Like I said, we are starting our Summer of Psalms,
and I just applaud Mike and his ability to capture
a variety of things, contrast this wonderful,
lighthearted with the Chaos of Revelations bumper
video, right? And you talk about a chasm of creativity,
which is fantastic, and though he told me those
look like flyer flies, I see pollen, I really
do. The summer of Psalms 2025 will just remind
me of my allergies. So thank you for that. Now
by half of you that you'll only see pollen too.
But this sermon series is brought to you by Zyrtec.
And so we're going to jump into Psalm 50, a psalm
of Asaph. Asaph, we touched on a little bit of
his last or two summers ago. Because if you remember,
how many books technically is the entire psalms
made up of? How many books? Five, right? And
they mimic what in the Old Testament? The Torah,
right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. They're broken up into five. So
we are back. This is my sixth summer, so we're
back in book two. Psalm 50, a psalm of Asaph.
Asaph was in the line of the Levites, right?
So he was part of the Levitical code. He was
part of a Levitical people. So a lot of these
psalms are going to have more to do with the
idea of justice, keeping the law. What does that
look like? But then how you also contrast that
with living a life of love. So I will not have
titles for these sermons because I believe the
psalm itself is the title, but I'm going to start
all of my sermons this summer with a question.
And the question I have as we start, have you
ever experienced the challenge of balancing truth
and grace or justice and love in your relationships
with others? You can leave that up for a minute.
Let that simmer if people are writing it down.
Have you ever experienced the challenge of balancing
truth and grace or justice and love in your relationship
with others? One of the kind of lenses I'm going
to look at this summer. for Munster Church is
to hopefully till the ground a little bit of
creating deeper connection and relationships
with us here in the church. That one of the things
that I think we as a church body can take a big
step in is being intentional in building relationships
with one another, not from 9 .15 to 11 .15 on
Sundays or noon if there's Lighthouse. That for
some of us, that's going to take us out of our
comfort zone because some of us like that kind
of programmatical relationship. This is kind
of how we've always had relationships with people
at church. Church relationships are just that,
relationships at church. Fair enough. I think
that's sad. I think that we miss out on being
the body of Christ, right? Not just the body
of Munster Church. It's not about Munster Church
per se, but the body of Christ here at Munster
Church on other days of the week. Whether it's
we're spreading mulch a couple of weeks ago or
when we do our trunk or treat, that's all well
and good. But that's all done here. That's all
done on our campus, 214 Ridge Road. What would
life look like if Munster Church was intentional
about getting to know each other around different
tables that we find ourselves in life? We found
ourselves together today around the table of
communion. But what would that look like around
the table? in your dining room or your living
room or your kitchen or maybe, you know, on your
deck, maybe out at a restaurant somewhere. What
would that look like if we were intentional?
I know some of you do that. Some of you do that.
But I think having... Us become that church where
we are known for that. I think it's something
that the Psalms this summer is going to call
out of us. And I'm excited to have that conversation.
Now I know, and I'm just going to call it out
from the beginning. I know that there are some
of you that aren't going to like that. And I'm
just going to ask that you lean in. And some
of you may say, you know what? My list of friends
is good enough for me. I don't need more friends.
Fine. But the fellowship of believers is something
we are all called to be. We're surrounded by
such a great cloud of witnesses, though Hebrews
was talking about those that have gone before
us. I think I could pull that down into the here
and now, that you and I have relationship because
we're the members of the same church. That means
more than just the two hours. And hear me, we
are together maybe for two hours. I guarantee
you, you don't all talk to each other for two
hours. What would that look like if we took that
intentionality? Just the desire of that. And
went out throughout the week. Because then we're
going to kind of walk into some of the relational
difficulties that we find in life. That this
question brings up. That we live by a truth.
A truth that is absolute. A truth that is not
subjective. That God's word came down, gave it
to us. Yet we are also called to have grace.
Because we've been shown grace. As Paul writes
in Colossians, we have been forgiven, therefore
we ought to forgive. And that word ought is not
just when you feel like it. That Psalm 50 calls
us to account for how we live in the light of
a couple things. God's justice, yet it also reveals
a God who desires relationship with his people.
So we're going to see that throughout the weeks.
