All is not lost : Psalm 137 | Mark Lecompte

So happy to be back at New Life Church, one of 11 sites that we have at New Life Église Nouvelle Vie here in Quebec, and also one in France.

And I can tell you, as an associate pastor of Nouvelle Vie in charge of the multi-sites, we love New Life Church.

We thank God for New Life Church.

We're so excited about New Life Church and we're proud of New Life Church.

So congratulations, Pastor Selvin and Kelly, and all the team, all the team of pastors and leaders and volunteers, and each and every one of you, for your faithfulness, your prayers, your service.

Something exciting is going on here at New Life Church.

So it's always a joy to hear the good news about New Life Church, but also to be here with New Life Church.

And also to have Isa, our new pastor at Setzil, as Lori mentioned, who's with us uh this afternoon.

Uh Isa was inaugurated, I suppose, maybe not quite uh uh maybe quite a year ago.

Uh was it actually this year, probably.

Been there, he's been there several months, but he's our new pastor in Setzil, which is far away.

And uh good news to announce uh last week he got engaged officially.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You don't know to who yet.

Okay, there's a reason Julie's sitting right beside him here in the front row.

Julie, whom we love, where her music and her worship is part of the worship team.

So the good news is last week our pastor Isa got engaged to Julie, and now they are a specially engaged couple getting married this fall.

Now you can clap.

Come on, applaud Isa, Julie.

We're so happy for you.

And thank you for the work you're doing at uh Setsil.

How many of you are happy that Jesus never takes a Sunday afternoon off to sit by the pool and enjoy a barbecue?

Right?

Isn't that great?

I mean, you know, Jesus is always there, always on call, always faithful, always present.

Other people might take a break here and there, and that's okay.

Sit by the pool to barbecue vacation, that's fine, fine, fine.

But at least we know it doesn't matter what the weather's like, it doesn't matter if it's July 26th, it's in the middle of the summer.

We know that when we come to church, Jesus will be there because he's always there, always faithful, always present, and never takes a moment off.

So we're so happy to be in the presence of Jesus, the worship, the celebration.

We sense the presence of Christ here, and we thank you, Jesus, for always being here and always faithful.

So can we all stand again together from the back right here to the front?

And can we just give the Lord a good standing O clap offering, shout of joy and praise?

Jesus is present, He's a witness to everything we say and do, and we just want to applaud our hero, faithful Jesus, Savior, Redeemer.

That's why it's always great to be in church because we know that Jesus is there, and in his presence is a fullness of joy.

We're so proud of Jesus as well.

You can be seated.

I'm happy to add my voice to this summer series on the Psalms, one of the most interesting, inspiring, and beautiful books in the entire Bible, with a message entitled, All Is Not Lost.

Inspired by Psalm 137, that reveals the heart of a people who thought all was lost.

This is the Psalm 137.

It's on the screen.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down.

We wept when we remembered Zion, Jerusalem.

We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it.

For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song.

Those who plundered us requested mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.

If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth.

If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, who said, Raise it, raise it to its very foundation.

O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed.

Happy the one who repays you as you have served us.

Happy the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.

Yikes.

Are you blessed yet?

Not all the psalms express praise, prayer, promises, and passion.

Some express pain.

Because the Psalms are real.

That's what I like about the Psalms.

The Psalms are real.

Real humanity.

Expressing real emotion.

Experiencing real pain.

One psalm starts with these words break their teeth, O God, in their mouth.

It's not a prayer we pray very often at church on a Sunday.

That's not how we start our prayers on a Sunday morning.

Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth.

But I don't mind any of it.

Because that's what it means to be human.

The Psalms are not only divine, they are human.

Written in reality and not fantasy.

This isn't children's literature.

Now they don't condone or encourage this rage, but they don't hide it either.

The psalms aren't airbrushed to avoid any negative or adverse expressions.

As we see clearly in this particular psalm, which expresses the pain of being taken captive and hauled away from your homeland.

So just in this psalm, we see sadness.

By the rivers of Babylon we wept.

We see humiliation.

Those who carried us away captive and plundered us requested mirth, happiness, joy, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Sing us one of your cute little songs that you sing.

Humiliation.

I don't know if you've ever seen the movie The Pianist.

It's a true story about the Nazi invasion of Poland, and it's one man's true story, a pianist, a musician.

And there's one scene in that movie that is extremely awkward, hard to look at, when the Nazis surround a group of Jewish people, men and women and young people that have been taken captive, and they have their guns pointed at them, all in a circle, and there's a group of Jewish people there, and they say exactly that in the movie.

Dance for us.

Come on, dance.

Dance one of your Jewish dances.

Come on, dance with us now.

It's extremely awkward.

It's hard to look at.

Because then you see them, well, they have no choice.

It's at the barrel of a gun.

No one wants to dance at the point of the barrel of a gun, the end of the barrel of a gun.

