WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.679 So it's interesting that one of the themes that Kathleen touched on very powerfully when 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:20.440 she was speaking about the work of Sparkle Sisters is trust. 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:27.440 And trust is an absolutely huge part of the healing process that those who are involved 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:34.200 in Sparkle Sisters have to come through because they've experienced a huge amount of broken 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:41.560 trust in their lives and we all know to a greater or lesser extent what that's like 00:00:41.560 --> 00:00:46.079 when we experience it in life. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:57.359 So we find that we rely on people and we lean on people and we value people greatly 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:00.799 and when that is broken, that's a huge thing, isn't it? 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:08.519 But we find that we measure relationships and we measure life in many ways to work out 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:13.519 what is weighty and what is significant and what is worthy of our trust. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:16.960 Who is worthy of our trust and what is worthy of our trust? 00:01:16.960 --> 00:01:24.560 And really that whole concept of something having substantive significance is really 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:27.680 what is the meaning of glory actually. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:28.799 That's what glory means. 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:33.200 It means something that's weighty, something that's worth trusting. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.840 And I think for us it's very often linked closely with what we love, isn't it? 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:44.200 What we value most is what we love most and what we love most is what we put our trust 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:45.200 in. 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:47.079 Now you know what I'm going with this, don't you? 00:01:47.079 --> 00:01:50.920 A preacher can't be that subtle sometimes. 00:01:50.920 --> 00:01:58.719 But we do entrust our life to what we love or what we put weight or significance, who 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:02.200 or what we put weight or significance on. 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:06.079 And you know that there's everyday trust that is important. 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:14.159 But when we move from everyday trust to ultimate trust and place ultimate trust on something 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:18.280 that really can't carry the weight of our expectation. 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:21.520 And Corrie mentioned that last week. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:28.039 Then we find that our lives begin to fall apart in many ways. 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:33.599 Because what the Bible teaches and what we've come to know as Christians, I hope and pray, 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:39.360 but what we struggle with sometimes is that only God is worthy of our ultimate trust of 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:42.680 being the most important person in our lives. 00:02:42.680 --> 00:02:51.200 The one that we entrust our lives to at kind of whole ultimate level. 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:54.080 And that's the teaching of the Bible and that's what we say as Christians and that's what 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:59.400 we teach and that's what we try to live as Christians when we put our faith and trust 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.120 in Jesus Christ. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:06.840 But what I'm going to ask the question of why is the call to trust God, which we often 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:11.960 make from here, or to give Him the glory to put it in another way, which is something 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:18.680 we find difficult, I think, to understand what it means to give someone the glory or 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:21.200 really to give first place to. 00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:24.680 Why do we find it so unpalatable? 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:27.240 You know, what is the gospel? 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:29.879 The gospel, another word for the gospel is good news. 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:31.920 It is good news, isn't it? 00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:41.640 It's great news, but when you hear that, you say, yes, it is good news, but it's not exclusively 00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:44.479 good news at one level, is it? 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:46.639 Because we find a battle. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:52.279 Usually we find good news, great and very easy to follow and to run behind. 00:03:52.279 --> 00:04:00.199 But this particular good news is a struggle for us sometimes to understand, to trust God. 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:04.159 And you may be a Christian and I have been a Christian for a long time and we still struggle 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:07.799 to trust God and to give Him His rightful place. 00:04:07.799 --> 00:04:09.759 Why is that? 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:19.920 And maybe, and I would stress that maybe I would suggest that, not explicitly, but implicitly 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:24.399 this comes through in the Psalm, which we will, I promise, go on to look at. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:26.800 But I think it's implicit in the Psalm in many ways. 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:27.800 There's two reasons. 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:30.439 The first is we can't see God, okay? 