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. 00:01:07.759 --> 00:01:14.319 If you're standing, please just bow your heads in prayer. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:22.319 Father, we give you thanks and praise that all of our longings and yearnings 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:30.479 things ultimately come home to you. We give you thanks and praise, Father, that you desire us to 00:01:30.479 --> 00:01:35.599 know you. You desire to satisfy the longings and yearnings and desires of our hearts. 00:01:36.479 --> 00:01:41.679 We give you thanks and praise, Father, that you not only want to awaken and fan into flame within 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:48.320 us deep and true longings and yearnings, but that you will also, Father, shut down and reorder those 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:54.160 of our longings and yearnings that are disordered. But Father, we ask that you fan into flame within 00:01:54.160 --> 00:01:59.040 us a deep longing and yearning for you. Lead us and guide us into all truth, we ask in the name of 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:02.640 Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:11.599 So, I don't know, maybe a year or something ago, I was talking to a young friend, and this young 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:19.280 friend hadn't seen his father in a couple of years for a variety of reasons. And he had just seen his 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:25.280 father and was shocked to discover that his father very clearly had Alzheimer's or some other form of 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:32.719 dementia, sufficiently advanced. I mean, the father still recognized the young man, but sufficiently 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:37.759 advanced he couldn't drive and everything like that. And there's still going to be other types of 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:46.400 conversations around people who suffer from this. And we were talking back and forward. He was asking 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:51.520 me a little bit about Alzheimer's and all. He's not a Christian. He knows I'm a pastor, and we've had 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:57.600 lots of conversations about the Christian faith. And in the course of it, you know, he mentioned, 00:02:57.600 --> 00:03:03.920 you know, now I'm, you know, my mom and I are looking into it. Now we discover there's things 00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:08.960 that you can do that might postpone getting Alzheimer's, like things that my dad never did, 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:18.000 like exercise, like get his hearing checked, like eating better food, like using things to keep his mind 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:23.199 active, like being social. And he went through a whole list of things that he said, now we know. 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:28.560 And he said, like, who knew? That's what he said. Who knew those things in advance? And I thought, 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:34.319 well, maybe it's because I'm old. I know those things actually. And my mom has Alzheimer's, had 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:39.920 Alzheimer's actually, so I'm conscious of it. And anyway, but he said, who knew? Who knew that those 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:44.240 things were actually important? It could make a really big difference in your quality of life. 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:50.719 The psalm that we're going to be looking at today is one of those who knew psalms. It talks about 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:54.240 four types, more than that, but I'm just going to look at, it talks about lots and lots of things. 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:59.760 It's a big, sprawling psalm that would be, if you ever wanted to go away for a, you know, 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:03.520 a weekend or something, you could probably just spend the whole weekend on the psalm because it's 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:14.080 so sprawling. But it touches on some things that really do make a difference in the life that God 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:18.960 intends for you to have, for all human beings to have. And rather than having to wait until 00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:23.199 it's way too late and say, who knew? I'm going to tell you. The Bible tells you. We tell you 00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:27.759 different things like this in the same weeks. It's going to talk about something which is 00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:36.639 counter-cultural in terms of it's not something, so one of the things I try to do when I'm working 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:41.759 on the sermon is I try to imagine if I have a couple of people who ask me on a Friday, let's say, 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:46.800 what my sermon was going to be about. And they're all people, well, way very outside the Christian 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:53.120 faith. Although all of them to a small amount have become a bit Christ-curious. And so I try to think 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:58.240 of something I could say that would make them be interested in it. But what the first and biggest 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:04.719 thing in this psalm is talking about something that basically no Canadian thinks they have any interest 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:11.600 in. Like to be honest, the need to praise the triune God, nobody has that. The average Canadian would say, 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:16.720 I need that like a fish needs a bicycle. But I'm going to try to show you that's the very first of 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:22.080 several things. It's a type of need, a longing, a yearning that is really important for human 00:05:22.080 --> 00:05:27.680 flourishing and growth. So if you would get your Bibles out and turn to Psalm 145. 