God Does What He Pleases

Well, good morning, We are going to be reading Psalm 115.

If you do not have a Bible, you can find one under your seat.

And if you don't own one, that is our gift to you.

So Psalm 115, it will be found on page 478.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name.

Give glory for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your

faithfulness. Why should the nation say, where

is their God? Our God is in the heavens.

He does all that He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold,

the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not

speak, eyes but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear,

noses but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel

feet, but do not walk, and they do not make a sound in their

throat. Those who make them become like

them. So do all who trust in them.

O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their

shield. O House of Aaron, trust in the

Lord. He is their help and their

shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in

the Lord. He is their help and their

shield. The Lord has remembered us.

He will bless us. He will bless the House of

Israel. He will bless the House of

Aaron. He will bless those who fear the

Lord, both the small and the great.

May the Lord give you, increase you and your children.

May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth.

The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth He has

given to the children of man. The dead do not praise the Lord,

nor do any who go down into silence, but we will bless the

Lord from this time forth, and forevermore praise the Lord.

And this is the word of the Lord.

Well, good morning. My name is John.

I'm one of the pastors here at Port City.

So glad you're here with us today as we continue to series

in the Psalms. Psalms are ancient Hebrew songs,

although they might seem a little weird in English.

OK, but try translating one of our songs in the Hebrew.

Might be kind of weird as well, right?

So our particular set of songs, though, that we've been going

through were traditionally sung at the Passover, OK, the

Passover, a holiday that celebrates God's deliverance of

Israel from slavery in Egypt. And today's Psalm, Psalm 115,

would have been sung after sharing the Passover meal.

But, you know, we've kind of talked about the traditional

context or historical context of of these Psalms in previous

weeks. But today what I want to do is I

want to focus on what this Psalm is calling us to, whether you're

in Christ or not, ancient Hebrew or not, It just, it's just as

important as it was to them then.

But here's why I say that. So I recently went to a a

wedding and we stayed in an Airbnb, OK?

And it was a house that looked kind of like Joanna Gaines went

crazy. OK, Yeah.

It was shiplap everywhere, sliding barn doors, muted color

palettes, like white, blacks, Grays, you know, the works,

right? There was this huge kitchen

island, though. It's like this this like island

was like the size of a large table, like a big, big table.

It was beautiful. And there was this centerpiece

with a bowl of pears in it. OK.

And it was it was like just this amazing setup.

But then they had like this just little pop of green with this

bowl of pears that you know, within this muted pallet.

It's just like this pop of color.

It's quite tasteful, quite tasteful.

All right, It's beautiful. It's a beautiful place.

Hopefully I'm selling it. See the the the pears look so

nice and in the house this nice. It was a wow factor to kind of

see, oh, they have fresh fruit on this table or on this island

for us. And, you know, I was like, wow,

OK, great. So naturally, I went to grab a

pair. All right.

But something that feel quite right about this, right?

They looked real and felt kind of real.

So they're kind of slightly squishy and a little fuzzy, but

they were plastic. But what was interesting about

this was that the pair I picked up had a bite mark in it, but

not just the one I picked up. I started looking at them and

there's a few others that had multiple bite marks as well.

I was like, what in the world? And now the interesting thing is

they all put them back. So so but like the plastic

pairs, this Psalm pushes us to see that something can look like

the real thing, but it be completely fake, be completely

fake. See, this Psalm pushes us to see

that people can become plastic versions of themselves.

Sure, we may look like people and feel like a person, but

something hollows us out, makes us plastic.

Like this Psalm tells us that this plasticizing force is

called idolatry. Idolatry, See our text says in

verse 8. Those who make them talk about

idols become like them. So do all who trust in them.

See, this is one of the central problems that the Psalm

confronts. And so for the next few moments,

let's look at really three questions.

OK, are there modern idols? What is the problem with idols?

And how does this Psalm provide a solution to all of it?

OK, so are there idols? What's the problem with idols?

And what's the solution? All right, let's get into it

first. Are there modern idols?

So you can be tempting in our modern minds to think this Psalm

is antiquated and it doesn't apply to us.

We could think we don't do this. That's what those people way

back when did, right? We're beyond that.

Or this is this is kind of like why I'm not too big into

religious things because stuff like this, what are we talking

about, right? Maybe you think that's

historically interesting, but I don't go to temples and bow down

to idols. I would never do that.

Oh, really? Oh, really?

