A Father's Heart | Psalm 81

Just want to start off by saying Happy Mother's Day.

I hope everyone takes time, like Kevin said, just to honor the

mothers in your life. And you know, like he said to

every dad experiences, you know, what a mom does when when we

have to watch the kids and it's hard.

It's very difficult. And so, yeah, just want to

encourage all the moms though, that everything you do that goes

on scene, God sees it and it is worth it.

And so happy Mother's Day. And yeah, just on the video

again, it is an exciting time to be here.

We call this mission season. We're officially kicking off

summer. I think everyone's done with

classes at UCF. We already have some people who

are in Italy and the base team is leaving tomorrow.

So I get the pleasure of driving some of them to the airport.

But we're we're here talk about it all year.

We're finally here. And we're going to have, you

know, like you said, I'm not going to list all the locations,

but there's going to be people everywhere.

And we're doing evangelism never stops here in our backyard.

We have the basketball camp that you guys can be serving in or

praying for this summer as well to reach the youth.

But yeah, like I said, we're all in it together.

And this is just an exciting time.

So if you don't know John and Nicole, that was John and I

think most of you do. I was trying to look and see,

you know, how many people I don't recognize but just wanted

to to honor them. They sorry, I lost my spot real

quick. But yeah, John and Nicole,

they've given their lives to this church.

They're all in people. They have a yes to the call of

God in their life. And it has paved the way for

everyone here to be blessed and grow in our faith.

And the main reason they keep leading these base teams is

because they love investing in the next generation.

And even though they've seen so many lives transformed, they

know that God has not done and they want to be at the front

lines. And so, yeah, I'm thankful for

the ways that they've modeled faith and obedience to Jesus

through every season when finances are tight, in the ups

and downs through sicknesses or and raising a family, they've

always had a yes on their heart. And they've been a great example

to myself and others and what it is to persevere and following

Jesus. And so although we miss our

family, we miss our pastor and, and their kids and everyone when

they're gone, it's, it's an exciting time to be here and we

all are a part of this. And so like he said, let's be

praying for them, be praying for everything that's happening at

our church throughout this summer.

And then we get to look forward. It's always awesome at the end

of summer for everyone to come home.

And you know, when the last trip comes back, we're finally all

together and we have that Sunday just to rejoice at all that God

has done. And then we launch into the

fall. So like he said again, we are

starting a new series called Summer in the Psalms.

And you know, he stole my whole intro, but strengthening

yourself in the Lord through the Psalms.

That's kind of our our heart for this.

The Psalms. The psalms just have a way to

minister to our hearts and we know that the Christian life.

It really is all about loving God with all of our hearts,

seeking him and loving him with all of our hearts.

But our hearts are are just so hard to understand.

They feel so strongly, but they're confusing.

But when we go into the Psalms, there's a Psalm for every season

of life just to and neck to your heart and give words maybe to

what you can't express. And they really help us to

follow Jesus and pursue him in every season.

But it's also a well of rich promises and truth that can

anchor our soul through life. And so it's going to be fun to

just plant ourself here for the next, I think 12 weeks and we'll

do a Psalm every Sunday so that we can grow in intimacy with

Jesus this summer. That's what it's all about.

So if you don't know me, I'm one of the elders.

My name is Nathan and I first started coming to Antioch in

2014, back when I was a UCF student.

Like many of us, that's our path into Antioch is just going to

UCF and getting connected, getting an invitation.

So I grew up in the church and I'm very thankful for that.

I think, you know, no matter your experience, it's always a

gift to grow up here in the name of Jesus, here in the gospel,

hearing sermons, you know, knowing the hymns and the, the,

the worship songs, listening to Z88, all that stuff is it's it

really is preparing your heart just, you know, to love him and

receive him one day. But yeah, to no fault of anyone

but myself. I became self-righteous and I

knew right from wrong and I that's all I could comprehend.

The Christian life was about is, is just doing the right things.

And you know, the further up you get in school, the more you see

people just like, you know, doing a terrible thing,

especially when you grow up in church.

It's like, I remember getting into high school.

I'm like, I can't believe like people are doing this stuff.

Don't they know this is wrong? But it led to just a

self-righteous attitude in me thinking I was better than

people. And it ultimately led to failure

when I couldn't uphold the standard that I knew that God

had for me. And then I, I just, you know,

there was a couple of years where I was just living.

I was, I was lost. I was confused and I, I knew

that there was a love for the world in my heart and that

tension between what I knew I was supposed to live and the way

I wanted to live was just really hard for me.

And I didn't think that God was the answer.

I thought I had heard it all and it wasn't working.

And so I turned to the world. I mean, you know, I, I, for me,

a lot of it was sports. I could just watch football all

day every day, like every day throughout the week is just

thinking for the next weekend. I gave myself to sports, a lot

of like long distance sports, you know, it's just an amazing

way to like clear your mind. It becomes addicting.

But those were the comforts that I went to to try to satisfy,

like comfort my soul in those years where, you know, my soul

had no comfort, but as you know, any comfort other than God, it's

just momentary. It's nice when you're watching

the game. It's nice when you're things are

going your way like, but but the moment it stops and the noise

settles and you're just by yourself, like the anxiety sets

in. And that was me.

And I find myself in 2014 coming to UCF and I ran into an old

friend that I hadn't seen in five or six years, which is

always cool to see an old friend.