So you see them doing it, and they're they're dancing, and they're kind of dancing like this and playing a bit of the music.

And it's hard to look at.

It's so unnatural.

It's so humiliating.

Dance for us, dance for us.

Come on.

You're cute little Jewish dances.

Come on, dance for us.

Well, that's exactly what they were doing there.

Sing us one of your songs.

They've been plundered, taken captive, and they're saying, uh, dance for us, sing us one of your songs.

Be happy.

It's awkward.

Those who plundered us are forcing us to put a smile on our faces and sing.

It's a cruel and humiliating joke.

They also, this psalm also expresses loss.

We wept when we remembered Zion.

We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it, for those who carried us away captive.

So they're weeping for loss of home, identity, security, comfort, culture, and community.

Loss of the temple, the center of all their activity and worship, the place where God was, the holy of holies, gone.

900 kilometers away from them.

So they're mourning the loss.

Anguish.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

Anguish.

And finally, rage.

O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy the one who repays you.

Happy the one who takes and dashes your little one against the rocks.

That's rage.

That is real rage.

Not the fake political rage we read about in the papers.

Or the occasional road rage we all experience driving in Quebec.

Don't leave me alone up here, okay?

Right?

Road rage.

When an idiot cuts you off in traffic, and it's always an idiot.

And then we want to pass them to see what an idiot looks like.

Yes or no?

Come on, don't leave me.

We're all the same, right?

Look at that guy.

I want to see what an idiot.

That's what an idiot looks like.

Road rage.

No, this was real rage.

That's why it's intense.

What's that doing in the Bible?

Take their little ones.

What?

But it's real rage.

Which we can understand.

Babylon had surrounded Jerusalem, besieged them, cutting off supplies, squeezing them in, eventually ravaging them, plundering their homes, separating their families.

They basically kidnapped the elite young men to serve in the Babylonian palace.

That's the book of Daniel.

The book of Daniel is that.

Ezekiel is one of the guys that was deported with the majority of people into an enslavement camp.

And then you have Jeremiah, who's kind of old by that time, and they just leave him in Jerusalem.

That's how you see those three prophets all together at the same time of the deportation from Babylon.

And then they were literally plundered.

They were invaded and taken by force from their homes, deported 900 kilometers away, and eventually Jerusalem was raised, utter destruction, including the temple in 586 BC.

And that's the book of Lamentations in your Bible.

It's the lamentation of the destruction of Jerusalem.

The book of Lamentations starts with this, starts like this.

How lonely sits the city that was full of people.

She's become a slave.

She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks.

She's gone into captivity under infliction and hard servitude.

She's in bitterness.

Her adversaries have become adversaries have become the master.

Her enemies prosper.

Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

All her splendor is departed with no one to help her.

That's how lamentation starts in your Bible, because it's it's lamenting and mourning the utter destruction of Jerusalem at the hand of the Babylonians.

So this explains the rage and the sadness of Psalm 137.

We understand it.

Now some of you saying, okay, Pastor Mark, but why?

Why this psalm?

Why are you telling all this?

Telling us all this because we all have moments, days or seasons in our life when we feel like this.

But all is not lost.

With God, all is never lost.

We may be sad and angry, but we are never hopeless, fatherless, loveless, and worthless.

Now, how do I know this?

By discovering a man who absolutely thought all was lost as he sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept until the Holy Spirit took over and everything changed.

You know what his name is?

His name is Ezekiel.

Ezekiel was living, Psalm 137, Ezekiel the prophet in your Bibles.

Now it came to pass in the 30th year in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Kebar.

Well, what was he doing by the river Hebar?

The river Kebar was a river in Babylon.

And he was doing what the captives did by the rivers in Babylon, like it says in Psalm 137.

He was weeping, of course.

He was mourning the loss of not only his home, his land, and his culture, but his future.

Ezekiel had just turned 30, which was the year of his inauguration into the priesthood.

He was supposed to be starting the priesthood in Jerusalem.

It was his 30th birthday.

Something he had prepared for his entire life.

Ezekiel was the son of a priest, destined to be a priest himself, but now there he was, no more priesthood, no more temple, no more future, loss, loss, loss.

But then God arrives by the power of his spirit, right then and there, which enables him to see, to stand, and eventually to swim.

I'll explain that in a minute.

I don't know if you know this, but the the Holy Spirit plays an extremely active role in Ezekiel's life and ministry.

We could almost call him the Pentecostal prophet.

With the Holy Spirit guiding, inspiring, revealing, empowering, commissioning, anointing, and communicating all through the book of Ezekiel.

The Holy Spirit is just there with him and working with him.

But it all starts here by the river Hebal, the rivers in Babylon, when he thought all was lost.

The Spirit arrives, enables him to see, stand, and swim.

Swim in the rivers of abundance.

We'll get to that in a moment.