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:31.680 We can't see Him. 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:37.240 That makes it difficult for us to trust in Him because it's hard to trust in something 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:42.920 or someone that we can't see directly because we're physical beings and we're made with 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:50.800 eyes and ears and we need faith to put our trust in a person that we can't see. 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:56.180 And it's not blind faith, but it is faith and it's a gift from God and we need to be 00:04:56.180 --> 00:04:58.160 humble enough to ask for that. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.639 So I think it's sometimes difficult for us in our day-to-day living to trust God because 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:04.120 we can't see Him. 00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:06.280 That's a very simple reason maybe. 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:13.559 But I think the second reason might be is because, this is less palatable of course, 00:05:13.559 --> 00:05:15.279 is that we're sinners. 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:22.079 Fundamentally, and basically, we are hardwired as sinners at our very core to question the 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:27.399 reality of God and to question the importance of trusting in Him. 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:35.839 And we rather choose to rely on our own judgment and sometimes maybe unthinkingly replace Him 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:41.199 and give weight to someone other than God, sometimes to our own instincts, to other people, 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:46.839 to other ideas or philosophies or pleasures. 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:53.759 I mean, Romans 1.25, which I think is, I've got the verse for that on the screen, Romans 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:59.839 1.25, Paul explains that when he says, they exchanged the truth of God, about God for a 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:06.519 lie and worship and serve created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:15.439 So we tend to naturally, as sinners, gravitate towards things we can see and touch and materially 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:23.519 experience or even sense, but without God in the picture. 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:32.000 We become the creators instead of recognizing God as the creators, and we create other gods 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:35.759 for ourselves, whatever they may be. 00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:40.680 Because as I think we've mentioned recently again as well, we must worship. 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:44.399 We're all worshipers, whatever it is, we choose to worship. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:50.959 And when we take God out of the picture, we create things or people or relationships to 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:52.479 worship. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:58.520 But the problem with that is, and we see it in verse 8 of the Psalm, is that without 00:06:58.520 --> 00:07:05.720 God in the picture, without God at the core, we become like what we create. 00:07:05.720 --> 00:07:15.319 That is, we are unable to look and live and relate to God in a spiritual relationship. 00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:20.200 Verse 8 says, those, it's just spoken about idols that the people may, we'll come back 00:07:20.200 --> 00:07:21.200 to that. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:25.800 We make them, become like them, so do all who trust in them. 00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:31.680 When we trust in only the material world that we see or the relationships of people around 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:38.719 us, without God, we become like those without God in our lives. 00:07:38.719 --> 00:07:41.199 We become what we worship. 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:45.480 So the challenge of this Psalm, and I think the challenge of God's work, and the challenge 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:51.159 for us daily as Christians, if we are Christians here today, is that we're made to love God 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:55.720 we're made to be in a relationship with our Creator, the one we made, everyone, every 00:07:55.720 --> 00:08:04.080 single person who loves us, he speaks and acts into our disordered lives, and he saves 00:08:04.080 --> 00:08:13.640 us from trusting and putting ultimate faith in anything and everything that cannot carry 00:08:13.640 --> 00:08:19.560 the weight of our expectation, that cannot give us what we're looking for, satisfaction, 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:23.519 peace, eternal life, and forgiveness. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:28.720 So it's important, I think, for a few minutes to consider who God is, which is what we always 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:30.220 do, isn't it? 00:08:30.220 --> 00:08:35.279 As he's revealed in this Psalm, I think, and then why does he matter to me? 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.720 You might be here today as an inquirer, you might not be a Christian, you might have just 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.320 come along for the first time, whoever you are today. 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:47.639 I think it's a good question to ask, you know, who is God, and does he really matter to me 00:08:47.639 --> 00:08:49.360 at all in life? 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:54.879 So there's a few things in this Psalm which explain a little bit about who God is, only 00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:00.720 a little bit about who God is, but we're going to look at them and then hopefully see why 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:01.720 it's so relevant. 