1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,620 Hello and welcome today to Trinity Sermons. 2 00:00:07,620 --> 00:00:12,880 Here at Trinity Church, Streetsville, we want to love Jesus, live like Jesus and lead others 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:13,880 to Jesus. 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:19,020 Today, we have Rob Hirkman's back with us where we are continuing our sermon series 5 00:00:19,020 --> 00:00:20,520 on the Book of Psalms. 6 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:22,800 We hope you enjoy today's message. 7 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:23,800 God bless. 8 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:34,760 Today's reading is Psalm 63 verses 1 to 8, a Psalm of David when he was in the desert 9 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:36,760 of Judah. 10 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:42,040 You, God, are my God. 11 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:44,280 Earnestly I seek you. 12 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:45,400 I thirst for you. 13 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:52,280 My whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 14 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:57,200 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 15 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:02,080 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 16 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:08,320 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 17 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:13,280 I will be fully satisfied, as with the richest of foods, with singing lips my mouth will 18 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:15,740 praise you. 19 00:01:15,740 --> 00:01:17,760 On my bed I remember you. 20 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:22,640 I think of you through the watches of the night, because you are my help. 21 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:25,600 I sing in the shadow of your wings. 22 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:27,360 I cling to you. 23 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:29,280 Your right hand upholds me. 24 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,520 A word of the Lord. 25 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:38,440 I just got back from a couple weeks of vacation, and one of the things that we did each and 26 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:43,320 every night outside of the cabin, the little cottage that we rented, every night we would 27 00:01:43,320 --> 00:01:49,000 build a little campfire, and we would, of course, sit around it as a family. 28 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:53,240 I've learned since then that there's a few different ways you can build a campfire. 29 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:55,600 There's different styles. 30 00:01:55,600 --> 00:02:01,040 There is, of course, the cone method of a campfire, where you kind of arrange your logs 31 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,680 like this, and the fire starts down here and it burns up. 32 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,040 There is the log cabin. 33 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:13,320 My personal favorite, I think, is the log cabin campfire, where you kind of build, stack 34 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,600 your wood around like this and so on. 35 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:17,600 Log cabiny. 36 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:19,240 There's a few other ways. 37 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:23,660 There's one called the pyramid campfire, which I've never done before, but basically it's 38 00:02:23,660 --> 00:02:28,920 similar to the log cabin, but you kind of stack your wood together and then shorter 39 00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:33,400 pieces of wood right on top of that, and then even shorter and shorter, and then you actually 40 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:37,960 light the fire on top, and it burns down, burns, burns down. 41 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:41,840 Now, of course, if you're going to build any one of these campfires, you're going to need 42 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:44,880 three different types of wood. 43 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:48,440 You're going to need your tinder, you're going to need your kindling, and you're going to 44 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,360 need your firewood. 45 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:58,280 So tinder, yes, before tinder was a hookup app, it was small sticks and twigs and wood 46 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:04,760 shavings and pine needles, stuff that really kind of gets things started, that a spark 47 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:08,960 could take a hold of, nice dry tinder, and that's how the fire starts. 48 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:11,720 And then after, of course, you've got your kindling. 49 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:17,040 Kindling is usually smaller pieces of wood or sticks, no more than an inch around. 50 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:18,040 That's the next step. 51 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:22,920 And then after that, you've got your firewood pieces, which you stack on top of that. 52 00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:23,920 So here's what you do. 53 00:03:23,920 --> 00:03:26,440 You kind of get a, you have to have a spark, right? 54 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,880 You get a spark in there on your tinder. 55 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,560 Oh shoot, I just dumped all my tinder. 56 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:33,280 You got a spark in there. 57 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:34,800 It gets going. 58 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:36,160 You got to protect it from the wind. 59 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:40,400 You got to protect it from the wind because especially when it's just getting started, 60 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:41,400 you got to get that going. 61 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:45,800 And then once that's going, then you can start to feed a little bit of the kindling in, maybe 62 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:47,640 a bit more of the kindling. 