WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.260 If you'll all just take a quick look in your bulletin, 00:00:03.260 --> 00:00:07.940 the sermon title is Revival and Anti-Revival. 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:08.939 Forget that. 00:00:08.939 --> 00:00:12.500 We're not doing that tonight. 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:17.179 But we are gonna look at Psalm 135 verses 15 to 18. 00:00:17.179 --> 00:00:20.059 It's just this little four verse section 00:00:20.059 --> 00:00:24.100 and we're gonna talk about what it is to be alive to God. 00:00:24.100 --> 00:00:29.100 So let me ask you, what is your life's center of gravity? 00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:31.100 And you all have one. 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:38.100 We all have a center of gravity, something that pulls everything in our life into orbit around it. 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:45.100 Some years back, David Foster Wallace, who's a very non-Christian American author, 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:53.100 before he died very tragically, he said this in a speech that's very clear-minded. 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:54.100 It's worth reading. 00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:55.100 Quote, 00:00:55.100 --> 00:01:01.100 In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. 00:01:01.100 --> 00:01:03.100 There is no such thing as not worshiping. 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:04.099 Everybody worships. 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:07.099 The only choice we get is what to worship. 00:01:07.099 --> 00:01:11.099 And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual type thing to worship 00:01:11.099 --> 00:01:16.099 is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. 00:01:16.099 --> 00:01:18.099 Then he goes on to give some examples. 00:01:18.099 --> 00:01:24.099 And this is what it looks like when our lives center around something other than God. 00:01:24.099 --> 00:01:25.099 He says, 00:01:25.099 --> 00:01:29.099 If you worship money and things, if they're where you tap real meaning in life, 00:01:29.099 --> 00:01:31.099 then you will never have enough. 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:36.099 Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. 00:01:36.099 --> 00:01:42.099 And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. 00:01:42.099 --> 00:01:45.099 Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid. 00:01:45.099 --> 00:01:49.099 And you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. 00:01:49.099 --> 00:01:53.099 Worship intellect being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, 00:01:53.099 --> 00:01:55.099 always on the verge of being found out. 00:01:55.099 --> 00:01:59.099 But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is that they're unconscious. 00:01:59.099 --> 00:02:01.099 They are default settings. 00:02:01.099 --> 00:02:04.099 The Bible agrees. 00:02:04.099 --> 00:02:10.099 And because God loves us with all of his heart, he wants to be our center of gravity. 00:02:10.099 --> 00:02:13.099 He wants to be the object of our worship. 00:02:13.099 --> 00:02:18.099 Because we were created by God to orbit around him, to trust in him. 00:02:18.099 --> 00:02:26.099 And so we're only going to feel really alive when we orbit around God. 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:28.099 And when our hearts are set on him. 00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:33.099 So whatever our hearts are in orbit around is the thing that we worship. 00:02:33.099 --> 00:02:39.099 So we're going to look at worshiping false gods tonight as a sort of a foil, 00:02:39.099 --> 00:02:44.099 which will help us more deeply understand what it is to worship God and to understand his heart for us. 00:02:44.099 --> 00:02:47.099 So I just have three points and a question. 00:02:47.099 --> 00:02:49.099 The three points, number one, everyone worships. 00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:52.099 Number two, you are what you eat. 00:02:52.099 --> 00:02:55.099 And number three, the end or the goal of worship. 00:02:55.099 --> 00:02:57.099 So let's dive in. 00:02:57.099 --> 00:03:00.099 Look at Psalm 135 verse 15. 00:03:00.099 --> 00:03:02.099 We'll start there. 00:03:02.099 --> 00:03:03.099 Everyone worships. 00:03:03.099 --> 00:03:05.099 How do I know everyone worships? 00:03:05.099 --> 00:03:11.099 Because of two little words in verse 15, the nations. 