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Revelation 2:12-17

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Psalm 30
ICC’s AM (10/9/21)
I. Introduction
1. Prayers
i. Grant us understanding of your word today, Father
ii. And grant us by your holy spirit how we be doers of the word and not hearers only.
2. Catch- Comfort is not bad thing, but the goal of being comfortable can be spiritually deadly
i. The very quotable CS lewis once wrote
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
ii. Jesus did not lay out a comfortable call to discipleship, which is the process of following Jesus.
iii. Writer Brett Mccracken points out:
To be a disciple of Jesus is to deny oneself (Matt. 16:24), to take up a cross (Luke 14:27), to be subject to persecution (John 15:20; 2 Tim. 3:12), to give up the creature comforts of home (Luke 9:58), to forsake the priority of family (Luke 9:59–62; 14:26), to be willing to give up all material possessions (Matt. 19:21; Luke 14:33), to be crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). And this is just the beginning.[i]
iv. And yet, when troubles disrupt our comfortable lives, do we not scream Why God, Why?
v. But I’m going to try to remind you that this is a gift as God removes this weak support so that he can build something stronger
1. He is the god of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction
2. But its sometimes like a builder removing a rotten pylon that cannot support the structure. To prevent its fall, it must be removed and replaced with something stronger
vi. So let’s see how God lovingly removes our self-confident comforts

3. Outline of the passage helps us see the main point

i. You know how stories have beginning, middle, climax, the end
ii. In poetry there are things called Chiasms, from the Greek letter Chi, which look like an X
iii. The beginning corresponds with the end, the next item with the item next to the end, and so on. [ii]
A — Testimony of praise (1-3)
B — Reasons for praise (4-5)
C — Recognition of his failure (6-8)
B’ — Reasons why God should save (9-10)
A’ — Testimony of Praise (11-12)
iv. This helps us see the main point is the center. This is not a praise Psalm about being rescued from his enemies
v. This is a Psalm about David being resecured from himself
So let’s see

II. The kind of praise that keeps you from SELF-confidence

1. Your praise should Show others God (title-5)

i. Explanation

1. The purpose of this Psalm is the temple (Title)

a. The title is an important part of the Psalm that we cannot just jump over because it tells us why it was written
b. The Hebrew word is just “house” so it could be David’s house, or God’s house the temple
c. David didn’t live along enough to see the temple, but he did a lot of preparation for it
1 Chronicles 22:5- For David said, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it.”
d. So, it makes sense he didn’t just prepare physically for it, but spiritually, he wanted something remembered when people gathered at the dedication of the temple
e. What is the message he wants everyone to get from his life? Don’t trust in yourself, trust in the good God who alone is strong enough to give your life the security you need
So starts with thanks

2. David thanks Yahweh’s saving help (1-3)

a. There is fun poetry here where David says I lift up your name Yahweh because you drew me up
i. It has the idea of bringing water up from a well
b. David’s situation is not good as v 2 makes clear that he needed healing from being sickedm diseased, or injured
i. Sheol is the Old Testament was of saying the Grave, i.e., a place under the earth where the dead reside, [iii]
ii. So David was at deaths’ door
iii. And his enemies were happy to see him struggling
c. when he prayed to Yahweh, he was restored
i. God was the source of his healing and all healing
ii. So, we rightly pray like David did for healing… even while you take medicine and see doctors, you know God is making it work
1. As one of your told me that your doctor family members make clear they’re only practicing medicine… even they cannot give assurance to the results
d. But, everyone dies eventually right?
i. Jesus healed, but he offered something bigger than just a short term healing saying
John 11:25- Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
ii. Though he dies, he will live on as spirit and one day be resurrected to his body
iii. There is something far worse than physical death… missing out of the eternal resurrection found in Jesus Christ
In light of this physical healing, David wants everyone to know about it and so:

