WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.799 Okay, so this series is entitled Songs for Life, because what we want to do above anything 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:13.599 else is to remind ourselves that this is the Word of God, that it's a living Word. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:17.620 It remains relevant even though it was written thousands and thousands of years ago. 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:22.320 And even when there's things we find difficult to understand, even sometimes from the Hebrew 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:29.240 poetry and the way it's written, then we hope to bring it to life for us. 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:36.199 I guess this would be a gauge of how many times anyone ever reads the Wednesday email. 00:00:36.199 --> 00:00:43.439 But the Wednesday email this last week had a link to the Bible project, which is a tremendous 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:52.439 resource for giving you a summary, a visual summary in drawings, beautifully done, of 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:54.719 all the books in the Bible. 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:58.159 And there was a link, if you want to look back to that, or if you just want to go online 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:01.479 and type in the Bible project, SAMS. 00:01:01.479 --> 00:01:07.719 And it will give you a six-minute summary of the whole book of SAMS, which is very helpful 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:11.879 and is beautifully done. 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:17.920 And that might give you a much, much better and more succinct introduction to the whole 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:22.879 book than I could give today, because I'm really going to focus on these two SAMS because 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:31.759 they really reflect much of the thinking and the themes of the whole book of SAMS, indeed 00:01:31.759 --> 00:01:34.599 the whole of the Bible. 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:41.399 And I'm going to ask the question, where do you find true happiness in life's battles? 00:01:41.399 --> 00:01:44.399 Now that is a question that we all face. 00:01:44.399 --> 00:01:46.199 It's something we all wrestle with. 00:01:46.199 --> 00:01:52.399 It's something you're all looking for, and I'm looking for, is true happiness in life, 00:01:52.400 --> 00:02:01.120 literally when we find that difficult to understand and achieve in life's battles. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.560 What is the song of your life? 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:07.000 If you could describe your life as a song, what would it be? 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:13.040 Both in the good times, which we like, and in the bad times, what would be the characteristic 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:14.040 of your life? 00:02:14.040 --> 00:02:19.000 How do you respond and reflect to these times? 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:20.759 How do we find true happiness? 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:22.359 Now if I was to ask that to the... 00:02:22.359 --> 00:02:24.519 You know, if you ask a... 00:02:24.519 --> 00:02:30.239 Doesn't matter what kind of question in a children's top context, that you ask the 00:02:30.239 --> 00:02:35.799 kids, you ask what the answer to the question is, they always say, Jesus. 00:02:35.799 --> 00:02:38.000 Even if it's just an answer, what did you do last... 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.879 Or whatever, I don't know what it would be. 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:41.799 But usually you get the answer, Jesus. 00:02:41.799 --> 00:02:43.280 Well, you know, they're right, aren't they? 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:50.879 Get out the mouths of babes and children, because the answer to finding true happiness 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:55.800 is God, and through His Son, Jesus Christ. 00:02:55.800 --> 00:02:57.159 Absolutely right. 00:02:57.159 --> 00:02:58.719 And that's what we've got. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:05.879 And I don't mean that in a trite way, or in a thoughtless way, or in an easy way. 00:03:05.879 --> 00:03:09.920 But if we don't recognize that, it will be very difficult for us to partake in the Lord's 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:16.519 supper that we're taking today, because it's an acknowledgement that that is the case in 00:03:16.519 --> 00:03:19.319 our lives, in the good and in the battles that we face. 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:25.719 So really the theme of this sermon is blessing, or being blessed, because the two Psalms are 00:03:25.719 --> 00:03:28.199 sandwiched with that word. 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:32.339 It begins, blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, and it finishes 00:03:32.339 --> 00:03:36.159 with in Psalm 2, salvation belongs to the Lord. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.639 Your blessing be on your people. 00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:43.439 And it's this whole idea of being blessed. 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:48.439 True, that word biblically just means happiness, sometimes translated happiness. 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:55.199 Now we sometimes, happiness, it's kind of a maybe a shallow word for us in our context, 00:03:55.199 --> 00:04:01.119 but it wasn't the case, blessed is really the Bible word for true happiness. 00:04:01.119 --> 00:04:06.319 And when it says blessed, it doesn't mean an emotional state. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:11.919 It doesn't just mean a response to good things that happen. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:13.919 It's a state of being. 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:15.359 It's what we are from the inside. 