But the book starts with him crying beside the rivers of Babylon and ends with him swimming in the rivers of God's blessing, power, and healing.

When you feel all is lost, allow the Spirit to help you see, stand, and swim, because all is never lost with the Lord.

Can I hear an amen to that?

Come on, give the Lord a good clap offering.

He thought it was lost, lost, lost, but then God arrived.

All is not lost.

First thing the Spirit does with Ezekiel is he enables him to see.

He was just seeing his circumstances.

The pity, the loss, the tragedy, the captivity.

So the first thing the Holy Spirit did is allow him to see something else.

So it continues.

It was in the 30th year of my life, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was among the captives by the river Khebar, that the heavens were open, and I saw visions of God.

Then I looked, and behold.

And then it says, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself.

Brightness is all around it and radiating out of its midst, like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

And then it goes on for three chapters.

It goes on for three chapters.

Where it describes the awesome otherworldliness and majesty of God, what he simply calls visions of God.

It was a multimedia vision of sights and sounds surrounding God's throne that are so overwhelming and breathtaking it knocks him over.

It says it was like the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

So when I saw it, I fell on my face.

And then again, later in the story, I arose and went out to the plain, and again the glory of the Lord stood there like the glory I saw by the river Hebar, and I fell on my face, forward, not backward, forward, in adoration and praise and worship and reverence and awe.

The first thing the Holy Spirit wants to do when you think all is lost is open your eyes to the awesomeness of God, not only his power, but his presence.

Ezekiel thought God was back there in Jerusalem.

God's there in Jerusalem, in the temple, behind the veil, in the Holy of Holies.

But no, to his utter surprise, God was there with him in this place of loneliness, hopelessness, and despair.

It's what we call an unexpected visitation of the Lord.

God was there where he needed to be.

Come on, give the Lord a good clap offering.

He's always where he needs to be.

And it says, the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest in the land of the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, by the river Hebar, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there, there, by the rivers of Babylon, where people came to weep and mourn, the place they came to recall their loss and express their rage.

It's right there that the hand of God was upon him, enabling him to see beyond his circumstances and outside his feelings and emotions.

And I pray that God amazes us, astonishes us, and overwhelms us with visions of his majesty and transcendence, like with Ezekiel here.

Or like he did with Moses or Daniel or Isaiah or even John.

John the Apostle John, Jesus' best friend.

He thought he knew Jesus, but after seeing him in his full glory and splendor, as described in Revelation chapter 1, he fell down like a dead man, completely awestruck by his glory and majesty, because he got a glimpse of the wow of Christ.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

And Ezekiel got a glimpse of the wow of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he was overwhelmed and it changed his life.

How many of you are ready for visions of God?

Raise your two hands before the Lord and say, God, I'm ready.

I'm ready for visions of God.

No matter my circumstances.

My prayer since the beginning of this year is to be continually astonished, amazed, awestruck by the majesty of God, the glory of Christ, and never become jaded, nonchalant, or even worse, bored.

God forgive us if we're bored.

Bored by the Christian life.

Bored in our relationship with Jesus.

Bored in our service.

Bored in church.

Bored by the worship and the praise.

Bored by the Bible.

Which includes my praise, my prayers, and my passion.

The great author, teacher Gordon Fee said, Let me hear you sing, let me hear you pray, and I will write your theology.

That's well said, that.

I can tell what you believe by the way you pray, and the by the way you praise.

Well said.

So may the Lord save us from a passive, fatalistic, boring, and static theology.

With a fresh vision of a transcendent God who inspires passion, faith, and anticipation.

Never again approaching God in a passive manner, but always with passion.

Never in a fatalistic way, but with faith.

Never with apathy, but always with anticipation.

Never resigned to my fate, but always resolved to change it and get out of the mire in which I find myself.

There's no doubt here, Ezekiel was stuck in the mire of self-pity as he sat by the river weeping.

But God had plans for him.

God was not done.

So the first thing the Lord does is get his attention with visions of God.

In other words, he's saying, Ezekiel, don't look down, look up.

God is greater than your situation.

He's greater than anything you can imagine.

It's awesome the first three chapters of Ezekiel.

It's wow.

Somebody asked me recently, Pastor Mark, do you believe in UFOs, all these UFO sightings, all these things going on in the sky?

Do you believe in that?

I said, I don't know, but read the first three chapters of Ezekiel.

There's a lot going on up there.

So I don't know.

It was so awesome, it took him seven days to recover.

Seven days to recover from what he saw.

How many of you know that God is awesome?

Hey, come on, give the Lord a good clap offering.

We serve an awesome.

That's what Ezekiel discovered.

Oh wow, God's awesome.

This is amazing.

Seven days.

Which is the reason why the enemy is doing everything to keep us distracted, busy, and entertained.

He wants us, our eyes, to be focused on anything but Jesus, anything but visions of God.

Anything.

Because it changes everything.