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:23.099 The Bible has, when it talks about people spiritually, it talks about two categories, God's people and not God's people. 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:27.099 And in the Old Testament we see that as Israel and the nations. 00:03:27.099 --> 00:03:34.099 And so when it talks about the nations here, it's talking about everyone who doesn't trust in God. 00:03:34.099 --> 00:03:40.099 And we find that the Bible actually has no category for a non-worshipper. 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:46.099 Because the idols of the nations just assumes that the nations have idols. 00:03:46.099 --> 00:03:53.099 So like David Foster Wallace said in that quote, there's, in a sense, no such thing as an atheist. 00:03:53.099 --> 00:03:56.099 Everybody worships something. 00:03:56.099 --> 00:04:01.099 And we end up worshiping kind of what the gaze of our heart is pointed at. 00:04:01.099 --> 00:04:07.099 Like your heart has this big unblinking eye that can just be directed at something all the time. 00:04:07.099 --> 00:04:14.099 And whatever we direct the gaze of our heart at becomes the center of our gravity. 00:04:14.099 --> 00:04:19.100 So idolatry is just worshiping the wrong thing. 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:26.100 Idolatry is trusting anything other than God as the thing that we need to feel really alive. 00:04:26.100 --> 00:04:30.100 It's the thing that kind of gives us our okaness. 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:33.100 In Colossians 3-5, Paul actually says something interesting. 00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:37.100 He says that covetousness is idolatry. 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:39.100 What a fascinating way to put that. 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:43.100 So idolatry may be more than covetousness, but it's certainly not less. 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:48.100 Because when we're covetous, we want more and more. 00:04:48.100 --> 00:04:50.100 What we have isn't enough. 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:53.100 So that's what idolatry is, right? 00:04:53.100 --> 00:04:56.100 It's saying to God, you're not enough. 00:04:56.100 --> 00:05:03.100 I actually need something in addition to you or something apart from you to feel ok, to feel alive. 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:06.100 I'm going to need something else, something more. 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:11.100 So we actually begin down that road of turning from God and rejecting God 00:05:11.100 --> 00:05:16.100 because of that intercovetousness to want more and more. 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:21.100 But anything else you set your heart on will eat you alive. 00:05:21.100 --> 00:05:27.100 So this Psalm and the rest of the Bible assumes this kind of binary nature of humanity. 00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:32.100 The God worshipers and the worshipers who don't worship God. 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:36.100 And some of us might be offended by that. 00:05:36.100 --> 00:05:44.100 It goes against the grain of pretty much everything that our world is telling us today. 00:05:44.100 --> 00:05:48.100 That God demands our exclusive worship. 00:05:48.100 --> 00:05:53.100 It means that we can't have an attitude of moral or spiritual relativism. 00:05:53.100 --> 00:05:58.100 We aren't each morally free to worship whatever we like. 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:02.100 That can be a very offensive claim today, but it's true. 00:06:02.100 --> 00:06:04.100 But here's the good news in it. 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:07.100 God loves us too much to let us worship whatever we want. 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:14.100 He loves us too much to let us drink the poison of idolatry. 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:24.100 In fact, God demands our absolute everything so that in Christ, he can give us his everything. 00:06:24.100 --> 00:06:27.100 That is incredibly good news. 00:06:27.100 --> 00:06:30.100 So everyone worships. 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:34.100 Verse 16 and 17 is the middle of our portion here. 00:06:34.100 --> 00:06:38.100 It says, the idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. 00:06:38.100 --> 00:06:41.100 They have, that's 15, sorry, 16. 00:06:41.100 --> 00:06:46.100 They have mouths that do not speak, they have eyes that do not see, they have ears that do not hear, 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:50.100 nor is there any breath in their mouths. 