Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

15 As for man, his days are like grass;

he flourishes like a flower of the field;

16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

and its place knows it no more.

17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,

and his righteousness to children’s children,

18 to those who keep his covenant

and remember to do his commandments.

19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,

and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his word,

obeying the voice of his word!

21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,

his ministers, who do his will!

22 Bless the Lord, all his works,

in all places of his dominion.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Good morning Grace. Before I start, I just wanted to take a minute to encourage you to attend our quarterly business meeting after service. Maybe the words business and meeting don’t naturally excite you, but it really is a neat insight to how we function as a church. If you are a member, this is part of what we do at Grace Church. You don’t have to be a member to attend, but it is a great way to see how we conduct church matters. We will vote on new members, discuss other church items regarding membership, the building and finances. There will be something for the kids while we meet, and hey, there’s food.

This is our third week looking at Psalm 103. Let me give a quick recap of where we’ve been so far and I think it will help us better understand this morning’s text too.

As we’ve seen and heard the last two weeks, the Psalms are a gift from God to help us rightly conform our emotions to God’s word. Without tethering our feelings to truth, we can be led off course. That’s the big idea of why we spend time in the Psalms, so that we ground our emotions in truths about Who God is and what he has done for us.

Two weeks ago, we looked at verses 1-5. We are commanded to do two things: first to bless the LORD with our entire being. And second, to “forget not all his benefits”. We also looked at the benefits themselves as the fuel we use to better remember and move our emotions to bless the LORD.

Last week Kyle showed us who this benefit bestowing God is. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. This is the God who forgives sin, who relates to us like a Father to children. Kyle emphasized that what we think about God matters. When we think wrongly about God, it affects how we live. A right view of God helps us to better obey and joyfully serve. A wrong view leads to idolatry, guilt and shame. At the very end of last week’s passage, it transitions from who God is, to who we are. Just as important as correctly seeing who God is, is correctly seeing who we are.

This is where we will pick up today. What are we truly like? And after comparing ourselves to what God is truly like, how does God relate to man? And finally we are again commanded to bless the LORD, along with everything else under God’s reign.

Would you join me in asking God to help us understand and apply his word to our hearts?

When you think of the word legacy, what comes to mind? We hear a saying like “life is short” but what do we actually think about this life? What will remain 10, 20, 100 years from now? After someone dies, what is passed on? Maybe we read books an author wrote that still impact us. We might think of celebrities or historical heroes and the impact they might have made on a culture or a nation. We might think of someone who was successful and is enshrined in a Hall of Fame.

What is the legacy we hope to leave? Maybe some of you think of setting your kids up financially or passing on a cabin or estate. Maybe it’s ensuring your kids get a fine education or are instilled with good character. Maybe for some of us,

Psalm 103:6-14

The LORD works righteousness

and justice for all who are oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,

his acts to the people of Israel.

8 The LORD is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 He will not always chide,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

13 As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.

14 For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.

As Pastor Mike shared last week, we are a forgetful people. A sad reality of living in a world that is underneath the curse of sin is that we can be forgetful, or indifferent and bored with what is magnificent. We forget what ought to be unforgettable. David tells himself in verse two of this Psalm to not forget the benefits that God displays towards those who fear him. We forget. We read our Bibles, hear a sermon, sing a song that tells of the magnificence of who God is and what he does. And then we forget it.

Our mind and heart can be like a strainer as the soul-refreshing water of God’s benefits pour through it. It doesn’t stick, but slips right through and fails to shape how we think and how we feel. The goodness of God slips through and we are unaffected by it. That is why we need to constantly be hearing God’s Word and praying that those holes in the strainer get smaller and smaller so that we can remember and not forget.

This is why the Psalms are good for your soul. They remind you of what you are so prone to forget. The Psalms and the Bible as a whole are not meant to be a vaccination that you get once. One shot and your good to go. No, God’s Word is more like an antibiotic that you need constantly flowing through you by means of an IV.