I want us to consider a couple of things in our culture.

OK, let's take just for an example.

This is an example. Professional sports.

All right, now, I love football. You need to know that I love

football. I'm all in Go commanders, but

don't misunderstand me on that, all right, But listen to the

similarities in NFL culture. We have ceremonial feast outside

the stadium before the game starts, right?

I mean, right, It's it's serious brats, the works.

You know, whatever, whatever your flavor is, right?

Everyone wears the colors of the of the team.

We all all dress alike, right? Some get painted up and have big

foam hats, right? Go Packers.

We we all gather in a big building to celebrate and watch

the game. It frames up our week.

We have Thursday night, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday

night, right? And if you're really deep, if

you're really deep, you you listen to the podcast and you

watch the talking heads discuss all the games in between, right?

Otis Wade, did you see that play?

Watch that back. You know, after the season's

over, though, there's this endless conversation of trades

and injuries. And then there's there's just

the whole calendar that in in revolves around football and it

can kind of just consume your life right now.

No one is praying to the football gods.

Well, most people aren't, right? But football can become the

point of life itself and everything can gravitate around

it, right? Football gives purpose.

Football gives discipline. Football gives direction.

Football is life. This entire reorientation of

your life around football can begin to look like worship, a

metaphorical bowing, if you will.

But it doesn't have to be sports.

That's just an example. We do this with careers, OK

family, kids, or our social lives.

Something bad happens. What do we do?

We throw ourselves into our work.

Something bad happens or life gets crazy.

What do we do? We throw ourselves into our

family. We try to be the best dad we can

do. Why do we do that?

We're running to something. See, modern people can have one

thing that completely consumes their lives to a worship level

of devotion. It may not sound like a religion

or have an outright deity, but there is worship going on.

Now, how do we? How do we know that worship is

going on? Because idols, as one writer has

put it, they do this. The idols capture our

imagination and we can locate them by looking at our

daydreams. What do you What do we enjoy

imagining? What are our fondest dreams?

We look to our idols to love us to provide us with value and a

sense of beauty, significant and worth.

So what are you looking to love you to give you a sense of

value? What is what is your in your

life is a source of your significance.

I matter because of what is that?

What in your life gives you meaning and purpose?

These may not be statues, but they are idols of the heart.

See, we love, trust and obey them.

They bend us. Our our lives are built around

them. Here's some questions kind of

thing about when you get angry. So I think about with time, like

you know, you're really mad, right?

Or maybe you're mad right now. Here's a question.

What are you protecting? What are you defending?

What are you protecting when you're anxious?

What are you afraid of happening?

What do you, what do you feel like you might lose in that

moment when you're anxious, when things are hard and difficult,

what do you turn to for comfort? You run back into that.

See idols give us a sense of being in control and we can

locate them by looking at our nightmares even, right?

What do we fear the most? What if we lost?

It would what would make our if we lost it would make our life

not worth living. We make sacrifices to appease

and please our gods, We we who we believe will protect us.

We look to our idols to provide us with a sense of self, of

confidence and safety. See what in your life has that

power. Whatever that thing is, it's an

idol. OK?

It may not be a statue, but it's an idol of the heart.

It's something that we are trusting in, even trusting

ourselves to. But something happens to us when

we follow idols, OK? We become less human in the

process. And that's kind of what our text

is showing us. See, our idols begin to define

us. See, here's what happens.

If we if we idolize our team, then all we are are Steelers

fans, right? If we idolize our kids, then all

we are is mom and dad. If we idolize our career

success, then all we are is the doctor.

We're the teacher, we're the lawyer, we're the designer, the

engineer, the sailor. We become the thing we idolize.

We are the funny person. We are the cool person.

We are whatever fill in the blank.

See, we get what we wanted, but that's all that's left of us.

That's all that's left of us. Our sense of identity gets

replaced with the thing that we have built our entire life

around. See, other aspects of who we are

become lost. We're reduced to the thing that

consumes our lives. We lose ourselves, and we become

our idols. There used to be more be to be

more to us, but everything else is consumed.

See, these idols dehumanize us. We think they're giving us the

life we always wanted, but when you get there, you might just be

a shell of a person. See, their demands squeeze out

things in our lives. They drain us of our humanity.

Idols plasticize us. They make us less human, not

more. See, we lose touch with what it

means to be human when we go all in on idols.

They dehumanize us. OK, so we have modern idols, but

the next question. But what is the problem with

idols? So we are modern people.