00:06:50.100 --> 00:06:58.100 So by setting up false gods as kind of a foil, we can see more clearly what God is like. 00:06:58.100 --> 00:07:06.100 These false gods, which is again anything but God that we put our trust in, that we rely on and need in that sense, 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:10.100 they are completely impotent to save. 00:07:10.100 --> 00:07:12.100 That's the point. 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:17.100 They have all these features that are used for good things, mouths and eyes and ears, 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:19.100 but they can't do anything. 00:07:19.100 --> 00:07:21.100 They're useless. 00:07:21.100 --> 00:07:25.100 So they have mouths, these false gods have mouths but do not speak, 00:07:25.100 --> 00:07:29.100 but our God is the God who spoke the universe into existence. 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:36.100 Our God is the God who revealed himself through his word so that we can know him and love him. 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:39.100 And I'm so glad he did that. 00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:46.100 Our God is the God who sent his word to become a human, Jesus, 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:51.100 and that he might speak the word justified to our hearts so that we could be reconciled to God. 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:55.100 So God speaks. 00:07:55.100 --> 00:07:58.100 We need a God who speaks. 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:04.100 But these false gods, they have eyes but do not see. 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:10.100 And seeing, it's actually used quite like we use it today, to actually see something, 00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:15.100 but also to understand something, like when you say, oh, I see. 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:17.100 Right, it's saying, I get it, I understand, right? 00:08:17.100 --> 00:08:19.100 So our God sees. 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:28.100 He has eyes to see the oppression and suffering of his people so that he can act with compassion and sympathy and empathy 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:30.100 because he sees, he understands. 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:37.100 In Exodus 225, God's people, I've been languishing in slavery for hundreds of years, 00:08:37.100 --> 00:08:41.100 oppressed, beaten down, suffering. 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:42.100 And I love this verse. 00:08:42.100 --> 00:08:43.100 It's so simple. 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:44.100 It's so short. 00:08:44.100 --> 00:08:50.100 It just says, God saw the people of Israel and God knew. 00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:57.100 We have a God who sees and knows the oppression of the lowly and the suffering of his people. 00:08:57.100 --> 00:09:01.100 So we need a God who sees. 00:09:01.100 --> 00:09:04.100 These false gods have ears but do not hear. 00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:07.100 But our God hears the cry of the oppressed. 00:09:07.100 --> 00:09:16.100 For instance, the innocent blood of Abel crying from the ground for justice after he was murdered by Cain in Genesis 4. 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:22.100 He even hears and has compassion on these seemingly insignificant moments of injustice in our lives 00:09:22.100 --> 00:09:24.100 and the pain and the frustration. 00:09:24.100 --> 00:09:27.100 So Exodus 22, 26 and 27 says, 00:09:27.100 --> 00:09:32.100 If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down. 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:36.100 For that is his only covering and it is his cloak for his body. 00:09:36.100 --> 00:09:38.100 And what else shall he sleep? 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:44.100 And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate. 00:09:44.100 --> 00:09:45.100 Isn't that amazing? 00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:52.100 He's saying, if you take the cloak of your neighbor and he's cold and he cries out to me, 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:56.100 I'll hear him, I'm a compassionate God. 00:09:56.100 --> 00:10:07.100 So from the big oppressions to the little injustices and unfairnesses of life, our God hears and we need that. 