She was going to the church to Antioch at the time.

And she invited me to her life group.

And funny enough, like I said, I wasn't looking, I, I wasn't

really looking for a church. I never stopped going to church

with my family and and so I had no intention to go.

I didn't want to go. But then I see her like 2 days

later and she invited me once again to her life group and I'm

like man, I can't like be this guy that just says no all the

time. So I really went just to appease

my friend. And that night it was Tyler and

Sarah's life group and I finally went full circle.

Now I'm back in their life group after all this time, which is

awesome. But I remember walking in and

the room was filled with, honestly, a lot of our core

leaders today, just young college kids.

I could tell that there was a love for each other in the room.

They embraced me. They welcomed me in.

No one knew me except my one friend from years ago.

And I could tell that they loved God.

And the way that they talked about him was amazing.

And they really believed that he was real, you know, and they

wanted to follow him and to know him.

And I was just taking it all in. I'm that guy that comes to life

group and you don't know what he's thinking.

Just like a bump on the log. But I was, I was taking it all

in. I grew up in a Presbyterian

Church. So, you know, everything was

different. The way they encouraged one

another, the way they talked about Jesus, the way they

worshipped. I was like doing nothing and

just taking it in. And then during worship time,

these two guys came and prayed for me.

And I don't remember the specifics of what they prayed,

the small talk, I don't remember.

But I remember that they spoke the gospel as they were praying

for me. They were just praying the

gospel. And it was in that moment, like

I just broke down. And for whatever reason, that

was the moment that God opened my eyes to see for the first

time clearly the gospel message. And he, he just gave me a new

heart, you know, And I knew in that moment that it was

personal. This was a personal faith that

God was calling me to. And he wanted me.

He wanted to walk with me. And yeah, it was awesome.

I remember walking to the car after that, you know, I, I went

in, I didn't know anyone. And then I have this like

emotional moment and then I'm leaving and it's just like, what

in the world just happened? And I remember like looking up

to the stars kind of that like movie moment.

But it was real for me. And I was amazed that I went to

church my whole life and it I never understood it as clearly

as I did right now. And I didn't even come like

looking for anything. And so yeah, that was awesome.

And I pray that our life groups will always be a place that

people can walk in and encounter the presence of God and that

they would know Jesus by the way that we love one another and

that our arms would be open wide to anyone and everyone that

walks in. And I pray that even without

being told, they would just see and know that we truly are a

family who seeks Jesus together on mission.

And yeah, like I said, I, you know, it was all new to me.

I remembered I loved that people actually cared about my personal

relationship with Jesus. They didn't just want me to come

and fill a seat. But I had no idea how to spend

time with God, to walk with him, to share my faith.

And it was through discipleship, investment fellowship that I

learned, I, I came to learn, you know, and grow in these things

through time. And in 2017, that was so three

years in to me being here was the first time I had the courage

to go overseas. I had never been international

and I never wanted to before this church.

I thought it was crazy. But 2017, I got the, you know,

our church, we were all going to Columbia that summer and it was

the second summer going to Columbia.

But I signed up for just like a five day impact trip, just a

little trip. And a couple weeks before we

were going to leave, Mike asked me to be a part of the the small

base team. It was like 12 people and they

were core people in the church. And I had no idea why he asked

me. I hadn't been through ADS like I

just served. I didn't lead anything, but I

went and I, I just felt like it was something I was supposed to

just say yes to. So it was a month long base

team. My job was the water boy and I

was content. I was happy with that and it was

an awesome month. We got to just go on the campus,

the university, and we saw so many kids.

I think we started a life group and the life group, every time

we would do it would have like 15 to 20 people.

We were doing personal discipleships and people were

hungry to know Jesus. And then we get to the end of

this month and we're about to leave and there was an

opportunity, you know, for for people to stay behind and

continue to lead this life group and invest and just see what

would happen with it. And so that invitation came to

me as one of the, you know, we had a team of four that ended up

staying. But when I got that invitation,

it was, I was like, I had never felt more excited to come home

and be a part of the life of the church.

I felt so close with everyone. I was excited to go home.

And then we're here. We're here like a couple days

before we fly back and I'm being asked like, would I stay another

2 1/2 months with a small little team?

And I just had so many fears inside of me, you know, what was

I going to miss back home? What's going to happen at the

end of this summer when we just have to leave again, You know,

is it going to be the same thing?

And I went and I went to this little park next to the hotel

and I spent time with the Lord and was praying about it.

And I landed on no. And I remember calling John with

full intention to say, like, I'm not going to do this.

And he gave me advice that I'll carry with me the rest of my

life. He said, we don't get the

privilege of knowing how it will end, but often times God gives

us the opportunity just to take one step.

And if we don't take it, we'll never know where it might lead.

And I think about that often in my life.

But yeah, anyways, I knew in that moment that this was a step

that God was just asking me to take in faith.

And that summer had such a huge impact on my life.

I have a family in Colombia. I mean, I can't even speak

fluently to to them, a lot of them, but they're still family.

They love me. I love them.

And it feels like home away from home at this point and it's

still going. And I love that my wife and I

can't go this summer. But you know, God is still, he

is still moving. There's still a future to be

unfolded with our investment in Colombia.

And who knows where it could lead.

