WEBVTT 00:00:00.650 --> 00:00:03.149 Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:03.270 --> 00:00:06.209 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg. 00:00:06.870 --> 00:00:08.750 It's our hope that these sermons will draw you 00:00:08.750 --> 00:00:11.169 more into the life of following God, Father, 00:00:11.330 --> 00:00:14.150 Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and 00:00:14.150 --> 00:00:16.469 joining with us each Sunday morning at 10am in 00:00:16.469 --> 00:00:18.809 the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find 00:00:18.809 --> 00:00:22.329 us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook, 00:00:22.629 --> 00:00:25.030 Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this 00:00:25.030 --> 00:00:35.840 sermon. God Bless. Lord, we ask that you would 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.640 illumine our hearts, you'd open our eyes, that 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:42.619 we would receive this word, a word that is a 00:00:42.619 --> 00:00:46.600 Psalm that's not very well known, a part of your 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:49.539 church's history that's not terribly well known 00:00:49.539 --> 00:00:52.640 or understood well. God, I pray that having spent 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:54.659 this time, we would understand your kindness 00:00:54.659 --> 00:00:58.340 to us, even in discipline. that we would have 00:00:58.340 --> 00:01:00.740 a greater hope that you will make the world right, 00:01:00.979 --> 00:01:03.420 that you will make good on your promises, that 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:06.579 our faith would grow. God, now may the words 00:01:06.579 --> 00:01:08.260 of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts 00:01:08.260 --> 00:01:10.739 be pleasing in your sight, the Lord, our rock 00:01:10.739 --> 00:01:15.700 and our Redeemer. Amen. All right, I know because 00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:18.659 I know many of your stories that many of you 00:01:18.659 --> 00:01:22.480 have experienced great calamities in this life. 00:01:24.390 --> 00:01:26.230 My guess is that many of you have experienced 00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:29.230 disasters that have really kind of changed how 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:31.569 you understand the world, maybe changed the course 00:01:31.569 --> 00:01:36.150 of your life. I know I have a good friend who, 00:01:36.609 --> 00:01:40.730 when he was in college, his house burned down, 00:01:40.769 --> 00:01:43.290 the house he was living in. And he said, you 00:01:43.290 --> 00:01:46.189 know, most of the stuff that he lost were relatively 00:01:46.189 --> 00:01:49.719 speaking, maybe trivial things. but they were 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:51.239 also significant because some of them were like 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:53.540 family photos and a guitar and things like that. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:55.319 Things that may be in the grand scheme of things 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:58.920 may be sort of diminished by many of us, but 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:00.780 he's learned even through that experience to 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:02.560 cherish kind of things that we might consider 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:07.540 small. Some of you have gone through marital 00:02:07.540 --> 00:02:10.259 separations and divorce. You've tasted something 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:13.460 that is joyful and lovely and life -giving that 00:02:13.460 --> 00:02:18.189 became a reason for weeping. For sorrow for questioning 00:02:18.189 --> 00:02:21.830 your decisions, right and your judgment judgment 00:02:21.830 --> 00:02:26.650 And maybe also invited you to consider How you 00:02:26.650 --> 00:02:30.969 contributed to the mess of it all? Some of us 00:02:30.969 --> 00:02:35.830 have sat down with doctors to receive the outcomes 00:02:35.830 --> 00:02:41.669 of biopsy Cancer is so prevalent, right? And 00:02:41.669 --> 00:02:45.610 sometimes we've we've heard it going into remission 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:48.780 Partial or complete. And sometimes, actually 00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:50.439 even in the life of our church, it was sort of 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:54.259 a spontaneous remission. Miraculous, but not 00:02:54.259 --> 00:02:58.539 always. Sometimes it comes back. Of course, I 00:02:58.539 --> 00:03:01.460 shared about our dear sister Donna. If you are 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:03.379 not familiar with her story, this time last year 00:03:03.379 --> 00:03:07.560 she was regularly going to the Y for water aerobics 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:09.199 a few times a week right down there on Front 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:12.370 Street. The last 10 months, she has been in and 00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:15.009 out of hospitals and rehabs and care facilities 00:03:15.009 --> 00:03:18.169 and back to care facilities and hospitals. And 00:03:18.169 --> 00:03:22.409 it's been a long journey. The fact is, is that 00:03:22.409 --> 00:03:28.629 life is often tragedy to tragedy. Just presents 00:03:28.629 --> 00:03:32.930 itself that way. So two falls ago, if you can 00:03:32.930 --> 00:03:36.250 remember back then. We looked at the first 11 00:03:36.250 --> 00:03:39.710 chapters of the book of Genesis. And in many 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:41.629 ways, we took that instead of kind of going through 00:03:41.629 --> 00:03:43.330 the whole thing in part because those chapters 00:03:43.330 --> 00:03:47.610 are an introduction to the Bible. Where's this 00:03:47.610 --> 00:03:49.810 beginning and what's going on here? It's a good 00:03:49.810 --> 00:03:53.229 place to start. And then there we saw what we 00:03:53.229 --> 00:03:56.370 were made for. We were made to live into the 00:03:56.370 --> 00:03:58.870 goodness of God, to life within His creation 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:01.750 and life with Him, to walk with Him, to talk 00:04:01.750 --> 00:04:05.360 with Him. depend on Him for our provision and 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.419 our protection, to delight in His presence with 00:04:08.419 --> 00:04:12.819 us. But of course the story, we don't get a lot 00:04:12.819 --> 00:04:17.060 of that there. Very quickly we learn of our rebellion, 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:21.100 deciding that we know how to do life better, 00:04:22.139 --> 00:04:23.439 now that we have a better sense of what this 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:26.300 life should look like, and we lived into this 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:29.310 rebellious way. And if you can think back on 00:04:29.310 --> 00:04:31.110 those sermons, or maybe you can just think back 00:04:31.110 --> 00:04:32.990 on those chapters, many of you probably know 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:37.189 them. What you'll