We're going to see what it looks like to have
those genuine relationships with the people around
us. Let's start first with our family. Hopefully
we're intentional about having relationships
with our family. And the way you can kind of
tell is if you just ask those questions, do you
spend time with, let's say you have a spouse,
do you spend time with your spouse? If the answer
is yes, then you're doing well. Go on to the
next group of people. Maybe your kids. And that
may be like, when I want to. And sometimes that's
fine. That can be the answer. But if you're,
let's just say, with the ones closest to you,
do you spend time, are you intentional about
spending time with the people that you claim
to care about? And the answer is no. I think
the Choose Your Own Adventure book stops there
for you. Because if you can't do that with people
that are near and dear to you, how in the world
are you going to go do that? And be kind of that
intentional church out and about in the neighborhoods,
right? In the grocery stores, in your jobs, in
your schools, in your extracurriculars. You can't
give what you don't have. So maybe this summer,
just maybe, the Lord is asking you to ask him
for a way to do that. Maybe for some skill sets
or some learning that you have to reflect on.
Today we reflect on the first of these psalms
that will bring us into this. And Psalm 50 highlights
God's justice in calling his people to account
while reminding us of his mercy and love. So
let's talk through God's justice before we get
to kind of that intentional community more toward
the end. So God's justice is first found in accountability.
The first six verses will be in Psalm 50. Again,
we use the ESV version, but feel free to, if
you have your own Bible, Bible apps, you can
look at it in whatever translation you want.
We're going to be in the first six verses for
now. Starts off, the mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth from the rising
of the sun to its setting. We sang that today.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines
forth. Our God comes. He does not keep silent
before him, is a devouring fire. Around him,
a mighty tempest. He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth that he may judge his people.
Gather to me my faithful ones who made a covenant
with me by sacrifice. The heavens declare his
righteousness for God himself is judge. Selah.
So here God is portrayed as a mighty judge who
calls all the earth to witness his judgment.
Now, we got that very much in Revelation. We
just got done with some of that in our good friend
Zephaniah. But this psalm opens with a powerful
image of God summoning heaven and earth to testify
to his justice. Right there shows a relationship.
The summoning of a people. Now, you may be able
to kind of couch this. Well, he is God. He is
authority. He can make them come. If that's how
you choose to see God, that's going to be a rough
relationship. You're going to probably have some
struggles with that. But what this tells me,
what this shows me, is that God is demanding
accountability from his people who he has relationship
with, who he's gone to bat for throughout their
history, who's done great things in their life.
And bring it to today, a God that has done great
things in your life, a God that sometimes does
things that we don't fully understand or don't
fully like, yet there's an intimacy of relationship
there. It's not based on ritual sacrifice alone,
but through true devotion. Oh, I hate that word,
or both of those words put together. True devotion.
When I got to that point very early on in the
sermon writing, that idea of true devotion, I
had to pause. And I don't know if I give that
a lot. True devotion? That's super scary. True
devotion, head over heels in love, in relationship
with God where I'm going to abandon everything
else for the sake of my relationship with God
is ultimate vulnerability. And if I had to ask
for, I won't, but if I had to ask for hands to
be raised of people that like to be vulnerable,
there probably wouldn't be many, if any, at all.
But what God is calling for, what God is asking
of us, is to understand that we should have a
true, devoted life to Christ. Sacrifices are
important, but they are meaningless without the
righteousness and humility that should accompany
them with our relationship with God. What does
this look like played out? This is the understanding
of real grace or cheap grace. We've talked about
this before. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about
it in three of his books about cheap grace. That
cheap grace is an understanding that I know I'm
going to do bad things on Friday, Saturday, or
Sunday, or any day that ends in Y, but I know
that I can ask for forgiveness and he will give
that to me. Put that in your relationships. What
if you had someone very close to you do that
same thing to you? Do you believe them? Do you
trust them? Will you ever be vulnerable with
them if that's how they're going to live their
life or how they're going to walk out their relationship
with you or with me? No. We'd be a fool to do
that. But that can't be our relationship with
God. It needs to be not only that true devotion,
but understanding real life -changing grace.
One of the things we get from Lord's Day 6. of
the Heidelberg Catechism, that Lord's Day 6 focuses
on Christ as the perfect mediator. I love that
word. Reflecting on God's justice, being fulfilled
through Christ's sacrifice. Christ stands in
the place of sinners, offering justice and mercy.
Christ as mediator, whether you have thought
about it before or not, is one of the greatest
aspects of Jesus in your life, in my life, in
the life of the church. That he is mediating
for us. Why do we need that? Anyone want to take
a guess? Why do we need a mediator? Because we
can't do it ourselves. Kind of. Okay? That was
an easy answer. Go a little deeper. Why do we
need mediation from Christ? Because we're sinners.
Okay? Pretty easy answer. Go deeper. You already
answered. Because we can't get out of our own
way. Because we're never going to do this perfectly.