But yeah, this church has taught me that living by faith is the

only way of living and that it's an exciting adventure to follow

Jesus. And then March of 2024, my wife

and I, we were called to pursue adoption.

And that was yet another faith journey for us, just a one step

at a time kind of thing. When we started, we didn't know

if it would be a boy or a girl. We didn't know what age child

that God would lead us to. We didn't know what country we

knew we wanted international, but it wasn't even you know, we

went to hungry and we had never even thought about hungry.

We were hoping for like South America, but just like seeing

the Lord unfold every single step as we just said, yes, you

know, and it, it's cool being on the back end to look back and

see his faithfulness to lead us. And this year we finally got to

travel to Hungary and finalize the adoption of our daughter in

March, which it was exciting. And when John asked me to preach

on a Psalm this Sunday, for me, it had to be Psalm 81, Psalm 81.

When when we were in Hungary, we had just gotten to the city we

were staying in for a while. We were going to be there, you

know, to meet our daughter. And then we had to stay there

for a month for this bonding period.

It was, yeah, like 2 days before we're about to meet this girl

we've spent a year and a half pursuing and praying for.

And I was by myself and I think a like in our apartment elevator

or something. And I, I just, the Lord just put

it in my mind, open wide your mouth and I will feel it.

And I knew that it was in the Bible, but I hadn't read it

anytime recently. So I looked it up and, but since

then it's been a verse, it's been a Psalm that I've meditated

on frequently. And it's really allowed me to

see the, the heart of God towards me and my weakness.

He's, he's my good father who abundantly and graciously longs

to satisfy me even amidst my brokenness and my unfaithfulness

and my failures. And I realized, you know, just

as I'm meditating and, and dwelling on this Psalm, that in

my moments of weakness, I am prone to disregard God's love

for me and to run to worldly comforts, whatever it is.

And I needed to learn, I needed to grow in, in seeking God, in

my weaknesses. And God knew, I think God knew

for sure that I'd be feeling more weak more often as a

father, even this week, you know, yesterday actually, I'm

driving to, to a funeral and going down the highway by myself

and just just the, you know, the worries and the anxieties of

life. And I, you know, you have those

moments where it's like, man, I could just turn on music, not

think about it. I could listen to a podcast,

something I want to listen to you, but I needed just to ride

in silence and just to meditate on these things and seek the

Lord. And yeah, feeling weak and

broken, discouraged. It's it's this is normal for the

Christian life. And I hope that today you guys

like I have, will all be blessed to see the God of heart, the the

heart of God towards us this morning.

So yeah, you can go ahead and open up the Psalm 81.

I'll read through the whole thing and then we'll just go

through it piece by piece. So Psalm 81 says, sing for joy

to God, our strength, shout joyfully to the God of Jacob,

raise a song, strike the timbrel, the sweet sounding lyre

with the harp, blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full

moon on the feast day. For it is a statue for Israel,

an ordinance to the God of Jacob.

He established it for a testimony.

And Joseph, when he went through the land of Egypt, I heard a

language that I did not know. I relieved his shoulder from the

burden. His hands were freed from the

basket. You called in trouble and I

rescued you. I answered you in the hiding

place of Thunder. I moved.

I proved you at the waters of Meribah.

Say law here, O my people, and I will admonish you, O Israel, if

you would listen to me. Let there be no strange God

among you, nor shall you worship any foreign God.

I, the Lord and your God, who brought you up from the land of

Egypt, open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.

But my people did not listen to my voice, and Israel did not

obey me. So I gave them over to the

stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices.

Oh, that my people would listen to me.

That Israel would walk in my ways.

I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn my hand against

their adversaries. Those who hate the Lord would

pretend obedience to him, and their time of punishment would

be forever. But I would feed you with the

with the finest of wheat and with honey from the rock.

I would satisfy you. Amen.

So, yeah, this song, this is something that would would have

been spoken aloud or sung at an annual feast.

It was an ordinance. So it was required for Israel,

instituted by God. And it was, it was meant to be a

reminder for Israel to repent of their sins and return to paths

of obedience. And you know, if you're new and

you just have no clue about the history of Israel, basically God

made a covenant with them. And most of the Bible is about

Israel's unfaithfulness to God, yet God's remains faithful to

them. And is that not our story as

well? That's why 1st Corinthians 10

says took that we can, we can actually look to Israel and a

lot of the Psalms, you know, it's, it's, it's them, it's

about their context. But we can look to Israel and

learn from them because our human nature never changes.

And we're, we're, you know, the natural state is just like them.

And so, yeah, it starts off, I love verse one through 7, just

simply with a call to worship. That's all that's happening

here. And you know, shout, he's saying

shout, sing, play the instruments.

Let's worship this God. And it's, you know, we do the

same thing here every Sunday, maybe at Life Group, anytime we

gather to worship the Lord. Christians have been doing this

for all time, this call to worship.

And it's just putting truth before us again, because we are

so quick to forget the things that are, the things that are

unseen. They're more true than the

things that are seen. We get stuck in the world with

our head in the sand, but the psalmist is reminding us that he

is worthy and we need to worship him.

And I like what John said last week too, like we, we weren't

delivered from Egypt. So you see some of these things

that the psalmist is is putting before them for them to remember

God's faithfulness and worship. You know, for us, it's not like

Ricky's not up here saying, remember, he delivered us from

Egypt. But it's, you know, it's, it's

other things and namely Jesus in the Gospel.