So the devil comes in like a cunning serpent.

It's not for nothing that the devil's often referred to as a serpent in the Bible.

From the creation story in Genesis right to the last book of the Revelation, where he's called the serpent four times.

And sometimes a serpent bites like a rattlesnake, suddenly.

Surprised by a fault, Paul talks about.

But other times, I would say even more often, he suffocates like a python.

Slowly strangling us with the cares and pleasures of life, entertainment, distractions, to keep our eyes on anything else but God.

T.

S.

Ellis Elliott said, We are distracted from distractions by distractions.

That's well said.

These days, we're distracted from distractions.

Distractions by distractions.

They distract us away from the Lord, from visions of God.

And these distractions ultimately steal the most precious thing we have.

More precious than our money or our material possessions.

Our attention.

Our attention.

And when he captures our attention, he also captures our affections, our thoughts, and our hearts.

Everything to prevent us from focusing on the Lord.

The one thing that should distract us and captivate our attention is the Lord.

Anything to keep us from visions of God.

To make sure that our spirituality remains superficial and never supernatural.

See, Ezekiel's experience became all of a sudden supernatural.

Not superficial.

It changed everything.

How many of you want a spiritual life that is supernatural?

Because we serve a supernatural God.

Come on, raise your two hands before God.

Say, yeah, that's what I don't want a superficial spirituality.

I want something supernatural like Ezekiel.

Do you know what the most precious resource related to our spiritual growth is?

Our attention.

Our attention.

Everything changed for Ezekiel when God got his attention.

And I admit that it's more and more difficult for God to capture our attention today.

With technology and endless social network and media platforms where multiple billions of dollars are spent to find every possible way to capture and keep our attention.

To create an addiction more intense than nicotine.

It's a reality that's preoccupying.

You know this, you read the papers and the articles, you hear what's going on.

It's a reality that's preoccupying doctors, psychologists, sociologists, and governments these days, especially in relation to its harmful effect on children and teenagers by algorithms that keep their prey captive and captivated.

Because our attention is money for them.

Your attention, your eyes, your thoughts are a source of enormous profit for them.

And then we throw in with that marketing.

We throw marketing into the mix.

Ads, ads, ads, marketing, marketing, marketing.

Your attention, your eyes, your thoughts are a source of enormous profit.

And with the marketing, it adds to our sense of not having enough, needing to grasp for more and more.

Because every year, billions of dollars are spent to make sure that we are constantly aware of what we are missing and what we don't have.

To offer us a thousand and one things we absolutely need to be happy and fulfilled is what we call marketing.

Someone once said marketing is billions of dollars spent to make us buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like.

Whoever dies with the most toys win.

It's just marketing.

Need something, need something, need something.

I remember when our children were younger, my wife said, Mark, you need to go to the hardware store and buy a light bulb.

Light bulbs?

Oh, yeah, okay.

Hey kids, you want to come with me?

Yeah, let's go.

Go to the hardware store to buy light bulbs.

Then I see a sign over the Trevi.

Buy a pool, get a free barbecue.

I said to the kids, hey, we need a barbecue.

Let's go inside there to get the free barbecue.

And bought a 21-foot outdoor pool, threw the barbecue in there, went to the hardware store to get the light bulbs, came back home.

So did you get the light bulbs?

Yes, I did.

But I also got a barbecue and a pool.

Men, never buy a pool without talking to your wife first.

But they got me with the marketing.

Buy a pool, get a free barbecue.

I need, I need, I need.

Have you noticed that 100% of babies arrive in the world crying and not smiling?

They arrive crying, not laughing.

Because from the first moment of our lives, we're aware that something's wrong.

We don't know what, but we know that things are going badly.

We know we're missing something.

And the rest of our days are lived in the pursuit of things, something, anything, to fill the void, the hole in our hearts.

And to fill the gap, we run and work, sweat, pursue, hunt, fight, climb, to own, obtain, have, accumulate, positions, titles, possessions, things, a name, a reputation, friends, experiences, relationships, gadgets, jewelry, toys, recognition, adrenaline rushes, anything to fill the gap.

We call that constant craving.

You know what Ecclesiastes calls it in Ecclesiastes 6?

The agitation of desires.

That's well described, isn't it?

This agitation of desire, desire, desire, something, something, something.

And it's it's it's it's it's nourished and fueled by the marketing.

Yeah, I need that, I need that, I need that, distraction, distraction, distraction.

We always have a sense of loss, constant craving, the agitation of desire.

The constant pressure to impress others, attract attention, admiration, envy, how we live, what we eat, look at me, my life, adventures, my friends, my exciting, it becomes exhausting and impossible to maintain.

And the constant comparison with others magnifies our lack.

What do we, what, what do we have, what we have or don't have or possess?

Because other people's lives seem more exciting.

So we sing, I'm at a loss, I'm at a loss, I'm losing something.