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:15.100 Now the last line here, nor is there any breath in their mouths in verse 17, that just means they're dead. 00:10:15.100 --> 00:10:20.100 They have a mouth, there's no air in it. 00:10:20.100 --> 00:10:22.100 Our God is the living God. 00:10:22.100 --> 00:10:29.100 In fact, the phrase living God, the living God as a title for God, occurs 28 different times in the Bible. 00:10:29.100 --> 00:10:36.100 It's a big deal that he's the living God and it's always set in opposition to anything else. 00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:42.100 Because John 5.56 says that God has life in himself. 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:44.100 He's the only thing that has life in himself. 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:46.100 We're all derivative people. 00:10:46.100 --> 00:10:48.100 We don't have life in and of ourselves. 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:51.100 We require parents to give us life. 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:56.100 We require food and sustenance and all these things to keep us going and eventually we wear out. 00:10:56.100 --> 00:11:01.100 God has life in and of himself and he needs none of that. 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:02.100 He's completely dependent. 00:11:02.100 --> 00:11:05.100 He's the great I am. 00:11:05.100 --> 00:11:10.100 He is the existent one. 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:16.100 But that's really good news because that God is also the God who shares his life with us. 00:11:16.100 --> 00:11:19.100 He loves to do that. 00:11:19.100 --> 00:11:24.100 John 6.63 says the Spirit gives life. 00:11:24.100 --> 00:11:26.100 God the Holy Spirit gives life. 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:29.100 The flesh is no help at all. 00:11:29.100 --> 00:11:35.100 So God the Holy Spirit is the only thing that can give us real life. 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:44.100 Everything else inside of us, the flesh, the thing that's oriented to want everything in the world and to make our lives about everything but God. 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:48.100 The flesh is no help at all. 00:11:48.100 --> 00:12:04.100 So if you want to feel alive, if you want to truly live everything in you that wants everything but God, even good things that become ultimate things, family, money, all these can be good things. 00:12:04.100 --> 00:12:09.100 But the flesh is no help at all. 00:12:09.100 --> 00:12:19.100 We need the God who has life in and of himself to give us that life as well. 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:22.100 So point number two, you are what you eat. 00:12:22.100 --> 00:12:26.100 The original title was we become like what we worship but it was too clunky. 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:27.100 You are what you eat. 00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:34.100 Now I know you all probably woke up this morning thinking, man, I wonder where the phrase you are what you eat came from. 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:36.100 Well, I've done the heavy lifting for you. 00:12:36.100 --> 00:12:43.100 1826, a man named Jean-Anthelme Brillet-Savarin, and I probably mispronounced that. 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:47.100 He was a French lawyer who became kind of a gastrointestinal expert. 00:12:47.100 --> 00:12:51.100 He wrote, tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are. 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:57.100 And that seems to be kind of the origination of that phrase. 00:12:57.100 --> 00:12:58.100 But it's a really interesting phrase. 00:12:58.100 --> 00:13:01.100 We all kind of can experientially attest to its truthfulness. 00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:06.100 Not that we literally are a baked potato because that's what we had for supper, 00:13:06.100 --> 00:13:12.100 but what we put into our bodies through our mouths deeply shapes and impacts the whole person. 00:13:12.100 --> 00:13:22.100 The way that you feel the clarity of your thinking, your long-term health is all shaped by what you eat. 00:13:22.100 --> 00:13:24.100 Worship is like that. 00:13:24.100 --> 00:13:27.100 We really do become like what we worship. 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:39.100 Look at verse 18, those who make them become like them, and so do all who trust in them. 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:42.100 So idolatry is like poison. 00:13:42.100 --> 00:13:45.100 It will kill you. 00:13:45.100 --> 00:13:48.100 In fact, the language is interesting. 