We have modern idols and they dehumanize us, and that's what

this Psalm is teaching us. But what exactly is the problem

with idolatry? Why does it have this effect on

us? Why does it do this?

It has to do with the Bible's explanation of what it means to

be human, of what it means to be human.

You see, humanity was created in the image of God.

See, we're image bearers of God. This means we were created in

such a way that our primary function as a human is to image

God. And what that means is that we

were to represent him to all of creation.

When you look at us, you were meant to see the character and

nature of God himself. That is the way we were built.

OK, this works its way out through how we work, how we have

families, and even our culture. We cannot help but be an image

bearer. This means that every single

person on planet earth has dignity, value, and worth.

But notice that we have dignity because we were created in the

image of the dignified one. OK, we have value because we

were created in the image of the valuable one.

We have worth because we were created in the image of the

worthy one. OK, you cannot cease to be an

image bearer. It's how God created us.

But something has happened since God created the first people,

our first parents, Adam and Eve. They rebelled against God.

They chose to disobey God. And that has led to all humanity

joining them in rebellion against God.

OK, and what does it? What does it mean to be the a

rebel? It means that we reject or do

not want to live in reference to God.

See, our default mode as humans is to live life apart from God.

It's partially a choice and partially, partially by nature

at this point, because we are cut off from a life with God

because of our rebellion. It's kind of like when you put

your phone, your cell phone, in airplane mode.

OK, yeah, it still works, but it doesn't work the way it's

supposed to. You have to jump on someone's

Wi-Fi or connect to some Bluetooth thing.

Or rather, you just can't use it like normal.

But to make matters worse, it's like having your phone stuck in

airplane mode, right? You can't turn the data back on

even if you wanted to. You're in trouble.

It ain't gonna work, right? That is what human rebellion, or

what the Bible calls sin, is like.

See, we we are made to be connected to God, but we are

disconnected because of our fallenness, our sinfulness,

airplane mode. It won't come off right.

Because of this disconnection, we turn to proxies, lesser

things, fall idols, false gods, an idol.

Simply define. If you're wondering what that

is, we could simply define An idol this way is taking a

created thing and making it an ultimate thing.

Taking a created thing which is good and making an ultimate

thing which is not, or as one writer put it, an idol, is

whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts.

If I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning, and then

I'll know I have value. Then I'll feel significant and

secure. There are many ways to describe

that kind of a relationship to something, but perhaps the best

one is worship is worship. See, we turn to idols to give us

significance, value, and worth. But the problem with doing that

is that we were created in the image of God.

To turn to anything other than God for those things hollows us

out. It's a plastic version of what

we were meant to be. See, the Psalm is warning us

that idolatry turns us slowly but surely in the plastic

people, so they dehumanize us. That's the only thing they could

ever do. Because in order to be full

human, we need God. We need God because we are image

bearers. There's no way to live a

complete human life without God. This is why we chase God

replacements. We have to have something that

fills in the parts of us that only God can satisfy.

And This is why there is is the chase of the spiritual, the

beyond the cause, anything that can provide meaning to our

lives, a meaning that is bigger than us.

But the Bible tells us that the only thing that can truly meet

that longing it it has to be God like.

And the only God that there is is the living God of the Bible.

And that brings us to the solution that this Psalm offers.

OK, notice how the Psalm begins. It says not to us, O Lord, not

to us, but to your name. Give glory for the sake of your

steadfast love and your faithfulness.

Why should the nation say, where is their God?

Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.

See, the cultural context of this Psalm was a culture that

had all kinds of gods, idols just like us.

There were many temples where you could go and worship before

the statue of the God. But the Hebrews did not have a

temple that had a statue in it. So the cultural question is,

where's their God? Why don't you have a God?

Where's your statue? Where'd he go?

And the psalmist declares his response to that is our God is

in the heavens and he does all that he pleases.

The implication is that our God reigns from the heavens and he

doesn't need a temple. Heaven and earth are his.

What's more is that he has the power to do whatever he wants.

Do whatever he wants. Friends, faith, family.

The God of the Bible can do all that he pleases.

He can. The God of the Bible is a big

God, right? He doesn't pull favors to make

things happen. He doesn't do that.

He doesn't need anyone for anything.

He is not subject to some sort of evil force that balances them

out. There's no yin Yang here.

There's a one God, right? The God of the Bible reigns over

all creation. We do whatever he wishes.

