffee shops and, and he can't go into the Tim Hortons or anything because he's just so abusive.
And you'd say, I don't think you know Josiah Haynes. That doesn't describe him at all. Because you see,
that's the nature of being a personal being. Money can be described many ways. But if you just start
to describe Josiah or me or any other person or the Lord in other ways, you can say, no, no, that's
actually not, we're not talking about the same person. We're not talking about the same person.
And so we see that actually this is a very, very profound truth to meditate and to contemplate,
that to know that the Lord, he is God. And it's a type of personal knowledge. So as I just gave with
that example, we know certain things. Let's say whether, like it's about Josiah, you could say, no, no,
he's not, he's not, you know, African American. He's, you know, Caucasian. He's not seven foot tall.
He's however tall he is. And, you know, he's not angry and all. He's like this. But it's not only
important to have personal, like not intellectual, abstract truths about him, but you need to actually
know him. And so when God is described, when it says in this first line, know that the Lord,
he is God, he is God, it's an invitation to know that God is a personal God. Therefore, he can be
known. And here's the other thing about this, which is so, so really interesting to think about. You see,
you can master facts about something. You can master the facts about some historical personage. And you
can be an expert in knowing trivia about them. But they've, they've, they've dead. They're, they're gone.
You can't actually know them. But if, if you actually want to know a person, if you try to
master knowing them, you'll never know them. All you're doing is imposing yourself on them and,
and trying to manipulate them. The, the, when it just comes down to an individual to another
individual, there has to be something reciprocal about it. You, you reveal a little bit of yourself,
and they reveal something to you. And then back and forward, and it, and, and to have any type of
real knowing of another person, there has to be freedom. And, and there has to be some, some
willingness to, to, to think the best of the other person, at least in significant ways to enter into
it. And when it comes to somebody like knowing somebody like God, we're completely and utterly
dependent upon him initiating, wanting to know us, and allowing us to enter into him. He's God. He
already knows every single thing there is to know about me. And so there's this profound truth,
which is opened up here in terms of knowing the Lord, that the one, as we'll see in a moment,
who's created all things, who sustains all things, he actually is a personal being. He is a person.
And as we're going to see in a moment, he desires to know you personally. And to do that, you can never
master that. You can only be mastered by him and allow him to be your master. It's very, very
wonderful. And we have this profound longing to know that God is personal. And, and, and look at
this then in verse three again. We're still just in verse three. Most of our sermon will just be on
verse three. Know that the Lord, he is God. Second line, it is he who made us and we are his. It is he
who made us and we are his. The line about he is God isn't just something which is thrown in by an
accident and then it goes on and refers to God as it. It's, it's all the way through. He, he is a person
and, and people, persons make things. And it's said here that he has made us and we are his. And this is
very, very important because, you know, one of the things which is so different about religions,
like there's a whole display around Hinduism and, and yoga in that other, in that other room. But
according to Hinduism, human existence is a tragedy. It's tragic that human beings exist, that we're not
all part of the one. In the time when this was written, human beings were made to be slaves.
There's been some discussion on the YouTube verse in Christian apologetics. It turns out that,
you know, there's a significant Christian movement that says that worshiping the Lord and worshiping
Allah, you're worshiping the same God. And there's been some very moving videos by people who have left
Islam to become Christians to say, no, you're not worshiping the same God when you worship the Lord and
when you worship Allah. Allah in Islam, we are created to be his slaves.
And, but look at this, we are his people, no, sorry, he is he who made us and we are his.
There's this sense that human beings aren't just accidents, we're not, we're not tragedies,
we're not completely, they're just the same as a slug or a, you know, or a tree, that there's something
special about human beings that God made. He wanted to make us and he wanted to make us. And that means,
and we understand that if he made us, then there really is a sense that every single human being
belongs to him. And if we don't acknowledge that, if we resist that, if we ignore that, if we deny that,
if we rage against that, there's something there that has to be fixed. There's something there that is
broken that is not the way it should be. In a very, very simple thing, the, a woman that some of you
know, she comes to the eight o'clock service and she's a, an artist in a very, very small way. And if
she was to do a couple of pieces of art for us and we were to use them as illustrations and I was to say,
no, you see that nice little picture there, you all really like it? I drew that picture.
