June 11, 2017
Welcome to Hillandale. We're so glad you're here. As Aaron said we're doing things in a little different order this morning, and I'm going to preach the sermon first thing as I thought about continue to talk about Psalm 46 this week. Really what we're going to talk about this morning and in many ways serves as a call to worship. So I wanted us to to look at this song and then build a follow it up with a time of worship and praise and then the rest of service will unfold and it's normal order, but but I'm preaching at the beginning somewhere. So let's start by looking at Psalm 46 God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the Earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea though its Waters Roar and foam and the mountains Quake with their surging there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God the holy Place where the most high dwells God is within her. She will not fall. God will help her at break of day nations are in uproar kingdoms fall. He lifts his voice the Earth melt. The Lord Almighty is with us. The god of Jacob is our Fortress come and see what the Lord has done the desolations. He has brought on the earth. He makes Wars cease to the ends of the Earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear he burns the shields with fire. He says be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the Nations shall be exalted in the Earth. The Lord Almighty is with us. The god of Jacob is our Fortress. I think often we think of God and Christianity or scripture rescuing us the way this image kind of portrays. We think in terms of well, when there's an emergency. I will call on God and on one level that's good and great. And God is happy to have us call upon him but long-term in terms of our relationship with God and the health of our spiritual growth. That's somewhat dysfunctional. It is not a healthy long-term relationship. If the only time someone hears from us is it when we're in crisis now, there are seasons like that as parents. We know there are seasons in our children's life where it seems like the only time we hear from him is when they have something going on and we can assist them and we know the larger picture and that's okay for that sort of season, but if it's an ending then it becomes somewhat dysfunctional and I think the challenges in our relationship with God. Sometimes we simply get into a rut that goes beyond the sea. Then where we call upon him only in crisis and we think well, that's how God is my rescuer. That's how God is my refuge I get in trouble and then I call on him and he bailed me out. But actually that's not what this song is teaching. We talked about this little bit last Sunday. God does not simply serve as a provider of Refuge nor as insurance to our own Refuge God himself is our refuge ready willing and able and that's an important distinction. It is God who is our refuge? He's not simply a provider of wretched refuse like a resource like a vending machine there or glass that we break in case of emergency and say God. I need you to bail me out. I've got in a pickle here. He himself is our refuge and he's not only ready and able but he's willing that original Hebrew language when it talks about God being an ever-present help. It's this idea of him being the opposite of aloof this the opposite of of a snob or distant from us. He's not only able I am ready but he is willing he wants to be our refuge. He wants that relationship with you. And I know when God in relationship is the way we know him as Refuge. That's part of what this song is communicating when it says God himself. He is our refuge and so in order to know God as our refuge, we really have to know him in relationship it it works that way in other relationships. I can't say that my wife is going to be my refuge in trouble and I have a crisis or hard time. I'm going to call upon her but then have no relationship outside of that moment of Crisis. I mean, how does that go over if we say to our spouse? Look I need you to be there when I need you to be there. But other than that, I don't want nothing to do with you. How's that going to work out other they going to be there when you need them. It's all intertwined and interconnected. You can't really split it apart and so our relationship with God the way we know him and relationship is the way in which we experienced him as Refuge. It's not an isolated concept or a verse or we can just say, oh God is my refuge. So I'll call on him whenever I have need or trouble. It's all connected to how often we've called on. It's all connected to how well we know him. Are we in a growing relationship of God? It's our relationship with him is the way in which we experience them is Rey. So as we know him as all-powerful and gracious and compassionate and forgiving and faithful a Bo breaker as the psalmist says a deaf defeater is Paul talks about in Corinthians as we learned to know God's character through Bible study, but also more than that Bible study plus as well as we know him by trusting him and testing him and we can look back in our life and say this was a time. God provided this is a time when God came through this the time when I knew God loved me in and heard my The Cry of my heart as we know him. That's the way we were able to experience him as Refuge is that relationship being lived out and experienced? And so we act on this knowledge by placing our trust in him. We take matters out of our own hands and put them in his hands. Here's where the rubber meets the road as they say. This is what it means to be to not just cherish this song and say, oh it's so beautiful. God is our refuge and ever-present help. We sank that great him last week Martin Luther that God is our refuge but more than just cherishing the beauty of this song What does it mean to know it to experience it to live it out. It means to take the knowledge of who God is both what we see in scripture as we learn about his character and what we experience as we trust him and apply that Which means the opposite of what we're tempted to do at as humans were tempted when when times get tough. What do we do? Well, it's time that I'm just going to take matters into my own hands, right if it's going to get done right have enjoyed myself, right? And so that's the that's the Instinct. But God is inviting us to this kind of opposite living. Jesus says the same sorts of things in the gospel when he says I'm telling you if you want to find your life, you're going to have to lose your life. And you think I'm going to make my life about self-fulfillment. I don't get on that weekend we go down that path in Jesus thing. I'm telling you. I know how reality Works my father and I are the authors of reality and I'm telling you when you when you give your life away you find your life and occasionally when we're serving others and caring for others and being the people that got us. Call the street. We get a little glimpse of that upside down truth that he tells us and in this song. He's telling us the same sort of thing. God is our refuge and the way we experience that is trusting his character in that means taking matters out of our own hands. And that is a difficult thing to do for the main ways. We do that is through Prayer by praying to God going to God and saying I got these are the things that