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:06.360 The first is in verse 15, I'm not going to go through the Psalm methodically from verse 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:09.480 one to the end, but we will be looking at the whole Psalm. 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:15.879 Verse 15 says, may you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:19.720 So it's speaking here about who God is, he's the maker of heaven and earth. 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:23.639 Now just, I know you know that, but I want you to stop and think about that for a moment, 00:09:23.639 --> 00:09:26.000 it's such a claim. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:31.320 It's an amazing claim that the Bible makes, because when we think about it, we absolutely 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:35.960 marvel at even our own human ability to create things. 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:39.159 It's mind-blowing what humanity can create. 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:42.879 You know, when I was as young as some of the kids who were up here at the front, which 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:44.279 was a long time ago. 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:51.639 I remember that when someone phoned the house, you had to go out into the hallway to the 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:58.360 one phone that was in the hallway, and the hallway was like minus 12 degrees in the winter. 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:03.159 It was freezing, and you would have to pick up this massive big heavy phone and speak in 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:06.319 the hallway because it was the only phone that was plugged in. 00:10:06.319 --> 00:10:10.000 And if you wanted to phone someone, you had to dial around numbers to get them. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:11.000 Okay. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.480 Well, it is quite long ago, but it's not that long ago when you see how much we have created 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:21.639 and progressed since then, even with regard to communications and to phones. 00:10:21.639 --> 00:10:26.879 And you young people would laugh at the concept of having to go out into a hallway or use a 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:27.879 public phone. 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:30.440 No, it's a public phone box anymore. 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:32.399 I used to have to phone my girlfriend. 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:36.440 It had to be waiting for a call in a phone box. 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:38.600 How bad was that? 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:46.680 Anyway, we have great creative abilities seen in that tiny little way, but it only speaks 00:10:46.680 --> 00:10:54.440 into this divine being who created, not a mobile phone, but the universe from nothing 00:10:54.440 --> 00:10:57.240 by the word of His mouth. 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:03.120 Outside of time Himself, outside of the creation, uncreated Himself. 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:06.639 Forget the question who created, you know, God created us, who created God. 00:11:06.639 --> 00:11:14.439 That doesn't exist because He's the uncreated one, complex yet personal, who made humanity 00:11:14.439 --> 00:11:21.360 like Him, to worship Him and love Him and even create like Him to a degree. 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:25.720 Who gave us as verse 16 says here, and if you've got your Bible, keep it open at Psalm 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:30.000 115, the heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth He has given to the children of 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:31.000 men. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:37.600 He's given us this glorious and beautiful planet out of all the planets. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:44.440 As far as we know, unique in all of the universe in its ability to sustain our lives, gloriously 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:48.399 different and beautiful, the maker of heaven and earth. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:56.759 And if we reject Him, it's catastrophic for us in terms of the world and in terms of our 00:11:56.759 --> 00:11:59.399 own lives, maker of heaven and earth. 00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:02.759 Everything is that it says He is in heaven in verse 3. 00:12:02.759 --> 00:12:06.600 Our God is in the heavens or in heaven, He does all He pleases. 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:07.879 We'll come back to that third one. 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:09.919 He is in heaven, okay? 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:15.039 That's a reminder to us as the whole Bible always reminds us that this is, this material 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:17.959 world that I've spoken about before is not all there is. 00:12:17.959 --> 00:12:20.319 There is another reality. 00:12:20.319 --> 00:12:24.559 There is a spiritual reality that is not primarily material. 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:25.559 You can't see it. 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:27.059 I can't see it. 00:12:27.059 --> 00:12:28.240 We can't measure it. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:29.799 We can't touch it. 00:12:29.799 --> 00:12:32.480 We can't even prove it empirically. 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:38.560 But it is what the Bible tells us, the place where God exists with other created beings 00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:40.200 also beyond this earth. 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:41.200 I don't know what it looks like. 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:43.360 I don't know what heaven is like. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:46.480 But we're spoken of here powerfully. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:48.279 It's invisible. 