63 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:51,840 And then when it really starts kind of heating up, that's when some of the smaller pieces 64 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,620 of firewood can go in, some of the bigger pieces of firewood. 65 00:03:54,620 --> 00:04:00,440 And pretty soon you have got a rip roaring fire that is going to keep you warm all night 66 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:07,140 long and will leave you with glowing reviews from all your friends. 67 00:04:07,140 --> 00:04:11,000 So the fire symbolizes, what does it symbolize? 68 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,600 Symbolizes warmth, symbolizes community. 69 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:22,080 A fire symbolizes light, but there's another thing that fire symbolizes and that is love. 70 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:23,080 That's right. 71 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:27,280 And that has long been a metaphor for love. 72 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:28,880 Poets have written about it. 73 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:34,000 Jane Austen said, to love is to burn, to be on fire. 74 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,600 Oh, Mr. Darcy, you devil, right? 75 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,480 And of course, songs have been written about it. 76 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:43,480 You remember the bangles? 77 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:44,480 They sang this. 78 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:46,680 I can't, this was back when I was in high school. 79 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:50,280 Is this burning an eternal flame? 80 00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:52,760 That was a big ballad. 81 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:55,200 High school dance, slow dance kind of song, right? 82 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:56,600 Or how about Whitney Houston? 83 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:58,040 I want to dance with somebody. 84 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,480 I want to feel the heat with somebody, right? 85 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:02,480 You guys know that one. 86 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:03,960 Or, and of course there's Elvis. 87 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:09,600 Elvis says he is just a hunk, a hunk of burning love, right? 88 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:15,200 So you might not know this, but actually the Bible also uses the metaphor of fire to talk 89 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:17,280 about love between two human beings. 90 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:19,440 In fact, there is this one book of the Bible. 91 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:20,600 It's full, it's a song. 92 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:24,240 It's called the Song of Solomon or the Song of Songs. 93 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:29,240 And in that book, it describes the love, the passionate love between a man and a woman 94 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:31,720 who are engaged and they're about to get married. 95 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:36,800 In fact, this book was so graphic that Hebrew boys and girls weren't allowed to read it 96 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:38,400 until they got to a certain age. 97 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:39,400 It was that hot. 98 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:40,400 It was hot stuff. 99 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,120 So the Bible knows about the hot stuff of human love. 100 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:46,520 But anyways, in that book, we read love is as strong as death. 101 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:48,760 It's jealousy unyielding as the grave. 102 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:52,920 It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. 103 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:59,120 And then he goes on to say, many waters cannot quench the fire of love. 104 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:08,360 So see, the Bible does not shy away from the idea that God's love or that love is likened 105 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:09,360 to a fire. 106 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:11,160 But here's where the Bible takes it a step further. 107 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:15,160 The Bible then goes on to say that actually it's not just love between human beings that 108 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:22,920 can be likened to a fire, but it's actually also the love between us and God. 109 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:27,920 Our love for God is also like a fire. 110 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:29,440 Listen to Jeremiah, for example. 111 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:34,760 Jeremiah says, if I say I'll never mention the Lord or never speak his name, his word 112 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,320 burns in my heart like a fire. 113 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:44,160 It's like a fire in my bones and I'm worn out trying to hold it and I just can't do 114 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:45,480 it. 115 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:51,280 God's love is so great for us that the Bible often compares him to a jealous boyfriend 116 00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:52,520 or a jealous girlfriend, right? 117 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:55,400 He's got his consuming fire within him. 118 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:57,120 He's a jealous God. 119 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:01,880 And then once after Jesus is, sorry, my clicker's a little jumpy. 120 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:06,560 After Jesus had appeared, the resurrected Jesus had appeared to a couple of his disciples, 121 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:12,080 they said, hey, hey, didn't our hearts burn within us when he talked with us on the road 122 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:16,320 and when he opened to us the scriptures? 123 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:20,000 Now a bunch of you are going to say, okay, Rob, you had me. 124 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,160 I understand the fire of human love. 125 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:28,680 I understand how, you know, two human beings can have this, this kind of deep love that 126 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:35,320 can be likened to a fire, but you lost me at the whole stuff about the fire of love 127 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:36,640 for God. 128 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:39,080 You know, I understand what Whitney Houston was saying. 