WEBVTT 00:00:01.960 --> 00:00:05.379 This is your daily reminder. God has not run 00:00:05.379 --> 00:00:09.199 out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:12.400 to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome today, February 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:16.679 the 14th. As I'm reading today and looking at 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:20.460 the text today, we are in Psalm 103. I know we're... 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:24.820 Kind of walking through Titus 3 this week. This 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:28.339 is more of a worshipful commentary on what Titus 00:00:28.339 --> 00:00:34.079 3 explains. Salvation flows not from merit, but 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:36.880 from mercy. It's not because we did anything. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:39.539 It's because Jesus did something. He did something 00:00:39.539 --> 00:00:42.740 amazing. And our God is full of steadfast love 00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:47.359 and mercy. This psalm, as we read it today, I'm 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:48.859 not going to read all of the verses in here. 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:51.700 Again, I want to challenge you. Go read it for 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:55.359 yourself and read the whole 22 verses. It's well 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:57.859 worth your time. Takes about five minutes. Not 00:00:57.859 --> 00:01:00.859 going to be super long, but maybe as you read 00:01:00.859 --> 00:01:03.719 it. Pause at each phrase because there's something 00:01:03.719 --> 00:01:07.120 marvelous about the psalms. I love the worship 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:10.319 that the psalmist gives us here to connect us 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:12.980 to God and who he is. This really explains God's 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:16.000 character well, and it's important for us. This 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.959 psalm, as we read it, as you read it today, it 00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:24.519 is written to believers who were in a little 00:01:24.519 --> 00:01:28.480 bit of trouble of forgetting. That's what it 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:31.959 was written for. It's for those who forget. Those 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:34.939 of us who are forgetful, those of us who have, 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:37.959 that's the danger in our life. We're in danger 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:39.659 of forgetting God. I want to read the first two 00:01:39.659 --> 00:01:42.480 verses to begin us off, and I want to talk about 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:44.879 it for just a minute. It says this in Psalm 103, 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:48.180 beginning at verse number one. Bless the Lord, 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:51.519 O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:55.560 holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget 00:01:55.560 --> 00:02:00.560 not all his... benefits. I want to just stop 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:04.299 there on verse two and say, what are we doing 00:02:04.299 --> 00:02:08.740 for getting his benefits? David here is speaking 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:11.659 to his own soul, right? Worship is not always 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:15.520 spontaneous. Sometimes it's intentional. And 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:17.919 I think it needs to be intentional. Sometimes 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:20.300 worship, you know, we talk about worship in church 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:22.240 settings. We talk about worship in different 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.460 personal settings. I love to worship the Lord. 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:27.800 I do. Now, it doesn't always look like a song 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:30.060 and hands raised and all that. Sometimes it does. 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.539 Sometimes it's in a corporate setting. Sometimes 00:02:32.539 --> 00:02:34.979 it's in my car. Sometimes it's in my office. 00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:38.500 Sometimes it's while I'm experiencing something 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:42.780 in life personally. I also know that whenever 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:45.659 we intentionally worship the Lord, it's different 00:02:45.659 --> 00:02:48.180 than when it's a spontaneous thing. When I'm 00:02:48.180 --> 00:02:50.439 in a worship service, I know I can be there and 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:53.599 a truth is proclaimed and it just overwhelms 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:57.219 me. That's happened before. It happens most Sundays, 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:00.180 in fact. Whenever we're singing lyrics to a song 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:03.180 and those lyrics are scripture set to music and 00:03:03.180 --> 00:03:05.120 that resonates in my heart with something I read 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:06.719 that week or something I experienced that week, 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:08.699 and I just begin to worship God for who He is. 00:03:09.319 --> 00:03:12.300 because his glory has been put on display. You 00:03:12.300 --> 00:03:14.419 know, God's glory is just his holiness going 00:03:14.419 --> 00:03:17.560 public. You know that, right? I think about this, 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:20.500 and I teach this quite often. I love when God's 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:24.060 holiness, how holy he is, goes public. When his 00:03:24.060 --> 00:03:25.879 holiness goes public, everybody freaks out, and 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:27.939 it's his glory. It's what it is. It's perfection, 00:03:28.259 --> 00:03:30.259 and you get to see it, and it's right there. 