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:54.120 And we can only believe in it with the eye of faith when we believe and put our trust 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:55.120 in God. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:59.879 We're in heaven, this other world that still exists even though we can't see it. 00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:02.919 The third thing is what we read there in verse 3 as well. 00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:05.120 He does what He pleases. 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:10.440 Now, now for us, that's a disaster, isn't it? 00:13:10.440 --> 00:13:12.720 That's a disastrous verse. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:16.039 God who does what He pleases. 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:18.120 Why? 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:23.840 Because if we apply that to ourselves, we think that's a miserable trait. 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:26.120 Someone who just does what they please. 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:35.480 We really, you may be experienced someone who just is arrogant enough or uncaring enough 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:37.600 just to do whatever they please. 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:41.480 Why would we not bring up our children that have been down the front here? 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:42.639 Just, no, that's fine. 00:13:42.639 --> 00:13:44.519 Just do whatever you please. 00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:45.519 Anything. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:46.519 Just whatever you want. 00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:47.519 Just do it. 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:49.000 Why do we not think like that? 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:52.879 Why do you immediately recoil from that phrase when it speaks of God as the one who does 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:54.200 whatever He pleases? 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:59.919 Because we know when we experience either in ourselves or in others just doing what 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:08.600 we want, it just erupts characteristics within us that are unpleasant. 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:12.320 We're spoiled or selfish or greedy or proud or uncaring. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:16.759 Just it doesn't matter who it hurts or what happens, we're just going to do whatever we 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:17.759 want. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:25.399 It exposes exactly what the Bible says we are, that we're sinners and that if we do whatever 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:28.080 we want, it is catastrophic and disastrous. 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:32.919 It exposes our hearts because we make bad gods. 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:37.080 We're a bad god ourselves. 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:44.319 To take the glory to ourselves is to be the kind of people who simply do what we think 00:14:44.319 --> 00:14:46.360 is right or do what we please. 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:51.080 You know, you wouldn't want to trust someone like that, would you? 00:14:51.080 --> 00:14:54.600 We don't want to trust someone like that. 00:14:54.600 --> 00:14:59.120 Someone who's always wanting to get their own way but God, why is it different with 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:00.560 God? 00:15:00.560 --> 00:15:04.200 Because we need to stop comparing like with like. 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:10.240 We need to stop saying if this is bad in me then as a sinner, it must be a terrible trait 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:13.759 in a god who is all powerful. 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:20.480 But we can't compare like with like to this uncreated maker of heaven and earth who is 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:24.080 perfect in justice and in love. 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:30.600 Who alone is worthy of doing what he pleases because he's perfect and because he is good 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:33.720 and pure and right and loving. 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:39.639 He's all powerful but he can channel that because of his character into doing what he 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:40.960 pleases. 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:48.759 And that takes us to the core of the Psalm which is speaking about his worthiness. 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:54.000 So God it says here did, does what he chooses to do and does what pleases him. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.040 Now he could do anything. 00:15:56.040 --> 00:15:57.560 What does he do? 00:15:57.560 --> 00:15:58.800 What does he do what pleases him? 00:15:58.800 --> 00:16:03.200 Well this is book, this is, remember we've been looking at the Psalms which are split 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:04.759 into five books. 00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:12.799 So Cori last Sunday morning looked at the last Psalm of book four which was Psalm 106. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:19.319 So book five is the last section of the book of Psalms and it runs from 107 to 150. 00:16:19.319 --> 00:16:26.120 And many commentators believe it was compiled later after the people of God in the Old Testament 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:31.879 had both rebelled against God, been taken into captivity and then returned from their 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:37.279 exile back, a much smaller body of people returned back to Jerusalem. 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:44.159 So there was this whole section from Psalm 107 is much more optimistic. 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:45.759 God hadn't forgotten them. 