If it got back to Barbara, she'd be upset. She made the picture, it's hers. I can't say that it's mine.
Right? We all understand that if you make it, it's yours. It belongs to you. And, and so you have this
profound thing here. The personal God has made human beings and, and we belong to him. And then you look
at the third line and the third line introduces a riddle. Look at verse three again, know that the
Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. Now that's talking about every human being.
And now there's a shift out of every human being who are by nature belonging to him.
There's this subset of all human beings that is described in the third line. We are his people
and the sheep of his pasture. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. And here you see that if
you're contemplating this, this psalm, there's a riddle here. This psalm was probably written around 700
years before Jesus. And there's a riddle. Somehow something has gone on in people so that not all
human beings are his people. And, and, and, and so there's some type of tragedy which is going on
there. But even in the midst of this tragedies, there's this profound promise that God has done
something and it has to be God. If God is the one who's made us and then human beings, there's something
within us which is broken, which is, has failed, then we who are broken and we who are failed,
we can't unbreak ourselves and we can't fix ourselves. We are completely dependent upon the
God who made us to remake us. To use the language of Jesus in John chapter three, we have been born
human, human, we have been born belonging to God. And yet somewhere along the line, even though that is
what is we were meant to be, that has gotten broken and we need to be born again. And only God can do that.
Only God can do that. Only he can fix that particular problem.
Well, I'll talk, and that's you see now where, so, so even in this psalm, and you can see that if,
if you were to meditate upon the psalm, you see that it, it opens up into the truths of the Apostles'
Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Westminster Shorter and Longer Confession, the, the 39 articles in the Book
of Common Prayer. It, it opens up into the Gafcon statement. It opens up into being able to expand. The
seeds of all of these profound truths are already there in this very, very short and fundamental
creed. And it's, and, and, and, and, and it's pointing to something that they
would only be made clear later on. And I'll explain in a moment how that works. But, but look verse 4.
To help us to understand that this knowing of the Lord, that the Lord, he is God, is not just a matter
of abstract truths. It's as if the psalm, not as if, the psalmist actually interrupts the creed
to have an, another call. And, and there's the three things in his call. Enter his gates with
thanksgiving, verse 4. His courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name. And so we see here
that it's, it's not the knowing of the Lord that he is God isn't just to be abstract truths, but there's
something to be there which is personal, which is exultant, which is coming even closer to him.
And having him come closer to him that involves knowing him in, in ways that we can be thankful
to him and, and, and blessing, and blessing his name. And now the creed continues in verse 5. That
what we are to contemplate, being reminded that this isn't just knowing abstract things, but to know
him. And in verse 5, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all
generations, three more things to complicate, to contemplate. That the Lord, he's good. His
steadfast love, his unfailing love. The word steadfast love in the original language implies
a covenantal relationship love. So it's not just like a generic love to humanity in general,
but it's, it's a specific love that Daniel has come into a covenant with God, and, and, and,
and God loves Daniel in this steadfast love way. He knows Daniel by name. He, he knows,
James. He knows Jacob. He knows Uzo. He knows Victor. He knows Amelie. He knows you by name.
Those who are in covenant with him, and his love to you is completely and unfailing. And then his
faithfulness to all generations, it means his commitment to be faithful to you is going to go
throughout your entire life. And there's a hint here of eternal life, that it will go on and on and
on into the future. He knows you. He loves you. He's committed to you. His love will never stop.
And only, only God can bring you into this relationship with himself.
I'll give you an analogy about it. Like, if you just think about it for a second.
So the other day we were up at a, a, a lake, visiting, um, one of my sons who rents a trailer
up at a, up at a lake. And, uh, one of the, as we were going into the, into the, the place,
there's a brand new house, which was been built on the water. And it looks just spectacular. It looks
like it cost million, you know, million plus dollars. And it looks really good on the roadside.
But if you're in the water, because we were in a boat and you realize that the, the house goes like
down like three layer, three levels and all facing the water and all windows and just looks spectacular.
But, um, I couldn't just enter into that house on my own. They'd call the police on me.
And they should. Like, why is it we think we can go into God's house on our own?
Like, why is it that we think that we can just walk into God's house just because we want to?