00:04:15.359 --> 00:04:21.519 It's not a reaction primarily to an external event, something that makes us happy. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:22.959 You know, something that makes us smile. 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:26.279 It's an internal experience. 00:04:26.279 --> 00:04:27.959 It's an inner restfulness. 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:28.959 It's a peace. 00:04:28.959 --> 00:04:30.879 It's a shalom. 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:35.879 It's that desire that we have that all is good in my world. 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:38.920 This is being done right is happening. 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:42.199 I'm loved and I'm loving others. 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:45.920 And in my heart, everything is going well. 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:49.000 It's life, isn't it? 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:54.560 Life to the full, that's how we would describe blessedness. 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:57.519 Both internally, blessed. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:04:59.519 In the company we have, blessed. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.480 And in the environment in which we live, blessed. 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:08.879 Long to distract or take away no hatred, no evil, no darkness. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:11.680 And that's unrealistic, isn't it? 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:20.400 We might have tasted it, but you may be confused and I'm confused because it seems so aspirational. 00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:23.800 You know, it's what we'd love to be, but it's never our experience. 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:25.920 It's always snatched away from us. 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:33.160 There's always something that takes away that true, deep happiness, that blessedness. 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:38.080 But let's go a bit, let's peel it back a little bit more. 00:05:38.080 --> 00:05:41.000 Where does that desire come from within us? 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:47.160 Where's that concept of true happiness that we strive for that we often don't find in 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:48.160 this world? 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:49.160 Where does it come? 00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:51.759 Where is that unfulfilled longing that we have? 00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:55.600 Where does it come from? 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:59.480 It comes from the character of God Himself. 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:06.120 Because if we're looking at blessedness, the most blessed person in the universe is the 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.280 living God. 00:06:08.280 --> 00:06:12.760 Internally completely and utterly blessed. 00:06:12.760 --> 00:06:17.960 Completely at rest, content, totally good, totally happy. 00:06:17.960 --> 00:06:21.920 You don't think of God as totally happy, do you? 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:25.560 Do any of us ever think of God as the most happy being? 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:31.959 Being in the universe, full of joy, full of love, full of perfect holiness and justice 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:34.199 fused together in that happiness? 00:06:34.199 --> 00:06:36.959 Now for us that's incomprehensible. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:43.399 A God who is both holy and happy, we can't really comprehend that fusion of characteristics 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:44.840 within His heart. 00:06:44.840 --> 00:06:52.040 Can I just say even in His wrath, He is blessed, He is completely happy? 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:58.319 Why, how can we wrestle with that concept because His wrath is not reactive, it's not 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:04.760 capricious, it's not malevolent, it's not just bad temper that He throws out and disturbs 00:07:04.760 --> 00:07:06.600 His being. 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:13.160 It's His settled response to evil, to hatred and to injustice. 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:15.400 And that's a good thing. 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:22.799 It's a good thing that He has settled in His opposition to evil and darkness and that 00:07:22.799 --> 00:07:31.519 is why He can be blessed and happy because He knows it will be dealt with by Him. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:36.279 That all wrongdoing will not, no wrongdoing will go unpunished. 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:37.279 That's good. 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:39.079 That's a good thing. 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:41.519 And now we all agree with that. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:49.319 We all agree, we've seen it a lot in the press this week in judgments that have come out. 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:54.680 We all think it's a good thing that wrongdoing does not go unpunished. 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:57.159 We all agree. 00:07:57.159 --> 00:08:00.759 Sometimes we don't agree with the standard. 00:08:00.759 --> 00:08:07.759 We don't agree with the fact that God is the one who also judges us. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:12.839 We like the idea of God judging all evil and all wrongdoing, but we don't like the idea 00:08:12.839 --> 00:08:20.120 of His look piercing our hearts because He says that we fall short. 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:25.839 We don't like the idea of us being in the dock of God's righteous judgment and wrath. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.039 We hate that naturally. 00:08:28.039 --> 00:08:31.399 We recoil from that naturally. 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:36.879 And we deny that that can possibly be the way to true happiness, to believe that kind 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:38.960 of truth. 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:46.200 We can't think in our own minds and hearts that it's impossible to be blessed without 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:48.439 God, without knowing God. 00:08:48.439 --> 00:08:55.399 But can we listen to what God says here and why it's so important to come to terms with 00:08:55.399 --> 00:08:59.000 how He reveals Himself in this way? 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.519 Because Sam 1 describes the path that we are on, and it uses pictures. 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:08.720 I love that, that it uses pictures. 00:09:08.720 --> 00:09:12.600 When Thomas was here, he was great at using the screens, and he was very visual. 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:18.279 I'm not visual that way, but I'm visual imaginatively, and so is... 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:20.399 That's how often the Bible speaks to us. 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:23.480 It uses metaphors and pictures. 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:27.279 And so here it speaks about the path of life that you're on. 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:32.079 You know, blessed man who walks not, who stands nor sits. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:37.200 And it's speaking about a trajectory, whether you're walking or sitting or standing on one 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:38.200 way. 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:42.639 Then he uses the picture of a tree, a fruitful tree planted by water. 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:48.000 Now we know that image, we know that picture from our discipleship model that we seek to 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:49.560 follow. 00:09:49.560 --> 00:09:55.160 And then he uses a third picture of the chaff, which the wind drives away. 00:09:55.160 --> 00:10:00.680 That is the husks of the corn or the wheat, which when the wheat is thrown up in the air 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:06.599 and the wind catches it, the chaff, the light chaff, the husk of the corn and the wheat 00:10:06.599 --> 00:10:09.919 is blown away by the wind. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:10.919 And it's using... 00:10:10.919 --> 00:10:17.439 God is using there a picture of blessing and not blessing, the path that you're on in 00:10:17.439 --> 00:10:18.439 life. 00:10:18.439 --> 00:10:22.279 And it's either with God in our hearts or it's without God in our hearts. 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:28.759 And that is really the theme of what is really the whole of the Bible, isn't it? 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:37.960 With God in our hearts, the one who walks and delights in the law of God, that is his 00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:39.480 code and his standard. 00:10:39.480 --> 00:10:44.000 We delight in that law of love, loving God and loving your neighbor. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.399 Hey, we all live by codes. 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:49.319 We all live by standards, don't we? 00:10:49.319 --> 00:10:51.480 All of us do that. 00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:58.639 But this is those who delight in God's law and code and standard, his worship, his ethics, 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:01.199 his morality, his character traits. 00:11:01.199 --> 00:11:02.199 They are good. 00:11:02.199 --> 00:11:08.319 We've come to know that through putting our faith and trust in Jesus. 00:11:08.319 --> 00:11:15.360 The whole direction of our life as believers is towards God, in Christ, knowing His companionship, 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:20.919 walking with Him, standing with Him, sitting with Him, knowing that on this path the best 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:22.480 is still to come. 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:28.840 That's really the path of blessing that's been spoken of here. 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:32.920 The question is, who is it that we are walking with? 00:11:32.920 --> 00:11:35.960 Who is it that we delight in? 00:11:35.960 --> 00:11:40.120 What are you looking to for true happiness? 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:46.320 God says, you never find it without Him at the core. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:53.240 And He speaks about that in the direction of your path of life, the way you're walking 00:11:53.240 --> 00:11:56.160 is God in your heart. 00:11:56.160 --> 00:12:01.440 That is the way of blessing because it also contrasts that living without God in your 00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:07.440 heart, the chaff, the picture of something different altogether. 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:14.840 Now we can still be in church but not have God in our heart. 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:19.840 We can be moral and upright and good by the standards of the world but not have God in 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:20.840 our heart. 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:24.399 Is He in our thinking and our desires? 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:29.160 Or if we were utterly, if you were utterly honest and I was utterly honest, are we on 00:12:29.160 --> 00:12:30.480 the run from God? 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:33.840 Are you a fugitive from His justice? 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:35.840 You hate the talk of sin. 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:37.720 Oh, not again. 