remember is that this rebellion 00:04:37.189 --> 00:04:45.310 results in death, in family division, in the 00:04:45.310 --> 00:04:50.189 destruction of creation itself, in the elevation 00:04:50.189 --> 00:04:54.160 of the self over against God and His place. but 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:56.920 also it has this rippling effect into creation 00:04:56.920 --> 00:04:59.899 and a devaluation of creation and of human life. 00:05:02.019 --> 00:05:04.240 What those 11 chapters that introduce the Bible 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:08.360 show us is that the world is badly, badly in 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:12.480 need of grace and of redemption. That's kind 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:16.259 of the setting up of the rest of scripture. In 00:05:16.259 --> 00:05:18.560 a way, you get to the end of those 11 chapters 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:22.769 wondering Will this God who made this world and 00:05:22.769 --> 00:05:26.110 declared it good and walked with his creation, 00:05:27.410 --> 00:05:29.410 will he make good on some of the promises that 00:05:29.410 --> 00:05:32.910 he made his world? Will he continue with it? 00:05:33.930 --> 00:05:35.750 And we have glimpses that he will, Genesis 3 00:05:35.750 --> 00:05:39.350 .15. Sometimes it's called the proto -aewongelion, 00:05:39.389 --> 00:05:42.689 if you want to sound like a theologian to use 00:05:42.689 --> 00:05:44.550 words like that. It just means the first good 00:05:44.550 --> 00:05:48.730 news, the first gospel, the beginning. where 00:05:48.730 --> 00:05:50.470 we heard that the seed of the woman would crush 00:05:50.470 --> 00:05:52.470 the head of the serpent, right? That one day 00:05:52.470 --> 00:05:55.009 all of this tragedy and all this rebellion would 00:05:55.009 --> 00:05:59.870 be put to death. We also get a glimpse of that, 00:06:00.709 --> 00:06:03.009 sort of a little look into this promise of God 00:06:03.009 --> 00:06:06.149 for his world in the covenant of Noah. Oh, it's 00:06:06.149 --> 00:06:09.170 echoing creation all over the place in that story. 00:06:10.269 --> 00:06:13.509 But the story of rebellion continues. It just 00:06:13.509 --> 00:06:17.779 seems to keep continuing in that. And so, So 00:06:17.779 --> 00:06:20.040 as those first chapters come to an end, we're 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:22.720 introduced to Abraham, right? Abraham, and we 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:25.560 have this blessing of God to Abraham, that God 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:28.439 would bless Abraham and the whole Abrahamic family. 00:06:28.500 --> 00:06:31.759 And through that blessing of Abraham, the blessing 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:34.660 of the world would actually come. So you're supposed 00:06:34.660 --> 00:06:37.019 to get to that and you're like, oh, God is utterly 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:39.459 committed to this creation. He looks upon it 00:06:39.459 --> 00:06:41.079 and he knows how rebellious it is. And yet he 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:45.790 is committed to its wellbeing. A particular blessing 00:06:45.790 --> 00:06:48.209 to Abraham, but a blessing for the whole world, 00:06:48.389 --> 00:06:52.209 a commitment of God to his creation. So we continue 00:06:52.209 --> 00:06:54.230 the story and we get to the end of Genesis and 00:06:54.230 --> 00:06:57.430 the beginning of Exodus, but then that very family 00:06:57.430 --> 00:07:00.670 that is supposed to be the blessing to the world 00:07:00.670 --> 00:07:04.509 is in slavery, right? So God saves them and he 00:07:04.509 --> 00:07:05.910 brings them to Mount Sinai. We've been looking 00:07:05.910 --> 00:07:08.339 at the 10 commandments. And the same commandments 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:10.459 were to be given to this kingdom of priests, 00:07:10.540 --> 00:07:13.060 this holy nation, as Exodus 19 tells us. What 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:16.959 were they to do? They were to live with God in 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:20.300 such a way that the world, they would be reflecting 00:07:20.300 --> 00:07:24.759 God to the world, a kingdom of priests saying, 00:07:24.759 --> 00:07:29.220 look at the Lord. And if we kept continuing after 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:30.839 the commandments, we would learn about how the 00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:32.699 tabernacle was built and where it was placed 00:07:32.699 --> 00:07:34.220 was placed right in the midst of the community. 00:07:34.410 --> 00:07:37.050 And it was furnished with things that would evoke 00:07:37.050 --> 00:07:39.129 Eden, this place, this perfect place where God 00:07:39.129 --> 00:07:41.050 dwells with his people as things were meant to 00:07:41.050 --> 00:07:44.269 be, right? The tabernacle right there in the 00:07:44.269 --> 00:07:45.949 community, and it would follow them along as 00:07:45.949 --> 00:07:47.670 they journeyed to the promised land. And for 00:07:47.670 --> 00:07:49.589 those first hundred years, they were in the promised 00:07:49.589 --> 00:07:54.290 land, that while there, God said, I'm going to 00:07:54.290 --> 00:07:58.339 be with you. And that initial sort of creation 00:07:58.339 --> 00:08:01.399 promise, those early covenants, those early promises 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:04.519 to his people would come to fruition. And so 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:07.319 then we have the temple built under Solomon there 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:10.439 in the city of Jerusalem. But all of this, this 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:12.500 is what I want you to understand, all of this 00:08:12.500 --> 00:08:16.259 was because God was committed to his world. In 00:08:16.259 --> 00:08:19.519 the context of rebellion, God was saying, I am 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:26.339 committed to grace. to restoration, to the goodness 00:08:26.339 --> 00:08:29.779 of what I made, even in its rebellious state. 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:38.539 Here's the thing, there's an ecstasy and an agony 00:08:38.539 --> 00:08:41.940 all throughout the Old Testament. And to be honest, 00:08:42.059 --> 00:08:44.000 they're the New Testament and in our own time. 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:48.740 The ecstasy is that the world would be redeemed 00:08:48.740 --> 00:08:54.529 and God is acting. That God would dwell with 00:08:54.529 --> 00:08:56.009 us, right? I mean, that's part of the thing. 