We can't do that for human, any human house. Be very, very, very, very, uh, when I was, for the
first time I was in, in Kenya, I was in rural Kenya, a part of Kenya that tourists don't go to.
And the first morning that I was there at the, the compound where our meetings were going to be held,
I, uh, I decided to go for a bit of a walk. And, uh, after I'd been walking just a few hundred yards
from the compound, uh, another fellow, he was a bishop from Tanzania and he came along beside me
and, uh, we were chatting a bit. And, uh, then he looked at a house across a field and he said,
uh, we should go there. I'd like you to come with me to go. I'd like, let's go into that house.
I felt really uncomfortable. Like, I don't know, like, I don't know the person, anything. No, no, no.
And then, then he says, we just walk across the field. I said, he said, yeah. I said, well, okay,
I'll, I'll confess to you. I'm worried about poisonous snakes in Africa. And, uh, he smiled and
said, uh, George, I can tell you there's no snakes in that field. So we walk across and, um, the, the little,
there's a little boy and he sees us coming and, uh, he goes into the house and we knock on the door and the
owner of the house welcomes us in. And we go into the house, they make us tea, have a wonderful little
visit. It's just part of the beautiful hospitality of, of Africa. But why am I allowed into the house?
It's because I was with, his name was Alpha. I was with Bishop Alpha. Bishop Alpha knew the owner
and the owner knew Bishop Alpha, liked Bishop Alpha, welcomed him in. And only because I was with Bishop
Alpha, now maybe in Kenyan culture, I could have gone, just knocked on the door. He would have brought me in
for tea. But it was all because of Alpha that I was able to enter the house. I've told, I haven't told
this analogy in a while, but the, um, quite a few years ago, my wife and I were in Halifax, uh, for something.
And, uh, we just had a, uh, a big, one baby with us and, uh, we're out for a walk on a Sunday afternoon.
And, uh, we had gone to church that morning and a fellow had befriended us and we'd had a nice long chat with him.
He knew that I was an Anglican minister. Uh, anyway, we're walking along the dock and one of those beautiful,
tall ships comes into the dock. Uh, just beautiful, beautiful sail ship with all the sails and it comes into the dock.
There was a big crowd of people all oohing and aahing at it because it was really just absolutely gorgeous.
And the, the gang, you know, the plank comes down, a couple of people come on and we're,
Louise and I are just part of the whole crowd that, um, that are watching the boat.
And then out of that, out of that crowd and the people going in, all of a sudden,
the fellow who had befriended us at church that Sunday, he was one of the people who had gone on the
boat and he'd stopped and he was just looking and he saw Louise in me and he points to Louise in me and says,
come here, come on the boat. We got a tour of the boat.
And you see, that's, that's what Jesus does for us in terms of being able to enter into God's
presence. Like we can't just enter into God's presence on our own.
But just as I needed Bishop Alpha to go into this fellow's house and, and in the other story that the
fellow who was part of the boat, part of the whole organization behind the boat, uh, in a sense, part
of the group that owned the boat and he invites us in, it's because of his invitation and that presence
that I'm able to enter into the boat. Louise and I were able to, or I was able to go into the house.
And it's the exact same type of thing. The only way that we enter, become God's people and enter into
his presence isn't because of something in our own power, but because Christ is able to enter because
of what he's done for us on the cross and in his resurrection. And he, to everyone, he says, come,
come, come, come with me, come with me. And we are his people that this is all pointing to the work of
the Holy Spirit to move and change our hearts that we respond to this call by Jesus. And it's all because
of Jesus that we can enter into his presence. It's the only, only reason.
And, and so this Psalm is a, know that the Lord, he is God. Verse three, know that it is he who made us,
that human beings are made by God, that we have a purpose. Know that out of all of the people that
he has made, that he has called people to become his people once again by, by new birth. And we who
have responded to Jesus in a sense are carried by Jesus or taken by hand by Jesus into the God's
presence, that we are his people, that we are the sheep of his hands. We are to understand that in
God's presence, there is fullness of joy. Verse four, so that we enter into his presence with
thanksgiving, thanksgiving for creating us, thanksgiving for salvation and redemption, that we praise Jesus
for what he's done for us. We give thanks to him, we bless his name, and then we're reminded that the
Lord, he is only good. His steadfast love towards you and me who are his people endures forever. His
faithfulness to us is, goes to all generations, and it's in light of this in closing that we can
understand what verse one is all about. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with
gladness come into his presence with singing, or shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Why is it
that we are going to give out a thousand new testaments in the first week of school at the
University of Ottawa? We are going to do that because we know that the people there have been created by God,
that they, that God desires people there to be his people, that he is the savior, and he wants there to
be more people who praise him and give him thanks and give him glory and enjoy his presence. We have a
brother here who helps to run a ministry to Zimbabwe to help Zimbabwe pastors and churches thrive and share
the gospel. Well, why does he do this? Why would we want to maybe come alongside and support him at some
time that? Because there are many people in Zimbabwe that God wants to know that he, that God loves them.