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:34.000 Parts of the psalm I'm going to camp out on for a while and other parts I'm just going to read 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:39.840 through relatively quickly. But here's how it begins. And just before I begin, 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:50.720 if you ever talk to Jewish people about things in the psalms, you'll sometimes discover that their 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:56.960 Bibles have different verse numbers than our psalms do. So if you just look at this, I don't know if it's 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:02.799 going to be up on the screen, but this is one of those psalms that has a thing at the top that says 00:06:02.799 --> 00:06:08.479 something like, in this one in case, it's a song of praise of David. And sort of in the Jewish Bible, 00:06:08.479 --> 00:06:14.560 that would be verse one. And so what our verse one is, which is, I will extol you my God and King 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:18.959 and bless your name forever and ever, that would be in their Bible verse two. That's why sometimes 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:25.279 Jewish Old Testament, Jewish psalms have one more number than your Bible. So I'll just mention 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:31.759 that in case you have a wonderful opportunity to talk to a Jewish friend or acquaintance about the 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:37.119 Christian faith. But we see here, it's a Psalm of David. And the thing, one of the things which 00:06:37.119 --> 00:06:44.079 you can't notice in this is it's an acrostic psalm. So there are 22 consonants in the Hebrew language, 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:53.039 and each one of the two lines verses begins with the letter. So it's just how, if you have young 00:06:53.039 --> 00:06:57.519 kids, you want to teach them the ABCs. I don't know if they would have used a Psalm like this to help 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:03.680 teach Jewish kids their equivalents of the ABCs, but that's what this Psalm is like. And that's sort 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:10.959 of interesting to know because on one hand, it's also, on one hand, like the Psalm is like shooting 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:17.840 off in lots of different directions on one level. But on the other level, it's trying to say this is 00:07:17.840 --> 00:07:24.960 part of the fundamental grammar and nature of what speech should be like. Like this is the ABCs 00:07:25.840 --> 00:07:30.720 of speech and what your tongue and your mind and your heart and your longings and yearnings are for. 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:35.120 Anyway, let's go. First, we're going to spend longer on the first bit and then a bit shorter 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:41.080 as we go along. But it begins like this. I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name 00:07:41.080 --> 00:07:46.340 forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the 00:07:46.340 --> 00:07:53.200 Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable or unfathomable. And the word extol 00:07:53.200 --> 00:07:56.560 in verse one, that's just one of those hundred dollar words. It just means really, really, 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:03.040 really, really, highly praise. That's what it means. So a superlative praise. And I will extol 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.280 you, my God and King, and will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you 00:08:07.280 --> 00:08:12.800 and praise your name forever and ever. And it's very interesting here. The first thing that's, 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:18.240 there's lots of things that are interesting about this, just to camp on. David is the King of Israel. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:27.680 Israel. And for traditional and Orthodox Jewish people, he is like the great king, the model of 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:36.200 all kings. And yet this great king, the model of all kings, he acknowledges a higher king than himself. 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:43.379 That's what's going on in this psalm. And the other thing is, the psalm begins with David acknowledging 00:08:43.379 --> 00:08:49.779 that there is this being, who he's going to reveal in verse three, whose name is the Lord, 00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:58.259 that this Lord is David's God and King. And what David here is doing is what we have to increasingly 00:08:58.259 --> 00:09:04.720 learn how to do in Canada, which is that the Canadian view of God is not the Christian view of God. 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:10.440 I've only done this a couple of times with people who say they're an atheist. And if the conversation 00:09:10.440 --> 00:09:13.940 goes the right way, I'll tell them, can you just describe to me the God that you don't believe in, 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:18.160 that don't believe exists? And they describe them. And I say, well, I don't believe that God exists either. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:24.620 Which always surprises them. Because generally they think of, Canadians think of God as like maybe a type 00:09:24.620 --> 00:09:31.640 of force or a mist or a, you know, something or something way far off. And that's not what Christians believe. 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:38.140 And so in the ancient world, the Jewish people were freaks. They were freaks because all of the smart people, 00:09:38.139 --> 00:09:42.699 all of the cultured people, all of the powerful people, all of the religious people knew that it 00:09:42.699 --> 00:09:47.039 was just obvious beyond words that there were many gods. Everybody except Jewish people. 00:09:48.139 --> 00:09:53.840 Who said, no, no, there's only one God. And so he uses the generic word, my God and King. 00:09:54.439 --> 00:09:58.620 Look at it again, verse one, I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:02.860 Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, 00:10:02.860 --> 00:10:09.800 Lord, or Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. So in a world of many 00:10:09.800 --> 00:10:16.120 purported Jewish people would say gods, that people believe are gods, there is in fact only one true 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:21.220 and living God, and that is the Lord. And we now, of course, also know, and there's Old Testament 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:26.039 things, that's a whole other sermon about ultimately God is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:30.019 three persons, one God forever and ever. It's a very different God than the God of Canadians. 