And so for us, God has carried our burdens.

He's freed us from sin. He's defeated death so that we

may have life in him forever more.

But we are so forgetful. And that's why we need to lift

our eyes often and posture ourselves rightly before God

because we know that God desires genuine worship from our hearts.

And even though this festival was something that was mandated,

it was required. The festival, no matter how well

it's, it's, you know, performed, it cannot please it, it cannot

create pleasing worship to the Lord in its formality.

And the same is with us, simple formality of like a Sunday

service, no matter how well we set up and they sing, it cannot

create pleasing worship. But for pleasing worship, you

know, we must engage our hearts with God.

And that's something that we can all, we all must do

individually. No one can do that for us.

So anytime we gather Sunday service, life group, even, you

know, communion, when we get the chance to just meditate on the

gospel or going to a baptism and seeing people profess just

giving their life to Jesus and the symbolism of of going down

and coming up. All of these are opportunities

to engage with God and remember him so that we can be alive in

him. And you know, if we're not

coming to worship God and engage with him at Life Group or on a

Sunday service. It's going to become lifeless

very quickly, but I love what verse 7 says he says you called

in trouble and I rescued you. I answer you in the hiding place

of Thunder. I proved you at the waters of

Meribah say law. So he gives 3 reminders that he

puts before Israel. He puts before them to stir

their heart to worship God. In one is a reminder from Exodus

2 that the Israelites when they were in harsh bondage, they

cried out to God for deliverance.

And it says that their cries rose up to God.

They rose up to heaven. And the same is with us.

All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

He actually hears when we call on Him, and He is willing and

able to rescue us from our bondage to sin.

So we're to never forget that God heard us and He responded

and He saved us when we cried out to Him.

And 2nd, it says I answered you from the hiding place of

Thunder, which is a reference to Mount Sinai.

And he came down, you know, just this dramatic scene with, with

clouds and Thunder, but just a reminder that God came down to

them. He condescended to establish a

new covenant with his people. And likewise, Jesus also

condescended to the earth to establish his new covenant with

us through his blood. And his presence is is with us,

gifted in dwelling us forevermore.

And then the waters of Meribah. I proved you at the waters of

Meribah. That's like a passage that's a

part of Scripture that's almost uncomfortable.

It should be uncomfortable for all of us to read right after

God delivers them from Egypt. If they go through the Red Sea,

just dramatic victory in the Lord and you know, Israel is

wiped out and they're free. And then like immediately

they're just complaining in unbelief.

Like surely God can get us out of Egypt, but he cannot provide

food for me. Like he can't give me water when

I'm thirsty. And it's it's hard to read like

how forgetful and, you know, just weak they are.

But the waters of Meribah was one of those moments where they,

you know, they're complaining against Moses.

They actually are willing to go back into slavery.

And but in that place of, you know, just mocking God, really,

after all that he's done for them, God so graciously provides

water from the rock. And that was like the good time

when Moses hit the rock. And So what is he reminding us?

He's reminding us that God saves us, that God dwells with us and

that God's continued and he's reminding us of God's continued

grace despite our unfaithfulness.

He hasn't forsaken or given up and he remains faithful even

when we do not. And these are not just facts.

These are they're not just facts for the head.

You know, we want to know these things, but these are truths for

our soul and they should invoke worship in us.

But sadly, we get so used to these things.

And even even here, I love that they put a say law at the end of

these reminders to worship God. And one now Charles Spurgeon,

here's a quote from him just on this say law.

He says great is our sin, great is the mercy of our God.

Let us reflect upon both and pause awhile.

Say law. Hurried reading is of little

benefit. To sit down awhile and meditate

is very profitable. So if we do not pause here and

enter into the rest of this Psalm with a humble and tender

heart, we may miss what God wants to speak to us.

And I would say that's the same for any Sunday service.

You know, if we just fly through worship, if we fly through this

call to worship and you know, God might want to speak

something to us and we might not be in the right heart to receive

it. And so we go on to verse 8.

He says here, O my people, and I would monish you, O Israel, if

you would listen to me. So God is wanting again, this is

this is calling them back to the Lord God's wanting to admonish

them. And but we heard last week, you

know, when Jesus is at the, the, the Last Supper with Judas and

he is so gentle, you know, he could have, he could have said

you're the guy you're going to like you're going to betray me.

But Jesus gives opportunities. He's he's trying to poke at your

heart. He's saying 1 here will betray

me. And but Judas just never

listened, you know, and here again, you see the gentleness of

God and his admonishment. He could he could come out and

just say like, you know, just harsh rebuke for Israel.

But he's saying if you will listen, if you will listen.

And one pastor says, he says we are not fond of being unbraided.

We had rather avoid sharp and cutting truths.

No one wants those harsh rebukes, even though sometimes

we need them, and sometimes even the Lord will give us those

graciously. He says though the Lord rebuke

us, we fly from his gentle reproofs.

And you know, we know that God, He is a gentle God.

And yeah, you know, how many times do we even know throughout

the day that the Holy Spirit, He's just gentle.

He is gentle and wanting to convict us of sin.

But we need ears to hear and we need just a heart that, you

know, wants to be tender to the Lord.

And yeah, when we, when we have conviction, like John said last

week, an exposed heart must always run to Jesus.