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:40.400 You can't stand the concept of His judgment. 00:12:40.400 --> 00:12:44.340 You wince reading a Psalm, particularly maybe Psalm 2 here. 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:48.879 You don't like His gaze, the pure, perfect, holy gaze. 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:53.960 So you deflect and you avoid and you laugh it off and you mock even sometimes. 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:59.440 I hope I don't think anyone here mocks but sometimes we know that, don't we? 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:09.440 People who mock about the living God and who scoff as it's spoken of here, His truth, 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:14.640 His back is turned away from God in the very root of your being. 00:13:14.640 --> 00:13:21.320 If you're utterly and completely honest, God is nowhere. 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:24.760 Maybe it's the difference of where you put the gap. 00:13:24.760 --> 00:13:32.120 Is God now here in your life and heart or is God nowhere? 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:35.080 Nowhere, really, that you're not in relationship with Him. 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:36.080 You're not asking Him. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:37.400 You're not talking with Him. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:41.600 You're not praying to Him. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:49.319 And that's the condition of every single person who doesn't take God at His word about Himself 00:13:49.319 --> 00:13:52.759 and about themselves. 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:56.519 And that way can seem, and it can be a real struggle for us because that way can seem 00:13:56.519 --> 00:13:59.600 like a really secure path. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:06.639 You know, the sinners are standing and sitting and it seems quite a secure way as well. 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:07.639 It's popular. 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:08.639 It's quite easy. 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:12.759 We don't need to think too hard and wrestle with the problems of illness and darkness 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:16.639 and difficulty in the same way. 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:25.600 But in the light of God's justice, everyone will give account and will stand before Him. 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:31.240 And that day, it's interesting, Hebrew uses a lot of parallelism in the poetry. 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:35.279 So there's things that parallel each other at different points. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:36.600 I'm going to mention it. 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:41.759 It talks about sitting in the way of sinners and standing in the way of sinners and sitting 00:14:41.759 --> 00:14:44.279 in the seat of scoffers. 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:46.679 And then it talks later on about the wicked. 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:52.199 They won't stand in the day of judgment, nor will they sit in the congregation of the 00:14:52.199 --> 00:14:53.199 righteous. 00:14:53.199 --> 00:14:57.399 So it uses a kind of parallelism there that while they think that they're secure and they're 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:02.360 standing and sitting in their life, it's when it comes to their relationship with God, they'll 00:15:02.360 --> 00:15:03.799 not be able to sit with Him. 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:06.199 They'll not be able to stand in His presence. 00:15:06.199 --> 00:15:10.079 And there is no true happiness there. 00:15:10.079 --> 00:15:12.079 It's the way of chaff. 00:15:12.079 --> 00:15:16.519 It will be blown away and lose connection because the chaff, you know what the chaff, 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:23.439 it loses connection, doesn't it, with the fruitfulness of the corn or the wheat and the usefulness 00:15:23.439 --> 00:15:28.359 of that and it's blown away, no true happiness. 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:37.399 So Sam 1 speaks about the path of life we're on and how that brings blessing. 00:15:37.399 --> 00:15:42.039 The second Sam is about where you find shelter. 00:15:42.039 --> 00:15:47.480 It finishes with these words, blessed are those who take refuge in Him. 00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:57.379 And that's really just an image of finding your trust and security in someone more powerful 00:15:57.379 --> 00:15:58.379 than you. 00:15:58.379 --> 00:16:06.519 It's a power Sam, this one, because it speaks all about the different power brokers of the 00:16:06.519 --> 00:16:11.720 day, you know, the nations, the kingdoms, the rulers, and it says, where is your trust? 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:19.879 What is it that is sovereign, kingly, powerful in your life in which you're looking to give 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:21.279 you true happiness? 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:22.519 What is it? 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:25.039 What is the sovereign reality of your life? 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:26.039 Who holds it? 00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:31.199 Where is the power vested in your life that you're looking for happiness in? 00:16:31.199 --> 00:16:32.199 Is it in yourself? 00:16:32.199 --> 00:16:38.279 Do you hold the sovereignty of your own life thinking, yeah, I'm the one who can find happiness 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:39.279 my way? 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:43.879 How's that working out for any of us? 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:45.879 Is it in money? 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:46.879 Really? 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:51.000 Even the Beatles recognized that that wasn't the case. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:53.000 Money can't buy you love. 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:55.519 Is it influence? 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:56.960 Are we that influential? 00:16:56.960 --> 00:16:57.960 Does it make that much difference? 00:16:57.960 --> 00:16:59.460 Is it a cause? 00:16:59.460 --> 00:17:00.460 Which one? 00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:01.460 You know, take our pick. 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:02.460 Is it a philosophy? 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:03.460 Who's? 00:17:03.460 --> 00:17:10.559 TikTok, Instagram, the academy, the street wisdom, politics, pleasure? 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:12.039 Is it ever enough? 00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:14.519 Does it satisfy us? 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:19.079 Whatever it is, whatever power politics is in our life that we're looking to for true 00:17:19.079 --> 00:17:22.279 happiness, where is it that we are resting? 00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:24.379 Where is it we are finding refuge? 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:26.560 In whom are we trusting? 00:17:26.560 --> 00:17:33.360 Because this psalm speaks about, and this is a really, it is a terrible psalm for a 00:17:33.360 --> 00:17:40.320 twenty-first century Western person to read, because it speaks about the incomparable God. 00:17:40.320 --> 00:17:47.120 And it says He's all powerful, and He is all authority, and He laughs at the nations because 00:17:47.120 --> 00:17:52.520 of the miserable attempt they have to rest power from Him. 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:55.639 He's the sovereign judge, He's to be feared. 00:17:55.639 --> 00:18:01.599 And He speaks about the destructive power of His wrath that sin will not go unpunished. 00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:07.799 He compares Himself to the symbols of power back in His day, whom mock God as we saw in 00:18:07.799 --> 00:18:08.799 Psalm 1. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:16.279 And it's what He's trying to do, and He's using humor in a sense, and He's using divine 00:18:16.279 --> 00:18:26.839 sarcasm if I can use that phrase again, and parallelism to compare Himself with these 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:29.839 gods. 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:37.200 He's saying they, and Psalm 1, He says that they sit in the seat of scoffers or of mockers, 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:42.639 and then He and Psalm 2, basically, is in verse 4. 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:47.080 Somebody says He who sits in heaven laughs. 00:18:47.080 --> 00:18:51.320 So He's in the position of sitting, and He is mocking. 00:18:51.320 --> 00:18:55.520 And it's provocative language. 00:18:55.520 --> 00:19:02.080 In a sense, He's trying to get across the idea of a tiny grain of sand walking up to 00:19:02.080 --> 00:19:06.160 Mount Everest and saying, come on then, you know, give us a fight. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:11.960 You know, it's a ridiculous concept of the massive power of Mount Everest and a tiny 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:14.960 grain of sand times a billion. 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:20.480 And He's saying, who are you to mock this great God? 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:22.440 And it is intended to shock. 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:30.480 It clearly is, as He speaks about who He is and the vanity of trying the world and His 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:35.960 own people trying to find happiness away from Him. 00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:41.360 Now I hope you recoil a little bit from that model of that picture of God. 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:48.719 I think we do, because if we thought that was the end of the picture, that is a glorious 00:19:48.719 --> 00:19:56.279 and scary prospect and the reality of a God whose vengeance as a sword bearing God we 00:19:56.279 --> 00:19:59.439 avoid and we don't ever like to talk about. 00:19:59.439 --> 00:20:03.479 To grasp that is unfathomable for us. 00:20:03.479 --> 00:20:08.919 And we, maybe as Christians, maybe as preachers, we just tend to avoid that holy Rebbe, because 00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:12.600 well, that can't possibly talk about that today. 00:20:12.600 --> 00:20:16.240 Why can we talk about that? 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:21.560 Why can we speak about this incomparable great God? 00:20:21.560 --> 00:20:22.560 Why? 00:20:22.560 --> 00:20:29.440 Because this incomparable God is also the fugitive King. 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:37.240 This glorious God is also God the Son to whom Sam too is pointing forward. 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:40.680 God the Son who takes on flesh. 00:20:40.680 --> 00:20:49.440 Because this just God, this holy God is also the God of unparalleled love who takes on 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:50.440 flesh. 00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:54.680 Now if we look at, there's a couple of verses I think I've put up there. 00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:58.759 Can you put up the first verse? 00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:00.759 Yeah. 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:09.240 Okay, so Hebrews 1 verse 5 is taken from Sam 2 verse 7, so it's a direct quote from the 00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:15.759 Sam and the Hebrew, the writer to the Hebrew saying, for which of the angels, speaking 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:19.359 about Jesus, did God ever say, you are my Son, today I've begotten you, it's taken from 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:20.480 verse 7 of Sam 2. 