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:50.000 God had fulfilled his promises and he had brought them back but there was much more 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:51.960 still to come. 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:56.440 And so there's a lot of praise in this last section of the Psalms. 00:16:56.440 --> 00:17:05.960 And verse Psalms 113 to 118 which is part of which Psalm 115 is in the middle. 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:13.519 They're called the Hallel Psalms, so the Hallel Ya, hallelujah, praise God Psalms. 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:19.559 So they're praise Psalms and they would, these specific ones, 113 to 118 would have been 00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:27.519 sung before the Passover celebrations which remembered God redeeming and rescuing the 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:32.079 people out of Egypt, out of slavery into the promised land. 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:34.679 And that's why they're so full of praise. 00:17:34.679 --> 00:17:41.000 Now some of the older people here and the free church people here might remember that 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:45.319 more often when we celebrated the Lord, when we celebrated the Lord's supper, we still 00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:47.319 do it actually. 00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:52.839 Just when we take communion here, we'll often, before that, we'll sing one of these Psalms, 00:17:52.839 --> 00:18:00.480 Psalm 113 to 118 because the Lord's supper is the New Testament, follow on from the Passover 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:05.960 and so there was that sense of praise as we remember the redemption that we have found 00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:07.960 in Jesus Christ. 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:14.279 So what was it in this Psalm that God is pleased to do? 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:19.319 Well, I'm going to take just one or two verses from the New Testament just to remind us and 00:18:19.319 --> 00:18:20.839 then apply it to Christ. 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:25.839 So John 3 verse 16, you all know that one, for God so loved the world, this is what it 00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:31.000 pleased him to do, that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him would 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.119 not perish but have eternal life. 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:41.240 And then in Matthew 317, his voice from heaven said, this is my son, speaking of Jesus, whom 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:44.319 I love with him, I am well pleased. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:50.680 And in the Colossians, third verse, it tells us, for God was pleased to have all his fullness 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:55.000 dwell in who, in Christ, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether things 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:00.519 on earth or things in heaven, these two, earth and heaven, by making peace through his blood 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:03.160 shed on the cross. 00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:13.519 So what we find is that God who could do whatever he wants to do chose to buy us back, chose 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:20.519 to heal, chose to come and redeem us, to save us, to bring us back into, of all the things 00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:25.360 in the universe that he could do, that's what he chose to do. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:33.559 It pleased him to send Jesus, in Christ we trust. 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:39.639 And that is at the very core of the Psalm, because in Christ we see God. 00:19:39.639 --> 00:19:41.639 You know what he says, see God's invisible? 00:19:41.639 --> 00:19:43.679 Well, in Christ we see him. 00:19:43.679 --> 00:19:47.879 So what we have in Christ is a flesh and blood God. 00:19:47.879 --> 00:19:51.279 The invisible becomes visible in Christ. 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:56.759 More than that, he becomes one of us, so this God that we find it hard to trust in reveals 00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:59.160 himself in the person with the Son, Jesus. 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:06.720 And Jesus' eyes and ears and a nose and a mouth and hands and feet, he's just like us, 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:13.279 so that we can know and understand God through Christ, because Jesus is the way back to the 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:20.119 intimacy that this people of Psalm 115 were looking for and seeing and understanding. 00:20:20.119 --> 00:20:23.759 It's the God we can see. 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:33.279 And through Christ we are opened up into this most basic of all relationships of trust that 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:38.000 we need, a trust with the living God. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:41.439 The intimacy, that's what we, that's our greatest need. 00:20:41.439 --> 00:20:48.359 It's not to create either relationships or things in which to trust to give us meaning. 00:20:48.359 --> 00:20:56.359 It is to get back into a relationship with the God who made us and the God who therefore 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:58.919 wants relationship with us who. 00:20:58.919 --> 00:21:01.439 What does He see us? 00:21:01.439 --> 00:21:08.599 He hears us, He speaks to us, He acts for us, He guides us, He walks with us in the sufferings 00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:10.959 and joys and the darkness of death. 00:21:10.959 --> 00:21:16.259 He does what nobody else and nothing else can do, which is why this Psalm speaks about 00:21:16.259 --> 00:21:21.119 idolatry in verses 3 to 8, you know, it gives these beautiful picture of the idols that 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:24.440 they made, that the people made themselves. 