Not everybody has a limited amount of money.

Most of us do, but we all have a limited attention span.

24 hours a day.

And a thousand and one things competed for those hours and that attention, shout at us for attention.

And God, him, all this is going on, God him, he waits to reveal himself to us, to marvel us, transform us, to change the direction of our lives, our destiny, like he did with Ezekiel.

See, the solution to all these distractions, the agitation of desire, the constant craving, the sense of loss, loss, loss.

I need more, more, more.

You know what the solution, the remedy is?

Jesus is the solution.

God's the solution.

God is the solution.

That's why he wants to open our eyes and see who God is.

But the devil wants to keep us distracted, distracted, distracted.

Ezekiel thought all was lost, but the whole the Holy Spirit helped him to see, to see that God was not confined to a temple, a building, a box, a city, a piece of land, but he was also in Babylon by the river of sadness and loss, and nothing can contain or restrain the Lord, and nothing and no one.

And this is what Ezekiel discovered when the Holy Spirit helped him see and then helped him stand.

He says it's this wonder of God that gives us this fulfillment and solves the problem of the constant craving and the agitation of desire.

When I have Jesus, I have everything.

Come on, a good clap offering.

I want visions of God, visions of God, visions of God.

It's all right to have stuff, to enjoy stuff, to buy stuff.

That's fine, fine, fine.

All these things are great, but I don't need it for fulfillment.

I don't need to live with a sense of loss and craving and comparison.

And this is what Ezekiel thought.

He was mourning the loss, and he said, What am I mourning about?

I have God, and God is awesome.

So he helped him see.

Then he helped him stand.

Then the spirit entered me when he spoke to me and set me on my feet.

And I heard him who spoke to me, and he said to me, Son of man, I am sending you.

So he said, He set me on my feet first.

The spirit entered and set me on my feet and said, I'm sending you.

Then again, the spirit entered me and set me on my feet and spoke with me and said to me, Go, go, I'm sending you, go.

Twice the spirit set him on his feet.

In other words, he was telling Ezekiel to stop wallowing by the river of self-pity and anger and to get up, stand, move forward.

I'm sending you, go.

It's mission.

And with the commission, he adds these very important words.

Look at this.

Go, I'm sending you.

But son of man, do not be afraid or dismayed.

Though briars and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions, do not be afraid.

That's powerful.

That's again reality.

God's not telling Ezekiel, from now on, life's gonna be a bowl of cherries.

No, he says the opposite.

It's gonna be a bowl of briars and thorns.

You're gonna be surrounded by scorpions.

He's being honest with Ezekiel.

He says, life's not gonna be a bowl of cherries.

Sometimes it's gonna sting.

Sometimes it's gonna be uncomfortable.

Sometimes it's gonna be painful, but do not be afraid.

Stand and go forward, because nothing paralyzes us more than fear.

Nothing keeps us back more than fear.

He says, yes, there will be risks and there'll be challenges and there might be some pain and some problems, but don't let fear stop you.

Go forward, don't be dismayed because you're not alone.

I am with you.

Stand, get up, go, move from the river.

Nothing shuts out opportunities, impact, growth, blessing, and rewards more than fear.

How many people just stay where they are, stay put, stay by the river?

In anxiety, fear, due to uncertainty and insecurity and the general malaise in the world, and we understand.

If there's one word to describe the world's psyche over the past few years, I'd say it's fear.

We're living with an overdose of anguish and anxiety, are we not?

And every media outlet, whether in print or in voice, seems to want to give us an unlimited number of reasons to be afraid.

Several years ago was COVID.

Fear COVID, fear COVID.

Now it's fear of the wars, fear of the economy, fear of the violence, fear of climate change, fear of the climate apocalypse.

Four days of sunshine without rain, people are crying drought due to climate change.

Four days of constant rain, flooding due to climate change.

Which one is it?

Now I'm not a climate denier.

But there's a difference between cautious concern, prudent, wise, and good stewards of the planet, as we should be, and being afraid.

Do you follow me?

Do you follow me?

There's a difference.

We can be cautious, we can be prudent, conscientious, but we don't need to be afraid.

Because fear paralyzes us.

It keeps us awake at night, it haunts us, it torments us, it keeps us down, hinders us from moving forward, it keeps us by the river.

Real fears or irrational fears?

There are real fears in the world that we need not fear because God is with us, but there are also the irrational fears, what we call the phobias.

Everybody's got phobia.

I read an article in Time magazine where they listed more than 300 phobias.

But I like the title.

It said, Fear not.

I said, Yeah, exactly.

Thank you.

That's what the Bible says.

Over 300 phobias.

I don't know what your phobia is.

I have a phobia of flying.

I don't like flying.

I fly a lot, but I'm not I'm not comfortable when I'm flying.

I don't like to fly.

I'm I'm always a bit nervous, and I just I just kind of want to get there.