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:23.519 Or again, I will be a Father, He shall be my Son. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:28.160 And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, let God's might angels worship 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:29.160 Him. 00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:36.800 So He's taking this Sam, where He's speaking about His glory and power and wrath and authority, 00:21:36.800 --> 00:21:41.960 and He is applying it to His Son Jesus Christ. 00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:49.600 And then in Acts 4, oh sorry, Hebrews 5, Hebrews 5, 5, the next one, can we put the next one 00:21:49.600 --> 00:21:50.600 up? 00:21:50.600 --> 00:21:55.200 So also Christ did not exalt Himself to be in the high priest, but was appointed by Him 00:21:55.200 --> 00:21:57.440 who said to Him, you're my Son. 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.559 Today I have begotten you. 00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:00.559 That's the same verse. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:06.920 He's speaking about Jesus, you're a priest forever, according to the Order of Melchizedek. 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:15.559 And so we recognize that this incomparable God is Jesus Christ who becomes the scapegoat 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:23.519 and who takes on flesh and who Himself is mocked in the seat of judgment and is nailed 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:25.320 to a cross. 00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:31.079 And we see that same thing in the next verse that we have in Acts 4 where Peter is speaking 00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:33.919 about the release of Peter and John. 00:22:33.919 --> 00:22:37.480 They went to their friends and reported to his chief priests and elders, said to them, 00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:40.519 and when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign 00:22:40.519 --> 00:22:47.879 Lord who made the earth and the sea and everything in it, who through whom the mouth of our Father, 00:22:47.879 --> 00:22:52.119 David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's 00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:58.919 plot in vain, and the next slide, the kings of the earth set themselves and rulers are 00:22:58.919 --> 00:23:01.639 gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed. 00:23:01.639 --> 00:23:05.399 For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom 00:23:05.399 --> 00:23:07.639 He anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate. 00:23:07.639 --> 00:23:09.199 You see the link? 00:23:09.199 --> 00:23:15.119 The link there between the rulers of Jesus day, Herod and Pontius Pilate, they set themselves 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:17.719 up against God. 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:23.519 The Caesar ultimately would have been the one who people worshiped and yet they set themselves 00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:25.240 up against the Lord anointed. 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:32.279 And so we have the sovereign king and Lord and glorious, wrathful, vengeful, perfect 00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:36.600 God nailed to a cross. 00:23:36.600 --> 00:23:43.200 When nobody, nobody sent him there but his own desire and love for us. 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:53.840 Took all the dark forces that conspired against him, dies as a fugitive, dies as a scapegoat, 00:23:53.840 --> 00:24:06.039 mocked as unrevealed in order that we can celebrate the Lord's Supper today as believers, 00:24:06.039 --> 00:24:13.480 as those who have been saved by His grace and who can know true happiness because our 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:21.119 sin has been dealt with and all the wrong desires that we sometimes channel into finding 00:24:21.119 --> 00:24:26.200 happiness, find our fulfillment in Jesus Christ. 00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:31.279 Share imaginable love for you and I want you to remember that because it says at the end 00:24:31.279 --> 00:24:36.519 of Psalm 1, you know, that those who are sinners will not stand in the congregation 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:37.759 of the righteous. 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:42.480 Now that might sound an arrogant thing to say we're righteous, wouldn't it? 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:46.119 And people who are not Christians sometimes think that's what we think about ourselves. 00:24:46.119 --> 00:24:48.879 No, we're better than other people. 00:24:48.879 --> 00:24:53.519 The only way we can claim righteousness is when we are covered in His. 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:55.559 That's the glory of the gospel. 00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:57.920 That's the glory of the message. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:00.559 He is our righteousness and we, we come to Him. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:02.639 And that is my encouragement to you today. 00:25:02.639 --> 00:25:11.119 The only place to find true happiness because this Psalm speaks about power, the power to 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:16.480 give us happiness, and it speaks about the path of happiness, these two Psalms. 00:25:16.480 --> 00:25:24.119 There's only one person that has the power to give you true happiness in your life today, 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:30.240 in my life, in all its battles and struggles and questions and fears and doubts and tiredness. 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:36.160 The only place you can go today as a believer, I want to remind you of this as I remind myself 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:38.960 is the foot of the cross. 