WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:18.400 Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, we give you thanks and praise that you have revealed 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:26.240 yourself on this planet, that you have revealed yourself to us. We give you thanks and praise, 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:32.480 Father, that you are God. We ask that your Holy Spirit would continue to move gently and powerfully 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:39.600 within us. May you pour out the Holy Spirit upon us, that we might be drawn ever deeper into your 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:45.680 presence, that we might know truths about you, and even more importantly, that we might know you 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:52.320 and open ourselves to be known by you. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:55.040 our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:06.719 So people who know me, I mean, some of you might, probably not a huge surprise, but I am in some 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:13.520 ways a little bit like a bipolar person. And I don't mean bipolar in the technical, medical sense, 00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:22.159 but there are sort of at least two Georges that struggle within me. One George, and it's captured 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:28.719 by two particular apologists and thinkers that I'm very, very fond of. Part of me is very close to 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:32.479 this fellow by the name of David Woods. I don't know how many of you have heard of the apologist, 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:42.240 David Woods. But David Woods, he's just very blunt, and he's not at all embarrassed of just calling it 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:47.840 like it is. Like, he'll just come out and say in his video, he's mainly known for dealing with atheism, 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:51.599 but primarily he's known about dealing with Islam. He'll just come right out and say, Allah is a false 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:59.599 God. And he'll say other things about Muhammad. He's very, very blunt. And normally this is hidden 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:06.800 from you folks, those who know me well know that I have very much a David Woods side to me. When it 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:12.960 comes time for me to resign as the rector of this church, if you decide to do a roast, I'm going to 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:18.719 hope that none of my staff are allowed to speak at it because then you will get that other side of me 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:24.960 that comes out in staff meetings and other types of things. It's why Amy Van Hemmen said regularly in 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:29.680 our staff meetings, and once again, George, that is why you are not allowed to have a Twitter account. 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:36.560 The other part of me, which is what you would see more, but you might wish you could see more of it, 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:43.120 is I really love Gavin Ortlund. And Gavin Ortlund, temperamentally, is the complete opposite of 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:51.840 David Woods. He is unfailingly kind, unfailingly gentle, unfailingly expecting and giving the best 00:03:51.840 --> 00:04:00.240 possible motive of other people. Always gives a steel man argument, always ironic, always gentle. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:04.960 And I mention all of this because when I was first looking at the text that we're going to look at 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:11.120 today, which is Psalm 100, there was all this David Woods activity in my mind, and I was thinking of 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:17.759 all the things that I could say about it. But the Holy Spirit convicted me that this is a perfect time 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:24.400 for me to try to be more like Gavin Ortlund. And that's because the psalm we're looking at, Psalm 100, 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:32.319 contains a type of creed within it, a six-line creed, which is very, very profound. And if you haven't, 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:39.199 if you're interested in having like a good 80, 90-minute video explaining the Apostles' Creed, 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:44.719 look up Gavin Ortlund's YouTube video on it. If you'd like an 80 or 90-minute explanation of the 00:04:44.719 --> 00:04:50.959 Nicene Creed, look up Gavin Ortlund's video on it. Very, very, very good. He just enthuses, you can just 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:56.879 tell he falls in love with it. And I confess that as I've spent the week meditating upon this, I never 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:02.480 realized before that it had a creedal element to it. It is just so beautiful and so powerful, 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:10.159 this creedal element of the psalm. So take out your Bibles and return to Psalm 100. The words of 00:05:10.159 --> 00:05:14.719 the psalm will be on the screen, but it's always good to have your own Bible with you, to be able to 00:05:14.719 --> 00:05:20.879 make notes, and just to check that I'm not taking things out of content, out of context, because that's 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:28.399 that's the big goal is for you to, of course, know God and be known by Him and to know His Word better 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:34.959 yourselves. That's one of my great hopes as I do these sermons. And okay, and here just, okay, another 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:40.719 thing, a little tiny nerd moment. It's hard not to have nerd moments when you talk about the Psalms, because 00:05:40.719 --> 00:05:46.879 most of them have these fascinating nerdish grammar things about them. So just a brief nerd thing, 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:53.360 hopefully not the non-nerds won't fall asleep. It's unfortunate that the verses which were added 00:05:53.360 --> 00:06:00.000 later were added in the way they were, but it's a very simple 12-line poem in the original language. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:06.639 And it's, so there's three lines of a call, then there's three lines of truths that you are to 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:12.399 contemplate, then there's three lines which are a call, and then there's three lines of truths to 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:18.959 contemplate. And there's, so there's these three, the call is three verbs, commands, then the beginning 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:24.079 of the creedal part that you're to contemplate, then three more commands, the call, and then the 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:28.479 conclusion of what you're to contemplate. That's how it's structured. We'll just read it very quickly, 00:06:28.479 --> 00:06:33.519 and then we'll start to dive in. And it goes like this. So the first bit is the call bit. You'll notice 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:41.919 it goes, make a joyful noise to the Lord, Psalm 100 verse 1. This is one of those times the ESV hasn't, 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:50.479 the translation won't lead anybody astray, by the way. And it is, making a noise is a big part of what 00:06:50.479 --> 00:06:55.680 it says in the original language. But it's actually better to translate it, because the actual command is, 00:06:56.319 --> 00:07:02.399 I'm going to step away from the mic, shout! That's what it's actually saying. Like in the original 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:09.279 language, it's saying to shout, shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. That's like the first command. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:16.159 And then the next call is to serve the Lord with gladness, verse 2, come into his presence with 00:07:16.159 --> 00:07:23.120 singing. Three things, three calls, to shout, to serve, to come into his presence. And then we get 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:30.239 the first part of the creed, which goes, know, verse 3, know, that's the only verb there. Know that the 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:37.439 Lord, he is God. It is he who made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:45.040 Three lines, creedal type of lines. Then into another call, enter his gates with thanksgiving, 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:51.519 and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Another, bless his name. And then the final three 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:57.120 things to contemplate, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness 00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:05.759 to all generations. Now, verse 3 is the heart. In fact, if you just had the whole heart of the psalm, 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:15.439 would be the first line in verse 3. Know that the Lord, he is God. Know that the Lord, he is God. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.800 And one of the things which is so neat about this, I mean, we have a couple of young, you know, we have 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:25.680 some young kids in here doing their activity sheets or whatever. You could say to a very young child, 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:31.600 you know, you're to know that the Lord, he is God. That's what God wants. This is God speaking to you. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:37.039 He wants you to know that he is the Lord, and he is God. And that's a very simple thing. You could tell 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:43.440 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 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:50.080 profound poet, the most profound artist or creative, if you are the world's most profound philosopher or 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:58.480 thinker, you can't exhaust that command to know that the Lord, he is God. It's a deep and profound 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:07.840 truth that can speak both to the most learned and to the most simple. But here is where if I'd wanted 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:15.280 to, I could go full-scale David Woods. But there is a, on one hand, this is a very profound and deep 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:22.959 truth, but it has an edge to it, which is very sharp. Look at it again. Know that the Lord, he is God. 00:09:22.959 --> 00:09:27.839 What does that mean amongst other things? Well, it means something very positive, that the Lord, 00:09:27.839 --> 00:09:36.319 he is God. But it also means this. Allah is not God. Krishna is not God. 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:45.600 The gods of the nations aren't gods. There's only one God, and that one God is the Lord. 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:52.879 And that's, of course, a very uncomfortable thing for us Canadians to get our minds around. It's one 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:56.240 of those things where we could easily say, well, it's very important to say that to know that the 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:00.480 Lord is God. But if somebody was to say to you, well, does that mean you're saying that Allah is not 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:04.960 God or that Krishna is not God? We get a little bit, as Christians, a bit uncomfortable. Those of you who 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:09.600 are maybe watching or hear who are outside the Christian faith might know that often Canadian 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:15.440 Christians get a little bit uncomfortable about that. But it's in fact, not only is it, 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:22.000 is that what the statement is saying, and by the way, if it's hard for us Canadians to say this, 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:27.280 it was even harder for the people for whom this psalm was first written to say it. So part of the reason 00:10:27.280 --> 00:10:32.240 we have trouble with it is because we know that in Canada, all the smart people would say that that's 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.960 a foolish thing to say, that all the smart people would either say that there is no God, 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:41.759 or if they said there is a God, you can't really know him. Or if there is a God, then all the 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:46.000 different gods are different ways of knowing the gods. And that's what all the smart people say. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:51.120 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 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:55.680 CBC. It's what they'd say at the University of Ottawa or Carleton or University of Toronto. It's what all 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:01.199 the smart people say. And so it feels uncomfortable for us to go against what all the smart people say. 00:11:01.199 --> 00:11:07.679 It almost feels like it's a sign that we're dumb. But when this psalm was written, all the smart 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:12.799 people knew that there were many gods, that every nation had its own God, that every river and stream 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:21.439 and bush had its own God. And it was just as hard then as it is for us now. But it is a profoundly 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:27.280 reasonable and hopeful and beautiful thing to say. It's something really important for us to grasp. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:34.080 And the more we grasp the truth and the beauty of it, the more we realize that it's like 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:41.120 to be able to say that to others is to enter into a path to deliver people from, just to be 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:48.080 frank, just confusion. And it's going to take them away from knowing the longing of their heart. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:52.320 Well, what do I mean by when I say that? So here's the problem that we have in Canada. 00:11:53.360 --> 00:12:00.879 That by and large, when most people in Canada think of what God is like, they think of something 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:10.320 like a power or a force. And if you think about it for a second, a power, it's ridiculous to think of a 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:16.480 power having only one name or only one way to describe a power. Like think of something like money. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:21.600 Money is something very, very powerful. It's something very powerful that people desire to have. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:25.920 But it would be ridiculous to say that the only way to describe money is by saying it's Canadian 00:12:25.920 --> 00:12:30.720 dollars. You can have United States dollars, you can have Israeli shekels, you can have European euros, 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:35.279 you can have British pounds. And going all around the world, the different types of currencies. 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:40.240 There's lots of different currencies. There's lots of different analogies. For those of you who are 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:44.159 really depressed about your financial situation, you can say, whenever I think of money, 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:49.679 I think of the blues, where those sad country songs where, you know, your wife is left, the truck is 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:54.240 gone, the dog has died, and you're completely and utterly alone. And others of you who are really 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:59.919 excited say, no, no, no, no, it's like a Pat Metheny jazz piece, really excited. That's what's money like. 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:03.919 And we'd all, anybody who said that it has to be one way would be completely and utterly, 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:09.839 we'd realize that that doesn't make any sense. And it's even seen, like I just, my wife and I this 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:15.120 week, we were watching something on Netflix. And there's this like two minute little bit with a 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:25.600 very moving bit to explain native spirituality from a First Nations to a white guy. And they talked about 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:35.600 how for them, the land, the spirits of his ancestors are in the water and in the trees and in the streams 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:44.560 and in the mountains and in the soil and in him. And that when he dies, he, his spirit will merge and 00:13:44.560 --> 00:13:50.879 join with all of these. And that all sounds, you know, very, very, very moving. But once again, 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:55.680 and you could see that if that's how you sort of understand God as sort of like this type of a, 00:13:55.679 --> 00:14:04.959 of a, of a, the combined spirits of the deceased that infuse everything, then it would be ridiculous 00:14:04.959 --> 00:14:11.839 if a person who's Algonquin insisted Algonquin mythology has to be the only way to describe it, 00:14:11.839 --> 00:14:20.319 not Iroquois, not Cherokee, not Navajo. Obviously, all these different ways of describing it and, 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:27.040 and the language and the gods can, they can all be different. But notice again what the Psalm says, 00:14:27.040 --> 00:14:36.560 chapter three, verse one, know that the Lord, he is God. God is described as a personal being. 00:14:36.560 --> 00:14:43.840 The Lord is a personal being. In fact, you know, when I said that if you, this is why it's so important 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:51.360 that we grasp this and know this and enter into it and realize that if we're silent about that, 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:59.759 we're actually robbing people of knowing the desire of their heart. Like you capture that a little bit 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:04.480 in the spiritual thing of the, the native spirituality, the way I described it, because really on, 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:12.160 if you really press into it literally, they're just describing impersonal forces and impersonal realities. 