We're never going to be able to do the things,
say the things, give the things, volunteer enough
for things, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, to
stand before a perfect God. We can't do it. If
this is the first you're hearing this, then I'm
glad you're here, because this is what changes
lives. That we need somebody that's going to
be the perfect mediator between us and God. But
it also shows the importance of mediation in
the relationships we have on this earth. Have
you ever had conflict with somebody that goes
unresolved? You just kind of let it, oh, I'm
not going to think about it a whole lot anymore.
Maybe you're not even going to sweep it under
the rug. For some of you, that's your modus operandi,
and that's probably not good. Now, probably it
isn't good. But for some of us, it's like, well,
we just won't talk about it. I'll just unfriend
them. I'll just stop that. I'll just kind of
disengage, and we'll just be done. That's not
how it works either. That if you're going to
claim to be a follower of Christ, though not
everybody needs to be on your Christmas card
list, we should have a mediated life. We should
be able to be one that people can come to to
seek forgiveness from or ask forgiveness for.
As Christ is that for us, so we can be that for
the relationships around us. Though we're not
a perfect mediator, but we should offer the peacemaking.
That life needs, our relationships needs, because
we're all broken. We're all messy. And guess
what? Our brokenness and our messiness gets on
other people. We bring people into our mess.
How do I know? I do it to all of you every Sunday.
But understand that as Christ is the mediator
standing before us, we can come to Christ together
to figure out the conflicts in life. Our devotion
to God should be sincere and rooted in a love
that goes beyond external acts but to internal
transformation of our hearts. So it should be
in relationships with people on earth. Just as
God calls us to accountability in our personal
lives, we are called to hold one another accountable
in love within our communities. That doesn't
mean you're judge and jury and executioner. That
just means we hold each other accountable. How
in the world can you do that without relationships?
Play that out in your mind for a minute. If you
have elders or deacons that don't know you, yet
they want to sit down and hold you accountable.
Thus saith the elders. Thus saith the deacons.
Thus saith the lighthouse staff. Thus saith...
Insert whatever position you might hold or volunteer
for here at the church. I tell my council and
my elders, my deacons all the time, if we have
to play that card, we're not doing our jobs.
It comes with relationships. It comes with the
ability to sit down with someone at a table and
talk things out. Bury the hatchet. Whatever you
want to call it. Do the work. Verse 7 brings
us into more of a practical way of understanding
God's loving invitation to genuine relationships.
We've talked about the true devotion. Now we're
going to talk about the genuine relationships
from 7 to 15. Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God,
your God. Not your sacrifices do I rebuke you.
Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house or goats
from your folds. For every beast of the forest
is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know
all the birds of the hills, and all that moves
in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would
not tell you, for the world and its fullness
are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink
the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice
of thanksgiving. and perform your vows to the
Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble.
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
God is addressing his people directly, expressing
that he does not need their sacrifices to fulfill
their own needs. Rather, he desires genuine worship
that comes from the heart. A worship that recognizes
his ownership of everything in creation. And
notice, God doesn't dangle this over us and says,
come on up to me, right? Try to be more like
me, because that's, be holy as I am holy has
always been the call. We can't do it, so we have
to do it in repentance. We have to do it with
grace. The key to pleasing God is not ritual
performance of the heart, but a genuine seeking
to glorify him in everything. Let's pause and
get a little awkward. Look back on the last seven
days of your life. Go back to last Monday. The
mirror's right here and I see it. I'll put one
on this side too. The question is, is everything
you have said, everything you have done, and
everything you have thought brought glory to
God? I know for me that's a no. And if I had
to guess, it would be a no for all of you. Unless
all you did was sleep all week. Even then, our
subconscious, nah, you probably don't get a pass
on that either. But understand that if glorifying
God is the key to pleasing God, it's not about
rituals, but it's about bringing him glory by
living that out, then we're all in a lot of trouble.
That's what's so amazing about grace. That's
why we are called to be in that intimate relationship
with God in order to develop a true faith. This
has been a resounding gong over the last, and
maybe it's for a reason, but it seems like every
third or fourth sermon, Lord's Day 7 gets brought
up, that the Heidelberg Catechism's teaching
on faith, particularly in Lord's Day 7, emphasizes
that true faith is a living, relationship with
God. One that involves trust in God's promises
and obedience to his commands. Now I'm going
to bring that down to our own personal relationships
that they take trust. You're not going to build
a deep relationship with someone you don't trust.
It doesn't work. You can be acquaintances with
them. You can be friendly with them. Not sure
why I put that in air quotes. We'll just move
past it. But understand that having true relationships
involve trust. Trust that I can bring you something
or you can bring me something that I may not
like and I'm not going to try to hit you with
my car. Right? It's an understanding and a trust
that we're not going to go from zero to ten.