00:08:56.009 --> 00:08:58.110 God, in the midst of His people, there in the 00:08:58.110 --> 00:09:00.769 tabernacle, He establishes His home there in 00:09:00.769 --> 00:09:04.669 Jerusalem, His temple. And all that was saying, 00:09:05.210 --> 00:09:10.929 one day God will make it all right. What's the 00:09:10.929 --> 00:09:16.809 agony? The agony is that the dark, tragic fact 00:09:16.809 --> 00:09:20.669 of all of it. that the people that were called 00:09:20.669 --> 00:09:23.090 to be this sort of rescue mission for the blessing 00:09:23.090 --> 00:09:27.690 of the world are themselves the one that are 00:09:27.690 --> 00:09:32.409 in sore need of rescuing. And they're the ones 00:09:32.409 --> 00:09:35.649 that are so often living the life of rebellion 00:09:35.649 --> 00:09:39.750 and rejection of God, and so often Israel lived 00:09:39.750 --> 00:09:44.870 the way of the world. Rejection of God. So far 00:09:44.870 --> 00:09:46.990 from being a sign of God to the world, kingdom 00:09:46.990 --> 00:09:50.500 of priests, they were the sign of rebellion, 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:54.200 of rejection, of living however they wanted to 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:58.279 live. And so the story seemed to continue again 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:00.440 and again throughout the Old Testament, time 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:02.320 and time again, they would rebel, they would 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:04.500 reject God, the very people who were to be priests 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:08.019 to the world, very people that needed saving. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:13.019 So the culmination of this, I know this is sort 00:10:13.019 --> 00:10:14.740 of a long introduction, but the fact is that 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:18.250 you can't really understand Some texts of scripture 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:21.470 without having all this. The culmination of this 00:10:21.470 --> 00:10:24.009 rejection and the culmination of God's discipline 00:10:24.009 --> 00:10:29.330 happens when the Babylonian empire comes and 00:10:29.330 --> 00:10:33.529 it ransacks Jerusalem. This happened in 586 BC. 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:37.649 It came and it raised not only the city, but 00:10:37.649 --> 00:10:40.610 the very place where God made his home, the temple. 00:10:41.490 --> 00:10:45.250 The place that said to... Israel as a nation, 00:10:45.330 --> 00:10:48.250 to the people of God, I am utterly committed. 00:10:49.590 --> 00:10:52.409 I know your rebellion and yet I am here and I'm 00:10:52.409 --> 00:10:56.710 going to make it good. That place, the temple, 00:10:56.850 --> 00:11:03.009 was razed to the ground. They rejected him by 00:11:03.009 --> 00:11:05.309 persisting in their idolatry and their social 00:11:05.309 --> 00:11:07.929 injustice and their constant rejection of the 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:12.740 prophet's warnings. And so the place where God's 00:11:12.740 --> 00:11:16.019 promise in some ways was most clearly seen was 00:11:16.019 --> 00:11:21.440 itself taken apart, stone by stone, right at 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:24.600 the ground. This is the backstory of Psalm 79. 00:11:25.679 --> 00:11:28.779 This is why actually, even to this day, every 00:11:28.779 --> 00:11:33.419 Friday afternoon, this Psalm is said aloud at 00:11:33.419 --> 00:11:37.200 the Wailing Wall. That wall, which is the second 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:40.620 temple wall, right? In Jerusalem there. It's 00:11:40.620 --> 00:11:42.879 also why this psalm can be found in the Jewish 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:45.639 liturgy that commemorates the very day of the 00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:49.340 destruction of Jerusalem. This is what's going 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:53.740 on in this psalm. It's the psalm of Asaph. I 00:11:53.740 --> 00:11:55.840 don't always read the little title thing, but 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:57.379 I wanted you to hear that, and partly why I wanted 00:11:57.379 --> 00:11:59.159 you to hear that, because the last few psalms 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:00.919 have been psalms of Asaph. And actually, if we 00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:03.240 went back to Psalm 74, which was last summer, 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:06.000 We'd see, actually that Psalm is very similar 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.940 to this Psalm, but that Psalm kind of walks you 00:12:08.940 --> 00:12:12.039 through, actually, it's more Asaph walking God 00:12:12.039 --> 00:12:15.240 through the city. And listen to some of what 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:20.759 Asaph says there. In Psalm 74, direct your steps 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:23.240 to the perpetual ruins. The enemy has destroyed 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:27.600 everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have roared 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:31.279 in the midst of your meeting place. They set 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:34.639 up their own signs for signs. meaning they put 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:37.159 up idols in the midst of the temple. They were 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:39.779 like those who swing axes in a forest of trees, 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:42.340 just cutting everything down. And all it's carved 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:44.399 wood, they broke down with hatchets and hammers. 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:47.899 They set your sanctuary on fire. They profane 00:12:47.899 --> 00:12:49.659 the dwelling place of your name, bringing it 00:12:49.659 --> 00:12:50.980 down to the ground. They said to themselves, 00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:53.419 we will utterly subdue them. They burned all 00:12:53.419 --> 00:12:56.980 the meeting places of God in the land. That's 00:12:56.980 --> 00:12:58.860 what Asaph is crying out. He's sort of walking 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:02.879 through the streets with God saying, look. Look 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:04.600 at how they wield the axe. Look at how they destroyed 00:13:04.600 --> 00:13:06.320 it. Look at how they took even your temple, your 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:11.419 sanctuary down to the ground. Look at it all. 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.200 Look at the destruction of this place, which 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.879 was to be this picture of your commitment to 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:22.919 the world. The blessing of your people for the 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:27.000 life of the world. All right, the background. 