The Fruit of the Kindgom: Hope | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

I had a seminary professor some years ago who told this funny story.

He said he and his kids were in the yard doing yard work in the backyard, and you know, multiple kids, you know, from very small to older, and they were all kind of running around.

One of the older kids had a rake and he was, you know, helping his dad in the backyard, and at some point he turned around and inadvertently smacked his toddler brother in the head with the rake, and the you know, bam, goes right down to the ground.

There's blood, head wounds are very bloody.

Uh the kids are all screaming and running around, it's chaos.

Uh my professor, you know, runs up to his toddler child to see if he's okay, and uh, surprisingly, his the this toddler is is serene, just completely fine, just laying there on the ground bleeding.

And he overhears his the this uh little child say, I'm just so happy my daddy is a doctor.

Now, it's true his daddy was a doctor, but he was a PhD doctor, not an MD doctor.

Uh and it's a funny story uh just in and of itself, but it's also a powerful story about the lenses we view our lives through that give us hope and peace.

Right?

Now, we would tell say that this kid may have been placing his hope and peace in a wrong, misinterpreted piece of data.

Uh, and yet what you can see is the power of that view of his life allowed him to have peace while everyone around him was kind of running around chaotically.

This month through July, we've been preaching through a series called The Fruit of the Kingdom.

We've been talking about the fact that we live in a world that was created good, God created the world very good, and yet through sin and the fall, it has become broken, it has become full of sin, it's become chaotic at times and truly dangerous.

This world is and can be a dangerous place.

And we, in particular, are living in a time when stoking fear and uh antagonizing grievance have become a tool to manipulate and control the masses, you might say, or just our own hearts.

This morning, as we close out this sermon series, we're coming once again to this idea that Scripture calls us to live in this world, to walk in this world, viewing everything through a particular lens.

And we're calling that lens the kingdom of God.

And if we will walk as Christians, viewing life, ourselves, the world, and God through this lens, it will give us a variety of fruit.

I mean, really the fruit of the Spirit.

But this month we've looked at peace, humility, love, and today the fruit of hope.

And uh, as we talk about this, we're gonna use Psalm 46 that we read earlier as our template.

So let's look again at verses one through three.

The psalmist writes, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

The psalmist begins with this incredible declaration of faith.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

And then he describes his situation.

He says, We will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, the waters roar and foam.

What is happening?

The psalmist's world is falling apart.

The very earth under his feet seems to be giving way like six uh quicksand or an earthquake.

The sea is raging, the mountains are crumbling.

Any Bible nerds out there see any connections to other passages of Scripture?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Genesis 1 talks about creation.

And the way it describes creation is that the waters part and the dry land rises up from the water.

But here we're seeing the earth and the mountains themselves falling into the sea.

This biblically literate psalmist is saying that this is an act of uncreation.

Everything is literally and utterly falling apart.

But mountains and seas can also be references to great powers in the world.

Kingdoms and kings are often relayed as mountains.

And the sea is this kind of dangerous, chaotic force that's ever present in the world.

And so again, what we see is that the psalmist world is in upheaval.

We don't know the specifics necessarily, but we can tell that things are falling apart.

And so it begs the question for us.

When was the last time you felt your world was falling apart?

Maybe even this morning.

You've come here with a bit of a sense of desperation.

There are things going on in your life that you can't control that feel out of control.

Maybe a death in your family.

Redeemer, for the church this size, we've had a fair amount of death in the last year or two.

Maybe it's the loss of a job, prolonged unemployment, or just prolonged suffering in your life.

Maybe the loss of a relationship that's left you feeling isolated and alone.

Maybe it's financial, right?

We're uh all feeling the pinch of inflation, and um you know, maybe you have a lot of financial anxieties.

Maybe it's what's going on in the broader world of our country or the world, right?

I'm I apologize for bringing up all this stuff to make you feel anxious.

Maybe you came in feeling very serene yourself, but right, we live in a very polarized time, right?

Everyone seems to be polarized.

We were I was talking with someone last night, a single person in there.

They were talking about how the polarization in our country is affecting uh the dating world and how difficult it is to meet people.

There's rumors of civil war in our country.

People are talking about World War III because of the wars going on in our world today.

We've had one presidential candidate just recently barely uh avoid an assassination attempt, and the other presidential candidate dropped out of the race at a very late hour.

There are plenty of things on the horizon and in our own lives that threaten our sense of hope and peace at a heart level.

But here's the danger, and here's why we're talking about it this morning.

When we face, we are faced with the loss of stability and our hope for the future, it threaten uh when our hope for the future is threatened, we tend to reach for whatever is closest to us that promises refuge and strength.

And this is why so many of us put our hope in politicians and an election outcome.

This is why so many of us overwork and pay constant attention to the stock market.

This is why so many of us enter into relationships that we know we shouldn't.

So, what is shaping your hope these days?

Now we want to ask the question how is the psalmist able to say, in the midst of his world falling upside down, we will not be afraid.

That brings us to point.

Oh, let's look at verses four through seven.

There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.

God will help her when morning dawns.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter.

He utters his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Now, in verse 4, the psalmist says something curious if you know anything about the city of God.

He says, There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

The city of God, of course, at this time is Jerusalem.

But there is no such river running through Jerusalem.

What the author is alluding to is he's making an allusion to another biblical place through which a river runs, and that is the Garden of Eden.

What the psalmist is calling us and all of his hearers to remember is that no matter what our situation that we're in, God is able, can, and will bring refreshing, life-giving blessings into our lives, like rivers of living water, making our sin-cursed world and present situation feel like a restored garden of Eden.

I had lunch with uh someone this week, and over lunch they were telling me uh about a particular situation going on in their life.

It had it's been ongoing, it's been uh a situation of anxiety, of heartache, of longing.