And that's what God is wanting to do here.

Even though it's through like gentleness, he is wanting to

expose Israel's hearts that they would run back to God.

And the same is for us, you know, anytime we hear the Lord

just wanting to convict us, it's so that we would run back to

him. And I think you'll see that

that's God's heart here in this Psalm as well.

So eight through 10 again here, all my people, I would admonish

you, oh Israel, if you would listen to me.

He's saying, let there be no strange God among you, nor shall

you worship any foreign God. I, the Lord and your God who

brought you up from the land of Egypt, open wide your mouth and

I will fill it. So we see that what is what is

God asking them to listen to? What's he asking them to hear

and to obey? And it's a direct.

It's a direct reminder of the first commandment back in Exodus

20 verse one and two, God spoke all these things saying I am the

Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of

the House of slavery. You shall have no other gods

before me. God wants, he has always wanted

devotion. He is the only God and he wants

our devotion. He wants our whole heart and

idols of the heart. Some of you have read that book,

but the author points out he says before God demands his

rightful worship, referring to the first commandment, he

demonstrates his love and goodness towards us before he

says to have no other gods to worship him alone.

He he reminds them, I am the Lord your God who brought you

out of the land of Egypt. And how many of you know that

there's there's people on earth who try to demand worship.

They're always have been. They're always there, you know,

you can think about countries where they're they're dictators

want worship, but it's never through love.

It's always through fear, control, manipulation.

You have to force people and scare people into it.

But our God is love. And if you're new, maybe it

sounds weird that that God would make a command to worship him

and to worship him alone. Maybe you've heard that in

evangelism people get mad. You know, most people would

agree that most of the commandments are good.

Don't lie, don't commit adultery.

Those are good things. But why would God command us to

worship him? Why?

Why would he command that You can't worship anybody else?

What about all these other religions?

And one thing we have to know that's foundational is God's

commands, therefore our good. Just like a parent makes rules

for their kids and you tell them over and over and over this is

for your good, even though they don't believe it.

And So what are these reasons? And if you, if you don't know

God or you know, back when we, we weren't walking with the

Lord, I think one of the reasons is because he doesn't want us to

die in our sins. So he commands allegiance that

we would worship him alone because even unbelievers,

everyone can do relatively good things and be relatively good

people. And I think that's why a lot of

people think they don't need God, because they look at

themselves, they look at the evil in the world and they say,

why would I need him? You know, I'm doing pretty good.

But the problem is, is that God demands holiness.

And you can't achieve holiness even if you're good sometimes

you will never fulfill the law perfectly and and achieve

holiness in yourself. But thankfully God he, we have a

God who Stoops down to save us and we can never ascend to him.

But he came down to us. And This is why he commands

allegiance because no other God will do that.

No other God can save but him alone.

And he wants us to know him. He wants us to be saved and to

not die in our sins. But for us who do know God who

have been saved from our sins, he commands allegiance because

he wants us to have life in life abundant.

And we know that there actually is no other God.

Every other God is a small G and every other God is, is really an

idol. And the Bible says if you

worship a false God, if you worship an idol, you'll become

like them. Psalm 115 verse 7 says they have

Psalms 115:7

hands, but they cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot

walk, They cannot make a sound with their throat.

Those who make them will become like them.

Everyone who trusts in them, they are lifeless.

And when we trust in them, we too will.

We will become lifeless. And maybe you've experienced

this. I know I have those moments

where your soul is restless and you're just longing for God.

But for whatever reason, you turn to an idol, you turn to

something that's easy. You turn to something

comfortable, like to give you comfort, but it just leaves you

feeling lifeless. And then you feel like you have

nothing to give and you kind of like go into the spiral feeling

bad about yourself and stuff. But that is the result of

trusting an idol. And they can't give what they

don't have. Only God can give life.

But anything we turn to in those moments where God is, is asking

us to look to him. If we turn to something else, it

will make us feel lifeless. But God here is saying open wide

your mouth and I will feel it. And I think we need to hear him

whisper this to us more often in those moments when we're feeling

discouraged or frustrated, depressed, you know, we feel

like we've blown it, like we're a failure, like we're the worst

Christian under the sun, like we should be so much further along.

It's in those moments I think we need to hear God's loving desire

to satisfy us and him. Whisper open wide your mouth.

I will feel it. No one else can.

And we go to verse 11, sadly, but my verse my, my people did

not listen to my voice and they did not obey me.

So he he is specifically talking about the first commandment, but

also they failed to to like Israel was literally worshipping

Pagan gods. They were worshipping idols.

They would create statues. And so, you know, they were,

they were like breaking the first commandment in that right.

But what God is saying here is that they also, they didn't just

disregard God, but they disregarded all of his ways, all

of God's laws. And that's how it works.

If you're going to, if you're going to put off God and have

other idols, you know, you're not going to fear him.

Of course you're not going to uphold his ways.

And that's why you see the world wanting to push God out of

everything because they don't want to walk in his ways.

But God's intention was always that Israel would walk in his

ways and be blessed and be a blessing to the world.

And the same is for us. We are called to follow Jesus.

We're not called to just believe in Jesus so that we might be

saved, but we're called to follow him.