00:10:30.019 --> 00:10:37.220 It's a personal God. He's almighty. He's, and the word Lord here, it sounds off-putting to us, but 00:10:37.220 --> 00:10:44.120 for Jewish people, this is their covenant name for God. This means, this is, God has revealed his name 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:52.179 to the Jewish people in the context of intimacy and closeness and nearness, that he, that people can be 00:10:52.179 --> 00:11:00.000 with him and he will be with them. It's an intimate image, and it's an awe-inspiring image of the Lord. 00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:07.500 And the very first, in fact, my four things that I want to try to communicate in this psalm 00:11:07.500 --> 00:11:15.379 is the first one is praise-bless, the second one is ponder, the third one is tell, and the fourth one 00:11:15.379 --> 00:11:22.299 is call. And I'm going to spend the longest time on the bless-praise, but that's one of the messages. 00:11:22.460 --> 00:11:26.019 What do you use language for? What do you use your tongue for? What do you use your mind for? 00:11:26.019 --> 00:11:32.319 What do you use your heart for? It is to praise and bless the true and living God, the triune God, 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:39.199 whose greatness is unfathomable, whose love never fails. The whole universe is filled with his mercy 00:11:39.199 --> 00:11:47.240 and grace, and we are to praise him and to bless him. And the word praise and bless, they're very 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:52.220 similar. They're a little bit different. Praise is a little bit more like what we would call adoration, 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:58.980 not purely, but trying to praise God for who he is in and of himself, you know, that he's almighty, 00:11:59.200 --> 00:12:05.680 he's everlasting, he's our father, he is good, he is true, he is beautiful, he is wise, he is all-knowing, 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:13.560 that's who God is in himself. And blessing is connected to that, but adds the other flavor of 00:12:13.560 --> 00:12:19.379 gratitude. And I think about two months ago, I preached on a similar thing. And to get the difference 00:12:19.379 --> 00:12:24.179 would be, if you haven't met Barbara Allen, I hope you meet Barbara Allen someday. She comes to the 00:12:24.179 --> 00:12:29.659 eight o'clock service. She's like this, one of the super volunteers of the church. And she's, let's say 00:12:29.659 --> 00:12:36.419 she's celebrated her 39th birthday many times. And she's old-fashioned and traditional. And so if you 00:12:36.419 --> 00:12:40.519 did something like maybe come into the office and bring some homemade cookies, and she was there and 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:46.419 you gave her one, she would say to you, oh, bless you. Bless you for giving me this cookie. 00:12:47.699 --> 00:12:51.960 And you see that, yes, that's an actual Old Testament type of sense of it. It's an expression 00:12:51.960 --> 00:13:00.860 of gratitude. Not only that you're thoughtful and kind, and you see me, and you do something for me, 00:13:00.860 --> 00:13:09.980 and I just say bless you. And that's this idea here, that we human beings are designed and called. 00:13:11.340 --> 00:13:17.820 This is what is countercultural. This is what people will wish they knew, that we actually have 00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:26.700 a need and a longing and a yearning. We're incomplete without praise and blessing. 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:35.100 Now, just a couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with a young man, and a really 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:42.560 exceptional young man with really good questions. And I think it was like maybe the first time in his 00:13:42.560 --> 00:13:46.920 life he'd ever talked to a Christian at any length in a way that wasn't threatening to him. 00:13:47.640 --> 00:13:51.560 Thank you for your prayers that I was able to do that, by the way. I'm going to tell you more about 00:13:51.560 --> 00:13:56.240 the conversation in a moment, because I wish I could do a do-over in lots of them. But one of the 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:00.659 things I talked to him about was how the Christian understanding of God is completely different, 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:07.460 and it's connected to how... Well, here's what I said. I said, you know, there's only ultimately 00:14:07.460 --> 00:14:13.060 four different ways to understand human beings and their relationship to that which is more ultimate. 00:14:13.779 --> 00:14:22.139 And I said, probably the first one is that the God or the gods created us human beings to be 00:14:22.139 --> 00:14:30.000 the slave of the God or the gods. That's paganism. And it's actually what the Quran teaches, amongst 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:37.159 other things, is that we were created to be the slave of the God or the gods. The second view is that 00:14:37.159 --> 00:14:47.039 we are a catastrophic, tragic accident. A catastrophic, tragic accident. That's fundamentally 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:53.699 what the Eastern religions teach. That everything was one. We were in... We were just... There's just 00:14:53.699 --> 00:14:59.439 only God, and only God existed. And somehow or another, there's a... Different accounts. There's a 00:14:59.439 --> 00:15:07.199 tragic accident, and individual bits of consciousness or gods start to exist. And that's a tragic thing, 00:15:07.259 --> 00:15:14.179 and the whole point of life is to get back to the oneness, back to the ocean. The drop of moisture 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:20.139 rain to eventually get back and merge with the ocean. So either we are the slave of the gods, 00:15:20.199 --> 00:15:28.099 that's why human beings exist, or we are a tragic, catastrophic accident, or we are... 00:15:29.059 --> 00:15:35.719 We are an accident in a universe that doesn't give a