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:49.100 It's kind of an ongoing thing. 00:13:49.100 --> 00:13:58.100 It's like a degradation into being more and more dead. 00:13:58.100 --> 00:14:07.100 But directing the gaze of your heart toward Jesus, worshipping God is like eating real food for the first time. 00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:13.100 And he makes us come alive. 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:17.100 So what is the, what's the point? 00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:21.100 What is the goal or the end of this kind of worship? 00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:25.100 Well, it's conformity to the likeness of the thing we love. 00:14:25.100 --> 00:14:32.100 If we love God, it's to be fully alive to him, to the living one, to the living God, the I am. 00:14:32.100 --> 00:14:39.100 It's coming alive and partaking of his fullness and richness of life. 00:14:39.100 --> 00:14:41.100 That's the goal of this worship. 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:44.100 It's to have God himself. 00:14:44.100 --> 00:14:48.100 Question 48 of the New City Catechism that we looked at tonight said, 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:55.100 God chooses and preserves for himself a community elected for purpose statement, eternal life. 00:14:55.100 --> 00:14:59.100 And as Thomas mentioned so helpfully last week, I think that was last week, 00:14:59.100 --> 00:15:01.100 eternal life isn't something that starts later. 00:15:01.100 --> 00:15:03.100 If you trust Jesus, it starts now. 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:07.100 It's both a quantity and a quality of life. 00:15:07.100 --> 00:15:10.100 It's real life. 00:15:10.100 --> 00:15:19.100 Or John 3.16, we all know it, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 00:15:19.100 --> 00:15:23.100 It's the point. 00:15:23.100 --> 00:15:30.100 So if you have done that, if you have trusted in Christ, what does this say to you? 00:15:30.100 --> 00:15:36.100 I know that you don't have, you know, little stone idols in your house that you're worshiping. 00:15:36.100 --> 00:15:38.100 So is this relevant to you? 00:15:38.100 --> 00:15:42.100 In other words, can a Christian also be an idolater? 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:45.100 It's an important question. 00:15:45.100 --> 00:15:52.100 The story of the church is that we're constantly being disciplined by the Lord throughout history because we're acting like the nations. 00:15:52.100 --> 00:15:57.100 So this song, this section of the song is talking about the nations, right? 00:15:57.100 --> 00:16:01.100 The nations have these idols of silver and gold, the work of human hands. 00:16:01.100 --> 00:16:11.100 But our history, for thousands of years, as the people of God, is that we're constantly becoming like them being conformed to the world around us and their gods rather than God. 00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.100 And so he disciplines us lovingly. 00:16:13.100 --> 00:16:14.100 He gives us his word. 00:16:14.100 --> 00:16:15.100 He draws us to himself. 00:16:15.100 --> 00:16:18.100 He moves us to himself. 00:16:18.100 --> 00:16:23.100 Because yes, we can start to look like those nations who worship false gods. 00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:26.100 In fact, when someone asks Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? 00:16:26.100 --> 00:16:28.100 And he said, I'll do you one better. 00:16:28.100 --> 00:16:31.100 I'll give you the greatest and the second greatest commandment. 00:16:31.100 --> 00:16:35.100 The first is to love God and the second is to love your neighbor. 00:16:35.100 --> 00:16:38.100 What if he'd flipped those? 00:16:38.100 --> 00:16:46.100 The first is first so that neighbor love doesn't become our false God in which we find all of our hope and our sense of self-worth. 00:16:46.100 --> 00:16:54.100 If loving God doesn't come first, then everything else, even the good things like loving our neighbor as ourselves, 00:16:54.100 --> 00:17:02.100 even the good things will become ultimate things and become false gods to us. 00:17:02.100 --> 00:17:13.099 Psalm 85 has this wonderful little phrase where the psalmist says, will you not revive us again? 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:15.099 That your people may rejoice in you. 00:17:15.099 --> 00:17:18.099 What an important again. 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:23.099 We are people in constant need of revival. 