And he literally says that to his disciples when he, when he

calls them, he says, follow me. And I just wanted to touch on

this real quick. Just the fact that we're all

called to to obedience to Jesus. Matthew 513 through 16 says, If

you, it says you are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made

salty again? It is no longer good for

anything except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be

hidden. Nor does anyone light a lamp and

put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to

all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men

in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your

Father who is in heaven. So when God saves us, he says we

were born again. We literally become a new

creation and we have a new natural state.

And in that natural state being a new creation, Jesus says that

we are the light of the world. We are salt in the world, and

it's just by his doing. And so, yeah, as we follow Jesus

and simply obey him, our faith is displayed to the world.

God is glorified. Others are drawn to him.

And what he's saying is faith without obedience.

It's like a lamp with a basket over it.

The lamp is designed to give life, and you cover it up.

It's like, you know, if you're suppressing the very nature, the

thing that it's made for, And as James would say, your, your

faith has become dead. You know, and I, I, I thought

that that verse, just that that parable that Jesus gives us is

such a good understanding that like we're, you know, I think

people look at obedience to Jesus as this like harsh thing,

you know, I can't be free. But we're actually made for

this. And it's when we follow him that

our faith comes alive. And yeah, when we forget that

we're following him and that it's no longer I who lives, we

begin to live for ourself. That's our that's our natural.

You know, we take our eyes off him.

We're going to live for ourself. The cares of the world become

higher priorities than walking by the Spirit.

And we will ultimately miss His purpose for our life and become

apathetic, lifeless, will neglect prayer, and our hearts

will grow hard to the gospel. And maybe you've experienced

that. Maybe you're there right now.

I know I have. But if that's you, you can cry

out to God. He's actually longing for your

return. And remember Ephesians 210 says,

for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good

works, which God prepared beforehand, that we would walk

in them. So whatever has God give,

whatever God has gifted you in, do it with all your heart.

If it's to give, to be hospitable, even building

relationships with your neighbors and Co workers, being

a good friend. Don't overcomplicate what it

means to be obedient. It's so easy to do that, but

just be. Be the person that God has made

you to be. And God says every command can

be simplified to two things, to love him and to love your

neighbor as ourself. And so I think we need to get

back to regularly asking God, daily asking God maybe multiple

times throughout the day, just asking the Holy Spirit, God,

what? What are you asking of me?

What can I, what are you asking me to obey today?

What would you have me do? Or when you're reading the

Bible, ask the Holy Spirit say, how can I obey this instead of

just learning about it, How can I obey this and apply this to my

life? So we see in verse 12, you know,

they didn't do this, they didn't hear, they didn't obey.

And So what happened? God gave them over to the

stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices.

And we've talked about this often.

We heard it last week. We saw it with Judas.

Just given over. God pursues, pursues, pursues.

But at some point we are given over just to walk in our own

ways. And that's when our conscience

is seared and we are no longer sensitive to this sin.

And ultimately, ultimately, we're going to pay the

consequences. It's going to destroy us.

And if we're his like First Corinthians 5, it says that, you

know, in a, it's a different context, but someone's given

over even the church is no longer pursuing them so that

they can just go and pursue their sin.

And it says it's for the destruction of their flesh so

that their souls in hopes that their souls will be saved.

In other words, we too, as believers, can be given over to

our sin if we are silencing the voice of the Holy Spirit, if

we're rejecting God's call to listen to him, at some point

we're just going to go in this pattern, pattern, pattern.

And it's going to produce life, lifelessness.

It's not going to give life. It's going to it's going to hurt

us. It's going to wound us and we

will pay consequences for it. But the hope is that when we

it's called learning the hard way ultimately, like hopefully

when we we're paid the consequence like God cares about

our soul and we can come back to him.

But we see with Judas too and Romans one as well.

They're sadly there is a given giving over that ultimately

leads to people who will never turn back to God and they will

pay the ultimate price of the you know, losing their soul,

destroying their soul, not just their flesh.

So we see God's heart to satisfy a few verses ago saying open

wide your mouth and I'll fill it.

But here verse 12 Israel is at the lowest of low They they

didn't listen. They've been given over and they

followed after other idols and they've rejected God.

They've refused to listen to him and they've gone their own way.

But we're about to reach the pinnacle of this passage, and I

think, you know, this is where everyone needs to be listening

because we all find ourselves weak and broken and failing and

struggling, maybe even lost and confused at times trying to

figure things out. Satan wants us to wallow in our

shame and condemnation. Our flesh wants to try to earn

our way back to right standing with God.

But we need to hear what is God's heart towards Israel even

get being given over and worshipping other gods just

touch such an offense to the their creator.

But what is God's heart towards them in this moment?

I'll read verse 13 through the end.

He says oh that my people would listen to me that Israel would

walk in my ways. I would quickly subdue their

enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries.

Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him and

their time of punishment would be forever.

But I would feed you with the finest of wheat, with honey from

the rock. I would satisfy you.

That's awesome, you can hear it. He says, Oh my people, that you

would listen to me. It's the cry of a father.

He is longing for them to come back, even though they have

completely blown it. And he even calls them his

people. His people, He says, My people,

he longs to fight for them. He, he says he would subdue

their enemies. He longs to satisfy them with

the best, with the finest of blessing.

It's like the prodigal son, his father, he comes back and you

know, we, we are the prodigal son.

We come back and we're like, oh, you know, like, I don't need

that big a blessing. I've blown it.