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:35.919 Let's turn to Psalm 79. Still have it open. I 00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:44.039 don't, so I'm gonna turn there. Psalm 79. When 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:48.860 we turn to Psalm 79, we're told, I think the 00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:51.179 big thing we're told is what we're to do in this 00:13:51.179 --> 00:13:54.220 kind of perplexity. And what do you do with this 00:13:54.220 --> 00:13:58.730 kind of scenario? The very hope that we kind 00:13:58.730 --> 00:14:01.250 of long for, that the blessing of God to the 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:03.909 world seems to be utterly taken away. What do 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:06.570 we do in the confusion of destruction in the 00:14:06.570 --> 00:14:10.110 midst of a loss of hope? And I want to just suggest 00:14:10.110 --> 00:14:12.529 to you two things today that this passage is 00:14:12.529 --> 00:14:14.629 pointing us towards, what to do with it. And 00:14:14.629 --> 00:14:16.789 the first one is literally just bring it to the 00:14:16.789 --> 00:14:20.710 Lord and then hang on to God. Okay, bring it 00:14:20.710 --> 00:14:23.149 to the Lord and then hang on to God. So the first 00:14:23.149 --> 00:14:26.389 four verses, actually, yeah, I'm going to read 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:28.460 All four, I'll kind of break it down into two 00:14:28.460 --> 00:14:31.759 sections. Oh God, the nations have come into 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.720 your inheritance. They have defiled your holy 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:38.100 temple. They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They've 00:14:38.100 --> 00:14:40.299 given the bodies of your servants to the birds 00:14:40.299 --> 00:14:43.860 of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:47.399 to the beasts of the earth. They've poured out 00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:49.799 their blood like water all around Jerusalem and 00:14:49.799 --> 00:14:52.320 there was no one to bury them. We've become a 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:55.379 taunt to our neighbors mocked and derided. by 00:14:55.379 --> 00:14:59.220 those around us. First, here's what I want you 00:14:59.220 --> 00:15:01.639 to hear, okay? In the midst of this awful scenario, 00:15:01.779 --> 00:15:06.419 what is Asaph doing? He's saying, Lord, look 00:15:06.419 --> 00:15:08.940 what's happened. He is bringing it to God. That's 00:15:08.940 --> 00:15:11.019 what he's doing. He's not just kind of saying, 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:15.879 forget it. He's saying, Lord, look at what happened. 00:15:16.779 --> 00:15:18.519 He's bringing it to the Lord. And he does this 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:21.019 sort of in two ways. First, he cries out for 00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:23.850 the honor of God. These are those first two verses 00:15:23.850 --> 00:15:26.230 there. And I think most likely, hopefully because 00:15:26.230 --> 00:15:29.470 of how I read it too, did you hear the repetition 00:15:29.470 --> 00:15:34.370 of your? The first thing he's doing is saying, 00:15:34.370 --> 00:15:39.389 this is about your honor, Lord. It's your inheritance, 00:15:39.429 --> 00:15:41.889 he said, it's your temple, it's your saints, 00:15:42.009 --> 00:15:47.029 it's the flesh of your faithful. Which is to 00:15:47.029 --> 00:15:49.110 say, this is not just tragedy that's happened, 00:15:49.129 --> 00:15:52.490 it's sacrilege. And that's part of what he's 00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:55.529 doing. He's saying, God, this is your thing. 00:15:57.409 --> 00:15:59.610 In some ways, this is your honor that's being 00:15:59.610 --> 00:16:01.809 taken away. This is your promise that you made 00:16:01.809 --> 00:16:04.710 that through this people, you'd bless the world. 00:16:05.750 --> 00:16:07.490 He's bringing it to God, but he's also pleading 00:16:07.490 --> 00:16:10.529 the very honor of God in this Psalm, these first 00:16:10.529 --> 00:16:14.490 couple of verses. Second thing is he expresses 00:16:14.490 --> 00:16:17.149 the extent of the pain. He's not hiding anything 00:16:17.149 --> 00:16:21.559 back, right? Verses three and four. They're pretty 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:24.100 intense. They've poured out their blood like 00:16:24.100 --> 00:16:30.320 water all around you. He's showing God the horrible 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:37.019 extent of this devastation. And there's no one 00:16:37.019 --> 00:16:39.759 to bury them. We've become a taunt to our neighbors. 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:47.779 They lie unburied in humiliation. And he says, 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:50.879 God, you need to see this. He's bringing it to 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:55.320 the Lord. The extent of the tragedy of it all. 00:16:57.120 --> 00:16:59.720 Being left unburied was sort of the great humiliation 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:01.960 in the Old Testament. To be buried was to be 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:05.220 honored, to have your body, even in death, be 00:17:05.220 --> 00:17:08.440 treated with honor. And this was to be treated 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:11.960 as less than human, sort of less than an animal 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:14.200 even. The animals are the ones that are devouring 00:17:14.200 --> 00:17:18.150 it there. It's to be disposable. The very people 00:17:18.150 --> 00:17:19.890 of God are being treated as though they are disposable. 00:17:19.930 --> 00:17:24.990 And he is crying out to the Lord with this. And 00:17:24.990 --> 00:17:27.150 he says that they've actually become a ruin and 00:17:27.150 --> 00:17:30.390 have been mocked. I'm going to get into this 00:17:30.390 --> 00:17:32.430 a little bit, but what you have to understand 00:17:32.430 --> 00:17:37.390 is passages like the Jeremiah 10 passage. Because 00:17:37.390 --> 00:17:40.430 part of what has happened is because the shepherds 00:17:40.430 --> 00:17:45.500 of Israel have rejected the Lord. that this is 00:17:45.500 --> 00:17:48.240 actually the people of God who have been unfaithful 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.000 to the Lord. And this destruction has happened 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.160 and they've become a mock to the nations. They 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:55.240 have been raised to the ground, but they've also 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:57.599 been a laughing stock to the world. So let me 00:17:57.599 --> 00:17:59.980 tell you a couple of accounts, little anecdotes 00:17:59.980 --> 00:18:03.660 from church history and how the church has rejected 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:06.859 the ways of God and has become a laughing stock. 00:18:09.220 --> 00:18:12.279 Most common folk in the 14th century thought 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:16.019 the church was rather a joke. It was a place 00:18:16.019 --> 00:18:18.420 of perversion and wickedness. It's probably one 00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:21.019 of the high points of the wickedness of the church. 