Nothing binds or controls him. Nothing he spoke and the world

was made. He speaks and life happens.

That's how this thing works right now.

The psalmist contrasts the God that does all he pleases with

the idols of the nations. So look back at at verse four.

He says their idols are silver and gold and the work of human

hands made from some stuff I made, right.

They have mouths, or sorry, they have mouths, but do not speak.

But see, our God speaks. The God of the Bible is one who

speaks, right. He has spoken through his word,

right. They eyes but do not see.

But yet the God of the Bible sees.

He sees you in me. We read it in the scriptures.

They have ears, but do not hear. All over the place we hear that

God hears you. He hears you noses, but do not

smell. I guess God does smell in some

way, right? But they have hands but do not

feel. But yet our God is a feeling.

God feet but do not walk. But yet our God is everywhere.

And they do not make a sound in their throat.

But our God declares what will be.

See those who make them become like them, and so do all who

trusted them. See, our God does all that he

pleases. But your idols can't do

anything. They are helpless, is what the

Psalmist is saying. They are not real.

The psalmist is saying statues cannot help you.

You need the living God. So we got dead statues who don't

move and don't live, and we have the living God, is what he's

saying. He's saying that he can help,

right? He can do it.

See. Now, what I need you to notice

is that this is actually a song. It's a song.

So it repeats things several times.

But essentially what it does is it calls people to trust in the

Lord, the God of the Bible, and he can do three things for you

that idols cannot. And that's just straight from

what the Psalm says and just kind of summing that up.

He can help, he can shield and he can bless.

Those are the three things that it's listing.

The psalmist points out the idols cannot help shield or

bless you. You serve them, but they will

never serve you. They won't.

Because I can't and in contrast, the Lord can help you.

He can protect you and bless you.

He has the power to do these things though, because of verse

15. Verse 15 says may you be blessed

by the Lord. Why?

Who made heaven and earth? See, He can do this because He

made us and this is His world. He is the Creator.

All things came from Him. Everything was His idea and He

controls it all. Our God is in the heavens and He

does all that He pleases. See friends and faith, family,

our idols cannot help us. We will serve and serve and

serve them, but they will never serve us.

Sure, we may gain some temporary benefit from them, but they are

hollowing us out. The Lord can help us and shield

us and bless us. See, chasing, chasing Him will

actually fill us up and complete us, not dehumanize us.

And that's a big difference. See the feeling that you have

when you're tired of your, of your career or, or playing the

role that you've been reduced to, or the dismay in which when

the, when the, the football season's over, that feeling

after that is hollowness. It's our idol's inability to

satisfy us in very deep ways. Say our only hope to live a full

human life is to be reconnected to a life with God.

Now, this doesn't mean that many people won't live enjoyable

lives in some way. It doesn't praise God.

It doesn't, right? That's his common grace.

It just means something will always be missing.

Always. In fact, sometimes, sometimes,

friends, it takes a lifetime to realize the thing you were

chasing isn't enough. It takes a whole lifetime to

figure that out. Friends, don't let that be you.

Don't let that be you. We were meant to live life of

God, and that's the way things were meant to be.

And the God of the Bible has helped us.

He shielded us and He's blessed us.

Because that's why Jesus is a big deal, right?

If you don't know, Christians actually gather on Sunday

because it was a Sunday. That is the first day of the

week. In case you didn't know, it's

not Monday. Jesus arose from the dead on a

Sunday. You see, the Bible teaches that

God the Father sent God the Son to take on humanity in the

person of Jesus. See, Jesus is both God and man.

He's a, he's a human, but he's also God.

He stepped in and he lived a perfect life and then he died to

death for sin in the place of sinners and then resurrected 3

days later. And when someone turns from

their sins and turns to Christ, God the Holy Spirit, and dwells

them, reconnecting them to the life with God, That's how it's

possible. See, Jesus shielded those who

trust in him from the consequences of sin.

It should have been us, but Jesus Shields.

We were helpless, but Jesus helped us.

We were cursed, but Jesus blessed us.

It's only through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus

that this can happen. It's only through Him that we

can have the help, protection, and blessing of which the Psalm

even talks about. See, we're not, I don't know if

you know this, but we're not of the House of Israel.

We're not right. We're not of the House of Aaron,

meaning the line of priests. We may not even fear the Lord

like the other group of people. We had to be brought near.