129 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:45,800 I understand what Elvis was saying about human love, but I would not describe my relationship 130 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:52,360 with God as a burning fire of love. 131 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:54,800 Others of you might say, well, actually, I'm going to be honest. 132 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:56,960 I used to feel that way about God. 133 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,800 My relationship with God used to be red hot. 134 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:04,940 It was a fire, but then somehow over the years, over time, I don't know what happened. 135 00:08:04,940 --> 00:08:13,040 It just kind of slowly went out and now it's more just like a smoldering pile of, of coals. 136 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:14,580 Here's the thing though. 137 00:08:14,580 --> 00:08:22,380 Nothing is more important than us connecting with and opening our hearts to the God who 138 00:08:22,380 --> 00:08:26,720 created us and the God who loves us so much. 139 00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:34,040 In fact, there is nothing that God wants for us, nothing that God wants from us more than 140 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:35,880 a loving relationship. 141 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:40,840 And yeah, some of us here today, we may say, I've already got that relationship. 142 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:41,960 Others may say, I don't. 143 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:43,980 Others may say I've kind of lost it over time. 144 00:08:43,980 --> 00:08:52,000 So wherever you are today, spiritually speaking, let's get a refresher on how to stoke the 145 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,680 fire of God's love in us today. 146 00:08:54,680 --> 00:09:03,400 I want to, I want to fire us up spiritually speaking, because just like a regular fire, 147 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:05,720 our spiritual life needs tending. 148 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:07,220 It needs kindling. 149 00:09:07,220 --> 00:09:09,120 It needs feeding. 150 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:14,600 It needs care so that it can grow and grow and burn brightly. 151 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,480 And to learn how to get that fire going, you know what we're going to do? 152 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,600 We're going to look at one of the oldest love songs that has ever been written. 153 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:26,400 Psalm 63, which Elliot just read for us is a love song that describes not the love that 154 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:31,840 exists between two human beings, but it's a love song that describes the love between 155 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:34,280 us and God. 156 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:36,480 So we created some little sermon notes. 157 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:37,480 You should have them. 158 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:38,480 You should have got them on the way. 159 00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:41,440 And if you want to follow along just to make sure you get the most out of the teaching 160 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:42,440 today. 161 00:09:42,440 --> 00:09:47,360 So, so if we want to ignite the fire of God's love, where do we start? 162 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:52,800 Well, it all starts with the spark, with the spark of desire. 163 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,680 Bruce Springsteen said, you can't start a fire. 164 00:09:55,680 --> 00:10:00,880 You can't start a fire without a this guns for hire. 165 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:05,920 And if we're just dancing in the, yeah, all right, you're kind of, you're kind of there. 166 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:06,920 You're kind of there. 167 00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:07,920 Yeah. 168 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:09,800 To start a fire, you got to have a spark. 169 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:14,400 If I wanted to start a fire here this morning, I'm not going to, I would have to have something 170 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:16,160 to kind of get my Tinder going. 171 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:20,400 A spark, maybe I'm obviously a match would be the best thing, but maybe a Flint or spark 172 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:21,520 or something like that. 173 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:28,280 But to start the fires of love between you and God, it all starts with a spark. 174 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,000 And I call it the spark of desire. 175 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,880 When you look at the very beginning of Psalm 63, look at what he says. 176 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:36,400 He says, God, you're my God earnestly. 177 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:38,600 I seek you. 178 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:39,600 Right? 179 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:42,320 The Psalmist has this desire for God. 180 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:43,320 He's searching for God. 181 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,040 He wants to know God. 182 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:50,400 And I think that we all feel that same desire within us. 183 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:51,400 Right? 184 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:57,040 We say, Hey, you know, God, if you're out there, God, if you're real, God, I believe, 185 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:01,400 I believe I want to believe God, but you are real and out there. 186 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:03,360 And there's the desire in all of us. 187 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:06,480 This is a desire that resides in each one of us. 188 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:07,480 In fact, A.W. 189 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:13,080 Tozer wrote that a spark of desire for God resides in each person. 