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:18.159 But by saying spirit, they try to sneak in something which is personal, because at the end of the day, 00:15:18.719 --> 00:15:24.480 what we really long for, I mean, human beings long to have personal relationships with each other, 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:32.319 and we long for the universe to be personal. We long for there to be a personal God that we can have a personal 00:15:32.319 --> 00:15:38.079 relationship with. And as soon as you understand that God is a person, you realize that 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:45.280 that persons have uniqueness and an edge. So for instance, Josiah is not sitting here anymore, 00:15:45.280 --> 00:15:51.520 but if somebody was to say, oh yeah, I know Josiah Haynes. He's like seven foot tall. I think he's 00:15:51.520 --> 00:15:57.440 about 22. I'm not quite sure. I think he's about to start playing in the NBA. He has dreadlocks all the 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:02.400 way down to his, the bottom of his, of his butt. He's spectacularly athletic, and he's going to be in 00:16:02.400 --> 00:16:08.080 the NBA any second. And you might say, I don't think we're talking about the same Josiah Haynes. 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:13.440 Like that's not what he looks like at all. Where if somebody was to describe him, but say, oh yeah, 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:19.120 yeah, I know Josiah Haynes very, very well. Like he's a, boy, you wouldn't believe, I see him walking up and 00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:25.280 down Bank Street screaming and yelling at people and just causing a fuss. He's been kicked out of a whole pile of 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:30.000 coffee shops and, and he can't go into the Tim Hortons or anything because he's just so abusive. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:36.480 And you'd say, I don't think you know Josiah Haynes. That doesn't describe him at all. Because you see, 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:44.480 that's the nature of being a personal being. Money can be described many ways. But if you just start 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:49.759 to describe Josiah or me or any other person or the Lord in other ways, you can say, no, no, that's 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:55.200 actually not, we're not talking about the same person. We're not talking about the same person. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:03.679 And so we see that actually this is a very, very profound truth to meditate and to contemplate, 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:09.920 that to know that the Lord, he is God. And it's a type of personal knowledge. So as I just gave with 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:13.680 that example, we know certain things. Let's say whether, like it's about Josiah, you could say, no, no, 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:19.759 he's not, he's not, you know, African American. He's, you know, Caucasian. He's not seven foot tall. 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:25.600 He's however tall he is. And, you know, he's not angry and all. He's like this. But it's not only 00:17:25.600 --> 00:17:32.000 important to have personal, like not intellectual, abstract truths about him, but you need to actually 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:38.000 know him. And so when God is described, when it says in this first line, know that the Lord, 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:43.359 he is God, he is God, it's an invitation to know that God is a personal God. Therefore, he can be 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:48.880 known. And here's the other thing about this, which is so, so really interesting to think about. You see, 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:56.240 you can master facts about something. You can master the facts about some historical personage. And you 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:00.960 can be an expert in knowing trivia about them. But they've, they've, they've dead. They're, they're gone. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:08.240 You can't actually know them. But if, if you actually want to know a person, if you try to 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:13.840 master knowing them, you'll never know them. All you're doing is imposing yourself on them and, 00:18:13.840 --> 00:18:19.200 and trying to manipulate them. The, the, when it just comes down to an individual to another 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.000 individual, there has to be something reciprocal about it. You, you reveal a little bit of yourself, 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:28.480 and they reveal something to you. And then back and forward, and it, and, and to have any type of 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:33.839 real knowing of another person, there has to be freedom. And, and there has to be some, some 00:18:33.839 --> 00:18:39.440 willingness to, to, to think the best of the other person, at least in significant ways to enter into 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:44.559 it. And when it comes to somebody like knowing somebody like God, we're completely and utterly 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:54.480 dependent upon him initiating, wanting to know us, and allowing us to enter into him. He's God. He 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:59.839 already knows every single thing there is to know about me. And so there's this profound truth, 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:04.640 which is opened up here in terms of knowing the Lord, that the one, as we'll see in a moment, 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:10.240 who's created all things, who sustains all things, he actually is a personal being. He is a person. 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:16.799 And as we're going to see in a moment, he desires to know you personally. And to do that, you can never 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:25.039 master that. You can only be mastered by him and allow him to be your master. It's very, very 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:35.919 wonderful. And we have this profound longing to know that God is personal. And, and, and look at 00:19:35.919 --> 00:19:40.399 this then in verse three again. We're still just in verse three. Most of our sermon will just be on 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:48.160 verse three. Know that the Lord, he is God. Second line, it is he who made us and we are his. It is he 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:53.200 who made us and we are his. The line about he is God isn't just something which is thrown in by an 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:58.880 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 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:08.080 and, and people, persons make things. And it's said here that he has made us and we are his. And this is 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:12.399 very, very important because, you know, one of the things which is so different about religions, 00:20:12.399 --> 00:20:18.000 like there's a whole display around Hinduism and, and yoga in that other, in that other room. But 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:28.399 according to Hinduism, human existence is a tragedy. It's tragic that human beings exist, that we're not 00:20:28.399 --> 00:20:34.240 all part of the one. In the time when this was written, human beings were made to be slaves. 