Behold . Looking Ahead

So the last three, weeks we've been doing this series called

Behold, we've looked back, we've looked up, we've looked ahead.

And so in the idea of looking back, Psalm 85 is our focus through this series.

And Psalm 85 calls us to look backwards in remembrance, to look upwards in

prayer, and to look inwards in repentance.

But today we're looking forward in a resolution.

We have resolved in our hearts to be resolute by what God has promised.

So this is our scripture from verses 10.

Mercy and truth have met together.

Righteousness and peace have kissed.

Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness will go before him, and shall make his footsteps our pathway.

Many commentators believe that Psalm 85 was written just after the

Jews had left Babylon in captivity, returning to their homeland.

And so, it seems that that would be somewhere in the middle of

the 5th century before Jesus.

Which is around the same time as the last book in the Old

Testament, Malachi was written.

And so knowing what was to come, what was to come after Malachi, the

historical journey suggests, and they use this phrase, the silent years.

This period of time between when Malachi was written in the Old Testament and the

arrival of the Messiah, Jesus, this period of time, the silent years, it makes a lot

of sense if that's the case, why Psalm 85?

fits perfectly into that timeline picture because God's promises are sure and

Psalm 85 is calling his people to have resolve, God's people to have resolve

and to hold on because God's promises are sure and they will come through.

And so the psalmist have gone, has gone through from verses one to three,

basically looking back into the past.

He's looked into the present through verses four to nine, and now he's

looking into the future in these verses.

And so these promises lift a distressed heart.

In this case, they lift the distressed eyes from the present moment, and

they set before God's people, I like this phrasing, I read it this week, a

vast lush plain of a fertile future.

That God, in His infinite wisdom and power, will bring to pass.

So you've got to remember, they've just gone back to their homeland, if that's, if

the timing's correct, where they feel like everything we had is now gone, but God, in

that moment, speaks into this situation, into this historical moment, and says,

You don't know what I'm about to do.

I have got big plans, big plans indeed.

And so the question here is how do we look forward when it

comes to the promises of God?

Now the image of Meet the Robinsons, I've said it before, there's this boy, Lewis,

and he lacks confidence concerning his passion for invention and innovation.

And he declares at earlier in the movie, he declares, I'm no good.

He declares this moment where he's just no good at this

invention journey that he's on.

He falls short.

Later in the movie, Lewis suddenly has a newfound confidence because he's

discovered what his future looks like.

He's going to be the future Elon Musk of this story.

He's going to become the most influential innovator and inventor of his time.

So after he visits this future that he's experiencing, suddenly this confidence

arises in him and it points to the question, what if you knew that if all

the promises of God that God has given you, what if you knew that all the things

God has called you to do as you seek his kingdom, if they were to come to pass,

how would you feel about that today?

Would you have an air of doubt?

Would you have fear?

I would suggest you would actually feel fairly unstoppable.

You would be resolved.

You would be a heightened confidence.

And it reminds me of the scripture in Joshua 21, where the Word of God actually

says there was a moment that The the god's people historically could feel

that way because it says this in Joshua 21 from verse 43, it says to the Lord,

gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took

possession of it and settled there.

The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had

sworn to their ancestors to do.

Not one of their enemies withstood them.

The Lord gave all their enemies into their hands.

Nice report card right there.

And then the last sentence is just kicker.

It says.

not one of the Lord's good promises to Israel failed.

Everyone was fulfilled.

That's a staggering scripture, I think.

Can you believe that every good and perfect promise of God will simultaneously

at some point have that same scripture attached to it in our coming future?

That not one thing that the Lord has promised will fail.

He will make it come to pass.

As I say that to you, does that kind of stir you on the inside to go,

Oh man, we're on the winning team.

That's not a very good response.

I know a lot of you are Fremantle Dockers supporters, but that is useless.

Oh, that is not low.

But when the Fremantle Dockers win, it will be a very big day, won't it, hey?

Yes, well why don't you walk with that sort of confidence today?

My goodness, that's because there's no guarantees in football.

But in the kingdom, there's guarantees.

There's guarantees.

Guarantees.

What would you How would you How would you feel?

How would you experience that?

Confidence would grow.

You'd be resolved.

And also, the obstacles that you face today, actually, you would

know that these are temporary.

Those minor setbacks are kind of temporary.

And I know we didn't watch that whole clip about the how the family responds

to failure, but the family's response to failure was actually celebrating failure.

Like, there's no such thing as failure, just feedback.

Because this is all part of the journey.

All part of the journey.

What would it be like to know that that confidence, you would be resolved?

How would you stand?

You would stand resolved.

You would stand unwavering.

And in light of this confidence, how does that change how you

live today into this moment?

Why was, is there room to celebrate?

In the setbacks you've had, in the moments where you felt like you've had

a promise from God and there's been things that have come against it, And

you would say, oh, do I feel discouraged?