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:45.839 To find that shelter, that refuge, that safety, that belonging, that relationship, that eternal 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:48.039 life, that's where you find it. 00:25:48.039 --> 00:25:55.880 When you entrust your life, take refuge in the blessed one and you become blessed. 00:25:55.880 --> 00:26:03.080 And you walk in the path of Jesus and no blessing because of that. 00:26:03.080 --> 00:26:08.640 And the transformation that a life in relationship with Him brings, it doesn't mean that life 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:12.240 is easy, we know that. 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:20.280 But we're asked to delight in His law of love, even in the darkest of days, and delight in 00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:27.079 loving one another to breathe the air of His company in the good times and in the challenges. 00:26:27.079 --> 00:26:31.279 We all need His shelter, you know that? 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:38.879 We all come today needing His shelter, needing His trust, needing to trust in Him, needing 00:26:38.879 --> 00:26:47.160 His love, needing that happiness, that state of heart that even in our tears He can bring 00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:48.960 us. 00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:52.559 Paul says in Romans 8, I think the quote is here on the screen. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:57.559 For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor 00:26:57.559 --> 00:27:02.039 things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be 00:27:02.039 --> 00:27:05.640 able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:08.759 That is a song of life. 00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:11.279 That is a song of true happiness. 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:16.759 And I'm asking the question of myself and I hope you're asking of yourself, what's the 00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:22.160 theme of the song of your life, the direction of your life? 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:27.039 When people ask, is it to Jesus Christ that you give the praise and the glory for the 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:29.759 blessing of your life? 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:33.599 And I just finished with a question about your prayer life and my prayer life. 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:35.960 What is it like? 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:38.839 What is your prayer life like? 00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:49.639 Is it coming to a safe place, a place of love and warmth and forgiveness and urgency and 00:27:49.639 --> 00:27:50.639 need? 00:27:50.639 --> 00:27:54.879 Is that what your prayer life is like? 00:27:54.879 --> 00:28:02.559 If you could visualize it, would it be like running to a rescue shelter for protection, 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:05.359 for security, for forgiveness, for hope? 00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:12.079 That's really what our prayer life should be, running into a rescue shelter. 00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:16.519 Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him. 00:28:16.519 --> 00:28:25.119 Or is your prayer life unmind more like talking on the phone to someone you don't really know? 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:30.719 No real relationship, maybe complaining about the service that you're getting or maybe 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:36.559 talking to a distant relative who you get in contact with once in a while but who has 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:42.400 no impact on your day-to-day living. 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:47.920 I think that reflects, will often reflect as we look at our own prayer lives, where 00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:53.960 our trust lies and where we are looking for true happiness from. 00:28:53.960 --> 00:29:06.559 As we find physical, spiritual, emotional, mental happiness, that state of mind when 00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:10.279 we are right with God through Jesus Christ. 00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:18.120 I hope that that is a challenge and an encouragement and a blessing for us as we participate in 00:29:18.120 --> 00:29:20.400 the Lord's Supper. 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:21.400 Let's pray. 00:29:21.400 --> 00:29:25.480 Father God, help us to see You and know You better. 00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:31.080 Help us to be blessed not because of anything we are in ourselves. 00:29:31.080 --> 00:29:38.160 Help us to even take the blessings that You showered on us just without us even asking. 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:45.200 And may we look to the giver and find the source of that blessing, life, happiness, laughter, 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:49.840 joy, strength, courage, boldness, all these things, even if we are not Christians here 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:58.000 today, find these things that He still gives us, to encourage us to seek after the greatest 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:07.959 of all gifts, salvation in Jesus and to come out from that place of judgment and vengeance 00:30:07.959 --> 00:30:15.559 and just wrath, which no one will be able to stand against on that great day. 00:30:15.559 --> 00:30:23.039 Remind us of the solemnity of that in our arrogance sometimes, in our self-reliance, in the poverty 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:25.599 of our strength. 00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:31.639 May we find Your love and grace more than sufficient for us as You took all the wrath 00:30:31.639 --> 00:30:37.200 and took all, internalized all the judgment on Yourself on the cross because You loved 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:40.839 us so much and provided the way. 00:30:40.839 --> 00:30:46.839 Amen.