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:41.839 There's been some discussion on the YouTube verse in Christian apologetics. It turns out that, 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:48.000 you know, there's a significant Christian movement that says that worshiping the Lord and worshiping 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:53.200 Allah, you're worshiping the same God. And there's been some very moving videos by people who have left 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:58.799 Islam to become Christians to say, no, you're not worshiping the same God when you worship the Lord and 00:20:58.799 --> 00:21:03.200 when you worship Allah. Allah in Islam, we are created to be his slaves. 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:11.440 And, but look at this, we are his people, no, sorry, he is he who made us and we are his. 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:17.119 There's this sense that human beings aren't just accidents, we're not, we're not tragedies, 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:24.480 we're not completely, they're just the same as a slug or a, you know, or a tree, that there's something 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:32.079 special about human beings that God made. He wanted to make us and he wanted to make us. And that means, 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:37.519 and we understand that if he made us, then there really is a sense that every single human being 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:44.319 belongs to him. And if we don't acknowledge that, if we resist that, if we ignore that, if we deny that, 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:50.559 if we rage against that, there's something there that has to be fixed. There's something there that is 00:21:50.559 --> 00:21:56.879 broken that is not the way it should be. In a very, very simple thing, the, a woman that some of you 00:21:56.879 --> 00:22:02.000 know, she comes to the eight o'clock service and she's a, an artist in a very, very small way. And if 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:07.119 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, 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:10.240 no, you see that nice little picture there, you all really like it? I drew that picture. 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:17.519 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. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:24.639 Right? We all understand that if you make it, it's yours. It belongs to you. And, and so you have this 00:22:24.639 --> 00:22:32.960 profound thing here. The personal God has made human beings and, and we belong to him. And then you look 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:37.759 at the third line and the third line introduces a riddle. Look at verse three again, know that the 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:43.759 Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. Now that's talking about every human being. 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:50.640 And now there's a shift out of every human being who are by nature belonging to him. 00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:56.960 There's this subset of all human beings that is described in the third line. We are his people 00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:04.160 and the sheep of his pasture. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. And here you see that if 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:09.200 you're contemplating this, this psalm, there's a riddle here. This psalm was probably written around 700 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:16.240 years before Jesus. And there's a riddle. Somehow something has gone on in people so that not all 00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:23.120 human beings are his people. And, and, and, and so there's some type of tragedy which is going on 00:23:23.120 --> 00:23:28.480 there. But even in the midst of this tragedies, there's this profound promise that God has done 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:34.480 something and it has to be God. If God is the one who's made us and then human beings, there's something 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:41.920 within us which is broken, which is, has failed, then we who are broken and we who are failed, 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:48.480 we can't unbreak ourselves and we can't fix ourselves. We are completely dependent upon the 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:55.839 God who made us to remake us. To use the language of Jesus in John chapter three, we have been born 00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:03.679 human, human, we have been born belonging to God. And yet somewhere along the line, even though that is 00:24:03.679 --> 00:24:10.480 what is we were meant to be, that has gotten broken and we need to be born again. And only God can do that. 00:24:11.439 --> 00:24:16.319 Only God can do that. Only he can fix that particular problem. 00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:24.639 Well, I'll talk, and that's you see now where, so, so even in this psalm, and you can see that if, 00:24:24.639 --> 00:24:30.240 if you were to meditate upon the psalm, you see that it, it opens up into the truths of the Apostles' 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:36.399 Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Westminster Shorter and Longer Confession, the, the 39 articles in the Book 00:24:36.399 --> 00:24:42.480 of Common Prayer. It, it opens up into the Gafcon statement. It opens up into being able to expand. The 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:48.559 seeds of all of these profound truths are already there in this very, very short and fundamental 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:53.839 creed. And it's, and, and, and, and, and it's pointing to something that they 00:24:56.079 --> 00:25:02.559 would only be made clear later on. And I'll explain in a moment how that works. But, but look verse 4. 