Why is there still reason to celebrate?

Let's look at this scripture in Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6.

Proverbs 3:5

Why is there reason?

Because of this fact.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into your understandings.

In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight.

You know the motto of the Bible?

The Robinson family was keep moving backwards.

No, it was keep moving forwards, wasn't it?

Keep moving forwards.

And how much of a reason do we still have to keep moving forward?

Because we don't trust our own ability.

We trust the Lord.

Proverbs 4, 25 and 27.

Look your eyes Look, let your eyes, thank you.

Let your eyes look straight ahead.

Fix your gaze directly before you.

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

Do not turn to the left or the right.

Keep your foot from evil and keep moving forward.

It doesn't say keep moving forward.

Philippians chapter 3 verses 12 and 14.

Philippians 3:12

Oh, I love this.

This is just this picture of why we should have hope to keep looking forward.

Not that I've already attained this or I've already arrived at my goal, but

I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet having taken hold of it,

but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what

is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which.

God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Keep moving forward in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8 28 is true.

What does it say?

We know that God works all things for good for those who love him and have

been called according to his purposes.

So let God, let him do all the work.

Making all things work for good, bit, because you can't.

It's above your pay grade.

Yes, will you do that?

And then what do you do?

Well, you do the loving God.

Well, how do I love God?

Well, newsflash, let Him love you and you'll find yourself loving God.

Yep.

And then what?

Follow the calling of God that He has placed in your heart.

Follow after it.

Keep moving forward in it.

You can't fail.

Turn to the person next to you and say, you can't fail.

That was not emphatic enough for my liking.

You can't fail.

Because if God is working all things for good, and you love Him because

you've received His love, and you're going after the calling of God in your

life, you should be resolved to go after that with a sense of confidence.

Would you agree?

Absolutely!

And this is not about hype, this is about allowing the truth of God to

penetrate your heart, like if you could travel into the future and see the

future that God has planned out for you, that kind of resolve, if you could,

you would have a fresh confidence.

But we're not going into the future, we have something even better!

Oh man, we have so much better, so much better.

You think time travel is fantastic, but no, there's something better.

It's called the love of Jesus.

Get that into your spirit, and you don't need no flippin time travel.

You just, you're just married to the God who made time.

You understand what I mean, don't you?

Because you've gotten it on the inside of your heart.

Confidence, man, it builds.

I need to be reminded of this.

I hope you two do, you two do so need that this morning as well.

Everyone said, Amen.

Very good.

I know how to speak English.

I'm very clever.

So, let me bring up Psalm 85, 10 to 13 again, just so it's on the screen.

Because as we look through these verses, like, what does it actually mean?

What are we getting at?

Because this is quite a poetic finish to, Psalm 85.

And verse 10 speaks of four separate attributes of God here.

He's got, we've got the steadfast love, we've got faithfulness,

we've got righteousness and peace.

Um, the King James Version, which I've got up here, uses mercy and truth.

And it may seem, to some, like these attributes, attributes, fit neatly

together, like, you know, like love and mercy, that, that makes sense, love and

mercy, and peace, maybe, peace is sort of in the same group, but then on the

other side, there's this righteousness and truth group, like, they don't

seem necessarily to go together, Um, they kind of maybe feel a little bit

less congruent, these two things.

And so, but the scripture is saying these very intimate

things, like they met together, they've kissed, everyone say kiss.

There's an intimacy here, they're, they're one.

The psalmist looks and hopes in something that when the psalmist

wrote and penned these words, I didn't yet fully understand the totality

of what he was to write because prophetically, he's looking forward

to the cross of Jesus in this moment.

The place where God reveals his mercy and his truth, they're

actually not in opposition, they're actually coming together.

He looks forward to the focal point of all of human history, the cross of Jesus,

to the place where God's attributes kiss.

At the cross simultaneously, truth and love are made visible.

Righteousness and peace, this truth and righteousness, they kiss

because sin must be atoned for.

Ladies and gentlemen, sin must be atoned for.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But at the same time, love is revealed at the cross simultaneously.

And made visible because it was not you and I on the cross,

but God himself on the cross.

And so God took the punishment of our sin on himself in our place.

And so the righteous requirement of the law was fulfilled in Jesus.

And now it's found inside of us who believe.

And so what flows from this place in this scripture, what flows from this moment.

This peace and reconciliation with God.

Verse 11 says, Faithfulness springs up from the ground.

Righteousness looks down from the sky, from the heavens.

Notice how these attributes aren't reserved for one little pocket on

earth, like some little corner.

This is a pervasive promise.

This is all of heaven, all of earth, not just for It's a place called Israel.

It's a place for every single one of us.

The glory will come together and dwell among God's people

across the face of the earth.