00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:29.680 They had eyes and noses and hands and feet, but they couldn't see or smell or speak or 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:30.680 move. 00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:33.039 And they said, how crazy was that? 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:41.799 That they made idols that they worshiped in place of God, inanimate things to live for 00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:43.279 instead of living for God. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:48.920 Now we don't, I hope we don't make the same kind of idols, but we do worship sometimes. 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:55.319 We give significance and importance to the inanimate things of life, the pleasures, the 00:21:55.319 --> 00:22:03.359 careers, the bank balance, and make that the most significant thing. 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:07.240 Or we just simply take God out of the picture and make ourselves and our relationships the 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:09.480 most significant thing. 00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:18.079 But none of these things can satisfy what we crave most as a relationship with our Creator. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:25.000 It only deepens our spiritual emptiness, makes us less human, makes us further from 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:31.920 God and further from being able to love both Him and one another as He created us to do. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:35.720 That's the significance of what Jesus has come to do. 00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:41.559 So what I want to finish with is to just go beyond the Psalm and remind ourselves that 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:49.759 Jesus sung this Psalm on the night before He was crucified as He celebrated the Passover 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:55.519 and becomes its fulfillment in His singing of the Psalm. 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:58.640 Isn't that quite remarkable? 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:05.840 The night of His crucifixion, He would have sung these words, where is their God? 00:23:05.840 --> 00:23:06.840 Verse 2. 00:23:06.840 --> 00:23:10.280 And He was saying, I'm the fulfillment of that. 00:23:10.280 --> 00:23:16.400 I'm the God that the nations mock Israel for trusting in, the invisible God that they 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:20.640 can't see so they make idols in His place. 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:28.600 And so Jesus, as He prepared for the crucifixion, was He saying something like, well today, 00:23:28.599 --> 00:23:37.199 in my body, I will smell this stench of bitter rejection and of betrayal and death. 00:23:37.199 --> 00:23:39.679 I will see the darkness. 00:23:39.679 --> 00:23:42.759 I will hear the cry, crucify Him. 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:48.639 My hands and my feet will be nailed to the cross in action. 00:23:48.639 --> 00:23:54.240 And with my voice, I will cry out to my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:59.000 Because I am taking the death and the hell my people deserve. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:02.680 He's no idol. 00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:08.359 He's no immaterial, dumb focus for us. 00:24:08.359 --> 00:24:14.559 But in His resurrection, He says, I will be their life. 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:15.559 I will be their help. 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:16.559 I will be their shield. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:18.599 I will be their redeemer. 00:24:18.599 --> 00:24:24.200 My blood covers them from the angel of spiritual death that we remember from the Passover. 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:29.319 In the Old Testament, when they put their trust in me through the penance and faith, 00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:36.080 they will know my rescuing love and my life and the spiritual intimacy with God that I 00:24:36.080 --> 00:24:38.640 was created to enjoy. 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:40.200 And I will see them. 00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:42.880 I will hear them. 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:46.480 And I will listen to them. 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:47.960 And I will speak into their lives. 00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:51.039 And I will guide them through my word which nourishes them. 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:55.119 And my hands and my feet will act on their behalf. 00:24:55.119 --> 00:24:57.720 And I will walk with them. 00:24:57.720 --> 00:25:05.359 And I will smell the offering of their lives that they give in sacrificial service to me. 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:08.599 And they will do that by faith. 00:25:08.599 --> 00:25:15.879 And all they need to do is ask for that faith to see and to trust in the living God. 00:25:15.880 --> 00:25:23.440 So we're called from the Psalm as it exposes these realities in Old Testament terminology 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:30.560 to give to God the glory and the trust and the praise today. 00:25:30.560 --> 00:25:33.960 And verse 9 says that, O Israel, trust in the Lord. 00:25:33.960 --> 00:25:36.440 He is their help and shield. 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:38.360 Trust in the Lord. 00:25:38.360 --> 00:25:39.360 Trust in the Lord. 00:25:39.360 --> 00:25:40.360 And we know that. 00:25:40.360 --> 00:25:41.360 I've said it often. 00:25:41.360 --> 00:25:42.360 We know, don't we? 00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:48.639 We're repeated in the Bible like that, it's usually because they want to be emphasized. 00:25:48.639 --> 00:25:52.199 Trust, trust, trust. 00:25:52.199 --> 00:25:56.839 Remember verse 1, why do we trust in God? 00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:59.759 It's not because He's Creator primarily. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:05.240 It's because of His steadfast love and faithfulness. 