00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:26.099 We need God to make our hearts alive to him. 00:17:26.099 --> 00:17:28.099 The gospel is for daily use. 00:17:28.099 --> 00:17:30.099 It's not one and done salvation. 00:17:30.099 --> 00:17:33.099 It's not I made a decision 10 years ago and now I'm good. 00:17:33.099 --> 00:17:38.099 The gospel is bread to eat every day. 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:46.099 We need daily refreshment and renewal in the Lord because our hearts, as John Calvin famously said, are idle factories. 00:17:46.099 --> 00:17:53.099 What he means, in fact, he was, I think he said that in relation to Psalm 115, which has almost word for word, the same section. 00:17:53.099 --> 00:18:03.099 His point is that our hearts are such after the fall that we want everything that is nice in this world that we like. 00:18:03.099 --> 00:18:06.099 We want to turn it into the center of our gravity. 00:18:06.099 --> 00:18:08.099 We're good at it. 00:18:08.099 --> 00:18:18.099 In fact, you might have had one idol in your life that the Lord really helped you get rid of maybe some years back. 00:18:18.099 --> 00:18:26.099 He really showed you, you're really idolizing money and you're only going to feel okay if you have money in the savings account. 00:18:26.099 --> 00:18:30.099 Maybe you gave that to Lord and you repented, but I bet you your hearts found another. 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:32.099 Mine does. 00:18:32.099 --> 00:18:35.099 That's just our orientation to the world. 00:18:35.099 --> 00:18:41.099 So we need this constant daily revival from the Lord. 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:45.099 Renewal of refreshment. 00:18:45.099 --> 00:18:49.099 But what if I've sunk too low? 00:18:49.099 --> 00:18:55.099 What if I'm so far down the hole of idolatry that I just kind of feel dead to everything? 00:18:55.099 --> 00:18:58.099 What if it's too embarrassing to get out? 00:18:58.099 --> 00:19:02.099 What now? 00:19:02.099 --> 00:19:09.099 For every drop of deadness in our hearts, there's an ocean of grace and love in God's for you. 00:19:09.099 --> 00:19:15.099 This is the God who says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, I will give you rest. 00:19:15.099 --> 00:19:22.099 This is the God who says, I came that you might have life and have it abundantly. 00:19:22.099 --> 00:19:25.099 He died for you so you can be alive to him. 00:19:25.099 --> 00:19:27.099 That's how much he loves us. 00:19:27.099 --> 00:19:32.099 And it grows from the dead that we know that the corners of little worldliness and deadness in our hearts 00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:38.099 won't hold a candle to the God who conquered death itself. 00:19:38.099 --> 00:19:42.099 We can take it to him. 00:19:42.099 --> 00:19:49.099 And he's most tender to us where we're most needy. 00:19:49.099 --> 00:19:54.099 Lastly, the last little line in verse 18, 00:19:54.099 --> 00:19:57.099 so do all who trust in them. 00:19:57.099 --> 00:20:03.099 Because really, worship doesn't demand performance and duty as much as it just demands our reliance and trust. 00:20:03.099 --> 00:20:07.099 So God isn't yelling at us to shape up. 00:20:07.099 --> 00:20:09.099 He just wants your heart. 00:20:09.099 --> 00:20:15.099 He's inviting us to let go of those flimsy structures we've built to support us in our lives 00:20:15.099 --> 00:20:19.099 and just throw our weight on Jesus. 00:20:19.099 --> 00:20:22.099 So what if we all ask tonight? 00:20:22.099 --> 00:20:26.099 What if we all ask the Lord to help us let go of our puny little false gods 00:20:26.099 --> 00:20:29.099 and turn to him more fully than ever? 00:20:29.099 --> 00:20:35.099 What if we let him make us alive to God and it might hurt? 00:20:35.099 --> 00:20:40.099 Shifting the center of our gravity can be a painful thing 00:20:40.099 --> 00:20:45.099 because sometimes our hands are wrapped around our idols like we have rigomortis. 00:20:45.099 --> 00:20:51.099 And it's painful to pry those fingers off of the things we think we need. 00:20:51.099 --> 00:20:54.099 But it's worth it. 00:20:54.099 --> 00:20:59.099 If the Lord has pricked your heart tonight to show you that you're trusting in something other than him 00:20:59.099 --> 00:21:03.099 for your life, for your okanus, 00:21:03.099 --> 00:21:06.099 that's actually the first sign of inward renewal. 00:21:06.099 --> 00:21:09.099 That's the first spark of the fire. 00:21:09.099 --> 00:21:11.099 So go to him with it. 00:21:11.099 --> 00:21:14.099 And he will give you grace upon grace. 