We needed to be made new. See, this isn't a clean yourself

up sort of thing. This is a a being made new sort

of thing, right? There is no amount of moral

deeds that could ever make things right.

There's no amount of religious rights you can perform.

Everything has to be done by Jesus and he has it's through

Jesus. Airplane mode can actually be

turned off, right? The cellular data starts working

again, and therefore so do we. So do we.

See. Does that mean your life will be

perfect? No, it doesn't.

But things begin to change and one day, one day Jesus will

return to make all things completely new and perfect as

they were meant to be. They will be perfect, just not

immediately, right? But what is the solution that

this Psalm gives us to our idolatry problem?

I've kind of talked around what it says this the Psalm solution

is worship is worship. Whether you're in Christ or not,

Hebrew or not. We all worshipped our way into

idolatry, these God replacements, and guess what?

We have to worship our way out and we have to worship our way.

This may sound like self effort or it might.

It sounds too too simple, but I promise you it's not.

It's not either of those. See when we confront idols, we

are put in a position to tell ourselves and them that they are

not God. See?

And we inwardly and outwardly turn away from them and and turn

back to the Lord. Is that not what repentance and

faith in Jesus is right? We turn from them back to Him.

See, this is what the implication of the Psalm is.

Those things can't help you, so trust in the Lord.

That's what the Psalm is calling us to.

But this isn't purely about decisions, but worship.

See, we were created in God's image, and we were created in

such a way that we are worshippers, OK?

It's not. It's not we cannot, you know, we

can't help but be worshippers because God made us in such a

way. It made us a part of what it

means to be human. We cannot help but worship

something. The question isn't do you

worship, but are you worshiping well?

See, to worship well is to worship only the true God, the

living God of the Bible, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, right?

So by the power of the Holy Spirit, we must redirect our

hearts to worship the Lord and not idols.

Implication of the of the Psalm like trust in the Lord Israel,

it's through God's power that our hearts must be pried away

from idols. We must turn our worship from

false gods to the living God. OK, see the difference between a

Christian and someone who is not is it's if you were turning from

the idols for the very first time or the the thousandth time.

See, this is a continual thing because as one theologian said

many years ago, the human heart is an idol factory.

We have to have something that is the basis of our

significance, value and worth. And by default, we turn to

idols. We just do, we replace God.

That's our that's our, our default mode.

We make creative things into ultimate things.

So how do we get out of this simple two things as we're

looking at worshipping our way out?

The first one is this. We need to restore.

We need to restore. See, this means that we must

reset our imaginations on a life pleasing to him, a life that

lives in his world, his way. We look to him who has loved us

by dying for us. We love him because we remember

he had he first loved us. We fight to see his value in

worth and realize the same value in worth flows to us because we

image him. See we don't have to try and be

beautiful, we already are because we were made in his

image. We have to restore our

imaginations and thoughts to reorient them back.

See, the story we operate from by default is not true.

In some ways, we've got it wrong because of our fallenness.

So we have to confront it. We have to undermine the story

that our idols live in and grow in and hold power over us.

And the first step in worshipping our way out of that

idolatry is to remember the first line of this Psalm.

Look back at it. It says not to us, O Lord, not

to us, but to your name. Give glory.

See, we are not the center of the story of the world, OK?

God is. It's his story.

The story of the world has everything to do with him, not

us. Our idolatry.

Our idolatry is really about us and getting what we want, right?

But the story of the world is primarily about God.

So the idol that we are chasing is not a God, only God is right.

So that's the first thing we need.

We need a restoring. We need to see what what is it

that we're believing about the world.

It's just not true. So that's the first thing.

Second thing, it's Christian. You already have it.

Have what we need to realize that in Christ we already have

everything that those idols promised to give us, but they

never will see in Christ. We are fully known and yet fully

loved in Christ. You are safe in Christ you don't

need to be powerful because He is all powerful.

In Christ you are free to be no one because in Him you are

someone. You're a child of the King.

See friends, this can be yours in Jesus.

Do you want it? Faith, family, this is already

yours. Grab it, hold on to it.

In idol worship, you can never quite be sure that you have done

enough to appease the gods and gain their favor or or that

things might change and you no longer are in good graces.

Right? People aren't buying into the

persona that that you're giving them.

The current project is not going as well as the previous one.

The art project doesn't look as good as the one before.

Your role in the group is changing and it's unsettling

you. You didn't have the key insight

this time, and so someone else appears smarter than you.