dang. 00:15:37.719 --> 00:15:42.620 We are just an accident in a universe that doesn't give a dang. And he said, well, who believes that? 00:15:42.620 --> 00:15:48.500 I said, well, actually, you believe that. He said, no, I don't. I said, yes, you do. I mean, 00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:53.220 you don't completely realize that's what you believe, but you believe in naturalistic evolution, 00:15:53.379 --> 00:15:57.960 and naturalistic evolution is ultimately that there's just a series of their scientific laws 00:15:57.960 --> 00:16:06.639 that describe physical and processes, and processes and energy. And just by the coincidence 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:11.559 about how things were arranged, one scientific thing, and the something causes something causes 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:16.799 something. And in the world, the universe, in your view, ultimately doesn't give a hoot about you. It 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:22.539 makes no distinction between you and a food wrapper or piece of garbage out on the street. 00:16:23.539 --> 00:16:28.799 You live in a completely and utterly indifferent universe, and you just came to be ultimately by 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:36.359 accident. And he said, well, he didn't know what to say. I probably was the very first person in his 00:16:36.359 --> 00:16:41.759 entire life who'd ever said something like that to him. And then I said, the fourth view is the 00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:47.740 Christian view, is that the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who have loved each 00:16:47.740 --> 00:16:55.500 other from all eternity and have no needs but are just pure goodness and love, out of love, 00:16:55.500 --> 00:17:03.580 they made and created you for a love relationship with themselves, with God, with them, with him, 00:17:03.779 --> 00:17:11.299 I said. My language was a bit... I said, that's the Christian view. And this is what's behind this, 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:18.500 you see. So, because at the end of the day, if our friends of more Eastern religions are correct, 00:17:18.500 --> 00:17:25.140 then there is not really ultimately a true need to adore God or to bless him. 00:17:25.500 --> 00:17:32.140 If it's in Islam, we might pray to him, but there's things that that's not entirely congruent 00:17:32.140 --> 00:17:36.000 with the other things that they believe. But you might do it because that's what a slave should do. 00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:41.819 So, it's the proper way to behave. I mean, there's nothing that you would praise or adore if the 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:48.359 naturalistic account of the world is correct. But if in fact, and by the way, I would say the fact 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:54.500 that human beings have longings and have yearnings and have desires, that that doesn't prove that the 00:17:54.500 --> 00:18:00.839 Christian God is correct. But they are clues and hints that Christian description of God is the 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:08.500 correct one. If in fact, a loving God created us for a loving relationship with himself, 00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:14.980 then in fact, it is within us, even if it's dormant and even if it's unrecognized, 00:18:15.700 --> 00:18:22.180 a need to praise and to bless, to know and to love. It's actually there. 00:18:22.180 --> 00:18:31.360 And that's what this psalm is calling us to, is to spend time in extolling God, praising him. 00:18:31.860 --> 00:18:38.420 And when it says forever and ever and unsearchable, what this is saying, look at it again. What does it 00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:43.000 say? I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:47.779 you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness 00:18:47.779 --> 00:18:52.019 is unsearchable, unsearchable or unfathomable. It means you'll never come to an end of it. 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:57.319 Here's how you need to think of it, not as something boring, not as if we have to sing the 00:18:57.319 --> 00:19:03.240 same hymn for the rest of eternity, which would be really boring. But here, think of it in this way, 00:19:03.639 --> 00:19:10.319 because there is no end to God. God is completely and utterly himself, but there is no end to him. 00:19:11.500 --> 00:19:16.039 And that means, imagine that you now die, and you're now in God's nearer presence in the new heaven 00:19:16.039 --> 00:19:22.960 and the new earth. And every day when you wake up, there is a new song and melody with lyrics in your 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:30.500 heart. And you hear them, and you want to sing them. And the beauty and the goodness of them breaks 00:19:30.500 --> 00:19:37.119 your heart. And you think to yourself, I could sing that song for years to come. And the next day, 00:19:37.500 --> 00:19:43.819 you wake up, and there's a new song and melody with lyrics that are so beautiful it breaks your heart. 00:19:43.819 --> 00:19:49.659 And you go, I could sing this song. This is even better than the melody and the song that I heard 00:19:49.659 --> 00:19:54.740 the day before. And then the next day, you wake up, and there's another new song. And another, 00:19:55.139 --> 00:20:01.500 and another, and another. And every day for all eternity, the God who never comes to an end 00:20:01.500 --> 00:20:08.980 reveals a song of praise with lyrics and music that breaks your heart. And every day, 00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:11.860 the words and the music is more beautiful than the day before. 00:20:14.539 --> 00:20:20.880 Or to look at it another way. Every day you wake up, and God gives you a brief glimpse of some new 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:27.200 aspect of his goodness, or his love, or his beauty. And the next day you wake up, and you get another 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:34.460 snapshot or image of his goodness, or truth, or beauty, or love. And it's different from the one before. 