00:21:14.099 --> 00:21:23.099 Pray with me. 00:21:23.099 --> 00:21:27.099 Father, we are in awe of your heart toward us tonight. 00:21:27.099 --> 00:21:30.099 And it is so good to be here. 00:21:30.099 --> 00:21:34.099 Pleasant to sing your praises with your people. 00:21:34.099 --> 00:21:36.099 Lord, we thank you for Christ. 00:21:36.099 --> 00:21:42.099 We thank you for showing us your priorities and showing us how you feel about us, really. 00:21:42.099 --> 00:21:46.099 That your heart is for us. 00:21:46.099 --> 00:21:51.099 Lord, we would never believe it if we didn't see the cross. 00:21:51.099 --> 00:21:55.099 I pray that you will renew and refresh and revive us all tonight, Lord. 00:21:55.099 --> 00:21:59.099 Maybe some of us for the first time. 00:21:59.099 --> 00:22:03.099 It's a work only you can do and we just throw ourselves on you for it. 00:22:03.099 --> 00:22:06.099 The name of Christ and for his glory. 00:22:06.099 --> 00:22:16.099 Amen. 00:22:16.099 --> 00:22:17.099 Thank you, John. 00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:20.099 We're going to close singing to the Psalm that John mentioned, 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:24.099 the great words of Psalm 85. 00:22:24.099 --> 00:22:29.099 The Psalm that just speaks of God's amazing power and his faithfulness 00:22:29.099 --> 00:22:31.099 and the fact that he can bring us alive again. 00:22:31.099 --> 00:22:36.099 In times past, Lord, you should favour to your own beloved land the prosperity of Jacob 00:22:36.099 --> 00:22:38.099 you restored by your strong hand. 00:22:38.099 --> 00:22:48.099 We're going to sing the whole Psalm. Let's stand and sing together. 00:22:48.099 --> 00:23:05.099 In times past, Lord, you should favour to your own beloved land the prosperity of Jacob 00:23:05.099 --> 00:23:11.099 you restored by your strong hand. 00:23:11.099 --> 00:23:23.099 You forgave your people's trespass. You were pleased with sins to hide. 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:37.099 You withdrew all your displeasure from your wrath. You turned us up. 00:23:37.099 --> 00:23:50.099 God our Saviour now restore us from mostern away your rage. 00:23:50.099 --> 00:24:09.099 Will your anger burn against us? Will it last from age to age? Will you not again revive us? 00:24:09.099 --> 00:24:29.099 There we may rejoin in you. Show us, Lord, your calm and mercy, your salvation granted you. 00:24:29.099 --> 00:24:42.099 I will hear what God the Lord says to his saints. He offers peace. 00:24:42.099 --> 00:25:01.099 But if people must not wonder and return to foolishness, surely for all those who fear him, 00:25:01.099 --> 00:25:21.099 his salvation is at hand so that once again his glory may be seen within our land. 00:25:21.099 --> 00:25:34.099 Love and truth have met together, righteousness and peace and grace. 00:25:34.099 --> 00:25:53.099 Righteousness looks down from heaven, from the earth, springs faithfulness. What is good the Lord will give us 00:25:53.099 --> 00:26:15.099 and all on its fruitful man, righteousness will go before him and his royal way prepared. 00:26:15.099 --> 00:26:21.099 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all 00:26:21.099 --> 00:26:28.099 and all God's people say amen. 00:26:28.099 --> 00:26:32.099 Just a couple of notices as we close. As usual there's tea and coffee served at the table at the back 00:26:32.099 --> 00:26:38.099 so please do stay behind. We'd be delighted to have the opportunity to see you. 00:26:38.099 --> 00:26:42.099 As Derek mentioned in the morning, our annual cattle service is in two weeks time. 00:26:42.099 --> 00:26:48.099 There's cards at the back on the table. Please do take one of these or take a few of these 00:26:48.099 --> 00:26:52.099 if you have people that you would like to give an invitation to. 00:26:52.099 --> 00:26:58.099 Also over the coming week the notice will be shared through our social media channels 00:26:58.099 --> 00:27:03.099 so if you're able to share that as well through your own pages that will be fantastic. 00:27:03.099 --> 00:27:10.099 It's a great opportunity to invite people who otherwise don't normally come to church 00:27:10.099 --> 00:27:13.099 but yet often are keen to come for a cattle service. 00:27:13.099 --> 00:27:18.099 So please remember that, invite people and also be praying for it over the next couple of weeks 00:27:18.099 --> 00:27:26.099 as it is a wonderful gospel opportunity and we hope and pray that God will be at work in the midst of that. 00:27:26.099 --> 00:27:29.099 So if you could remember that we would appreciate it very much indeed. 00:27:29.099 --> 00:27:44.099 Otherwise have a good week and may God be with you. Thank you.