190 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:17,320 Now, whether you have faith or not, whether you believe in God or not, whether you go 191 00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:23,000 to church or not, that spark is there in every human soul. 192 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:26,440 There's this awareness that there's got to be more to life than this, that there's got 193 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:31,120 to be more to life than this transient day to day grind. 194 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:37,920 God has put a spark, this feeling, this hunch, this niggling sense that something more is 195 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:41,600 out there and that must be God. 196 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:48,800 So I believe all of us are aware of that spark within us. 197 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:51,360 The Bible tells us that God put that spark there. 198 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:57,880 God did this so that we would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though 199 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:01,400 he of course is not far from any one of us. 200 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,440 Now, you can't start a fire without a spark. 201 00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:07,880 And God has put that spark in you and he's put that spark in me. 202 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:10,160 The question is, what are we going to do with that spark? 203 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:16,720 Well, that brings us to the next step of stoking the fires of God's love, and that is acknowledging 204 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:20,480 the dryness in our lives, right? 205 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:26,600 You need a spark to start a fire, but you've also got to have some really dry tinder to 206 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:27,600 get it going. 207 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:31,640 Now, here again, I've got some wood shavings, super dry. 208 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:33,720 I've got some pine needles, they're kind of dry. 209 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:36,080 They got rained on a bit this morning. 210 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:39,920 But if the tinder I use is too wet, it will not catch a light. 211 00:12:39,920 --> 00:12:44,840 If the pine needles are too wet, they won't light up either. 212 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:47,520 The same is true in each one of us. 213 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:53,320 The spark of desire is there, but there also needs to be this readiness, this dryness in 214 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:55,200 our lives. 215 00:12:55,200 --> 00:13:00,200 It seems weird to say, but actually acknowledging that you're dry, acknowledging that you're 216 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:06,840 empty, acknowledging that you cannot live your life without God is essential to stoking 217 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:08,840 the fires of a relationship with God. 218 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:10,960 Some of us today, we're going through a really dry time. 219 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:12,580 You're going through a dry time. 220 00:13:12,580 --> 00:13:17,000 Your hope is dried up, your faith is dried up, your energy has dried up, and you think, 221 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,280 oh, I can't develop a relationship with God like this. 222 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:21,320 I've got to sort things out. 223 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:22,320 I've got to get stronger. 224 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:23,320 I've got to get better. 225 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:24,320 But that's wrong. 226 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:31,040 Actually, the primary, the perfect conditions for God's love to ignite your heart is this 227 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:35,240 awareness that we are dry, right? 228 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:39,920 When we come to the end of our own striving, where we finally admit we can't do things 229 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:45,380 on our own, when we admit our weakness, when we admit our failure, when we admit our dryness 230 00:13:45,380 --> 00:13:52,880 and our brittleness and our frailty, when we admit our need for God, then, then our 231 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:55,560 hearts are ready to catch a light. 232 00:13:55,560 --> 00:14:01,000 That creates the perfect conditions for God's spark to catch a light and burn within us. 233 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:02,560 Look at how the psalmist writes this. 234 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:09,640 The psalmist says, the psalmist says, I thirst for you. 235 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:15,760 My whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 236 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,720 The psalmist has finally come to this place in his life. 237 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:19,960 I've got nothing to offer. 238 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:21,480 I've got no strength in myself. 239 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,040 I've got no ability to save myself. 240 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:24,040 I've just got weakness. 241 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:25,040 I've just got thirst. 242 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:26,040 I've just got dryness. 243 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:29,240 But dryness is the perfect conditions for fire. 244 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:36,120 Tim Keller once said that it's helplessness, not holiness, that is the first step to accessing 245 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,160 God's presence. 246 00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:44,840 The only thing you need to get a fire going is nothing. 247 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,840 The only thing you need is need. 248 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,880 But the problem is that's the one thing most of us don't have because we are self-sufficient. 