You need to be constantly having the Bible shape your thinking and your feelings about God. When you’re dead, you can stop reading your Bible. What comes to your mind when you hear the word “God.” Right now, specifically what comes to mind? What words or thoughts or attributes come to mind when you hear the word “God”. The answer to that is crucial to how you think, feel and act. This needs to by crystal clear in your mind.

AW Tozer’s book, The Knowledge of the Holy has been so helpful to me in reminding myself of who God is. He writes: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us… The words, ‘Be still, and know that I am God,’ mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshiper in this middle period of the twentieth century… Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous”

Psalm 103 is a gift from God to help us know who God is, what he does, and who we are. Moses longed for this. In Exodus 33:18 we see him longing, desiring, wanting to know God more. He said, “Please, show me your glory.” And the Lord descended in a cloud and stood before Moses proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:6-8).”

And Moses’ response was a bowing of his head to the earth and lifting up his heart in worship to Al...

Psalm 103:6-14

The LORD works righteousness

and justice for all who are oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,

his acts to the people of Israel.

8 The LORD is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 He will not always chide,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

13 As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.

14 For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.

As Pastor Mike shared last week, we are a forgetful people. A sad reality of living in a world that is underneath the curse of sin is that we can be forgetful, or indifferent and bored with what is magnificent. We forget what ought to be unforgettable. David tells himself in verse two of this Psalm to not forget the benefits that God displays towards those who fear him. We forget. We read our Bibles, hear a sermon, sing a song that tells of the magnificence of who God is and what he does. And then we forget it.

Our mind and heart can be like a strainer as the soul-refreshing water of God’s benefits pour through it. It doesn’t stick, but slips right through and fails to shape how we think and how we feel. The goodness of God slips through and we are unaffected by it. That is why we need to constantly be hearing God’s Word and praying that those holes in the strainer get smaller and smaller so that we can remember and not forget.

This is why the Psalms are good for your soul. They remind you of what you are so prone to forget. The Psalms and the Bible as a whole are not meant to be a vaccination that you get once. One shot and your good to go. No, God’s Word is more like an antibiotic that you need constantly flowing through you by means of an IV.

You need to be constantly having the Bible shape your thinking and your feelings about God. When you’re dead, you can stop reading your Bible. What comes to your mind when you hear the word “God.” Right now, specifically what comes to mind? What words or thoughts or attributes come to mind when you hear the word “God”. The answer to that is crucial to how you think, feel and act. This needs to by crystal clear in your mind.

AW Tozer’s book, The Knowledge of the Holy has been so helpful to me in reminding myself of who God is. He writes: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us… The words, ‘Be still, and know that I am God,’ mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshiper in this middle period of the twentieth century… Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous”

Psalm 103 is a gift from God to help us know who God is, what he does, and who we are. Moses longed for this. In Exodus 33:18 we see him longing, desiring, wanting to know God more. He said, “Please, show me your glory.” And the Lord descended in a cloud and stood before Moses proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:6-8).”

And Moses’ response was a bowing of his head to the earth and lifting up his heart in worship to Almighty God. What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.

We don’t have the transcript for the sermon today, but if we receive it, we’ll update this post. Until then, please enjoy the audio recording of the sermon.

We don’t have the transcript for the sermon today, but if we receive it, we’ll update this post. Until then, please enjoy the audio recording of the sermon.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome, once again, to Grace Church’s annual missions week. Let’s take a moment to thank the entire missions team for working so hard to put this together for us. And let’s take a moment to thank Kyle in particular for the countless hours of prayer and leadership that he put in to make this week happen.

Missions, as we understand it, is crossing a significant cultural barrier to make disciples because of our love for God and people. In other words, it is an intentional attempt to glorify God by calling people from different cultural contexts to follow Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The missions team asked me to open missions week by preaching on the necessity of doing this (of doing missions) out of a clear understanding of the overall story of God. If we are to rightly engage in missions, then, we must be clear on the importance and nature of the Greatest Story.