00:18:22.180 --> 00:18:24.740 Gone were there even the semblances of holiness 00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:28.559 among the leaders, sacramental integrity, a commitment 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:31.279 to the scriptures. It was out the window. At 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:33.200 various times, you know, probably there were 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:35.240 two popes. For a little while, there were at 00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:36.980 least three and one account that I heard said 00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:38.859 that there were as many as seven at one point 00:18:38.859 --> 00:18:40.519 that had their own kind of College of Cardinals 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:45.579 saying, I should be the one in power. Probably 00:18:45.579 --> 00:18:47.440 many of you have learned about the Great Western 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:50.880 Schism when there was a papal throne in Avignon 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:52.500 in the south of France, and then there was the 00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:55.740 one in Rome. Maybe you know that from actually 00:18:55.740 --> 00:18:59.279 1409 to 1415, there was a third one in Pisa. 00:19:01.099 --> 00:19:03.039 I mean, there was just all this vying for power. 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:05.240 Of course, why was one in France and why was 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:06.980 one in Italy? Well, it was the politics of the 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:09.920 day. We want our own French pope. We want our 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.000 own Italian pope. There's this vying for the 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:16.529 ways of this world. I learned actually when I 00:19:16.529 --> 00:19:18.210 was kind of reading about some of this this week 00:19:18.210 --> 00:19:22.190 that even as recently as the mid 20th century, 00:19:22.250 --> 00:19:24.509 there were significant debates within the Catholic 00:19:24.509 --> 00:19:27.490 Church about what is actually the proper papal 00:19:27.490 --> 00:19:30.150 line of the line of Peter because of the mess 00:19:30.150 --> 00:19:35.390 of it all. One thing I heard in a lecture was 00:19:35.390 --> 00:19:37.650 that at one point the King of England and his 00:19:37.650 --> 00:19:40.589 regent, which was John of Gaunt, largely because 00:19:40.589 --> 00:19:43.809 they were sort of harboring John Wycliffe. the 00:19:43.809 --> 00:19:47.069 great Bible translator and early reformer. They 00:19:47.069 --> 00:19:53.430 received nine letters of excommunication in one 00:19:53.430 --> 00:19:55.890 month. And part of it was because there were 00:19:55.890 --> 00:19:59.569 just multiple people sending them. Listen to 00:19:59.569 --> 00:20:01.309 this. I think this actually illustrates what's 00:20:01.309 --> 00:20:04.029 going on. Just the mess of it all. This is Dante, 00:20:04.109 --> 00:20:07.069 who was himself a devout Catholic. And he wrote 00:20:07.069 --> 00:20:09.289 pretty famously against the corruptions of one 00:20:09.289 --> 00:20:11.450 of the most corrupt popes ever, Pope Boniface 00:20:11.450 --> 00:20:15.109 VIII. This is his Canto 27th in his Paradisio. 00:20:15.329 --> 00:20:17.549 And it's the Apostle Peter that's speaking here, 00:20:17.630 --> 00:20:20.750 which you will know likely was, according to 00:20:20.750 --> 00:20:22.690 Catholics, the first pope. So this is what he 00:20:22.690 --> 00:20:27.130 says. He who on earth usurps my place, my place, 00:20:27.730 --> 00:20:31.049 my place that in the sight of God's own son is 00:20:31.049 --> 00:20:36.950 vacant now. He said, it's so corrupt, it's empty. 00:20:38.630 --> 00:20:43.109 Has made my burial ground a sewer of blood. a 00:20:43.109 --> 00:20:46.630 sewer of stench, so that the perverse one who 00:20:46.630 --> 00:20:52.170 fell from heaven here above can find contentment 00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:56.309 there below. He's saying that Rome, the throne 00:20:56.309 --> 00:21:00.410 of the papacy, was a sewer of blood and a sewer 00:21:00.410 --> 00:21:03.950 of stench. He's saying that Satan, who fell from 00:21:03.950 --> 00:21:07.630 heaven, that's the image there, can find contentment 00:21:07.630 --> 00:21:16.029 in the church. That's Dante sort of walking through 00:21:16.029 --> 00:21:19.150 the ruins of the very place where God's blessing 00:21:19.150 --> 00:21:21.289 was to rest in such a way that it went for the 00:21:21.289 --> 00:21:23.970 blessing of the world and saying, look at the 00:21:23.970 --> 00:21:27.009 destruction. Look at what happens when the people 00:21:27.009 --> 00:21:30.410 of God just want to rebel and live for themselves, 00:21:31.349 --> 00:21:34.539 live the life of the world about them. More recently, 00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:36.720 and I'll be honest, I don't have all the details 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:39.480 of this, but more recently, in fact, this summer, 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:41.579 the Presbyterian Church in the United States 00:21:41.579 --> 00:21:45.059 of America had an overture brought to their General 00:21:45.059 --> 00:21:48.140 Assembly by a Presbyterian in New Mexico. And 00:21:48.140 --> 00:21:49.839 that overture was recommending something which 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:52.759 seems very reasonable. That overture was recommending 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:57.119 that ministers live only in monogamous relationships. 00:21:57.819 --> 00:22:00.819 It was an overture for ministers against polygamy. 00:22:01.860 --> 00:22:06.279 That overture was deemed administratively out 00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:09.839 of order. And they set up a study committee to 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:12.440 study whether or not they should recommend such 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:15.279 an overture. Now, let me say, again, I don't 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:17.619 know exactly why it was deemed out of order. 00:22:17.740 --> 00:22:19.079 Probably could have read up on that a little 00:22:19.079 --> 00:22:23.259 bit more. But the fact that they decided we ought 00:22:23.259 --> 00:22:26.799 to study whether ministers should not enter into 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:31.059 polygamous relationships is a blight on the church. 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:35.279 And that body as a whole, you may know, was in 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:39.039 1983 at 3 .1 million members and today is barely 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:41.640 over a million members. But what is happening 00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:45.220 is, look Lord, the very body that is to be your 00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:48.680 blessing to the world, that is to present you 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:53.940 to the world, is in destruction, it's in ruins. 00:22:55.299 --> 00:23:00.710 Look, bring it to the Lord. In the perplexity 00:23:00.710 --> 00:23:03.670 in life, in the perplexity of the state of God's 00:23:03.670 --> 00:23:06.369 people, which we could, of course, go into so 00:23:06.369 --> 00:23:12.269 many stories of the church itself not acting 00:23:12.269 --> 00:23:15.710 for God and actually receiving His just discipline. 