We're not going to write each other off. But
that we love each other enough to maybe get in
our mess a little bit. To talk openly and honestly
about our fears, our anxieties, or just the stuff
that you do that ticks me off. And vice versa.
That's... That's some of the things we can see
from this relationship we have with God. Except
for when it comes to our relationship with God,
we may get mad at him. He does get upset with
us. But he is God and we are not. We have to
remember that in our relationships as well. You
are not God in your relationships. I am not God
in my relationships. We are both bruised, broken
sinners coming at this together. God's love extends
an invitation to all who seek him. It is an invitation
to live with intentionality, not just as individuals,
but as a community. As we seek to grow our community,
we must understand that true unity is formed
through a shared devotion to God. Because friends,
we may look at church differently. Guess what?
250 people here today. We don't all believe the
same things about all the things. Not the way
church is done or anything like that. I hope
we can land on all of the essentials here. That
is key. But we need to understand that there
is that love and that support that as we come
as a community where we find true unity is our
devotion to God expressed in both personal and
communal ways. Part of that is coming together
and worshiping. Whether you hate that song or
not, you come to worship. We come to lay it down.
We come to seek God's face together. What would
that look like not in this building? What would
that look like your home or my home? Because
finally, where the psalm ends, Is God calling
us to live out that justice and that love together?
Starting with verse 16. But to the wicked, God
says, what right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate
discipline and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief, you are pleased with him
and you keep company with adulterers. You give
your mouth free reign for evil and your tongue
frames deceit. You sit and speak against your
brother. You slander your own mother's son. These
things you have done and I have been silent.
You thought that I was one like yourself, but
now I rebuke you and lay out the charge before
you. Mark this then. You who forget God, lest
I tear you apart and there will be none to deliver.
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice
glorifies me. To the one who orders his way rightly,
I will show the salvation of God. It doesn't
really get more direct than that, right? When
it comes to having our relationship with God
but also with others. God addresses those who
live hypocritically. As I say that word, all
of you are now thinking of it, probably three
or four people. Performing religious duties while
failing to live justly. His warning is clear.
Those who honor God with their lips but not their
lives will not see salvation. That's tough. That's
a tough truth. The psalm concludes with a powerful
reminder that to those who live with sincerity
and justice before God will see salvation. So
let's work that out real quick. With God, he
tells us how to do it. Glorify him in everything.
In all of your thoughts, your words, your deeds.
Glorify God. But there are some that will say,
oh, I'm going to do that. I'm going to give it
a go. But I know that when I don't, I will be
able to seek forgiveness. Cheap grace. It is
the one that mourns their sin. That is constantly
trying to get out of these sin natures. And is
just, maybe even this much, walking toward God
day by day. And for some of you, you might have
a really, really tight relationship with God
right now. Life just seems to be going well.
Your relationship with God is deep. There's devotion.
You're straying from sin as best you can. Awesome.
Fantastic. Don't keep that to yourself. Ask God
to put people in your life that may need that
encouragement, may need that discipleship, may
need that accountability. Yes, there are people
that actually pray. for those things. And then
you have to control how you go and do that and
to live that out. That we need to embody justice
and mercy but also love. Lord's Day 8 and 9,
kind of a summary, the understanding of God's
justice as reflected in Lord's Day 8 and 9 shows
how Christ fulfills the law, embodying both justice
and mercy. In our own lives, we are to follow
Christ's example. living justly while loving
others. So I'll land the plane here today. The
community at Munster Church. I'm talking to Munster
Church. If you're a guest, I'm talking to you
too, but I'm really talking to those that call
Munster Church home. Our community is called
to live out the justice and love of God in tangible
ways. This involves caring for one another, sharing
resources, and holding each other accountable
in love. We should prioritize building relationships
that reflect this justice and love of God by
living intentionally with one another, fostering
that trust with one another, and ensuring that
every member is valued. That is the church. Take
Munster Church name off of it. Take our address
off of it. But that should be the church universal.
As we reflect. On Psalm 50, we see that God calls
us to live in a way that reflects his justice
and love. So my challenge, I'm going to start
with a question, I'm going to end with a challenge.
I encourage you this week to invite someone from
our church community to share a meal with you.
Whether it's a cup of coffee, lunch, or dinner,
or other. And use this time not only to get to
know one another, but to share what God is doing
in your lives. Let's build community in practical
and loving ways as we grow together in Christ.
Let's pray.