To that end, therefore, I hope to do three things for you this morning. First, I want to help you see that we all live out of a story whether we realize it or not. Second, I want to help you to understand the key elements of God’s story, the Greatest Story. And third, I want to help you to see several implications of all this for missions. Please pray with me that as a result of these things, we would more eagerly give ourselves to supporting the discipleship of the world.

WE ALL LIVE OUT OF A STORY

We all live our lives in light of the story that we tell ourselves. That is, every one of us has a set of beliefs that determine how we understand the world around us. Our story is the sum of our answers to questions like:

* Who am I?

* Why am I here?

* What is valuable?

* What is good?

* What is fair?

* What is owed to me?

* What do I owe the people around me?

* Is this world all that exists?

It is impossible to function without answers to these questions; without a driving story.

For instance, if, as has been the case in many cultures throughout history, your story includes the belief that the point of raising boys is to produce warriors capable of conquering and defending, then that will shape virtually everything about your parenting—food, clothing, housing, friendships, education, even the ways in which you show affection.

Likewise, if you believe the purpose of child rearing is to give kids the most comfortable life possible, that too will determine what you feed them, how you cloth them, where you shelter them, who you encourage them to hang out with, what you teach them, and how you communicate love to them.

The warrior parent will not be able to make sense of the comfort parent’s decision to put their kids in a climate-controlled classroom, listening to lectures all day in the middle of the suburbs, while the comfort parent will likely be appalled by the warrior parent’s decision to train their 5 year old to fight and survive off of things they can gather and kill in the wilderness.

Both parents are merely living out of the story they believe and their decisions make perfect sense (but only make sense) within their story.

If, in your story, heaven is only accessible on the back of a comet, that belief will spread throughout your entire life. Because of that story you’ll give yourself to astronomy, view yourself as courageous for not being like the rest of the sheep, and own a lot of tin foil. Those things will make perfect sense to you, but not to people who believe a different story.

If your story includes the belief that people are basically good, that too will affect everything about you. Among many other things, you’ll be a more trusting person, you’ll vote for less military spending, and you’ll see prisons as corrective rather than punitive institutions.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome, once again, to Grace Church’s annual missions week. Let’s take a moment to thank the entire missions team for working so hard to put this together for us. And let’s take a moment to thank Kyle in particular for the countless hours of prayer and leadership that he put in to make this week happen.

Missions, as we understand it, is crossing a significant cultural barrier to make disciples because of our love for God and people. In other words, it is an intentional attempt to glorify God by calling people from different cultural contexts to follow Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The missions team asked me to open missions week by preaching on the necessity of doing this (of doing missions) out of a clear understanding of the overall story of God. If we are to rightly engage in missions, then, we must be clear on the importance and nature of the Greatest Story.

To that end, therefore, I hope to do three things for you this morning. First, I want to help you see that we all live out of a story whether we realize it or not. Second, I want to help you to understand the key elements of God’s story, the Greatest Story. And third, I want to help you to see several implications of all this for missions. Please pray with me that as a result of these things, we would more eagerly give ourselves to supporting the discipleship of the world.

WE ALL LIVE OUT OF A STORY

We all live our lives in light of the story that we tell ourselves. That is, every one of us has a set of beliefs that determine how we understand the world around us. Our story is the sum of our answers to questions like:

* Who am I?

* Why am I here?

* What is valuable?

* What is good?

* What is fair?

* What is owed to me?

* What do I owe the people around me?

* Is this world all that exists?

It is impossible to function without answers to these questions; without a driving story.

For instance, if, as has been the case in many cultures throughout history, your story includes the belief that the point of raising boys is to produce warriors capable of conquering and defending, then that will shape virtually everything about your parenting—food, clothing, housing, friendships, education, even the ways in which you show affection.

Likewise, if you believe the purpose of child rearing is to give kids the most comfortable life possible, that too will determine what you feed them, how you cloth them, where you shelter them, who you encourage them to hang out with, what you teach them, and how you communicate love to them.