00:23:16.869 --> 00:23:18.809 We could go into so many stories, but in the 00:23:18.809 --> 00:23:21.329 perplexity in life, in this kind of a state of 00:23:21.329 --> 00:23:23.890 God's people, in this reality that we are so 00:23:23.890 --> 00:23:26.369 often the problem, part of what this psalm is 00:23:26.369 --> 00:23:32.059 saying is bring it to the Lord. Plead His honor. 00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:40.299 Speak to Him the extent of the destruction. But 00:23:40.299 --> 00:23:42.839 the second thing I think, the second big thing 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:44.960 I think this text is telling us is speak to the 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:48.819 Lord and hang on to God. Hang on to Him. And 00:23:48.819 --> 00:23:50.500 I think this is kind of, the rest of this is 00:23:50.500 --> 00:23:55.380 sort of this appeal. So verse five says, how 00:23:55.380 --> 00:23:57.980 long, O Lord? We're just saying that, didn't 00:23:57.980 --> 00:24:02.200 we? Say, how long? And that cry, how long is 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:04.039 found throughout the Psalms, is found throughout 00:24:04.039 --> 00:24:07.819 much of scripture. But that is a cry truly of 00:24:07.819 --> 00:24:10.759 saying, Lord, where are you? But it is a cry 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:14.380 directed Godward and as if to say, I am holding 00:24:14.380 --> 00:24:19.220 on, right? Hang on to God. It's a cry of faith. 00:24:19.380 --> 00:24:22.180 How long is a cry of faith? It's a cry of perplexity. 00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:24.559 It's a cry of wonder. It's a cry of saying, Lord, 00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:28.160 where are you? But it's a cry of faith. So a 00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:30.140 few things that I think Asaph does as he hangs 00:24:30.140 --> 00:24:32.019 on to God, a few things that are kind of mentioned 00:24:32.019 --> 00:24:37.240 here on to God. One thing that Asaph does, and 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:40.279 again, this is reiterated for us a ton in the 00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:42.460 prophets, particularly Jeremiah, who's experiencing 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:45.759 this utter destruction. One thing that Asaph 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:48.640 does, he understands that God's discipline is 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:55.829 always just. He asks how long But he doesn't 00:24:55.829 --> 00:24:57.910 say that the discipline isn't warranted, right? 00:24:58.430 --> 00:25:00.569 So how long, the Lord, will you be angry forever? 00:25:01.650 --> 00:25:07.210 Will your jealousy burn like fire? Jealousy in 00:25:07.210 --> 00:25:10.190 the scripture is what God is jealous for what 00:25:10.190 --> 00:25:17.089 is rightly His, right? It's rightly His. So His 00:25:17.089 --> 00:25:21.009 discipline, which is coming out of His just anger 00:25:21.009 --> 00:25:24.430 and His just jealousy, is something that is right. 00:25:26.619 --> 00:25:30.259 God has a holy jealousy, and sometimes this text 00:25:30.259 --> 00:25:32.759 even says that holy jealousy burns like fire. 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:35.980 Which is to say that Asaph knew that they had 00:25:35.980 --> 00:25:39.099 been rebellious, that they had turned from the 00:25:39.099 --> 00:25:41.099 ways of the Lord, that they had not sought Him, 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:42.980 that they had not been the blessing to the world 00:25:42.980 --> 00:25:46.359 that they were called to be. He knows that God 00:25:46.359 --> 00:25:49.279 had been merciful to them, even in His judgment. 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:52.519 He knows that they have suffered in a way even 00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:55.720 less than they deserve. He understands that God's 00:25:55.720 --> 00:25:57.900 judgment is just, that is part of hanging on. 00:26:00.500 --> 00:26:03.880 The other second thing, he does ask that God 00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:09.079 would punish those who hurt him, hurt them. So 00:26:09.079 --> 00:26:12.480 this, okay, verse six, pour out your anger on 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:15.619 the nations that do not know you, on the kingdoms 00:26:15.619 --> 00:26:19.319 that do not call upon your name, for they've 00:26:19.319 --> 00:26:22.380 devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. 00:26:26.259 --> 00:26:29.180 I won't pretend that these are easy words. These 00:26:29.180 --> 00:26:31.079 are not easy words, are they? I mean, they're 00:26:31.079 --> 00:26:33.339 not. They're words that come up in Scripture 00:26:33.339 --> 00:26:35.859 here and there, but they're not easy for us. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:39.720 They can be hard to hear. After all, we are told 00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:42.859 to forgive our enemies, right? To pray for those 00:26:42.859 --> 00:26:46.920 who persecute us, to bless and do not curse. 00:26:49.700 --> 00:26:53.990 But we also need to be careful to not be too 00:26:53.990 --> 00:27:00.269 easy on those who do evil. This is how I wrote 00:27:00.269 --> 00:27:01.710 it out, because I wanted to be careful here. 00:27:03.630 --> 00:27:07.769 We can be lazy in forgiveness, which we often 00:27:07.769 --> 00:27:09.769 aren't, right? We're not eager or quick to forgive. 00:27:11.349 --> 00:27:16.490 We can also be lazy for justice, to call out 00:27:16.490 --> 00:27:20.089 wrongdoing and ask God to act and to stop it 00:27:20.089 --> 00:27:23.529 and to put it to an end. And the Bible doesn't 00:27:23.529 --> 00:27:26.250 have a hard time saying both of those things. 00:27:26.690 --> 00:27:30.130 And he says, as you hold on to God, do this. 00:27:31.789 --> 00:27:34.369 What Asaph didn't know though, is that justice 00:27:34.369 --> 00:27:37.329 would come and it would be God who brought it. 00:27:38.029 --> 00:27:40.589 God's the one that brings justice. He's the one 00:27:40.589 --> 00:27:44.670 who properly brings justice here. Third thing 00:27:44.670 --> 00:27:47.430 he does is that he asks for forgiveness. Verse 00:27:47.430 --> 00:27:50.910 eight, do not remember against us our former 00:27:50.910 --> 00:27:54.910 iniquities. Let your compassion come speedily 00:27:54.910 --> 00:28:00.809 to meet us, for we are brought very low." I think 00:28:00.809 --> 00:28:03.250 about this, the people are experiencing this 00:28:03.250 --> 00:28:05.910 utter devastation of their whole civilization. 