And then you see the Father, like giving the fattened calf

and throwing a party. God, he, he, God sees us trying

to fight our battles on our own, and he actually longs to fight

them for us. And when it seems like we're far

from blessing and we deserve to be held at a distance, it's God

that graciously longs to satisfy us fully with himself.

And so let me ask, why do you resist God in your low moments

after you've blown it? Those moments where you turn to

worldly comforts and suppress your soul's desire for God?

And it's usually with things that are not evil, with media,

with music, your hobbies, with food, with exercise.

Maybe it's checking the news. Maybe it's checking your

investments. Why, when your soul is longing

for God, do you run to these comforts?

Do you actually realize that even in your lowest moments, God

wants to satisfy you with His best?

Second Chronicles 714 says, if my people who are called by My

name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn

from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and we'll

forgive their sin and heal their land.

In Romans 2, we know that it it is the kindness, it says it's

the kindness of God that leads to repentance.

And how many of you know that that is true?

And you see it's so clearly here, the loving kindness of God

wooing them back. He is always wanting to draw us

back by His love. And he wants us to run back to

Him confidently. And this is a daily thing.

But we got to ask, why would God be this gracious and kind to us?

It doesn't make sense. We don't deserve it.

You know why? Why wouldn't he just say,

forget, forget them, They don't want me.

And it's simply because we're His.

Once we've been born again, we're adopted and we have the

right to call the Creator of the universe, ABBA Father, And

there's nothing that can separate us from his love.

And how many of you know that feeling just walking into a life

group, just feeling like you have nothing to give.

Like, you know, I, I like to say after, after a day at work where

I like, you know, just have given my mind to the things of

the world. You know, I'm not dwelling on

the things of the spirit. I say it just turned me into

like a potato. You know, I feel like, like I

have nothing to give. But how many of you know that,

like, you walk into life group and you feel like that?

Like, man, you're just like you're just weighed down by the

cares of your day or your failures.

Yeah. Maybe you're ashamed of how you

spent your day. Maybe you're going through a

trial. Maybe there's frustrations in

your life, disappointments. Whatever it is, it's in those

moments. It's on those days that we need

to learn to do business with Jesus.

On our worst days, God desires to satisfy us so that we can

have life, so that we can have the fullness of life, but also

that so that we can take our eyes off our self and be a

blessing to others. And I think everyone here would

say in 20 years from now, 30 years, whenever you know that

you would want to still be passionate about Jesus and you

want to still be living for his Kingdom, still evangelizing,

still sacrificing yourself so that you can love others so that

they might come to know him. But for that to happen, for us

to be passionate in 20 years about Jesus and still be in the

game, we must become experts at turning from idols that robbed

us of life and learned to seek Jesus so that we might in 20

years be filled with life and have so much to give.

And I want to remind you again, John has brought it up the last

couple weeks. James, four one through 10 says

draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double

minded. Be miserable, mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt

you. Amen.

So I wanted to end just on a quick story from our time in

Hungary when we were going to to pick up our daughter, which was

an awesome trip. We had to go for about two

months. And yeah, so we we went, we went

to her little village and we met her the first day.

It was awesome. It's just the craziest feeling

driving there. And you're about to meet in

person this girl that you do, you know a lot about her, but

you don't know her. You haven't seen her.

Like, you know, her actions and her emotions and her personality

and all these things. So, yeah, it's just a whirlwind

of emotions that day. But it was awesome to a very

open heart to it. But it was just a short, quick

visit. And we never left her house,

really. But the second day was the first

day we went back. And that was the first day we

were going to take her out of her house for the first time.

We went to McDonald's. There's not much to do in her

city or anywhere close to there. So we went to McDonald's and

that day, if you don't know, I mean, I didn't know anything

about adoption. I'm sure most of you guys don't

as well. But it's, it's hard for a kid to

attach to these strangers as their parents.

And it's, it's common, it always happens that they will attach to

one quicker than the other. You find your comfort place and

then in time they'll, you know, be comfortable with both of you.

And for us, that was Kathy. And I'm very thankful it was

Kathy and not me, but she was, she was really attached to

Kathy, you know, physical touch, everything, affection playing.

You know, she loved Kathy right off the bat.

But that second day when we went to McDonald's, she wanted

nothing to do with me. She like, she didn't want to

look at me. She didn't want me to play with

her. And the only time she would

interact with me is to like, essentially mock me.

And yeah, she would say this like Hungarian phrase.

It's basically like, oh, Dad's crazy.

And yeah, So it was, it was funny.

And I think like her family, her foster family at the time, like

they saw that. And I think they really helped

coach her like, hey, you can't be that mean to this guy.

So she she turned around really quick.

But after that day, I, I like, it didn't really hurt me because

we've done so much training and stuff.

I know this little girl doesn't know me.

Like it's such a big hard thing for her to go through.

I can't expect her to like be comfortable with me right off

the bat. But I knew if this was going to

persist. But I have no guarantee that

she's going to like me tomorrow or she's going to like me a

month from now. What if she acts like this for,

for like months? You know, it could be really

difficult. And so that evening, I, I just

had to like go and spend time with the Lord just to like be

proactive with the, the heartache that could come in the

future. And yeah, that was when, you

know, the Lord really it was, it was just a really good time just

to remember that Christ alone is my reward.

It and this for him, you know, he, he's my reward.