00:20:34.460 --> 00:20:39.500 And you think, boy, the one yesterday was great. This is even better. And the next day, it's even 00:20:39.500 --> 00:20:45.579 better. And the next day, it's even better. Every day, a new revelation from God of something about 00:20:45.579 --> 00:20:53.720 his goodness, his beauty, his truth, his love. And that is who God is, and that is what God has called 00:20:53.720 --> 00:21:00.440 us to. And so when we praise and adore the true and living God, and when we bless him for the things 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:05.380 that he has done, which are good for us, that is something fulfilling, not only something that God 00:21:05.380 --> 00:21:10.019 built into us when he created us, but that he's calling us to as our end. 00:21:11.340 --> 00:21:15.420 We were made to adore him, and to bless his name. 00:21:17.100 --> 00:21:19.279 And as Augustine said, slightly different, 00:21:19.980 --> 00:21:23.000 and our hearts are restless until they rest in him. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:30.420 But, by the way, why should we believe this? I mean, amongst other things, maybe they're saying 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:33.640 that. You know, one of the reasons why we Christians believe this is that Jewish people had their own 00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:39.960 good reasons why they believe this, because only the God of Israel was a God who actually acted in 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:47.000 history, in miracle, and in providence. And only the God of Israel was the God who could predict the 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:53.819 future and say what would happen. And the God of Israel's rules and way of living were beautiful 00:21:53.819 --> 00:21:58.859 and wise, far more beautiful and far more wise, and far more lovely and loving than any of the 00:21:58.859 --> 00:22:03.680 nations or other systems of thought around them. They had their own reasons. And we have also those 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:09.900 reasons as well. And even more, we know that Jesus rose from the dead. We know that Jesus rose from the 00:22:09.900 --> 00:22:16.660 dead. We know that death no longer has hold of him. Death is defeated. He never comes to an end. 00:22:16.660 --> 00:22:22.380 And when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you come into union in him. And you too will now 00:22:22.380 --> 00:22:26.560 eventually, in the new heaven and the new earth, have a resurrection body in the new heaven and the 00:22:26.560 --> 00:22:32.000 new earth. And you will never come to an end. We know that because of Jesus. The resurrection changes 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:38.140 everything. He really did die on the cross to make you right with God. And he really did rise from the 00:22:38.140 --> 00:22:44.420 dead. Hallelujah. That's what he did. And that's why we have that hope. And by the way, you know, with all of 00:22:44.420 --> 00:22:48.700 this claim that one of the things we need is to praise and bless the Lord, and that's hard for us 00:22:48.700 --> 00:22:54.279 to do. That's why we need Sunday church, where we can come together and Jono can pick spectacular 00:22:54.279 --> 00:22:59.000 hymns, and we can sing them together because we don't have the resources. That's why we need the 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:05.080 creed to remind us of who God is every week. That's why we need the collects, and that's why we need each 00:23:05.080 --> 00:23:10.360 other, and that's what we try to do here on a Sunday morning. Now, just, I'm conscious of the time. 00:23:10.359 --> 00:23:14.319 We're going to have to be moving forward. The next little bit, this is an aside. It's not one of the 00:23:14.319 --> 00:23:18.599 four things. The four things is that we use our minds and our hearts and our lips to praise slash 00:23:18.599 --> 00:23:25.219 bless the Lord. The second one is to ponder. The third one is to tell, and the fourth one is to call. 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:31.539 And just before we get to that, as part of the second one, which is to plunder, over the years, 00:23:31.659 --> 00:23:37.099 people have wondered why have we invested, I mean, over the years, we have, I mean, we've invested tens 00:23:37.099 --> 00:23:43.559 and tens of thousands of dollars in Ryle, in training young men and others for ministry. 00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:49.439 We have spent tens of thousands of dollars in church planting. Why do we do that? 00:23:50.879 --> 00:23:55.579 Like, I've had people say it's like a bit of a waste, and it's sad. You get to meet, I mean, 00:23:55.639 --> 00:24:03.339 Daniel Avitan, great work out in Kanata, but losing him was hard. Losing him was hard. 00:24:03.339 --> 00:24:09.019 So it not only cost us money, but losing him was hard. Why do we do that? Well, look at verse 4. 00:24:10.779 --> 00:24:16.919 One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. We need to be 00:24:16.919 --> 00:24:22.859 concerned for the next generation and the next two generations and the next three generations and the 00:24:22.859 --> 00:24:28.639 next four generations. Josiah is vastly younger than me. 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:37.980 And God willing, unless Jesus returns, which will be far better, he has, you know, hopefully he has 00:24:37.980 --> 00:24:46.980 66 more years of ministry left. And I won't have 66 more years of ministry left. 00:24:48.180 --> 00:24:52.100 And I hope that not only will he have a fruitful ministry, but he will have a fruitful ministry 00:24:52.099 --> 00:24:57.279 where he raises up someone younger than him, call to the ordained ministry and equip lay people. 00:24:57.679 --> 00:25:01.339 And that person, another generation. We should be concerned for who our great 00:25:01.339 --> 00:25:06.519 grandchildren's pastors will be. You know, this verse here that commend, 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:11.779 one generation shall commend your works to another, that's why Sunday school is so important. 00:25:13.379 --> 00:25:17.579 That you should pray for it and consider being involved. That's why youth group is so important. 