He wants them to be in his presence. He wants them to be in his presence with the fullness of joy.
That's why we do that. That's why we share the gospel. What does blessing God's name mean? Blessing God's
name means to make him more famous, to make more people know about him, to make more people realize how
beautiful and wonderful God is. And so when we share the gospel with people, that's one of the ways that
we bless the Lord, that more people know that he is, that Jesus is a wonderful savior. That's why we do
those things. That's what God is, somebody has done for us. And, and, and so, you know, the first call is to
know, to contemplate, to think about the goodness of God, his steadfast love, to think about the fact that,
that, that, that, that he will never, never abandon his commitment to you. No matter how hard your life
is, he will never command it. But it all goes back to that beginning that we're to shout for joy to the
Lord, to acknowledge, tell everybody, everybody in Ottawa that the Lord, he is God, that he is worthy of
praise, that he desires once we know Jesus, that we serve him. We serve him with our mind, we serve him with
our money, we serve him with our body, we serve him with our sing, in our singleness, in our childness,
with, with families, with marriage, that whoever we are, all that we are, we are to serve him 24-7, 365 days
a year. And that his fundamental desire to us is that we come into his presence with singing.
Like day by day, we come into his presence with singing. You know, to have your life oriented
by the fact that the Lord, he is God, that he has made us, and we are his, that we are his people and
the sheep of his pasture, that the Lord is good, that his steadfast love endures forever, is faithfulness to
all generations, that he desires us day by day, moment by moment, to come into his presence,
to come into his presence with singing and joy, serving him with everything. That is a fundamentally,
radically different way to live your life. It is a radically different posture towards life
than to think that life is all about the number of possessions that you can get, or the amount of
power that you can have, or the amount of sex that you can have, or the, the, or all of the, the trophies
of our culture that you can have, or all the fame or the acclaim. Those are, it's a very, very, very,
very fundamentally different posture to live, is to understand these fundamental truths. And at the heart
of all things is the personal God who desires you to know him more and more and more, and to have you
allow him to come into your life ever deeper, and to know that as you press into the very center
and heart of all things is a personal God, and in his presence there is a fullness of joy.
Sadness may be for the day, it may be for the week, it may even be for a long season in your life.
Hard things might really happen to you and will really happen to you, but the final word about you in Jesus
will be this joy, this singing in his presence. I invite you to stand.
Bow your heads in prayer.
Father, we, uh, you know how, uh, and there's not, Father, you know there's nothing wrong with us.
Obviously, Father, we should be thoughtful people and think about what we're doing and all of that,
but Father, you know how hard it is for us to actually contemplate you and to know you,
to think about you, to think about you, think about the truths about you,
to, uh, think about you in such a way that, um, we want to know more about you. Father, you know that
that easily gets crowded out of our, crowded out of our lives. And so, Father, we ask that you put it
within our heart to ask every day that we would know you better and that you would know us, uh,
that we, in a sense, surrender or give up all barriers, Father, to you knowing us, even though
those barriers you can easily surmount, but we surrender those barriers and we desire to know you.
Put that, Father, within our heart that we would contemplate you, desire to know you.
And, uh, and Father, we ask that, um, you grant us courage, uh, Father, to proclaim in Canada and to
the very ends of the earth that, uh, you are, you, Lord, you are, Lord, are God, that Jesus is the Lord,
that he is God. There is no other, that he alone is the one who can connect us with you, Father,
and make us your children by adoption, by new birth and new life. Father, make these truths ever more
precious and real to us and, uh, and grant us courage to share them. And we ask all these things
in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.