But then as they were telling the story, they paused and they began to tear up, and then they said, But whatever happens, I know that God is good, and that the ending of the story will be good.

In that moment, in a very simple yet beautiful way, they were doing what this psalmist in Psalm 46 is doing.

First, they honestly and accurately named what was going on in their lives painful, difficult, begging them to anxiety.

But then, too, they placed that story, their own story and situation, within the larger story of the one that God is telling.

And it became a balm to his soul.

Listen to how the psalmist does the same thing.

He affirms that God has promised to dwell in the midst of his people, just as in Christ, God has promised to dwell in us, those who have put our faith in Christ through his Holy Spirit.

And because God is in her midst, the psalmist says, She shall not be moved.

Why?

Well, he tells us again in verse 6 the nations rage, the kingdoms totter.

He, God, utters his voice, the earth melts.

Imagine this is an individual, one solitary person who's looking out at his world and he's seeing everything fall apart, nations raging against nation, kingdoms tottering on the brink of destruction.

It's easy in that perspective to feel utterly helpless and afraid.

And yet for him, he pulls back the focus until he says, but when God speaks, the earth melts.

The very earth itself in which all of these huge and powerful nations dwell are nothing compared to the God of the universe.

But he's not just the God of the universe, he is our God.

He's the God who has come to us, the God who has loved us, the God who has come to dwell inside of us.

Like my professor's toddler, child, the lens through which the psalmist sees the world and invites us to see the world makes all the difference.

So, how do we get there?

He tells us in verses 10 through 11.

Let's look there.

Be still, know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress.

In verse 10, the Lord Himself speaks, right?

All the other verses are the psalmist writing.

Now the Lord speaks and he tells us how to find rest and hope in the midst of this chaotic world, and he says, Be still.

Know that I am God.

So let's break that down.

Be still.

What does it mean to be still?

Well, it means to stop the frenzy of activity.

The frenzy activity in your mind, the frenzy activity of your body.

The constant doing, the never-ending stream of news and entertainment, of distractions.

That's one of the great uh delusions of our age is I don't want to think about all these things that are giving me anxiety, so let me distract myself with Netflix or funny things or a crossword puzzle or a podcast.

And yet by distracting ourselves, the anxiety of our heart continues.

It simply runs under the water like the feet of a duck.

Blaise Pascal, famous French philosopher, inventor, uh theologian, he said this.

He said, all of a person's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

Why won't we sit in a quiet room alone?

Because we're afraid.

We're afraid of what we won't hear.

And so we create a constant noise.

Having the TV on at all times, kind of maybe having a podcast going at every moment of the day, having the game on in the background.

Beloved, I encourage you to become aware of what you take into your mind and heart on a daily basis.

It's not a bad thing to pay attention to the news or to social media, but there is an absolute limit to what is healthy and helpful for you.

And so the Lord Himself invites us to shut out the world for a time, each and every day, to sit at Jesus' feet, to listen to his voice through the scriptures, to pour out our hearts to him, to place our anxieties in his hands, and to wait.

Well, not only are we to be still in his presence, but we are to know that he is God.

We're to fill our mind and our hearts with the truth and the promises that God has given us, so many promises, to be with us even to the end of the age.

He tells us to set ourselves, our lives, our situation within this larger story that God is telling.

So we remind ourselves of the story that God is telling.

And as hard as it is at times, depending on what's going on in your life, it's vital to remember the faithfulness of God.

We've been singing about it even this morning.

The faithfulness of God in your own life.

Where has God been faithful?

Where has he shown himself true in your own story?

But even in the broader context of all of history, right, we have the scriptures that show the people of God time and time again in desperate, deadly situations.

And yet the Lord is present and faithful.

Not only to rescue, but to die for us as his people.

I love the scene in the Gospels where Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate.

And Pilate, in a way, he's he's trying to get Jesus to talk.

He doesn't think Jesus is this guilty criminal.

And so he says to Jesus, Don't you know that I have the power of life and death over you?

Why won't you speak?

And so Jesus does speak and he says to him, You have no power over me at all, except for that which is given to you from above.

See, Jesus, moments from his death, from his unjust punishment, never stopped placing his story within the larger story that God was telling.

And so in that moment, he had peace and he had hope of the resurrection.

If you are in Christ, then you are the beloved of God.

And God has made incredible promises to provide for you, to be with you, and also to work in your life through hardship to bring about the true fruits of the kingdom.

He will never leave us, never forsake us.

And if you're in a time in your life where it is very hard to believe that promise, that's okay.

Let the community come around you and have that faith for you.

Those who have walked through the valley of the shadow of death before you can be an incredible comfort.

Listen to their stories.

Cling in faith to the truth.

Now, where is this story going?

The psalmist tells us that the Lord is our refuge and our strength in the midst of great trouble, and that is absolutely true today.

But God did not withhold the end of the story from us.

He tells us the end of the story.

Listen to where our story, God's story, is going.

Then I saw a new heavens and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the chaotic, the dangerous sea was no more.

I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.

God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Beloved, is that not an incredible promise, prophecy, revelation of what is to come and it will come?

The Father, our Father in heaven, is offering us a hope, a lens through which to view our lives so that we have a sure hope.

And that when we need to reach out for that strength, for that refuge, we will reach out to Him.

Beloved, don't put your hope in princes, in chariots, or in horses, but rest in the hope of the Lord your God who loves you and gave himself up for you.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Lord, in the midst of a world that feels often like it is falling apart, Lord, we struggle to have hope.

And we struggle to have hope in the places you tell us to have hope.

And so, Father, we ask for your help.

We thank you for your faithfulness.

We thank you for your promises.

We thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection from the dead and his seating at your right hand.

Lord, may your larger story shape our smaller stories.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.