And he reminded me that like, I need to be confident in his love

for me if, if I'm going to be able to love her adoption.

It's a choice to unconditionally love and give all of yourself to

an orphan. No, like unconditional means it.

It doesn't depend on how they treat you or what they give in

return. But I realized that my love, my

love, my heart is weak. It's so weak.

When I look to 1st Corinthians 13, you see, it's, you know, it

teaches us about love, but it teaches us about God.

And when you read that and you realize that that's God's love

for us, it's amazing. And I, I realized how weak my

love is. I long to be loved in return.

I want this little girl to like, love me if I'm going to love

her. You know, I have expectations

and I didn't really realize that going into it, but you know, I,

you know, I do, I want, I want to receive something, but the

only way that I can, God told God taught me that the only way

I can endure rejection and still love with all of my heart is to

be confident in his love for me. And do you realize that this is

the love that God has for US? Jesus loves us perfectly, even

though we are that orphan that often disregards his love.

God has, Jesus has dwelt, you know, the Trinity God, he has

dwelt securely for all of eternity.

Jesus has dwelled securely with his father and that's a good

thing. Why?

Because he doesn't need anything from us.

And that's why you see this, this persistent love towards

Israel in the same his persistent love towards us is

because he actually doesn't need anything from us.

And so when we want to to wallow in shame of our failure, turn to

idols, we we actually are displaying a lack of confidence

in God's love for us and a lack of confidence and understanding

of of our identity as children to him.

And so, yeah, just a question before we go back into worship,

just want to ask if you were confident in the love that God

has for you, if you really believed that God would satisfy

you, what are those things in your life that you would no

longer depend on? I think we need to ask ourself

again more often just that question of God.

How can I obey you today and ask God, help me to be confident in

your love for me. Holy Spirit, convict me quickly

when I turn to idols. God's promise for us, God's

promise for you, God's promise for our church is life.

He, he wants, He desires you to have the fullness of life in

him. He desires this church.

He desires your life group to be full of life.

But we must turn from every idol, every comfort that we turn

to our world is full of them. That is the American way.

We have comforts all around us. And it could be anything.

I I can rattle off list. I have a little bit, but it

could be anything. And I think only you know what

those things are. Only you can sense those moments

when God is is what he is calling you.

He is wooing you to himself. He's asking you to seek him and

it's in those moments we turn to other things.

Those are no one else can see in your heart.

No one knows when you're watching sports.

Is it are you idolizing it? Are you, you know, just enjoying

it And it's it's not bad. It's it, it's work that all of

us have to do in and of ourselves.

We can't judge when we look around and see like, you know, I

God is has room every all, every year, like every sports season,

It feels like God is just taking it like more and more and more

away from me. But I'm just so weak.

I'm so weak and I look at other people that can go and like play

fantasy football and stuff and I'm like, how in the world do

you do that and not just get consumed by it?

I can't do it. I don't know, I can't.

And God, he wants my heart. And so for me, you know, though,

that's one of those things that I'm always on guard against.

But we can't look at other people like no one else is like

us. So just want to ask you today,

you know, even in this time of worship, just to just to

meditate. What are those things that are

creating lifelessness? They're stealing life from you.

Where does God want to give you life this morning?

Yeah, he's good. He loves you no matter where

you're at this morning. Just hear him say open wide your

mouth. I want to fill you this morning.

Whatever you're fighting and getting worried about and

anxious. I would quickly subdue your

enemies. I would turn my hand against

your adversaries. Yeah, I love the ending.

But I would I would feed you with the finest of weed, with

honey from the rock. I would satisfy you.

He, he wants to give us his best.

And yeah, Lord, help us believe that this morning.

Help us believe that you are a good father, that you hold

nothing back from us. You hold nothing back, but you

desire to give it all to your children.

And Lord, forgive us for the ways day after day, moment after

moment sometimes where we just run and we numb ourself.

God, I pray that you would bring clarity just even throughout

this week. Lord, I pray for a sensitive

conscience and that we would hear you saying, if you would

listen, if you would listen, don't turn to this thing.

Open wide your mouth. I will fill it.

I will fill it. God help us, you know, let us be

those people that come to life group even in low moments, even

in trials, even after we've we feel like we've blown it.

We can do business with God, we can run back to you and we can

come in with life and actually have something to give.

Lord, let us be a selfless church.

The enemy wants us to just have our eyes on our self all the

time, all the time. But it's, it's looking to Jesus,

it's looking to your love, it's looking to psalms like this to

remember that you're a loving father who wants to bless us.

It's it's looking to your love and your heart that transforms

us and gets our eyes off our self.

And so Lord, even this morning, help us to get our eyes off our

self. Lord, would you remind us of

your love? Holy Spirit, help us to believe

where we don't believe. Help our unbelief.

And God, help us to have no idols.

And remember that you saved us from our sin.

You saved us from our bondage. I pray that the gospel would

never grow hard to us. And yeah, for anyone in the room

who feels like man, the gospel is not touching my heart.

Cry out to God this morning. Spend some time to meditate on

the gospel and what that means for you.

Don't worry about lunch. Don't worry about, you know,

your future. Don't worry about the things

that are burdening you right now.

But in this moment, this morning, meditate, say law.

Remember that God has saved you. Remember that he doesn't turn

away from you. And let's worship him again this

morning in Jesus name.