00:25:05.120 --> 00:25:10.160 To help us to understand that this knowing of the Lord, that the Lord, he is God, is not just a matter 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:16.800 of abstract truths. It's as if the psalm, not as if, the psalmist actually interrupts the creed 00:25:16.800 --> 00:25:21.759 to have an, another call. And, and there's the three things in his call. Enter his gates with 00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:28.960 thanksgiving, verse 4. His courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name. And so we see here 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:34.560 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 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:40.639 something to be there which is personal, which is exultant, which is coming even closer to him. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:46.319 And having him come closer to him that involves knowing him in, in ways that we can be thankful 00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:52.079 to him and, and, and blessing, and blessing his name. And now the creed continues in verse 5. That 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:57.119 what we are to contemplate, being reminded that this isn't just knowing abstract things, but to know 00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:04.079 him. And in verse 5, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all 00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:10.159 generations, three more things to complicate, to contemplate. That the Lord, he's good. His 00:26:10.159 --> 00:26:15.439 steadfast love, his unfailing love. The word steadfast love in the original language implies 00:26:15.439 --> 00:26:21.039 a covenantal relationship love. So it's not just like a generic love to humanity in general, 00:26:22.159 --> 00:26:27.599 but it's, it's a specific love that Daniel has come into a covenant with God, and, and, and, 00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:33.919 and God loves Daniel in this steadfast love way. He knows Daniel by name. He, he knows, 00:26:34.320 --> 00:26:41.920 James. He knows Jacob. He knows Uzo. He knows Victor. He knows Amelie. He knows you by name. 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:48.560 Those who are in covenant with him, and his love to you is completely and unfailing. And then his 00:26:48.560 --> 00:26:53.519 faithfulness to all generations, it means his commitment to be faithful to you is going to go 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:58.800 throughout your entire life. And there's a hint here of eternal life, that it will go on and on and 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:04.960 on into the future. He knows you. He loves you. He's committed to you. His love will never stop. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:12.879 And only, only God can bring you into this relationship with himself. 00:27:12.880 --> 00:27:22.160 I'll give you an analogy about it. Like, if you just think about it for a second. 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:30.480 So the other day we were up at a, a, a lake, visiting, um, one of my sons who rents a trailer 00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:36.000 up at a, up at a lake. And, uh, one of the, as we were going into the, into the, the place, 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:41.839 there's a brand new house, which was been built on the water. And it looks just spectacular. It looks 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:48.400 like it cost million, you know, million plus dollars. And it looks really good on the roadside. 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:53.759 But if you're in the water, because we were in a boat and you realize that the, the house goes like 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:59.680 down like three layer, three levels and all facing the water and all windows and just looks spectacular. 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:07.680 But, um, I couldn't just enter into that house on my own. They'd call the police on me. 00:28:08.960 --> 00:28:13.200 And they should. Like, why is it we think we can go into God's house on our own? 00:28:14.319 --> 00:28:18.000 Like, why is it that we think that we can just walk into God's house just because we want to? 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:26.160 We can't do that for human, any human house. Be very, very, very, very, uh, when I was, for the 00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:31.359 first time I was in, in Kenya, I was in rural Kenya, a part of Kenya that tourists don't go to. 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:37.359 And the first morning that I was there at the, the compound where our meetings were going to be held, 00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:44.559 I, uh, I decided to go for a bit of a walk. And, uh, after I'd been walking just a few hundred yards 00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:51.440 from the compound, uh, another fellow, he was a bishop from Tanzania and he came along beside me 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:56.879 and, uh, we were chatting a bit. And, uh, then he looked at a house across a field and he said, 00:28:56.879 --> 00:29:02.960 uh, we should go there. I'd like you to come with me to go. I'd like, let's go into that house. 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:08.319 I felt really uncomfortable. Like, I don't know, like, I don't know the person, anything. No, no, no. 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:13.439 And then, then he says, we just walk across the field. I said, he said, yeah. I said, well, okay, 00:29:13.439 --> 00:29:19.039 I'll, I'll confess to you. I'm worried about poisonous snakes in Africa. And, uh, he smiled and 00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:27.200 said, uh, George, I can tell you there's no snakes in that field. So we walk across and, um, the, the little, 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:34.000 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 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:42.400 owner of the house welcomes us in. And we go into the house, they make us tea, have a wonderful little 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:47.920 visit. It's just part of the beautiful hospitality of, of Africa. But why am I allowed into the house? 