I'm worried about. These are the things that I'm just stressed over. These are things that I'm tempted to keep only in my own hands and try to figure out and saw only in my own wisdom. And so God I bring these things to you, but it's more than prayer. It is practicing the one another's of the New Testament the 59 x were commanded to love one another to care for one. Another to Bear one. Another's burdens is policies and Glaceon and therefore fulfill the law of Christ. Do I have to let myself be known by Brothers and Sisters in Christ? And I have to commit to the relationships in the energy to no other brothers and sisters in Christ. I have to let them know what is burning me what it is intended to take into my own hands and keep in my own hands. That's one of the ways that I give it over to God by obeying him and scripture and and depending on others and allowing them to depend on me and going to God In Prayer. Now, there are always elements in which were being obedient to God as we have some things in our own hands and we're acting and doing so I'm not saying we don't ever act and do but sometimes we never even we just skip right over putting it in God's hands and we just a meet Lisa. Well, I'll fix this and we miss out on his invitation to know him as our refuge because fundamentally what the song is talking about is he is God and all that entails and we are not and all that entails. Those are two huge statements. God is God. And you and I are not. Can I get an amen? But it's so easy to kind of slip into a different type of functioning as if God is really not God as if he's not sitting on the throne as if he's not all-powerful and all-knowing and all compassion as if we're on our own and we must handle things ourselves. And so we begin to take matters into her own hands as if we are gone. As if everything is on our shoulders and so we worry and we fret and we buy insurance and we go to movies to escape our stress or we shop to deal with stuff and so the ways in which we manage life. Are ultimately deficient were taking on the role of God. I will manage my anxiety. I will manage my stress. I will manage my challenges Lord instead of knowing that he is our refuge and ever-present help not only always present and always able and always ready willing long for us to turn to him to call upon him to invite him. So fundamentally, we're being reminded in the song that he is God and we are not there for the song that says what that truth established be still and know God is speaking to David be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the Nations. I'll be exalted in the Earth. It's the last one of the punch lines in this song. The first one we talked about last week that God is our refuge. But the fact that God is our refuge. That's the foundation to this verse you awful me think of this verse as kind of an invitation to suddenly slow down and discover the reality or the truth of God, but but really it's so much more than that.
Psalm 46 is not simply an invitation to discover that true that God is God and we're not it's more than that. It's an invitation to respond to the reality that God is God and we are not do you understand the difference in chronology, the the the the root versus the fruit in that sort of analogy. It's the fact and the foundation the reality that God is God and we are not that calls us to be still and know that he is gone. Sometimes I think we put so much weight on the idea that we read that verse be still and know that I am God. Oh good. This is kind of a mechanism or this is an invitation if I'll slow down and be still I will suddenly experienced this truth. Is it my activity manifest that truth? The reality is in those first versus leading up to verse 10 of Psalm 46. God says, here's the truth. I am your Refuge. I am an ever-present help in your time of need the mountains themselves could fall apart and roll into the ocean the waves could Chomp and foam all over the place. Everything Nations could be an uproar but when I speak,
the Earth trembles
I'm the one true God. I'm the one thing that is true and real in your desert Parts world. I am this river that runs in the midst of those who worship God is city that makes them glad. As Nations try to figure out how to solve The World's problems as they wage war against one another for dominance or control or even for good intentions. You're missing the point that ultimately they are not God. I am God. And he says that not simply as a direct statement of reality because it is in the imperative, but I think he also says it as a sort of invitation pleading with us to know that truth because it's an anxiety-producing truth. It's a it's a wonderful thing to let go of being God. for you and I if I hear what it would you like to discard that hat if you wear that hat from time to time. Of being responsible completely for your whole life of worrying about your health and your children in the church and the nation and the culture and the community and send and politics. I'm watching the news and being wrought up worried about what your doctor's going to tell you next worried about with your kids going to make good decisions about it. Would it be like to remove that hat of being God? Being responsible of going through life and settling for you don't want if I can just keep my head above water and make it to the end. Then I'll just be happy if I can just avoid tragedy but God invites us to be Overcomers invites us to be more than conquerors as we trust him as we give our very lives away to him as we know him as powerful and compassionate and trustworthy. I might come to him in prayer. We obey him and our relationships with others. So it's an invitation to respond to that reality to live by faith in a world in which we are not responsible for everything in a world in which we don't have to be overwhelmed and spread so thin that we don't know how we're to make it but instead we can depend on God through faith. It's also a command like I said an imperative. But again, it's not in that simplistic manner when you look at the original Hebrew Psalm 2518 is the same imperative. Look on my fliction sand my distress and take away all my sins. You see how that's an imperative, but it wouldn't be true to say that the Samus is commanding God. Because that's not how those relationships work and inferior does not command a superior. But at the same time there's this pleading Spirit to say God, please. It's really it's really it's sort of this imperative that sang. Here's reality. I have no hope but for you to be my rescue our god look on my fliction. Am I just rest and take away my sin. It's more than just an invitation because his only hope is for God and so it's imperative. If you don't save me there's no I'm not going to be safe. And so he pleased with God in this matter another verse that's similar. That is Jesus words in Matthew 11. Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. He continues take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls in the original language. That's an imperative to but because of the nature of the relationship in the nature of Christ and those words twin understand it is not this command the way we normally think of commands Is not insane come to me those who are weary right now. We cannot say to our spouse love me. You can't do that. Can we?