Nothing is certain with idols. Nothing.

But this is not so in Christianity.

In Christ we are blessed and highly favored.

There is no amount of affection that the Lord withholds from

those who are His. None.

See, in Christ, you don't have to wonder.

It's finished, it's done. Nothing can separate you from

the love of Christ. Paul tells us nothing.

See, you see, in the gospel we have the resources to turn from

our idols. The goal of worshipping our way

out is to finally taste and see that the Lord is good, that the

Lord is good, that the Lord can give you and fulfill those deep

longings of your heart. He can do it because He has

made. He made us for it.

He made us to need Him. He made us that way.

See, one Christian thinker famously said that there is this

God shaped vacuum that can only be filled by an endless being

and only God is. It will work.

You see, it's not that our idols just cannot deliver, but even if

they could, they can never deliver.

Over and over and over and over they can't.

The longings of the human heart are too great.

They are endless. We know this about ourselves.

Our appetites are too immense. Nothing satisfies us.

Nothing will except. And there is not enough success,

there is not enough pleasure, there is not enough power that

will make us secure, satisfied, OK, or whatever the longing is.

There's just not enough. Unless those things are drawn

from an infinite and personal God.

We need something never ending. We need God.

See, now you may be thinking that a life with God through

Jesus Christ limits your life. OK, maybe that's you.

You're like, man, I hear you. But I want to live my life how I

want to live my life. I hear you, I hear you, I see

you. But it's it's quite the

opposite. This life actually frees you to

most fully be human. OK, there's one line in the

Psalm we actually didn't look at that seems kind of bizarre,

admittingly. But if you look at verse 16, it

says the heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has

given to the children of men. Bizarre.

To trust in the Lord isn't purely about praying, singing,

and reading the Bible all the time, although it includes that.

OK, it's in there. God created us to steward and

cultivate a world. OK, there is a new life awaiting

you that taps into who you were created to be.

OK friends, it's available to you through Christ, faith,

family. Realize what you already have in

Him. OK, we already got it all.

The time and energy that we waste on idols is meant to be

directed towards making much of the One who made us and saved us

through our cultivation of His world.

So turn it from all of that idol chasing and turn it to

cultivating his world. To be full human is to be

reconnected to the living God so that we can live a life of

praise through our work, our cultivation, and all the things.

All the things. See, a life with God is not

about cloistering yourself into a room by yourself.

It's just not a life with God is meant to be 1 working,

cultivating, producing, enjoying, laughing, singing,

loving, and whatever else good thing that we can do.

See, we are meant to fully and really live, but not for

ourselves, but to Him, to him we're to build a world to, to

the praise of his name, the living God.

The psalmist says that the dead do not praise him, but we will,

right? And we do that through, through

cultivating a world. Lastly, the immediate first step

this Psalm gives us and getting this and, and getting this thing

started is rather quite simple. What's the first step that the

psalmist gives us? It's really not.

It's it's so simple. You could have missed the whole

thing. It's simply this.

He tells us to sing. He tells us to sing.

OK, wherever you're at, near far, cold, hot, tired,

energized, sad, mad, happy, whatever.

We need to sing. We need to sing.

I'm I'm not saying you want to sing.

I'm admitting that you don't want maybe you don't want to

sing. I'm saying you need to sing.

We need to sing. I need to sing.

See, singing forces us to declare truth that we that we

are having trouble believing, right?

It puts in our mouths that which we need.

OK. But it's not just any songs.

It's songs that push us to the true story of the world.

So in a few moments, we're going to have an opportunity to

redirect our hearts away from our idols back to God.

I just plead with you to take it.

We need it. Even if you don't want it, you

need it. See, we have idols.

They dehumanize us and the the Lord is the only one who can

actually make us whole. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you that you are in the heavens and that you do

all that you please. You're the maker of heaven and

earth and there is no other false gods will not do.

They're they're bad for us, Father, and you know that you

know what the dark produces. You already knew that they rob

you of your praise that you're due.

But God, they are so bad for us and they crush what you made us

to be. So Father, we ask your

forgiveness for where we we run to foolish idols.

But Father, would you direct us back to yourself?

Help us to see and know that you are the living God.

Father, the Psalm says that you are the God who helps, Shields,

and blesses. So, Father, we come to you for

help, we come to you for safety, and we come to you for blessing.

Father, we love you. It's for your beautiful name.

Amen.