And people are always trying to comfort me and you know give me words of wisdom and say, well, Pastor Mark, you don't have to be you don't have to be scared about flying because no one dies before it's their time.

But when I get on a plane, I always hope it's not his time.

Maybe someone on this plane, it's their time.

So it doesn't help me.

So I don't get to enjoy the fine cuisine of Air Canada or their comfortable seats.

Because I'm just a little bit nervous.

But that's that's just irrational fears.

That's just phobias.

Like, and you don't, you know, we all have them.

Mine's that, but there's all kinds of phobias in here.

Like chromatophobia, the fear of money.

I've never met that person yet.

Anybody here have a fear of money?

I can help you out.

That's a true, that's a true phobia.

Here's another one.

Sibophobia.

The fear of food.

I wish I had that one.

I don't fear money, and I love food.

I'd love to have that one.

I never met that person.

I wish I was that person.

Fear of food.

Ecclesiophobia exists.

Fear of church.

I know a few people like that.

Any excuse not to come to church?

Maybe they have ecclesiophobia.

Glossophobia.

The fear of speaking in public.

We all have that.

Me included.

Hypegaphobia.

Fear of responsibility.

I know a few people like that too.

Metasthesiophobia.

Fear of changes.

That's pretty much everybody.

Here's a good one.

Pecatophobia.

Fear of sinning.

God give us pegatophobia.

Come on, let's pray right now.

Give us a good dose of pecatophobia.

The fear of sinning.

Because we sure don't have enough of pecatophobia around here.

Phallicophobia.

Fear of becoming bald.

Too late.

It's amazing.

I read these phobias and said, man, alive.

There's a lot of things to fear.

So there's these phobias, these irrational fears.

And then there's the real fears.

But nothing closes the door on opportunity more quickly and more often than fear.

Nothing keeps us by that river more than fear.

Keeps us away from our potential on experiencing the fullness of the blessing of God that we have in Christ to live our lives to the fullest.

It robs us of peace, but also the adventures, possibilities, opportunities, victories awaiting us, like with Ezekiel.

As I often say to people going through a hard time, quoting Psalm 23, if you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death right now, don't be discouraged because at least you're walking, you're walking.

You're not dead, and you're not alone.

So keep moving forward.

Jesus is with you.

Listen for his voice.

Do not be afraid or dismayed.

Listen to the voice of God, the same voice that spoke to Ezekiel, saying, Do not fear, do not be afraid, do not be dismayed.

I'm not telling you everything's gonna be easy.

There's gonna be briars and thorns and the occasional scorpion, but keep on going forward, even through the valley of the shadow of death, because I am with you and I will comfort you and I will strengthen you.

Can I hear an amen to that?

Come on, give the Lord a good clap offering.

That's what he said.

It's not gonna be easy, but I'm with you.

Don't let fear paralyze you.

Like you, I have a decision to make every morning when I wake up.

Which voice will I listen to today?

Which voice among all the voices crying for my attention?

What am I gonna listen to when I wake up?

Is it gonna be the voice of the media fear-mongering?

The voice of my body with all its desires, impulses, and appetites?

Is it gonna be the voice of the enemy in my soul, always looking to sow doubt and discouragement?

Or is it just gonna be the voices in my head?

There's always more than one.

I'm not even talking about my wife, which is one more voice in my head in the morning.

But it's a beautiful voice, Sue.

This is my wife, Sue, here.

Stand up, Sue, so everybody can see, see what I'm talking about.

It's a beautiful voice.

After 42 years of marriage, my heart still beats when I hear her voice.

Out of fear.

What did you think?

Mark, what did I do?

What did I do?

What did I do?

What did I do?

But fear and love.

Mix of both.

A little bit like with God.

I love your voice, by the way.

No, I'm talking about the voices in my head that come from my thoughts and emotions and worries.

Because life generates a thousand and one reasons to fear.

We fear for our health, especially after a certain age.

We fear for our children, our adult children, our children's children, our finances, today, tomorrow, retirement, future, the unknown.

But again, when we listen to these voices of the voice of God, it's less in your face than the other voices, but it's constant and clear.

Do not be afraid, despite briars, thorns, and scorpions.

Ezekiel thought his future of service to God and his people was over, but it was just getting started.

Not as a priest, but as a prophet.

He says, You thought you were called to be a priest and everything was over, but I'm calling you to something even greater.

I'm calling you to be a prophet.

And right there in those visions, he says, I'm calling you to be a watchman, a prophet, and he said, and he says, and people are gonna read about you.

He says, he doesn't tell them that, but he people he became a prophet and called to be a prophet, and people will read about him and teach about him and preach about him for thousands of years.

He thought he was just gonna be a priest in Jerusalem, and God called him to be a prophet, and we're still talking about him today because all is not lost with God.

We think we're lost, and God has something better for us.

Come on, a good clap offering to the Lord.