249 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:53,880 We are self-made. 250 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:54,940 We are self-reliant. 251 00:14:54,940 --> 00:14:55,940 We are self-supporting. 252 00:14:55,940 --> 00:14:57,880 We say, I can take care of myself. 253 00:14:57,880 --> 00:14:59,800 I can solve that problem by myself. 254 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:02,160 I can get there by myself. 255 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:06,060 But it's only when we realize we can't do it by ourselves and only when we realize how 256 00:15:06,060 --> 00:15:10,880 dry we are that we are actually ready for the spark of God's love to come into our life. 257 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:16,400 That's why Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 258 00:15:16,400 --> 00:15:22,280 Have you come to the place in your life where you've acknowledged your own spiritual poverty? 259 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:25,600 Where you have said, listen, I have got nothing. 260 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:26,960 I've come to the end of my ideas. 261 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:28,160 I've come to the end of my strength. 262 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,040 I've come to the end of my plans. 263 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:32,780 Until you do that, the tinder will not light. 264 00:15:32,780 --> 00:15:36,040 The spark will not take hold. 265 00:15:36,040 --> 00:15:39,040 So like the psalmist, let's stop pretending we've got it all together. 266 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:43,120 Let's stop pretending we've got strength within ourselves to solve all the problems we face. 267 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:44,400 We have to admit our dryness. 268 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:46,520 We have to admit our emptiness. 269 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:52,000 It's not easy, but once we do, then God's got something to work with in us. 270 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,520 And the Holy Spirit can start to burn in your life. 271 00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:58,720 Then we begin to experience the transforming love of God. 272 00:15:58,720 --> 00:15:59,720 So that's how it starts. 273 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:03,840 You can't start a fire without a spark, but you've also got to acknowledge your need and 274 00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:06,060 the dryness in your life. 275 00:16:06,060 --> 00:16:08,860 But there's more to come, right? 276 00:16:08,860 --> 00:16:14,000 We also need to know that to really grow the fire of love in God's life, you have to add 277 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,440 the wood of worship. 278 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:21,280 You know a campfire is really getting going when you can start moving from this to the 279 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:26,580 wood, adding the smaller pieces of wood and then adding the bigger pieces of wood. 280 00:16:26,580 --> 00:16:30,720 That is when the heat really starts to get generated, when things really start to get 281 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:31,720 going. 282 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:34,120 And that is with worship. 283 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:35,120 The psalmist continues. 284 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:41,120 He says, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 285 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,600 And in your name, I will lift up my hands. 286 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:44,840 What is going on here? 287 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,780 Lips praising, hands being lifted up. 288 00:16:47,780 --> 00:16:52,240 This is a picture of worship, right? 289 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:59,940 Just as a fire needs wood to keep it burning, our love for God needs the fuel of worship. 290 00:16:59,940 --> 00:17:01,040 Worship is what we just did. 291 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:04,560 Just a few minutes ago, you saw the hands raised, right? 292 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:08,320 Jumping up and down, lips singing, proclaiming. 293 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:12,920 Worship is an intentional act of lifting up our hearts, of lifting up our hands, of lifting 294 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:17,280 up our voices, expressing love and gratitude to God. 295 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:22,880 That is like adding a fresh log to the fire of love that is burning in your heart. 296 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:24,040 Now here's the thing. 297 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:30,900 Many people believe that we can't really worship God until we've already got a great big 298 00:17:30,900 --> 00:17:34,360 fire burning within us of God's love. 299 00:17:34,360 --> 00:17:40,160 As if to say that worship flows from the love in our hearts. 300 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:43,400 And there's certainly some truth to that, but it's not 100% true. 301 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:50,280 In fact, it is also true that worship can feed the love in our hearts. 302 00:17:50,280 --> 00:17:56,460 Worship actually helps our hearts fall more and more in love with God. 303 00:17:56,460 --> 00:18:03,340 So it's not just that love leads to worship, it's that worship also leads to love. 304 00:18:03,340 --> 00:18:05,920 Because worship actually changes our hearts. 305 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:11,560 When we worship, we take our eyes off our own lives and we lift them onto God, to the 306 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:13,280 one we love. 307 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:17,720 You know, Matt Redmond, who's written like tons of worship songs, he kind of gets this 308 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:18,720 balance perfect. 309 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:25,360 He says, worship is on the one hand the overflow of a heart that's in love with God, true. 310 00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:32,040 But when we worship, we're also deepening the love that God has already ignited in our 311 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:33,040 hearts. 312 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:38,480 So love leads to worship, but also worship grows our love for God. 313 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:43,040 And that is why one of the best things you can do if you want to feed the flames of your 314 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:48,680 love for God is to be with God's people Sunday by Sunday, worshiping in a church here at 315 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:51,480 Trinity or in some other church. 