But we can offer this invitation. That's based on reality. You're the only one for me.
I'm here for you.
I love and John chapter 6 when Jesus says the disciples went when he says some hard statements on a lot leave. He looks just like apples and says are you going to leave too and Peter says well the truth is We know just enough to know that you're the only hope we have it's it's not this bold statement of faith. He's not like everyone else is so inferior. We it's a very humble statement. He says look where else would we go? Reality is you're the only one with the words to eternal life. And so we are following you.
It's all about the relationship that helps you understand that Nuance of imperative and command and invitation. And we know the relationship God has offered to us. He is our refuge an ever-present help able and ready and willing longing for us to know him longing for us to call upon him. It's an invitation from God are superior. The one true God full of love and compassion and authoritative all over the world and imperative imitation. I don't know if that's grammatically correct for any of her grandma smart people here, which I'm not in that category, but it's an imperative invitation to line up with reality so that we might know him his love his peace his provision. It's a Wonderful invitation in it
Makes me think of the song of songs. We just come away with me my love and some others later use that imagery of God and his people It's a Wonderful invitation that God says to us I would like for you to cast all your cares upon me. I would like for you to come to me in prayer. I provided the way through my son Jesus. You don't have to say but I'm not good enough to pray to you. You don't have to say that. I haven't behaved this well enough this week. You don't disable the truth is my problem is completely my own doing amerifax not only my own doing but it came about of My Life as a result of me defiantly disobeying you and doing the very thing that I knew was not right. You think God says all one that case the whole deal's off because this whole Arrangement is between equals. You do your part. I do my part to that's the way we think. Psalm 103 says he knows what we're made of he knows that were made of dust and therefore he is full of compassion for you and I Whole reason him in the sun got together and said what if you pay the price for them?
What if you go down and take on flesh?
And when it's time for the accounts to be evened out. What if you pay the price?
And why as I said last week juice in the garden that is there any other way? but nonetheless father
sort of imperative invitation from God to Jesus. What if you save them? Evidently didn't have to because he's in the garden wrestling with it. But he says he know what I trust you. I trust you father. I trust your character. I trust Who You Are. so if there's no other way out of this. And your will be done your will be done and he provides for us. We just get little glimpses of of what's coming in his fullness in Christ in the song where the Samus says God is our refuge is an ever-present help and no matter what's going on. You can hear his voice invite you to be still and know that he is gone. And that in response the most fitting response to knowing that he is God is worship the most fitting response to this song is just what he said be still and know that I am God, my name will be exalted what I've told you this morning is true. It's true about God that he in the Sun have orchestrated our Salvation that Jesus Christ has paid the price for our sins and that God meets and greets you and I frail imperfect human beings with Grace and love and compassion. As a writer of Hebrews says in chapter 4 verse 16 because of who Jesus Christ revealed got to be in his actions here. He says therefore we can approach the throne of God with boldness boldness. We constantly pound that truth of scripture out of ourselves.
And Hebrew says cause it's a settled issue the attitude of God towards you and I is revealed in the Life Death burial and resurrection of Christ the answer the question. How does God feel about me a sinner is answered again and again and again has crisis on that cross as a display permanently. It's an historical fact, he gave his life for us. And Paul says in Romans while you were yet sinners Christ died for you. The question is answered. How does God feel about you? He loves you. Loves you in Longs for you. To believe that to know that and to know him as your Refuge to know him as your help.
To not only know him but to make his goodness known among the Nations to exalt his name.
A little later. We'll have a time of prayer and that'll be an opportunity to prayer or make a decision if you have a decision to make but right now I'm going to bite the worship team. And we just want to obey this verse. That sound okay to you. God says be still and know that I am God, my name will be exalted. We want to exalt his name. We we want to hear the great sermon that you can respond to before you leave the worship center. And then awesome. You don't have to make a note and thinking of robbing. I got to do that. I'll do it. Try to do that Tuesday. You do it right now. You can't obey this scripture right now until this is between you and God don't worry about how you sound. Don't worry about how we sound up here. Don't worry about any of those kind of things worship. God exalt his name this morning forget about others. To the best of your ability be alone with God and worship him this morning.
stand