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:32.360 And there's moments where he will bring us into 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:34.599 that. Those spontaneous moments are incredible. 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:37.900 David here, the psalmist, is trying to help us 00:03:37.900 --> 00:03:43.419 see. that we need to be intentional. Forget not 00:03:43.419 --> 00:03:48.340 all his benefits. Don't forget. Forgetting leads 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:51.860 to a disordered living. You know, if we're not 00:03:51.860 --> 00:03:56.039 careful, when our soul forgets who he is and 00:03:56.039 --> 00:04:01.240 what he's done, we will not celebrate him. We'll 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:07.419 lose that celebratory heart that we have. I realize 00:04:08.009 --> 00:04:13.189 We will never consistently worship a God that 00:04:13.189 --> 00:04:16.589 we casually remember. I'm going to say that again. 00:04:16.689 --> 00:04:20.250 We will not consistently worship a God we casually 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:25.629 remember. A problem across the globe with Christianity. 00:04:26.939 --> 00:04:29.319 I've been to several countries. I've seen a lot 00:04:29.319 --> 00:04:31.560 of church services. I've seen church services 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:34.399 in outdoors because they didn't have a building 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:35.959 to meet in because they didn't have the money 00:04:35.959 --> 00:04:38.439 or the supplies to build a building. I've been 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:41.420 in some of the nicest buildings in the Western 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:44.579 Hemisphere, some of the nicest over in Rome. 00:04:44.699 --> 00:04:46.800 I've seen all kinds of great places, amazing 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:51.500 things. And what I've noticed is if we are casually 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:54.319 remembering this God and all he's done for us, 00:04:57.339 --> 00:04:58.939 we're going to find less and less spontaneous 00:04:58.939 --> 00:05:03.500 moments, right? I think about what would it look 00:05:03.500 --> 00:05:06.259 like if we didn't just remember him on the weekends? 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:09.459 What would it look like if we didn't just remember 00:05:09.459 --> 00:05:12.639 him on Sundays whenever we go and gather? Or 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:16.540 as the statistics show, maybe we only worship 00:05:16.540 --> 00:05:19.699 once or twice a month. That's considered a regular 00:05:19.699 --> 00:05:22.680 churchgoer now. And I'm not pushing that you 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:24.379 have to be in church in order to be a good Christian. 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:27.680 As one of the famous evangelists, Billy Sunday, 00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:32.060 said, standing in a garage... doesn't make you 00:05:32.060 --> 00:05:34.519 a car, just like being in a church service doesn't 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:36.220 make you a Christian, right? I'm not saying your 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:38.139 church attendance is that. I am saying that whenever 00:05:38.139 --> 00:05:39.639 you're around the community of God, if you're 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:41.319 a person of God, you want to be around the community 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:43.180 of God. You want to be around the things of God. 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:44.959 It's like we talked about in yesterday's episode 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:48.220 that the godly things are what you have in common 00:05:48.220 --> 00:05:50.480 with God, so be a part of godly things. Christian 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:52.779 community is a godly thing. It's him bringing 00:05:52.779 --> 00:05:54.939 us together to encourage, edify, lift up, build 00:05:54.939 --> 00:05:58.879 up, and call out and help to lift up, raise up 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:02.060 each of us so that we're better. in our Christian 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:04.220 walk so that we can connect deeper to God, so 00:06:04.220 --> 00:06:06.600 we can understand greater things in this world. 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:08.540 I look at this and I think, why are we forgetting? 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:11.959 We don't remember all of his benefits. And then 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:13.680 it begins to list. Listen to what it says in 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:14.740 the next few verses. I'm not going to read the 00:06:14.740 --> 00:06:16.240 whole verses. I'm going to read the beginning 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:19.920 of each line. It says this, this God who forgives, 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:22.839 who heals, who redeems, who crowns, who satisfies. 00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:27.439 He's good. Like, he's good. What happens? As 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:29.459 soon as we start remembering, you know what we 00:06:29.459 --> 00:06:32.709 start remembering? He forgives. It starts with 00:06:32.709 --> 00:06:34.769 forgiveness. Do you know why? I think because 00:06:34.769 --> 00:06:37.550 we need to be humbled sometimes. And you know 00:06:37.550 --> 00:06:39.329 where humility comes from? Forgiveness. We realize 00:06:39.329 --> 00:06:41.649 we did something dumb and we had to be forgiven 00:06:41.649 --> 00:06:44.290 of it. We fell short. We had to be forgiven. 00:06:44.670 --> 00:06:49.009 He forgives and he heals. Who doesn't love someone 00:06:49.009 --> 00:06:51.470 who heals? Who doesn't love someone who can help 00:06:51.470 --> 00:06:53.949 rend a heart back together? Who doesn't love 00:06:53.949 --> 00:06:56.949 something, someone who is able to bring healing? 00:06:57.529 --> 00:06:59.449 I don't know anybody in the world who says, no, 00:06:59.589 --> 00:07:01.870 I'd rather you just break things and leave. No, 00:07:01.889 --> 00:07:03.850 you want to put things back together. Let it 00:07:03.850 --> 00:07:06.509 be around someone that wants to heal things, 00:07:06.709 --> 00:07:09.170 right? Listen to this. It says, who redeems. 