00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:22.019 That's why it's so important that we pray that the Lord will open a door for us to have university 00:25:22.019 --> 00:25:27.319 ministry again. Because our hope and our prayer should be that one generation shall commend your 00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:32.579 works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. That's why catechisms and Bible studies, 00:25:32.699 --> 00:25:37.319 all those things are so important. We should be concerned about that. And we should pray about it, 00:25:37.379 --> 00:25:42.500 be willing to invest money in it, and give our time as well, and the best of our thinking and 00:25:42.500 --> 00:25:47.559 creativity about how we can reach out to the university. You know, that's on my heart to 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:51.039 get back. I can't believe we're right beside the university without having a more formal 00:25:51.039 --> 00:25:56.720 relationship towards student ministry. We lost it during COVID. It's just a time of waiting in 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:02.319 prayer, waiting upon the Lord, but pray for it. And we want to be a one generation shall commend your 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:10.700 works to another generation type of church. But let's get back to ponder. Look at verses 4 to 7. 00:26:11.139 --> 00:26:15.259 One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. 00:26:15.259 --> 00:26:21.539 On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works, or deeds is maybe a better 00:26:21.539 --> 00:26:29.019 word, and on your wondrous deeds I will meditate or plunder. And they shall speak of the might of 00:26:29.019 --> 00:26:33.940 your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth the fame of 00:26:33.940 --> 00:26:39.420 your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. See, all these things can go back and 00:26:39.420 --> 00:26:46.120 forward. It could be a very intricate diagram. One person compared this psalm to a very intricate work 00:26:46.120 --> 00:26:50.920 of lace, where all the things are coming back and forward. If you see really intricate lace, that's what 00:26:50.920 --> 00:27:01.700 this psalm is like. But here, on your wondrous deeds, I will meditate or I will ponder. And the thing about the 00:27:01.700 --> 00:27:07.640 God who really does exist is that not only does he do things, he tells you that he's going to do them. 00:27:07.640 --> 00:27:14.500 He does them, and he explains why he's doing them. So why is it, for instance, the same fellow that I 00:27:14.500 --> 00:27:20.600 was talking with a couple of weeks ago, and it came up about different types of understandings of 00:27:20.600 --> 00:27:25.640 where human beings were in the universe and why certain types of things were important. Because 00:27:25.640 --> 00:27:33.700 you see, if in fact you have a longing and yearning for God, and if you are in a universe where you were 00:27:33.700 --> 00:27:38.940 created by the triune God of love, and you were created to have a love relationship and connection 00:27:38.940 --> 00:27:45.740 and union with that triune God, and obviously it's not going on, something needs to make you right with 00:27:45.740 --> 00:27:53.600 him. And that's why Jesus is needed. He is the one who has come, God the Son of God, on behalf of the 00:27:53.600 --> 00:27:59.240 Father and the power of the Spirit, coming into our human condition to do what needed to be done, to 00:27:59.240 --> 00:28:03.740 reconcile us to God. And when we put our faith and trust in him, we come into union with him 00:28:03.740 --> 00:28:10.420 and are reconciled in union with the triune God. The Holy Spirit indwells us, and through the Holy 00:28:10.420 --> 00:28:16.720 Spirit, in a sense, the entire Godhead indwells us, and we dwell in the Godhead. It's an absolutely 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:24.120 spectacular and glorious vision. But if Jesus really did rise from the dead, and I think he did, 00:28:24.119 --> 00:28:33.459 then it's only a wise thing to listen to what he says. Why do I believe the Old Testament is the 00:28:33.459 --> 00:28:39.500 Word of God? Because that's what Jesus believed. Why do I believe that Jesus will come again? Because 00:28:39.500 --> 00:28:44.759 that's what Jesus believed. Why do I believe that I have a Father in heaven who loves me and wants me 00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:52.519 to pray to him? That's what Jesus believed. He believed it, he taught it, and I want to try to put it into 00:28:52.519 --> 00:29:00.379 practice. I'm worthy and as incompetent as I often am. And that's, that's, and, and, and look, look, 00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:05.500 look what goes on again. Just the Lord is great. Verse 8, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to 00:29:05.500 --> 00:29:11.180 anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. 00:29:12.019 --> 00:29:17.920 Why do we believe that? Because of Jesus, because of who he was, because of his compassion towards the 00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:24.140 man with the speech impediment, but because of the lepers that he healed, because of the patience that 00:29:24.140 --> 00:29:30.600 he showed with people who were rejecting him, how even on the, even when he's dying on the, on the cross, 00:29:30.980 --> 00:29:36.220 the patience he has with one of the thieves who dies on the cross, who spends half the day mocking him, 00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:41.660 and towards the end of the day actually says to Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom, 00:29:41.660 --> 00:29:46.740 and Jesus doesn't say, well listen, you're going to have to backtrack a little bit about how you've been 00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:52.779 bad-mouthing me for six hours. He doesn't say that. He's patient, gracious, merciful. That's how we know 00:29:52.779 --> 00:30:02.140 what God is like, because of Jesus and his, his beauty. Now I mentioned several things about this 00:30:02.140 --> 00:30:08.099 young man, and I'm probably telling the story better than it actually happened, because I, I can tell you 00:30:08.099 --> 00:30:12.539 that when it was over, I didn't think I'd done a good job. 00:30:12.539 --> 00:30:21.500 Um, in fact, as I was driving home afterwards, I played over in my mind all sorts of different 00:30:21.500 --> 00:30:27.079 things I could have said and should have said, and I, I didn't beat myself up about it, and part of the 00:30:27.079 --> 00:30:32.480 reason I didn't beat up myself about it is because of the next few verses. Let's look, look, let's look 00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:40.599 what they say. Look at verse 10 to 13. All your work shall give thanks to you, O Lord, or all your deeds, 00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:46.359 or all your works, both of them are accurate, and all your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of 00:30:46.359 --> 00:30:53.019 the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds 00:30:53.019 --> 00:31:00.919 and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion 00:31:00.919 --> 00:31:07.039 endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. 