The warrior parent will not be able to make sense of the comfort parent’s decision to put their kids in a climate-controlled classroom, listening to lectures all day in the middle of the suburbs, while the comfort parent will likely be appalled by the warrior parent’s decision to train their 5 year old to fight and survive off of things they can gather and kill in the wilderness.

Both parents are merely living out of the story they believe and their decisions make perfect sense (but only make sense) within their story.

If, in your story, heaven is only accessible on the back of a comet, that belief will spread throughout your entire life. Because of that story you’ll give yourself to astronomy, view yourself as courageous for not being like the rest of the sheep, and own a lot of tin foil. Those things will make perfect sense to you, but not to people who believe a different story.

If your story includes the belief that people are basically good, that too will affect everything about you. Among many other things, you’ll be a more trusting person, you’ll vote for less military spending, and you’ll see prisons as corrective rather than punitive institutions.

If you believe that the government is inherently corrupt and diabolical,

Hosea 9:10-17 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. 11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! 12 Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! 13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. 14 Give them, O LORD- what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. 16 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. 17 My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

INTRODUCTION

This is a very interesting passage for several reasons. The (almost whimsical) language of the first half of v.10 is interesting. It’s straight out of a beautiful and powerful movie scene. The appeals to Israel’s history are interesting. They continue to draw from the most powerful seasons in the life of the people of God. The extremely thick irony is interesting. Israel forsook God for a god of fertility and the consequences for doing so were infertility. The grand principle at the end of v.10 is interesting. There we find the profound truth that the things we love have transforming power over us. And the overall flow of the prophecy is interesting. It traces God’s people from wilderness to Promised Land to wilderness.

Hosea meant all of that to provide a new light on an old point; namely, that Israel had been unfaithful to God and would therefore face the just, but steep consequences of God’s jealous love. All of the interesting aspects of the passage are really just different tools to help drive that home for Israel. In other words, Hosea took this new angle to help Israel know, deep in her heart and mind, the reality that was before her. From this we will see that sin is not just icky but evil. Obedience is not just a good idea, it is essential. God’s love is not just warm, it is severe. And God’s offer of grace is entirely sufficient, but not without expiration. It is my hope, then, that we would use the interesting parts of this passage as a mirror into our own lives and a spotlight on Christ’s.

NEW LOVE AND NEW PROMISES OF RESCUE AND BLESSING

Look again with me at the opening lines of this passage (10).

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers.

These poetic words are meant to capture the time when God first chose a people for himself. The picture is one of unexpected excitement and blessing. Wilderness is by definition a hard, untamed place. To be in the wilderness, therefore, is to be in a place of difficulty and struggle. Grapes, a sweet, refreshing fruit do not generally grow in the wilderness. And so to find such an unlikely blessing in such a difficult place is the picture of surprised delight.

Likewise, at a time when sweet things only came from nature and only at certain times of the year, the first fruits of a fruit harvest marked an exciting time. And, because it takes several years for new fig trees to bear fruit, the first fruit in its first season represented an even more exciting time of sweetness and blessing. To compare anything to this, then, is to name that thing as wonderful and satisfying.

These are the ways God chose to describe His initial encoun...

Hosea 9:10-17 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. 11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! 12 Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! 13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. 14 Give them, O LORD- what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. 16 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. 17 My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

INTRODUCTION

This is a very interesting passage for several reasons. The (almost whimsical) language of the first half of v.10 is interesting. It’s straight out of a beautiful and powerful movie scene. The appeals to Israel’s history are interesting. They continue to draw from the most powerful seasons in the life of the people of God. The extremely thick irony is interesting. Israel forsook God for a god of fertility and the consequences for doing so were infertility. The grand principle at the end of v.10 is interesting. There we find the profound truth that the things we love have transforming power over us. And the overall flow of the prophecy is interesting. It traces God’s people from wilderness to Promised Land to wilderness.