00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:10.439 His great love, steadfast love, His covenant love, His mercy. 00:26:10.440 --> 00:26:12.640 That's why He is worth trusting in. 00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:15.279 It's relational qualities. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:17.559 It's relational qualities. 00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:19.360 It's about trust. 00:26:19.360 --> 00:26:22.360 It's that great thing that Kathleen spoke about, about trust. 00:26:22.360 --> 00:26:24.039 We all do it. 00:26:24.039 --> 00:26:26.240 We're all involved in it. 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:28.720 It's whom we trust. 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:30.360 Steadfast love and faithfulness. 00:26:30.360 --> 00:26:34.400 Verses 10 and 11 again, that repeated emphasis. 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:36.320 He's their help and shield. 00:26:36.320 --> 00:26:37.320 He's their help and shield. 00:26:37.320 --> 00:26:38.680 He's their help and shield. 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:42.799 It's repeated three times for emphasis. 00:26:42.799 --> 00:26:50.120 Jesus promises to be your help and my help and our shield, our protector through sufferings 00:26:50.120 --> 00:26:53.400 and even through the valley of the shadow of death. 00:26:53.400 --> 00:26:59.480 And then in verse 13, it speaks about 12 and 13, the blessing. 00:26:59.480 --> 00:27:03.200 Now if you ever remember back to some of the earlier Psalms, we talked a lot about the 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:05.400 blessings that Psalms speak about. 00:27:05.400 --> 00:27:09.080 Just another word for true happiness, blessing. 00:27:09.080 --> 00:27:11.519 And four times he says, he will bless us. 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:14.120 He will bless the house of Aaron. 00:27:14.120 --> 00:27:18.120 He will bless those who fear the Lord, both small and great. 00:27:18.120 --> 00:27:24.640 This relational God is the one who brings the giver of life physical and spiritual. 00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:30.840 There's actually no true happiness without Him when we're separated from Him. 00:27:30.840 --> 00:27:33.120 And it's for small and great. 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:36.639 It's for anyone. 00:27:36.639 --> 00:27:40.039 God is no respecter of persons. 00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:47.839 Anyone who simply recognizes who He is and why He is so important for life and indeed 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:53.799 for eternity, because without Him we are separated and under His judgment. 00:27:53.799 --> 00:28:00.559 And lastly, as we call to give glory, it's to have a heart of praise and worship that 00:28:00.559 --> 00:28:04.519 reflects the priority we give to Him. 00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:10.399 So it finishes as many of them do in this section specifically praise the Lord. 00:28:10.399 --> 00:28:11.399 Hallelujah. 00:28:11.399 --> 00:28:16.359 Corey talked about that last week. 00:28:16.359 --> 00:28:17.759 That's what we're called to do. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:24.039 And it's compared with those who are dead who don't praise the Lord, nor do those who 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:25.279 go down into silence. 00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:30.519 Now that could speak of physical death, but I think it also speaks of being spiritually 00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:34.160 dead, where our life gives no praise to God. 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:35.160 He's insignificant. 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:36.599 He's unimportant. 00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:38.559 He's far away from the center of our lives. 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:40.559 We don't really trust in Him. 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:44.240 We are full of mistrust in Him. 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:51.200 And He says we are called to move from that place, to seek forgiveness for it, and to 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:56.279 live our lives as Christians, we are called to live our lives in such a way that gives 00:28:56.279 --> 00:28:58.960 God the glory and the praise. 00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:03.160 That's a real challenge to me today. 00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:06.319 I hope that's a challenge to you as well, not just this hour that we're together, but 00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:11.920 our lives that our lives give praise and glory to God. 00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:20.480 And we can say, hallelujah, as we bless the Lord for what He's done for us. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:24.960 His love is so great, and it changes us. 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:28.279 That's really the only motive for living. 00:29:28.279 --> 00:29:29.920 You know, we're driven a lot by guilt, aren't we? 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:31.240 We're driven a lot by fear. 00:29:31.240 --> 00:29:32.240 We're driven a lot by duty. 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:38.079 But actually it's a changed heart is the only one that will enable us to share what we have 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:39.680 and live for His glory. 00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:43.720 So we're always praying, always praying for a changed heart. 00:29:43.720 --> 00:29:44.720 Amen. 00:29:44.720 --> 00:29:50.680 And we pray that God will bless that thought from Psalm 115 to us all, and go home and read 00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:53.839 it again, read it afresh, read it with your Bibles with you. 00:29:53.839 --> 00:29:54.839 We do have Bibles at the back. 00:29:54.839 --> 00:29:56.880 We've started using the Bibles at the back again. 00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:16.440 We do take them up and look through it as we speak through it and preach it.