Do you share the confidence that the psalmist has as he's penning these words

in the midst of external pressures?

and afflictions, the psalmist sets his hope on the fact that God

will give what is good and will bring restoration and revival.

His faith was strengthened as he recalled God's former mercies, and

he clung to This is the psalmist, he clung to these future promises.

The psalmist only saw dimly these realities from a fair distance

off, potentially 500 years off.

But confidence was in him.

He was looking through a blurry lens, so to speak.

But today, in 2024, we're not looking through no blurry lens, even

though we wish we could see at all.

But we're certainly searing a lot, seeing a lot clearer than the psalmist saw.

The psalmist looked backwards and he saw the story of the exodus, the story

of God's rescue mission, through the exodus story, through the Old Testament.

But when we look backwards, what do we see?

We see the cross.

We see the deliverance.

We see that God, once and for all, defeated sin and death and

saved His people, guaranteeing our position in the family of God.

We are children of God, defeating sin and death.

When the psalmist looked upwards, he looked at this Old Covenant, this,

this dynamic of prayer in the Old Covenant, actually, He knew something

about there would come a day where there would be a better mediator,

that we would be able to pray to God with such clarity and such precision,

because a new covenant was coming.

But we look upwards and we see that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of

God, interceding for us even right now.

How much better is that?

When the psalmist looked inward, man, he saw a system of repentance that was

bound up in the sacrifice of animals.

When we look inwards and repent, we have a perfect sacrifice.

His name is Jesus, and he has forgiven all sin for us as we are faithful to repent.

He is faithful to forgive past, present, and future.

As the psalmist looked forward, he's expecting blessing for

his people, the Israelites.

But when we look forward, man, we know that the kingdom of That

was inaugurated in the victorious resurrection of Jesus will continue to

grow throughout human history in its consummation at the end of history.

We know that one day the Great Commission will actually be fulfilled, that God

will pour out his blessings, not just on one nation, but on every nation.

In Habakkuk 2, I wanted to read Habakkuk 2 to you.

How we'll know is that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory

of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Man, what a day.

And so the Psalmist has reasons to be optimistic.

When he looks backwards, when he looks upwards, when he looks inwards, when he

looks ahead, how much more should we?

That's the question I'm posing to you today.

And the Psalm ends, as we still have it on the screen, in that last line, And

shall make his footsteps our pathway.

How sure is your footing when God constructs the pathway?

Is it like, fragile?

Is it, you know, rickety?

You're gonna twist your ankle?

Man, no, when he makes His footsteps our pathway, we can go with confidence.

So my question to us all today, as we again look at this coming year, what

has God put before you as you seek, He, He seek the King and His Kingdom?

As you seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, what is it that

God has placed you before you today?

Is there a decision that you need to make today?

Is there a resolve that you need to have about something that might feel a

little bit scary right now as you step towards the things God has for you to do?

Is there something that you're facing that you're scared to face?

Is there a conversation that you're having that you need to You know, you need to

have, will you have resolve today, man?

If the Lord is for you, man, I tell you, he is for you.

And he's not just for you.

He's with you.

The creator of the cosmos is with you people.

So I want to bring this a little bit home today by telling you a

little bit of a story on where we're at as a church, if that's okay.

And there's a little bit of a project that's unfolding, in

preparation for Easter this year.

And I want to tell you a little bit about it because it's a

potentially one of these things.

And the scripture's beautifully placed, actually, for this moment.

Because the question would come, Oh, do we believe that

the promises of God are for us?

Or do we believe that we should just shrink back?

So, what's unfolded over the last bit of time, and probably the last six months,

is, you know, I used to walk through, you know how we kind of do a large ish event?

Does that make sense?

Everyone knows what I'm talking about?

No one's putting their hands up, so I'm not visually encouraged right now.

I'm feeling very, like, alone as I step out with this conversation right now.

Thank you.

Please help your pastor out for crying out loud.

Um, What I'm about to describe to you is something that isn't locked in.

It's not something that, um, is all sorted out and we're doing it.

This is a conversation that I'm having with you at the front end to help you,

bring you into the circle of, of prayer, of communication, of this is what we're

going to be aiming for this coming Easter.

And so, um, After a bit of, prodding, I think, with the Spirit of God, we are

going to not do an Easter walkthrough in here at 33 Hammond Road this year.

We're going to do it in the city of Fremantle.

And so part of that Easter walkthrough is going to be better,

better framed in our understanding of the Stations of the Cross.

Does everyone know what I mean by Stations of the Cross?

Essentially, the Easter walkthrough was the Stations of the Cross.

Yes, in this case, we are going to, um, produce, twelve very large

format posters that are going to sit within walking distance of the centre

of Fremantle on different locations, on different corners, on different

spots around the city of Fremantle.

Everyone say twelve.

Twelve.

Twelve, Lord.

Twelve.