Hosea meant all of that to provide a new light on an old point; namely, that Israel had been unfaithful to God and would therefore face the just, but steep consequences of God’s jealous love. All of the interesting aspects of the passage are really just different tools to help drive that home for Israel. In other words, Hosea took this new angle to help Israel know, deep in her heart and mind, the reality that was before her. From this we will see that sin is not just icky but evil. Obedience is not just a good idea, it is essential. God’s love is not just warm, it is severe. And God’s offer of grace is entirely sufficient, but not without expiration. It is my hope, then, that we would use the interesting parts of this passage as a mirror into our own lives and a spotlight on Christ’s.

NEW LOVE AND NEW PROMISES OF RESCUE AND BLESSING

Look again with me at the opening lines of this passage (10).

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers.

These poetic words are meant to capture the time when God first chose a people for himself. The picture is one of unexpected excitement and blessing. Wilderness is by definition a hard, untamed place. To be in the wilderness, therefore, is to be in a place of difficulty and struggle. Grapes, a sweet, refreshing fruit do not generally grow in the wilderness. And so to find such an unlikely blessing in such a difficult place is the picture of surprised delight.

Likewise, at a time when sweet things only came from nature and only at certain times of the year, the first fruits of a fruit harvest marked an exciting time. And, because it takes several years for new fig trees to bear fruit, the first fruit in its first season represented an even more exciting time of sweetness and blessing. To compare anything to this, then, is to name that thing as wonderful and satisfying.

These are the ways God chose to describe His initial encounter with Abram, the man through whom His people, Israel,

Hosea 9:1-9 Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute’s wages on all threshing floors. 2 Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. 3 They shall not remain in the land of the LORD, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. 4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD, and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like mourners’ bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the LORD. 5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the LORD? 6 For behold, they are going away from destruction; but Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents. 7 The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. 8 The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. 9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.

INTRODUCTION

What’s the worst party you’ve ever been to? My own wedding shower was pretty rough, but probably the worst was one that a friend of mine had back in high school. I wasn’t a Christian at the time, and certainly wasn’t looking to sing Kumbaya, but even I was pretty disturbed by the type of behavior going on. On top of all that, because my friend had just started attending a different school from me, I didn’t know anyone there. It was not my idea of a great party.

Whatever your version of a bad party is, I can assure you that Israel had an even worse idea. Hosea tells us that she decided to have one with the wrath of God firing down on her, in the middle of a war, and in spite of the fact that messengers had been specifically sent to tell her the party was a bad idea. This morning, then, we’ll consider each of these three ingredients to a really bad party. We’ll also consider, however, the remarkable fact that Jesus flips all of this on its head. Let’s pray that our eyes would be opened to the reality that we live in and that we’d interpret it all through the lens of the gospel.

THREE INGREDIENTS TO A BAD PARTY

The Israelites, evidently, were in a festive mood. From Hosea’s words it seems that there was rejoicing and exulting, harvest and wine. It may have been the fall festival of Sukkoth/Weeks (Leviticus 23) that Israel was celebrating. And it may be that there was a break in Assyrian aggression and that caused the Israelites to decide to throw a party.

Whatever it was that made them think a party was in order, in the midst of it God chided the party-goers, commanding, “Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples…”.

What follows (in 9:1b-9) are the reasons for God’s halting the party. The three main reasons give us three ingredients for a really, really bad party.

Ingredient #1: God is Displeased with You

Hear this Grace!: We were made for awe. We were made to be amazed. We were made for wonder. We were made to be filled with joy. That’s why everyone goes after those things. However, sin has done two things in this regard. First, it has lied to us about where these things are to be found. That is, sin has lied to us about the source of genuine awe, amazement, wonder, and joy. Second, it has shriveled our capacity to truly experience it. We’re way too content (as C.S. Lewis so famously pointed out) with tiny slivers of those things when so much more is offered—and needed!