316 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:54,480 Now a lot of people will say, Rob, I don't need to go to church. 317 00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:57,800 I can just, I can feed that love. 318 00:18:57,800 --> 00:18:59,600 I can do my own worship. 319 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:02,240 I can just do my own thing. 320 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:05,840 Well imagine if you will, here's a blazing fire before us. 321 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:07,920 It's burning red hot. 322 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,760 And one of those sticks comes out of the fire and goes over here and says, I'm going to 323 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:13,720 do my own thing. 324 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:19,080 Well within a few moments, that once red hot stick is going to become darker and darker. 325 00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:20,080 It'll stop burning. 326 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:21,080 It'll stop glowing. 327 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:24,240 And soon it'll just start smoldering over there by itself. 328 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:28,960 But if I pick it back up and I stick it back into the hearth of the fire, do you know what 329 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:30,040 will happen? 330 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:31,240 It'll start burning. 331 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:33,360 It'll start heating up again. 332 00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:35,680 And once again, it'll be burning red hot. 333 00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:44,200 And so, so it is with worship, gathering together, stokes our fires of love as we help each other 334 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,120 grow in love for God. 335 00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:49,920 So I want to say that after all the coming and going of summer, I've been coming and 336 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:55,600 going, this fall, let's as a church recommit to regular Sunday worship because that's how 337 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:57,880 we feed the fires of God's love. 338 00:19:57,880 --> 00:19:58,880 Okay. 339 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:02,280 But the thing is, you don't just have to wait for Sundays to do that, right? 340 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:08,000 There's another way that we kind of keep building this fire and that is we can fan the flames 341 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:09,360 with prayer. 342 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:15,520 When I fan the flames of this fire, you know, what I'm doing is I am feeding oxygen into 343 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:21,040 the fire and oxygen is one of the key reagents in combustion and so the more oxygen, the 344 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:26,480 more I fan into it, the hotter and hotter it burns and the same is true with prayer. 345 00:20:26,480 --> 00:20:27,760 Look at what the Psalmist does. 346 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:33,680 Yes, my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, but I'm not just talking about worship. 347 00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:36,760 I'm not just talking about Sunday gathering, going to the temple or whatever. 348 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:39,880 I will also remember you on my bed. 349 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:45,160 I will also meditate on you in the watches of the night. 350 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:49,120 This is a picture, not just of someone who's singing loudly on a Sunday, but it's someone 351 00:20:49,120 --> 00:20:52,920 who is quietly praying to God in stillness and solitude. 352 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,240 This is how prayer works. 353 00:20:55,240 --> 00:21:01,120 Fans, the flames of our love for God, it stirs up the heat of our love for God. 354 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:02,120 Again, A.W. 355 00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:08,640 Tozer said, the more we pray, the more our hearts are in kindled with the love of God. 356 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:14,000 I don't know if you can think back to maybe a time that you fell in love with someone, 357 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,960 a boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever. 358 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:20,960 Chances are that you just couldn't bear not being with them and you constantly wanted 359 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:21,960 to spend time with them. 360 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,160 And when you couldn't be with them, you were on the phone with them or in the good old 361 00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:29,540 days you were writing letter after letter to them or email after email to them. 362 00:21:29,540 --> 00:21:32,960 Or maybe today it's you're constantly chatting with them. 363 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:33,960 You're DMing them. 364 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:36,560 You're constantly snapping them or FaceTiming them. 365 00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:37,560 Why? 366 00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:38,560 Why? 367 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,600 Because you just want to keep that conversation going. 368 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:45,720 And the more you talk, the more you can have those conversations, the deeper your love 369 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:47,040 grows. 370 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:51,840 Well, prayer is just a conversation with God. 371 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:56,740 And the same way through prayer, our love for God grows. 372 00:21:56,740 --> 00:21:59,800 That's the great secret of red hot spirituality. 373 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:04,720 It's not some special program or some new book or some, you know, a certain type of 374 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:06,900 singing or a certain type of church service. 