Ezekiel's story is fantastic.

No more priesthood.

No, you're gonna be a prophet that everyone's gonna talk about for thousands of years.

A watchman.

God has his plans, his purposes.

It's never too late, and it's not all, it's never lost.

God can use even the saddest of circumstances, the most tragic situation for his purposes, and he can use us, he can use me and you wherever you are and whoever you are.

Because this transcendent God who sits above the circle of the earth, that that Ezekiel saw, is at the same time present here, here and now with us.

The God who is not restricted by time or space, with neither beginning nor end, who reigns beyond time, who knows the end from the beginning, has chosen to act and react in the now and here and now with us, with consequences and rewards in answer to our prayer decisions, actions in a very personal way with purpose and mission.

So the Holy Spirit enabled Ezekiel to see, empowered him to stand and go without fear, face the future, move forward.

And ultimately invited him to swim.

To swim in the river of living water, the river of living water that flows from his throne through the temple and down to us.

A river of living water available to every believer by the Holy Spirit, who arrives with an abundance of gifts and power.

And according to Ezekiel, the river gives us access to freedom, healing, deliverance, a flourishing life.

What's interesting at the end of his book, Ezekiel describes a river flowing from the throne of God like a river of living water that refreshes and heals and makes everything around it flourish, a river in which we can not only dip our feet in but dive.

Listen to this.

Then he brought me back.

This is towards the end of the book.

He brought me back to the door of the temple.

There was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple.

The water was flowing from under the right side of the temple.

He brought me through the waters.

They came up to my ankles.

Then he measured 1,000 again and brought me through the waters.

The waters came up to my knees.

Then he measured again and brought me through, and the water came up to my waist.

Then he measured again, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water was too deep.

Water in which one must swim.

A river that could not be crossed.

And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this?

Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river.

And when I returned there along the bank of the river, there are very many trees on one side and the other.

And he said to me, This water flows towards the sea.

When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed.

And it shall be every living thing that moves wherever the rivers go will live and be healed.

Everything will live wherever the river goes.

Along the bank of the river on this side and that will grow all kinds of trees used for food.

Their leaves will not wither, their fruit will not fail, they will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary of God, their fruit will be food, and their leaves will be medicine for healing, thus says the Lord God.

Wow.

Wow.

That image immediately makes us think of John's revelation in the eternal city.

The eternal city.

When he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb.

In the middle of its streets, and on either side of the river was a tree of life which bore twelve fruits, each tree, yielding its fruit every month.

The leaves of the tree were there for the healing of the nations.

But you know what also makes me think of?

Make me think of the words of Jesus when he said, Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, never thirst, no more craving, no more agitation of desire, never thirst.

Jesus said this in John 4.

You drink of my water, this river, you'll never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of life springing up into everlasting life.

And then Jesus later reiterates this truth in John 7 by saying, if anyone thirsts, anyone thirst, anybody, let him come to me and drink.

Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

From a fountain of water springing up in us to a river of water flowing out of us.

When God gives, he gives in abundance and lavishly.

There is a river flowing from the throne of God through the temple of God into the sanctuary of God, into our very hearts and lives, and it's a river of healing and deliverance and liberty and power.

He says rivers of living water will flow from their innermost being.

It's the river of life.

Come on, let's give the Lord a good clap offering for the river that is ours here and now.

There is a river of living water flowing from his throne here now in this place.

And with it comes a fullness of joy.

Miracle working life, transforming power, healing, freedom.

The Lord is a spirit, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, Paul said.

So if you need to be free of anything, free of something in your emotions, your thoughts, your body.

If you need to be free of self-pity, a habit, an addiction, invisible chains.

Maybe freed from a lack of vision or passion or hope.

There's an abundance of gifts and graces available by and with the Holy Spirit.

And the Lord invites us not to be satisfied with the waters around the ankles or the knees or even up to the waist, but to dive in, swim, experience the fullness of God.

The fullness of God, the fullness of the Spirit.

Jesus said, anybody, anybody thirsty, come, you won't thirst again.

There's fulfillment.

Fulfillment.

So which river do you want to swim in?

What a contrast of rivers in the story of Ezekiel.

His story starts with the river of weeping, anguish, and loss.

It ends with the river of life, hope, and healing.

This is why we can confidently state that with God all is not lost, all is never lost.

There is a river that is there for you where you are.

It's not hopeless, it's not desperate, it's not the end.

There is a river of living water and transformation for you.

God wants you to see, stand, and swim in the abundance of his presence and his power.

I want to swim in the river of God.

I don't want to sit by the river of weeping, mourning, self-pity, just looking at my circumstances, the thorns, the briars, oh, there's the injustices, there's the regrets, oh, there's the pity, the why does this happen to me?

How come this or the constant craving, the agitation, the loss, the distraction?

I want to move from that river to the river of God, the fullness of the Spirit.