00:07:09.350 --> 00:07:12.689 He redeems your life from the pit. So not only 00:07:12.689 --> 00:07:15.410 is this the God who forgives, not only is this 00:07:15.410 --> 00:07:18.930 the God who heals, it's also the God who redeems 00:07:18.930 --> 00:07:22.689 or sets right out of the mess that you were in. 00:07:22.949 --> 00:07:25.829 He redeems you. He pulls you out of the pit that 00:07:25.829 --> 00:07:28.509 you got yourself into. It's amazing. Then what 00:07:28.509 --> 00:07:31.550 does he do? He crowns you. He crowns you with 00:07:31.550 --> 00:07:36.170 steadfast love and mercy. I don't know what our 00:07:36.170 --> 00:07:39.170 problem is. Honestly, the more I think about 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:43.430 this, we are complete fools. How do we have forgotten? 00:07:44.110 --> 00:07:46.370 Here's your challenge today. I'm not even going 00:07:46.370 --> 00:07:47.629 to get through the rest of the psalm. Here's 00:07:47.629 --> 00:07:50.350 your challenge today. Remember what God has done. 00:07:50.870 --> 00:07:54.870 Remember he has forgiven you. That alone should 00:07:54.870 --> 00:07:58.480 be enough to rock our world. That alone. Remember 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:00.319 that he didn't just forgive you, though. He also 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:04.180 heals you. It says he heals you from all your 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:06.519 diseases. Those problems that you have, he heals 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:09.060 you from it. He puts back together. He redeems 00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:12.379 you. He crowns you. And then the last thing in 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:15.519 verse 5, listen to this. Who satisfies you with 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:19.519 what? With good so that your youth is renewed 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:24.819 like the eagles. He not only has forgiven you 00:08:24.819 --> 00:08:28.379 of your dumb stuff, myself included. I read this 00:08:28.379 --> 00:08:29.980 today and I'm just thinking, man, how in the 00:08:29.980 --> 00:08:32.460 world have I missed out on this? How have I missed 00:08:32.460 --> 00:08:34.519 out on the understanding that I'm waiting on 00:08:34.519 --> 00:08:38.460 spontaneous worship to happen instead of intentional 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:40.519 worship? Today, maybe intentional worship needs 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:42.639 to be your strife and your goal. Maybe that needs 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:44.679 to be what it is this Sunday. Maybe you're watching 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:47.659 this on Saturday whenever this release. Maybe 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:49.720 you're watching this, I don't know, in 2028. 00:08:49.899 --> 00:08:51.600 I'm not. sure. I don't know how the internet 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:54.039 works, really. But maybe, wherever you're watching 00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:55.860 this, maybe it's time to not wait on spontaneous 00:08:55.860 --> 00:08:58.019 worship and get into intentional worship. How 00:08:58.019 --> 00:08:59.659 do you get into intentional worship? Well, you 00:08:59.659 --> 00:09:02.100 remember what he's done for you. You start to 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:04.960 remember. I know this. If you are a believer, 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:10.259 if you honestly take 15 minutes today and begin 00:09:10.259 --> 00:09:12.220 to write down the things God has done for you, 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:14.340 maybe you just need to remember how far gone 00:09:14.340 --> 00:09:16.039 you were. Maybe you just need to remember where 00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:18.190 you were headed. Maybe you just need to remember 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:22.509 where you had no hope at all, and he has come 00:09:22.509 --> 00:09:26.029 and forgiven you. Why? Because you did something 00:09:26.029 --> 00:09:30.269 great? No. We read this this week. While we were 00:09:30.269 --> 00:09:33.330 still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were 00:09:33.330 --> 00:09:37.529 in the wrong, Christ died for us. And what did 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:40.450 that mean? God demonstrated. He proved his love 00:09:40.450 --> 00:09:44.490 that while we were sinners, he died for us. You 00:09:44.490 --> 00:09:48.370 want intentional worship? Remember him. Remember 00:09:48.370 --> 00:09:53.450 him. Remember him. I am not sitting here today 00:09:53.450 --> 00:09:56.750 because I'm worthy. I am sitting here today because 00:09:56.750 --> 00:10:00.070 God's faithfully merciful. That's why I'm here 00:10:00.070 --> 00:10:02.909 today. I read back through all the text again. 00:10:03.009 --> 00:10:05.929 I can't get past the first five verses. So I'm 00:10:05.929 --> 00:10:08.809 sorry. You will never consistently worship a 00:10:08.809 --> 00:10:11.700 God you casually remember. You won't do it. Stop 00:10:11.700 --> 00:10:14.539 casually remembering God. This may be a shorter 00:10:14.539 --> 00:10:16.039 episode today, but it's because you need more 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:19.080 time so that you can go today and intentionally 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:21.039 remember he's forgiven you, he's healed you, 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:23.500 he's redeemed you, he's crowned you, and he satisfies 00:10:23.500 --> 00:10:26.919 you. That means long term, by the way. How do 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:28.659 I know it's long term? Because it says he satisfies 00:10:28.659 --> 00:10:32.299 you with good. Where did that come from? From 00:10:32.299 --> 00:10:36.220 the crowning of steadfast love. Read this whole 00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:38.700 psalm and read how steadfast love shows up over 00:10:38.700 --> 00:10:42.320 and over again. That's all him. We cannot consistently 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:45.639 worship a God we casually remember. Remember 00:10:45.639 --> 00:10:48.740 his things today. Let that be a new mercy that 00:10:48.740 --> 00:10:50.279 brings a smile to your face.