00:28:06.190 --> 00:28:09.049 Economics are gone, right? Socially, many people 00:28:09.049 --> 00:28:11.349 have been taken out from Jerusalem. Think of 00:28:11.349 --> 00:28:14.069 Daniel and his buddies. They were taken to Babylon, 00:28:15.069 --> 00:28:17.670 right? Jeremiah will, of course, write to the 00:28:17.670 --> 00:28:20.769 exiles in Babylon later on. So socially, it's 00:28:20.769 --> 00:28:22.750 all messed up. Religiously, the temple itself 00:28:22.750 --> 00:28:28.470 has been razed to the ground. But he is saying 00:28:28.470 --> 00:28:32.289 there is an aspect in which we are complicit 00:28:32.289 --> 00:28:35.470 in the sin that brought this about. He's not 00:28:35.470 --> 00:28:37.089 just wanting to throw it off on someone else, 00:28:37.109 --> 00:28:39.029 but he's actually willing to say, Lord, how have 00:28:39.029 --> 00:28:42.250 I contributed? And can you have mercy on me? 00:28:43.910 --> 00:28:46.549 Which is to say, Asaph does not excuse sin away, 00:28:46.589 --> 00:28:48.329 which is something that we are so tempted to 00:28:48.329 --> 00:28:53.890 do. He doesn't brush it off. Rather, he acknowledges 00:28:53.890 --> 00:28:56.210 their own complicity and the rejection of God 00:28:56.210 --> 00:29:00.829 and need for His forgiveness. The fourth thing 00:29:00.829 --> 00:29:04.390 is that he asks for the glory of God. Verse nine, 00:29:04.390 --> 00:29:07.450 listen to this. Help us, O God of our salvation, 00:29:08.009 --> 00:29:11.930 for the glory of your name. Deliver us and atone 00:29:11.930 --> 00:29:16.339 for our sins. for your name's sake." Verse 10, 00:29:16.440 --> 00:29:18.720 why should the nations say, where's their God? 00:29:19.900 --> 00:29:22.059 Let the avenger of the outpoured blood of your 00:29:22.059 --> 00:29:25.740 servants known among the nations before our eyes. 00:29:27.299 --> 00:29:30.940 What he's ultimately doing, he's asking God to 00:29:30.940 --> 00:29:33.779 work in their midst and in the midst of their 00:29:33.779 --> 00:29:36.940 perplexity for the sake of his name in the world. 00:29:37.230 --> 00:29:40.710 He's saying, Lord, if this has happened to your 00:29:40.710 --> 00:29:43.369 place and to your people, won't you become a 00:29:43.369 --> 00:29:47.910 laughing stock? Why is it the case that the church 00:29:47.910 --> 00:29:50.410 seems to run so often to the world? Lord, make 00:29:50.410 --> 00:29:55.490 the church holy. Help us to be repentant people. 00:29:55.750 --> 00:29:57.630 Help us to be a people that seek justice and 00:29:57.630 --> 00:30:01.650 love mercy for your name's sake. That's what 00:30:01.650 --> 00:30:05.910 he keeps going back to. God's discipline is just. 00:30:06.379 --> 00:30:09.420 He brings justice to those who do wrong. He forgives 00:30:09.420 --> 00:30:12.599 sin. And all of it, all of this is for the sake 00:30:12.599 --> 00:30:19.759 of the Holy name of God. So in some ways, what 00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:21.640 I've done is share with you the story of the 00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:27.519 Bible. I began with the beginning. We kind of 00:30:27.519 --> 00:30:30.000 slow, we walked rather quickly actually for the 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.039 first, through the first couple of books. And 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:35.700 then we got to this crazy story of the destruction 00:30:35.700 --> 00:30:40.039 of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire. But what 00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:42.940 I kind of wanted to show you through that small 00:30:42.940 --> 00:30:45.299 snippet, like that quote from Dante, and even 00:30:45.299 --> 00:30:47.819 this small snippet of this overture that came 00:30:47.819 --> 00:30:50.799 before this other denomination this summer, was 00:30:50.799 --> 00:30:54.000 that in some ways, this is the story. That we're 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:56.799 living in this kind of perplexed place of saying, 00:30:56.859 --> 00:30:58.599 God, what's happening in the world? Why does 00:30:58.599 --> 00:31:02.039 your church seem to ebb and flow and faithless? 00:31:02.220 --> 00:31:04.299 Why is it sometimes good in a way for you to 00:31:04.299 --> 00:31:07.539 say, I need to bring my discipline to the church. 00:31:07.579 --> 00:31:11.500 They need to learn repentance. And why do we 00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:15.759 need to cry out, Lord, bring honor to your name? 00:31:16.660 --> 00:31:18.799 People are looking at the church, Lord, and saying, 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:25.980 what a joke sometimes. God, listen. God, hear. 00:31:27.740 --> 00:31:30.039 So I begin with the beginning of the Bible, and 00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:32.559 just as a way of ending, I want to point us to 00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:37.759 the end of the Bible. So the first book in the 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:40.279 Bible is Genesis, which means the book of beginning, 00:31:40.339 --> 00:31:42.079 and the last book of the Bible is the book of 00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:45.019 Revelation. You probably know that Revelation 00:31:45.019 --> 00:31:47.740 is notoriously difficult to understand at points. 00:31:48.900 --> 00:31:52.509 There in Revelation chapter six, There are the 00:31:52.509 --> 00:31:56.829 Four Horsemen. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 00:31:57.170 --> 00:31:59.910 which has sort of become like, it's just part 00:31:59.910 --> 00:32:02.029 of our cultural language now, the Four Horsemen 00:32:02.029 --> 00:32:07.710 of the Apocalypse. Some of you may know that 00:32:07.710 --> 00:32:10.529 the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are a reference 00:32:10.529 --> 00:32:13.130 to four football players from Notre Dame who 00:32:13.130 --> 00:32:20.930 beat the army in 1924. I doubt it, may know that 00:32:20.930 --> 00:32:25.349 it's the name of a restaurant in Brooklyn. Some 00:32:25.349 --> 00:32:28.849 of you may know that the Four Horsemen of the 00:32:28.849 --> 00:32:33.470 Apocalypse are also four things that will predict, 00:32:33.809 --> 00:32:36.970 likely predict, a marital divorce, according 00:32:36.970 --> 00:32:41.309 to Gottman. In Revelation, the Four Horsemen 00:32:41.309 --> 00:32:49.680 refers to conquest, war, famine, and death. Conquest, 00:32:49.880 --> 00:32:54.400 war, famine and death. And that was the experience 00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:58.119 of the people of this song. And often it has 00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:01.579 been the experience of Christians throughout 00:33:01.579 --> 00:33:05.779 time living in this world where it seems as though 00:33:05.779 --> 00:33:10.299 conquest of the church, destruction of the church, 00:33:10.779 --> 00:33:13.279 the death of the church, war within the church 00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:20.019 is what is so prevalent. The experience of God's 00:33:20.019 --> 00:33:24.599 people, the experience of the world over. Some 00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:26.500 probably of the experience of this Psalm may 00:33:26.500 --> 00:33:28.640 be your experience, maybe in a communal life, 00:33:28.700 --> 00:33:32.920 maybe in a personal life, I hope not much. But 00:33:32.920 --> 00:33:35.279 no doubt you've had these sorrows upon sorrows, 00:33:35.400 --> 00:33:37.099 these tragedies upon tragedies that have caused 00:33:37.099 --> 00:33:38.920 you to question, God, what's happening? What's 00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:44.200 going on? No doubt you've had times that you 00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:46.700 brought to the Lord in anguish, recounting all 00:33:46.700 --> 00:33:50.160 the destruction. I hope you've had times of hanging 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:52.279 on to God in the midst of a world that feels 00:33:52.279 --> 00:33:56.940 so much in upheaval, crying out for justice, 00:33:57.480 --> 00:33:59.319 maybe crying out for forgiveness, maybe crying 00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:03.480 out for the glory of His name. My guess is that 00:34:03.480 --> 00:34:05.319 if you've been a Christian for a while, you've 00:34:05.319 --> 00:34:07.119 looked at the state of the church and you've 00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:12.150 said, God, bring honor to your name. Bring honor 00:34:12.150 --> 00:34:16.530 to your name. Why do the nations mock and laugh? 