The river of the presence of the Lord and Savior.

I want to see, stand, and swim by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

I close with this as the musicians come play something softly behind me.

We're going to pray in a moment.

I close with this.

Why did Jesus visit Ezekiel in this way and in this place?

Why why did Jesus do that?

Because not only is Psalm 137 true, but Psalm 23 is true also.

Psalm 137 is true.

That's true.

Why did he visit me to this place of morning and water?

Because the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pasture.

He leads me beside the still water.

He restores my soul in that place of lot.

He leads me in the path of righteousness.

I can invite the musicians just to come and play softly here behind me.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rotten staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

You know what's wonderful about this Psalm?

It starts with the Lord is.

Just that.

The Lord is.

God is.

Ezekiel experienced the Lord is, even in Babylon, even by the rivers, even in this desolate place of idolatry, surrounded by the Babylonian idols and captivity and a slave encampment.

The Lord is.

He exists.

But not only the Lord is, but the Lord is good.

He's good.

He's good.

The Lord is good.

But not only is the Lord good, He's good for me.

For me.

What I love about this Psalm, it's it's about my it's it's about it's for me.

Not just for you and not just for the others.

It's me.

Right?

It's so personal, this psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I don't need to want and crave and be agitated.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul.

No exception here.

No exception.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

So I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, because you're with me.

Your rod and your staff they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Wow, I love it.

Provision, comfort, direction, protection, anointing, healing, goodness, mercy, and it ends with what?

All the days of my life.

How many of you know that Psalm 23 is your psalm too?

It's my psalm.

All the days of your life, goodness, mercy, direction, restoration, anointing, blessing, abundance.

Even through the thorns, briars, and scorpions of the valley of the shadow of death, I'm not gonna fear anything.

I'm gonna go.

I'm on a mission.

I'm gonna stand.

I'm not gonna sit there and wallow in self-pity of loss and my grief and the tragedies and injustices around me.

I'm gonna get up and keep on walking because there's something waiting for me on the other side.

It's me, it's my Lord, my shepherd, my restoration.

Can you say amen to that?

Can we stand up, please, from the from the back to the front?

Let's just stand.

Can we give the Lord our shepherd, Jesus Christ, who is good?

He is, he's good, and he's good for me.

Just give him a good clap offering.

Can you do that?

Thank you.

The Lord is my shepherd.

My shepherd, he restores my soul in the place of bitterness.

When I'm sitting, just remain standing.

When I'm sitting by the river Kebar there in the lost, I've lost everything.

My future is supposed to be my birthday celebration.

Lord is there for him to restore, prepare a table before him in the presence of enemies, surrounded by enemies.

Slave encampment.

He says, Oh, Lord's prepared a table for him.

Look at this.

Wow.

So you see, Psalm 137 is true humanity.

It's true.

Leads us to Ezekiel, who was experiencing Psalm 137, but then he discovered Psalm 23.

Oh, the Lord is good.

He makes me see, stand, and I can swim in the blessings of his Holy Spirit and His presence.

And this is what we want to do here.

Can you just raise your hands before the Lord, everybody?

Just raise your hands, just start praying.

Can we just pray just before the worship the worship team leads us in a song talking about who else is worthy?

There's only one, only you, Jesus.

But let's just stand for a moment.

Just start praying where you are.

Lord, I pray for every man, woman, child, and young person in this place.

Lord God, I don't know where they're at.

I don't know, I don't know where they are.

I don't know where they're at, Lord.

I don't know what river they're sitting by, what's the tragedy, the loss.

I don't know what kind of week they had, what kind of day they had, what they're dealing with in their situations.

I don't know the briars or thorns or scorpions that they're dealing with right now.

But one thing I do know, you are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You are the God of Ezekiel, and you're the Lord our shepherd, and you're the same Jesus who said rivers of living water.

So I pray in the name of Jesus.

I pray for a personal experience.

I pray you'll open our eyes to the wonder of God, the magnificence of God, the goodness of God.

I pray you'll help each one of us to stand, to take a stand, and to stand and go.

There's mission, there's purpose, there's reason.

God has plans for you beyond your circumstances.

He has plans for you beyond what you're dealing with.

Get up out of the mire! Don't stay by that river.

God says, go! Don't fear, don't be dismayed.

I pray, I pray, Lord, I pray, I pray for everyone here to just swim in your goodness and your grace and your presence, the fullness of your Holy Spirit, day by day by day, renewed with rivers of living water flowing from us, and those rivers of living water flow out of us.

It comes from the throne of God through the temple into the sanctuary, and Jesus says we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And the rivers of living water that flow through us are rivers of blessing and encouragement and divine communication and inspired speech where we bless, we bless, we bless with the love of God, the peace of God, with words of encouragement and comfort.

Lord God, I pray in the name of Jesus the fullness of your Holy Spirit on each persecution.