00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:14.460 So what, how was that a comfort to me? Well, I, I wasn't aware of this particular part of the psalm. 00:31:14.539 --> 00:31:19.759 I'm, I'm aware of how the, the, the truth comes up in the New Testament, but, but look again at verses 00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:27.019 11 and 12. The saints, that's who he's just talking about, they, we shall speak of the glory of your 00:31:27.019 --> 00:31:33.299 kingdom and tell of your power. And what's the power of the Lord? His power is to make known to the 00:31:33.299 --> 00:31:39.419 children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. See, here's the comfort. 00:31:42.419 --> 00:31:49.059 My job is to tell. His job is to make that truth come home. 00:31:49.059 --> 00:31:57.240 He doesn't say, George, you better manage emotional manipulation and sales techniques and dumbing down 00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:03.059 the message and pulling on heart, heartstrings and doing a whole pile of manipulative things to get a 00:32:03.059 --> 00:32:10.679 person to accept what you say. Your job is to tell. My job is to make. I make it known. 00:32:10.680 --> 00:32:17.519 And it's, and, and that's, that's my comfort. I did my best job. I, God in his grace and mercy gave me an 00:32:17.519 --> 00:32:21.900 opportunity to share the image of the four different ways of understanding your relationship and who you 00:32:21.900 --> 00:32:29.100 are. And he, he gave me an opportunity to talk about why the Christian message and faith isn't about 00:32:29.100 --> 00:32:35.580 doing good things, but about being reconciled and in union with God, that God has to do this. And I 00:32:35.579 --> 00:32:41.899 didn't do the, I didn't explain it very well. I was very unsatisfied. I did the best I could, but within 00:32:41.899 --> 00:32:46.359 the limits of who I was and in my time, because I didn't wake up thinking I was going to have this 00:32:46.359 --> 00:32:51.539 conversation that day, by the way, that I could prepare for. It was one of those things that goes 00:32:51.539 --> 00:32:59.159 in a completely and utterly unexpected direction. And, and my job is to tell. His job is to bring it home. 00:32:59.160 --> 00:33:06.120 That's very comforting to know. You don't have to have a PhD in theology to bear witness to Jesus. 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:12.480 And you don't have to worry if you don't do it perfectly. I, I've shared this before. I got it 00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:17.480 from Greg Kokel. And, uh, you know, my hope in a conversation with him, I get a chance to bear 00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:23.920 witness to Jesus. And by the way, I encourage you to pray for me, that I, I'm better at it. And, and maybe 00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:27.860 we should just all pray for each other. I pray every day that God will give me two opportunities to bear 00:33:27.859 --> 00:33:33.679 witness to Jesus, to somebody that doesn't know him. Now, a lot of times that doesn't happen. 00:33:34.639 --> 00:33:39.179 Although, interestingly enough, a guy came up to me a week ago, I often have a Christian book out 00:33:39.179 --> 00:33:44.219 when I'm working in a coffee shop. And he came up to me and said, uh, you must be a pastor. And we had 00:33:44.219 --> 00:33:49.799 a bit of a conversation. He's not a Christian, but he notices me reading and studying. And he notices 00:33:49.799 --> 00:33:55.819 that I have a book and he's now bought one of the books that I, I had beside me. He decided he'd buy 00:33:55.819 --> 00:34:00.419 mere Christianity to read for himself. And he said, he said, pastor, you know, you're having an 00:34:00.419 --> 00:34:05.460 influence on people here, even if you never say a word, which was a very comforting thing to say. 00:34:06.220 --> 00:34:10.639 But, you know, just pray that God will give you an opportunity just to bear witness to, 00:34:10.659 --> 00:34:15.980 to Jesus in, in some small way. And maybe it'll open doors to a bigger, a bigger topic, but just 00:34:15.980 --> 00:34:22.239 pray that that will happen. And, and you, you extol, you praise, you share about the goodness and 00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:29.319 greatness of God. And he is the one who brings that truth home. So the first thing for our lips 00:34:29.319 --> 00:34:36.459 is to praise slash bless. The second thing is to, uh, is to ponder. The third thing is to tell, 00:34:36.599 --> 00:34:43.679 we are to ponder his works, meditate upon them, meditate upon who Jesus is and what he says and 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:50.059 what he does. His works reveal who he is. It connects to the praising and it gives us stuff to, 00:34:50.059 --> 00:34:55.179 to tell other thing about. So there's the praise bless. There is the ponder. There's the tell. 00:34:55.179 --> 00:35:02.340 And the fourth one is call to call upon him ourselves. Um, in fact, in fact, this, um, 00:35:02.659 --> 00:35:08.320 it was so funny. I, I, uh, you know, coming back from holidays, I had a couple of low days in the 00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:13.159 afternoon. I love being the pastor of the church, but you know, you come back from holidays, it can be 00:35:13.159 --> 00:35:18.179 a bit hard for part of that time. You know, you just think, oh, it's a really nice day. I wish I could 00:35:18.179 --> 00:35:23.379 just sit and read a book or, you know, go for, do something else. And, and it was really funny. I'm, 00:35:23.379 --> 00:35:28.539 I'm walking back thinking about that and all. And then I realized that the Psalm actually tells me 00:35:28.539 --> 00:35:33.480 to do, the Psalm I'm going to tell, preach to you about was telling me to do something that I wasn't 00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:38.259 doing myself. And it was as if God convicted me of it just as I'm walking. Here, here's what I'm 00:35:38.259 --> 00:35:43.339 talking about. Look, look at what happens in verse 14 and following. The Lord upholds all who are 00:35:43.340 --> 00:35:50.920 falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you and you give them their 00:35:50.920 --> 00:35:58.240 food, food and due season. You open your hand. You satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord 00:35:58.240 --> 00:36:06.539 is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, 00:36:06.539 --> 00:36:14.300 to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him, honor him, revere him. 00:36:14.619 --> 00:36:21.259 He also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he 00:36:21.259 --> 00:36:27.199 will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever 00:36:27.199 --> 00:36:33.039 and ever. Amen. Isn't that, it's just a wonderful thing about desires and needs. Here I was bowed down 00:36:33.039 --> 00:36:37.980 and the Bible says to me, George, you're bowed down. Are you feeling your falling? I'm to call on you, 00:36:38.119 --> 00:36:44.139 Father, because you lift me up. Why am I thinking of everything else other than that? Well, that's 00:36:44.139 --> 00:36:48.779 because I'm a dumb guy thinking about what to tell others and not thinking about how I have to preach 00:36:48.779 --> 00:36:54.099 the text to myself. You know, you can pray for me that I'm less thick about things like that. 00:36:54.980 --> 00:37:00.719 You know, just, I have to share one thing. It's such a neat thing because it goes back and forward 00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:05.459 between what God is like in his nature and what he's like in particular to those who come to him 00:37:05.459 --> 00:37:10.419 for salvation. Look at verse 15, the eyes have all looked to you and you give them their food in due 00:37:10.419 --> 00:37:17.059 season. My wife who's here today, she loves animals. We have two parrots, we have two dogs. In the past, 00:37:17.139 --> 00:37:21.819 we've also had finches and a whole pile of animals. And one of the things that she loves to do is feed the 00:37:21.820 --> 00:37:32.680 animals. God loves to feed the animals. Like, that's what he loves to do. Feed the animals. Feed us. 00:37:35.620 --> 00:37:42.860 Isn't that cool? He knows you have needs. He's the one who meets needs. He knows you have desires. He 00:37:42.860 --> 00:37:49.860 satisfies your desires. He knows you need to be saved. He's the one who saves. And so this is both a text 00:37:49.860 --> 00:37:54.440 about how do you become a Christian. How do you become a Christian? You've heard this. You've heard 00:37:54.440 --> 00:38:00.200 about Jesus. You call out to God. You'd be like the thief on the cross, even if you spent most of your 00:38:00.200 --> 00:38:06.300 life just completely and utterly saying ridiculous and horrible things and angry things and derogatory 00:38:06.300 --> 00:38:11.420 things about God. But the thief on the cross, just before he dies, says, remember me, Jesus, when you come 00:38:11.420 --> 00:38:19.539 into my kingdom. And Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. That's who you call out to. 00:38:19.860 --> 00:38:28.840 And he will take you to himself. And it's also how we grow. To remember, Christian, that you have a 00:38:28.840 --> 00:38:35.820 father in heaven who is the almighty God who loves you and loves to hear you pray. 00:38:37.680 --> 00:38:44.079 And he often says no to your prayer requests. And in heaven, you'll find out why that was so wise. 00:38:44.079 --> 00:38:50.000 And sometimes he says, I'm going to wait 10 years before I fulfill it. And in heaven, you'll find out 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:56.059 why that was so wise. And sometimes he fulfills them right away. But he knows your needs. He knows 00:38:56.059 --> 00:39:03.199 your desires. He knows your fall. And he loves to hear you pray. Just listen again, just before I 00:39:03.199 --> 00:39:07.759 close in prayer, to the collect that we read today. The collect is just a very ancient prayer. I think this 00:39:07.759 --> 00:39:12.860 one goes back to Gregory the Great, and it was slightly tweaked by the reformers. Listen to the prayer that we 00:39:12.860 --> 00:39:21.900 prayed today. Almighty and everlasting God, who is always more ready to hear than we are to pray, 00:39:22.700 --> 00:39:31.660 and who always gives more than either we desire or deserve. Pour down upon us the abundance of your 00:39:31.660 --> 00:39:40.220 mercy, forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things 00:39:40.219 --> 00:39:48.559 which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. 00:39:49.759 --> 00:39:50.319 Amen. 00:39:53.519 --> 00:40:00.379 I love the Book of Common Prayer. That is such a formative prayer to pray and to live out of. 00:40:00.380 --> 00:40:02.220 I invite you to stand. 00:40:10.220 --> 00:40:11.079 Let's pray. 00:40:14.340 --> 00:40:20.640 Father, we ask that you would fan into flame within us an ever deeper longing and yearning for you, 00:40:20.840 --> 00:40:28.320 and fan into flame within us habits and disciplines of praising you and blessing you and of pondering you. 00:40:28.320 --> 00:40:38.480 Create within us a desire to see you, Father, commended to the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren 00:40:38.480 --> 00:40:43.740 and the great-great-great-grandchildren of those who are here and those lost sheep of yours who you will one day, 00:40:43.980 --> 00:40:47.160 that you are in the process of calling home to yourself. 00:40:48.780 --> 00:40:57.780 Father, grant us an ever-greater ability and habits to be able to tell others of your greatness and your glory and your splendor, 00:40:57.780 --> 00:41:05.280 and Father, help us to call upon you, call upon you for our daily needs and for the deepest longing, 00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:10.880 everything from the simplest need to the most profound longing and yearning and desire, 00:41:11.120 --> 00:41:14.100 which we are almost embarrassed to tell others about. 00:41:14.300 --> 00:41:19.100 Father, may your Holy Spirit move and work within us that we will be ones who call upon you, 00:41:19.160 --> 00:41:23.380 not just ourselves individually, day by day, but as a congregation. 00:41:23.380 --> 00:41:26.300 And we will encourage each other to do this, Father. 00:41:26.420 --> 00:41:28.960 Help us to be a congregation of encouragement. 00:41:29.980 --> 00:41:34.140 And we ask all these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior, 00:41:34.660 --> 00:41:36.820 and all God's people said, Amen. 00:41:53.380 --> 00:41:54.380 Amen. 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380 00:41:54.380 --> 00:41:54.380