00:34:18.690 --> 00:34:22.630 Well they're in Revelation. We don't only just 00:34:22.630 --> 00:34:26.670 find the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The 00:34:26.670 --> 00:34:29.969 main character in Revelation is the lamb who 00:34:29.969 --> 00:34:34.909 was slain. The main character is the one who 00:34:34.909 --> 00:34:37.869 experiences to agree this conquest and this war 00:34:37.869 --> 00:34:42.260 and this famine and even death. The main character 00:34:42.260 --> 00:34:44.519 is the lame of God who takes away the sin of 00:34:44.519 --> 00:34:49.199 the world. And there in that book we find in 00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:52.900 some ways the culmination of the promises made 00:34:52.900 --> 00:34:55.739 there in chapter three of Genesis, culmination 00:34:55.739 --> 00:34:57.840 of what is promised there in Genesis chapter 00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:00.559 nine, the culmination of what is found there 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:04.519 at the covenant in Exodus 20 and all throughout. 00:35:06.780 --> 00:35:10.679 That God always makes good on his promises. That 00:35:10.679 --> 00:35:13.420 in the midst of a world that feels like the Psalm 00:35:13.420 --> 00:35:17.239 79, God, what is happening? Is the blessing of 00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:19.179 the world that you've promised, will it come 00:35:19.179 --> 00:35:23.199 about? And the message there is that it will. 00:35:24.119 --> 00:35:28.380 That there will be a day when our cries for justice, 00:35:28.500 --> 00:35:30.179 when our cries for forgiveness, when our cries 00:35:30.179 --> 00:35:35.159 for a new life will be heard fully and completely. 00:35:35.699 --> 00:35:39.380 They will be answered. There will be a day when 00:35:39.380 --> 00:35:41.619 death is no more. There will be a day when crying 00:35:41.619 --> 00:35:43.760 and tears and pain are no more. There will be 00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:47.039 a day when the anguish of crying out, how long 00:35:47.039 --> 00:35:54.139 will be met with now? And all of it will be because 00:35:54.139 --> 00:35:59.619 Jesus himself came into this very world. That 00:35:59.619 --> 00:36:05.000 Jesus himself received the pain of this world 00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:08.230 into himself. that Jesus himself went to the 00:36:08.230 --> 00:36:11.969 cross through death to the empty tomb for the 00:36:11.969 --> 00:36:14.010 sake of this world that has so constantly been 00:36:14.010 --> 00:36:17.329 in rebellion and rejection of him. In a way you 00:36:17.329 --> 00:36:19.349 could say it is all because Jesus himself went 00:36:19.349 --> 00:36:24.329 through conquest and war and famine and death 00:36:24.329 --> 00:36:28.010 for us. So what do we do? What do we do when 00:36:28.010 --> 00:36:31.389 we're in this kind of scenario? Truth be told, 00:36:31.389 --> 00:36:33.780 we are not in the exact kind of scenario. Similar 00:36:33.780 --> 00:36:35.820 things that cause us to question, to wonder, 00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:38.960 what do we do with the perplexities of our experiences? 00:36:40.380 --> 00:36:42.360 What the psalmist is saying is, bring it to the 00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:48.780 Lord. Cry out for His honor. Lord, I am your 00:36:48.780 --> 00:36:53.920 child, whom you love, whom Jesus died for. Meet 00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:57.460 me in this pain. Why do you seem to stand far 00:36:57.460 --> 00:37:03.150 off? Cry out the Lord's honor. What else should 00:37:03.150 --> 00:37:05.610 you do? Bring it all before the Lord. Bring the 00:37:05.610 --> 00:37:08.269 stuff that you want to hide away. Think of how 00:37:08.269 --> 00:37:11.809 gruesome this was. Blood strewn throughout the 00:37:11.809 --> 00:37:17.250 city of Jerusalem. Get it all to God. And bring 00:37:17.250 --> 00:37:22.269 it to Him and remember. Remember the blessing 00:37:22.269 --> 00:37:25.170 of God to the world. Remember His promises of 00:37:25.170 --> 00:37:28.150 God to the world. And remember most of all that 00:37:28.150 --> 00:37:34.230 Jesus Jesus is the great picture of God's love 00:37:34.230 --> 00:37:37.510 for us. It is his utter commitment for us that 00:37:37.510 --> 00:37:40.809 the fact that God did not spare his own son, 00:37:41.389 --> 00:37:44.949 but gave him up for us all. How will he not, 00:37:45.789 --> 00:37:51.329 at least at some point, give us all things? Let 00:37:51.329 --> 00:37:54.489 me pray for us. Lord, we have a Psalm that is 00:37:54.489 --> 00:37:58.230 foreign to us and a history that few know well. 00:37:58.599 --> 00:38:02.800 and actually a history that is so unsettling 00:38:02.800 --> 00:38:07.179 in a way. The texts are unsettling, the extent 00:38:07.179 --> 00:38:10.559 of destruction is unsettling, and yet we live 00:38:10.559 --> 00:38:14.380 in a world, we live in a world that is so utterly 00:38:14.380 --> 00:38:18.619 unsettling, so perplexing. We go through trials, 00:38:19.300 --> 00:38:23.659 tragedies, that are so great they test our faith, 00:38:23.739 --> 00:38:31.039 they make us wonder what you are up to. And yet, 00:38:31.280 --> 00:38:35.079 Lord, here again, we're called to cry to you, 00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:38.519 to bring it to you, to hang on to you, to cling 00:38:38.519 --> 00:38:42.280 to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our 00:38:42.280 --> 00:38:45.840 faith. Gotta pray that we would be those who 00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:48.619 in the midst of trial, in the midst of tragedy, 00:38:49.820 --> 00:38:53.400 who might give these kinds of psalms to our lips 00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:58.320 to cry out to you, to plead for you to act. to 00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:00.820 plead for you to forgive us when we need that, 00:39:02.179 --> 00:39:07.039 to plead to you to bring your justice, to plead 00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:09.960 with you to defend your honor for the glory of 00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:13.079 your name. God, when we look at the church and 00:39:13.079 --> 00:39:18.219 we have so many reasons to wonder why it's the 00:39:18.219 --> 00:39:21.519 church, not the beacon of light that it is called 00:39:21.519 --> 00:39:24.659 to be the source of your blessing to the world. 00:39:24.760 --> 00:39:28.010 These kinds of times, Lord. Would we look to 00:39:28.010 --> 00:39:30.210 these psalms? And more than anything, would we 00:39:30.210 --> 00:39:34.110 look to Jesus? I pray this all in His name. Amen.