And what happens is, when you go to that station, you will be encouraged

to go to the website with the QR code, and you will download an app.

That app, when you point it up, it's like a camera app, when you point it up to the

poster, it's called augmented reality.

And what happens is, the poster comes alive, and tells you a five minute

story of what that station is all about.

This is where it gets awkward.

very exciting because the person presenting is going to be one of

the local pastors in either the city of Coburn or the city of Fremantle.

And we've already got enough unity and love for one another

to make this really possible.

So it also is not just a position of communicating the Easter story.

It's also a position of communicating the unity of the

body of Christ in this moment.

Does that make sense?

Now, at the end of that little presentation on the phone, you'll have

what they call like a little It'll just be, it'll come up with a letter,

so it'll say password code, and you'll remember that letter, and now you're

going to, um, sort of collect 12 letters.

Does that make sense?

And the 12 letters are going to make a phrase, and in the phrase you go onto the

website and you put the passcode in, and then you get your secret invitation to a

communion event in Fremantle, either on the Thursday night or the Friday night.

Does that make sense?

So that's just fun.

codes and kids and stuff.

Does that make sense?

So that's kind of what we're aiming at doing.

It's exciting because we've also been, given some funding for this.

And so, earlier, the latter part of last year, I put an application

into an organization called Just So.

If you want to look up their website, you can.

Just S O W dot org.

It's initially a UK website, but they've recently just launched in Australia.

And, our application for this project was the first Australian

application on their website.

And the 15th of December, they approved it to the sum of 20, 000.

So we, so if we take out a 20, 000 gift from just so, and by the way,

I don't know who gave it because the givers connect with just so,

and just so is like the middleman.

And there's only one giver, by the way.

One person has just given 20k.

Our budget for the Easter walkthrough is about 10, 000 a year.

That's what we've spent.

So together we're gonna spend 30, 000 on this project.

So the artwork's all done, we're working on a few things.

This is a bit of a mock up of what potentially it could look like.

That's just, that's just the like the title poster thing.

But the, oh, oh, do you wanna see one of the artworks?

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

So, the artwork is intentionally a little bit edgy.

It's edgy.

Everyone say edgy?

Good.

So what I mean by edgy is like a bit more on the tattoo side of artwork.

Does that make sense?

Because we're going into where?

Fremantle.

Okay.

Cool.

Next one.

So this is like station number one called Jesus is Tempted.

And as you get your phone kind of up to this huge poster.

Again, this is a mock up.

This isn't even in Fremantle, by the way.

Your phone comes alive, and it'll talk to you as well on your phone,

as long as your volume's up.

Does that make sense?

So, this is a fair, chunky project, where we could have up to ten to twenty

thousand people go through this, in the course of that week before Easter.

Does that make sense?

And so we're going to be having some prayer meetings about this.

We're going to be doing a prayer walk in Fremantle.

I'm currently trying to get endorsement of those churches formally as we

approach businesses and approach the local council and we get all

those approvals and so forth.

it's certainly going to be a battlefield dynamic.

It's not going to be something that is just going to be real easy.

Does that make sense?

Because we're going after the kingdom of light and attacking kingdoms of darkness.

so I wanted to bring you up to the speed with that way early this year

so that you know what's happening.

so there won't be any like good Friday services here.

I'll be sending you off to Fremantle to go and cause havoc in there.

Does that make sense?

So I just want to pray for that right now as we invite the team to come up.

And I've taken way too much time today, but that's okay.

Hey, why don't you stand, because this is something I feel like we're not going

to, just so you're clear, I'm not talking about this because, hey, this is what

Adam's going to do, you know, this is something that I believe the Lord wants

us to do, and then, He doesn't want just us to do it, He wants to actually

activate the churches in our region to be involved with this in some way.

Everyone's different involvements going to differ, yeah?

Some may be getting their friends and their church people to come

along to attend, some may be on the video talking about it.

And so, I'll be quiet and pray.

So, Father, we want to thank you, God, for your leading in this.

And as we've just talked about in Psalm 85, Father, you call us to trust that

we're not doing this to gain favor.

We're doing this in response because mercy and truth, righteousness

and peace have kissed and we have received the kiss of heaven today.

And so everything that flows from us is not some religious action, but

it is a response to your great love.

And I thank you that you would go before us in this very thing, where

your word that clearly says that your footsteps would be our pathway.

And I thank you that in this endeavor, Father, it would be very obvious that

only you could do this, we cannot.

So you would get all the glory.

And that our fragile, failure prone, things that we find so difficult, God,

this would occur not because of our best efforts, but because of yours.

So Lord, make it great for your purposes.

May it have an impact in the city of Fremantle and beyond, and it

may your kingdom be enriched by our bringing our yes, our availability,

and plus your ability, Father, we would see your kingdom come.

In Jesus mighty name.

Amen.