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:58.559 It's because I was with, his name was Alpha. I was with Bishop Alpha. Bishop Alpha knew the owner 00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:08.079 and the owner knew Bishop Alpha, liked Bishop Alpha, welcomed him in. And only because I was with Bishop 00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:11.839 Alpha, now maybe in Kenyan culture, I could have gone, just knocked on the door. He would have brought me in 00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:19.119 for tea. But it was all because of Alpha that I was able to enter the house. I've told, I haven't told 00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:26.319 this analogy in a while, but the, um, quite a few years ago, my wife and I were in Halifax, uh, for something. 00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:33.279 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. 00:30:33.919 --> 00:30:39.359 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. 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:44.480 He knew that I was an Anglican minister. Uh, anyway, we're walking along the dock and one of those beautiful, 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:51.359 tall ships comes into the dock. Uh, just beautiful, beautiful sail ship with all the sails and it comes into the dock. 00:30:51.359 --> 00:30:56.000 There was a big crowd of people all oohing and aahing at it because it was really just absolutely gorgeous. 00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:00.879 And the, the gang, you know, the plank comes down, a couple of people come on and we're, 00:31:00.879 --> 00:31:06.159 Louise and I are just part of the whole crowd that, um, that are watching the boat. 00:31:06.159 --> 00:31:10.399 And then out of that, out of that crowd and the people going in, all of a sudden, 00:31:10.399 --> 00:31:15.439 the fellow who had befriended us at church that Sunday, he was one of the people who had gone on the 00:31:15.439 --> 00:31:20.960 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, 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:25.200 come here, come on the boat. We got a tour of the boat. 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:32.240 And you see, that's, that's what Jesus does for us in terms of being able to enter into God's 00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:35.759 presence. Like we can't just enter into God's presence on our own. 00:31:35.759 --> 00:31:42.720 But just as I needed Bishop Alpha to go into this fellow's house and, and in the other story that the 00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:48.720 fellow who was part of the boat, part of the whole organization behind the boat, uh, in a sense, part 00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:54.000 of the group that owned the boat and he invites us in, it's because of his invitation and that presence 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:58.400 that I'm able to enter into the boat. Louise and I were able to, or I was able to go into the house. 00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:04.400 And it's the exact same type of thing. The only way that we enter, become God's people and enter into 00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:12.240 his presence isn't because of something in our own power, but because Christ is able to enter because 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:21.039 of what he's done for us on the cross and in his resurrection. And he, to everyone, he says, come, 00:32:21.039 --> 00:32:28.319 come, come, come with me, come with me. And we are his people that this is all pointing to the work of 00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:33.920 the Holy Spirit to move and change our hearts that we respond to this call by Jesus. And it's all because 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:38.240 of Jesus that we can enter into his presence. It's the only, only reason. 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:50.000 And, and so this Psalm is a, know that the Lord, he is God. Verse three, know that it is he who made us, 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:57.920 that human beings are made by God, that we have a purpose. Know that out of all of the people that 00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:05.039 he has made, that he has called people to become his people once again by, by new birth. And we who 00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:12.079 have responded to Jesus in a sense are carried by Jesus or taken by hand by Jesus into the God's 00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:17.279 presence, that we are his people, that we are the sheep of his hands. We are to understand that in 00:33:17.279 --> 00:33:22.319 God's presence, there is fullness of joy. Verse four, so that we enter into his presence with 00:33:22.319 --> 00:33:28.559 thanksgiving, thanksgiving for creating us, thanksgiving for salvation and redemption, that we praise Jesus 00:33:28.559 --> 00:33:33.839 for what he's done for us. We give thanks to him, we bless his name, and then we're reminded that the 00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:40.000 Lord, he is only good. His steadfast love towards you and me who are his people endures forever. His 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.119 faithfulness to us is, goes to all generations, and it's in light of this in closing that we can 00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:50.399 understand what verse one is all about. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with 00:33:50.400 --> 00:33:58.400 gladness come into his presence with singing, or shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Why is it 00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:04.640 that we are going to give out a thousand new testaments in the first week of school at the 00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:12.480 University of Ottawa? We are going to do that because we know that the people there have been created by God, 00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:20.559 that they, that God desires people there to be his people, that he is the savior, and he wants there to 00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:26.880 be more people who praise him and give him thanks and give him glory and enjoy his presence. We have a 00:34:26.880 --> 00:34:36.880 brother here who helps to run a ministry to Zimbabwe to help Zimbabwe pastors and churches thrive and share 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:42.079 the gospel. Well, why does he do this? Why would we want to maybe come alongside and support him at some 00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:49.920 time that? Because there are many people in Zimbabwe that God wants to know that he, that God loves them. 00:34:49.920 --> 00:34:54.400 He wants them to be in his presence. He wants them to be in his presence with the fullness of joy. 00:34:54.400 --> 00:35:00.320 That's why we do that. That's why we share the gospel. What does blessing God's name mean? Blessing God's 00:35:00.320 --> 00:35:06.240 name means to make him more famous, to make more people know about him, to make more people realize how 00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:11.119 beautiful and wonderful God is. And so when we share the gospel with people, that's one of the ways that 00:35:11.119 --> 00:35:17.199 we bless the Lord, that more people know that he is, that Jesus is a wonderful savior. That's why we do 00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:24.879 those things. That's what God is, somebody has done for us. And, and, and so, you know, the first call is to 00:35:24.879 --> 00:35:31.359 know, to contemplate, to think about the goodness of God, his steadfast love, to think about the fact that, 00:35:31.360 --> 00:35:38.160 that, that, that, that he will never, never abandon his commitment to you. No matter how hard your life 00:35:38.160 --> 00:35:43.519 is, he will never command it. But it all goes back to that beginning that we're to shout for joy to the 00:35:43.519 --> 00:35:49.280 Lord, to acknowledge, tell everybody, everybody in Ottawa that the Lord, he is God, that he is worthy of 00:35:49.280 --> 00:35:55.519 praise, that he desires once we know Jesus, that we serve him. We serve him with our mind, we serve him with 00:35:55.519 --> 00:36:00.800 our money, we serve him with our body, we serve him with our sing, in our singleness, in our childness, 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:08.000 with, with families, with marriage, that whoever we are, all that we are, we are to serve him 24-7, 365 days 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:16.400 a year. And that his fundamental desire to us is that we come into his presence with singing. 00:36:16.400 --> 00:36:26.000 Like day by day, we come into his presence with singing. You know, to have your life oriented 00:36:26.720 --> 00:36:33.440 by the fact that the Lord, he is God, that he has made us, and we are his, that we are his people and 00:36:33.440 --> 00:36:39.440 the sheep of his pasture, that the Lord is good, that his steadfast love endures forever, is faithfulness to 00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:45.280 all generations, that he desires us day by day, moment by moment, to come into his presence, 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:50.800 to come into his presence with singing and joy, serving him with everything. That is a fundamentally, 00:36:50.800 --> 00:36:58.079 radically different way to live your life. It is a radically different posture towards life 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.320 than to think that life is all about the number of possessions that you can get, or the amount of 00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:10.400 power that you can have, or the amount of sex that you can have, or the, the, or all of the, the trophies 00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:15.680 of our culture that you can have, or all the fame or the acclaim. Those are, it's a very, very, very, 00:37:15.680 --> 00:37:24.480 very fundamentally different posture to live, is to understand these fundamental truths. And at the heart 00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:33.280 of all things is the personal God who desires you to know him more and more and more, and to have you 00:37:33.280 --> 00:37:40.240 allow him to come into your life ever deeper, and to know that as you press into the very center 00:37:40.240 --> 00:37:48.240 and heart of all things is a personal God, and in his presence there is a fullness of joy. 00:37:50.880 --> 00:37:57.200 Sadness may be for the day, it may be for the week, it may even be for a long season in your life. 00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:06.960 Hard things might really happen to you and will really happen to you, but the final word about you in Jesus 00:38:08.559 --> 00:38:14.960 will be this joy, this singing in his presence. I invite you to stand. 00:38:22.159 --> 00:38:23.279 Bow your heads in prayer. 00:38:23.280 --> 00:38:35.440 Father, we, uh, you know how, uh, and there's not, Father, you know there's nothing wrong with us. 00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:41.120 Obviously, Father, we should be thoughtful people and think about what we're doing and all of that, 00:38:41.120 --> 00:38:47.920 but Father, you know how hard it is for us to actually contemplate you and to know you, 00:38:47.920 --> 00:38:52.079 to think about you, to think about you, think about the truths about you, 00:38:54.000 --> 00:39:00.079 to, uh, think about you in such a way that, um, we want to know more about you. Father, you know that 00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:06.240 that easily gets crowded out of our, crowded out of our lives. And so, Father, we ask that you put it 00:39:06.239 --> 00:39:13.359 within our heart to ask every day that we would know you better and that you would know us, uh, 00:39:14.399 --> 00:39:20.159 that we, in a sense, surrender or give up all barriers, Father, to you knowing us, even though 00:39:20.159 --> 00:39:25.519 those barriers you can easily surmount, but we surrender those barriers and we desire to know you. 00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:29.359 Put that, Father, within our heart that we would contemplate you, desire to know you. 00:39:29.360 --> 00:39:38.160 And, uh, and Father, we ask that, um, you grant us courage, uh, Father, to proclaim in Canada and to 00:39:38.160 --> 00:39:44.720 the very ends of the earth that, uh, you are, you, Lord, you are, Lord, are God, that Jesus is the Lord, 00:39:44.720 --> 00:39:50.640 that he is God. There is no other, that he alone is the one who can connect us with you, Father, 00:39:50.640 --> 00:39:57.200 and make us your children by adoption, by new birth and new life. Father, make these truths ever more 00:39:57.199 --> 00:40:03.119 precious and real to us and, uh, and grant us courage to share them. And we ask all these things 00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:07.119 in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.