375 00:22:06,900 --> 00:22:07,900 Those aren't the things. 376 00:22:07,900 --> 00:22:15,940 The thing that really gets us growing and glowing with God's love is a fervent, regular 377 00:22:15,940 --> 00:22:16,940 prayer life. 378 00:22:16,940 --> 00:22:21,600 So have you set aside some moments in your day, some quiet moments in your day where 379 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:27,640 you can talk to God, bring your concerns and your thanksgivings to God because the more 380 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:35,160 regular our prayer, the more intense spiritual heat grows and the more our love for God grows 381 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:37,160 too. 382 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:39,120 So how do we do this? 383 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:41,920 We take the spark of desire, right? 384 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:46,680 And we add that to an awareness of the emptiness and dryness of our own lives. 385 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:52,400 And then we feed that with worship and we fan those flames with prayer. 386 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:56,660 And now you've got a fire and now the love of God is growing in your life. 387 00:22:56,660 --> 00:23:00,600 But just before we end, I just want to say one more thing that needs to happen. 388 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:08,680 And that is, as with any fire, as we kindle our love for God, we have to guard against 389 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:10,800 the winds of distraction. 390 00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,920 You know, a campfire, it needs protection. 391 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,640 Strong winds come along, especially at the beginning, it'll blow it right out. 392 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:21,560 That's why actually when making a fire, many people choose a protected or a sheltered area 393 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:22,560 so that won't happen. 394 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:30,080 In the same way, our love for God needs guarding against the distractions and the challenges 395 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:32,840 that can put it out. 396 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:37,720 Winds will come, distractions will come, challenges will occur. 397 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:40,680 And when that happens, what will we do? 398 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,200 Will it just blow out? 399 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:48,960 The psalmist says, no, when that happens, I cling to God all the more. 400 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:55,520 My soul clings to you because your right hand upholds me. 401 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,800 It's like building a windbreak around your fire. 402 00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:04,320 As you seek to grow in your love for God and to grow in your worship and to grow in your 403 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:09,320 prayer life, guys, what are the distractions that are going to derail you? 404 00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,760 Maybe it's excessive busyness. 405 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:17,520 Maybe there's some unhealthy relationships in your life that are going to take away your 406 00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:19,200 energy and love of God. 407 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,680 Maybe it's suffering or sickness or some trial that you're going to go through. 408 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:27,720 Maybe it's technology, addiction to technology or some other addiction, or maybe it's just 409 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:31,800 the fear of what other people are going to say about your new found faith. 410 00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:35,920 All of these things can blow out the flame. 411 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:42,160 So cling to God, cling to God when these winds come. 412 00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:47,840 As the Bible says, throw off everything that hinders and every sin that entangles you and 413 00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:50,480 run with perseverance. 414 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:52,320 Keep feeding this fire. 415 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:58,760 Even though the winds come, protect it, protect it and fix your eyes on Jesus. 416 00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:01,760 Protect it and persevere through it. 417 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:08,760 So in closing, God is growing a fire in your life. 418 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,920 Stay close to Jesus, right? 419 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:17,840 And make sure that the spark that God put in you can grow into a full bonfire of his 420 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:18,840 love. 421 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:28,080 Feed it with prayer, protect it, because unlike human love, God's love will never ever let 422 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:29,440 you down. 423 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:35,520 God's love is like a fire that will keep you warm your whole life long. 424 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:36,920 And on top of that, you know what happens? 425 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:44,440 The more your fire burns, the more other people are going to see it and be drawn to it. 426 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:53,000 And many, many people will come to know the light and love of God through you. 427 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,000 Thanks be to God. 428 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:55,000 Amen. 429 00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,280 Thank you so much for listening today and we hope that you found the sermon inspiring 430 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,160 and helpful as you go into your week. 431 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,620 Make sure to come back next week as we have yet another sermon as we continue to walk 432 00:26:07,620 --> 00:26:09,680 through the book of Psalms. 433 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:14,320 Today's sermon was taken from the August 18th, 2024 service at Trinity Church, Streetsville, 434 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:15,560 in Mississauga, Ontario.