3. David calls us others to see God’s goodness (4-5)

a. David turns to address the saints, or other believers who are coming to temple to worship
b. He doesn’t just say worship.. he says sing!
i. The great American theologian Jonathan Edwards wrote
“The duty of singing praises to God seems to be given wholly to excite and express religious affections. There is no other reason why we should express ourselves to God in verse rather than in prose and with music, except that these things have a tendency to move our affections” -Jonathan Edwards
c. David doesn’t just want us to believe right things about God… he wants us to feel right things about God
i. He wants us feel that God’s name is Holy
1. God is holy set apart or consecrated to sacred use rather than profane[iv]
2. This is Not just one without equal, but one without comparison… none like our God
ii. this has to be remembered as David knew from his bible
Exodus 3:15- God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
iii. And that only comes from realizing God saves in from a dark situation
d. The reason for singing
i. God does have anger, but it passes Weeping does occur, but it will be swallowed up in joy
ii. God is angry with your unrepentant sin… if you continue without changing it offends his holiness
iii. But anger is not part of God’s nature… he is holy, and his holiness cannot even look at sin (Habakuk 1), Graciousness is a key part of God’s nature
iv. He says weeping may visit your home, but joy is lives there, as Paul wrote
2 Corinthians 4:17- For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
ii. Illustration
1. Singing in suffering teaches those around us truly matters
a. Like the star spangled banner
b. It comes from a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy
c. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory
d. A song was created to rejoice over survival, endurance
e. Keith Getty writes, “"how we sing does reveal how we think and feel about something. Most of us will all sing with some grit in a sports stadium or in a happy birthday at a loved one's party. Our individual personalities join u to make a collective personality, and our individual grateful hearts come together as the church."
2. singing matters to my own heart, and it disciples those around me
iii. Application
1. I want to suggest that God’s comfort to you is for others
a. Isn’t it interesting that David turns from a personal account of healing to calling those around him?
b. I know that we often want to keep our suffering to ourselves, especially when it’s partly our fault, like in David’s case
c. But when God blesses, that blessing is not just meant as an encouragement to you, but as a gift you can give to those around you
2 Corinthians 1:3–4- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2. Some of you are suffering in ways that just don’t go away
a. And we Americans struggle with what to do about that
b. But the encouragement we must give to each other are found in the words of the pastor Harry Ironside’s father one sight of his blessed face will make up for it all.” That is the true Christian’s ultimate perspective. It is the faith that triumphs strongly over everything[v]
But David the gets to the main point: why he was in that situation

2. Your praise should Express your failures (6-8)

i. Explanation
1. David’s felt like he was on top of the world, the word prosperity means unconcerned, satisfied
2. Everything in David’s life was good and he boasted: “I’ll never totter or slip”
a. This is probably 2 Samuel 10, when David defeated the ammonites… everything in the book has leading up to David’s great victory
2 Samuel 10:19–11:1- And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So the Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
b. And while there, David slips… he commits adultery with Bathsheba, kills her husband, and then suffers for years
3. David was comfortable and he started trusting in his comfort rather than God
a. It is exactly what God warned the Israelites about
Deuteronomy 8:17–18- Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, ….
4. Now David recognizes the security he built wasn’t true.
a. It is kindness of God that something as strong as a mountain is able to stand
b. David had become blinded to his own need for God
5. And God was kind enough to reveal this by hiding his face
a. Augustine wrote
he was for a short time deserted by his Ruler, in order that he might not himself through deadly pride desert his Ruler[vi]
b. Let’s be clear, God does not change, he is immutable
Malachi 3:6- “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
c. It always God’s plan for Saul to be removed… he was not caught off guard, and he always planned to have a man from the tribe of Judah… David, to be king
d. Instead, it is we who change, we have decided to be people that God disciplines, rather than those who blesses
e. God has not as much turned his back and we have gone around to his back, and get the results
ii. Illustration- The danger of living for comfort and security is strong
1. I was reading the book Live not by Lies by Rod Deher as he described a young women in Budapest’s fear[vii]
2. She talks about how hard it is to be honest with friends her age about the struggles she faces as a wife and mother of young children.
a. Her fear isn’t the judgment she will get, but the advice
b. the prevailing attitude [around her] is that life’s difficulties are a threat to one’s well-being, and should be refused.
c. Do she and her husband argue at times? Then she should leave him. Are her children annoying her? Then she should send them to day care.
d. She worries that her friends don’t grasp that suffering is a normal part of life—even of part of a good life,
e. She doesn’t want them to give her advice about how to escape her problems; she just wants them to help her live through them.
3. “Without being willing to suffer, even die for Christ, it’s just hypocrisy. It’s just a search for comfort,” says Yuri Sipko, the Russian Baptist pastor. “When I meet with brothers in faith, especially young people, I ask them: name three values as Christians that you are ready to die for. This is where you see the border between those who are serious about their faith and those who aren’t.”[viii]
4. Suffering is not evil, the world is evil, suffering shows what we truly value
iii. Application
1. So beware pursuing security
a. Teens, college students… you’re getting ready for a new life ahead, so much excitement and plans to be made
b. But watch out for the lie that says do ____ and you’ll never have to worry or get this and you’ll be set for life
c. all our treasures on this earth can be stolen or broken, only the treasures of heaven are secure
2. But most of us have a different problem, because we have comfort that is being taken away
a. Life has gotten harder these past 18 months
b. Freedoms are removed, safety is not secure
c. So, will your goal be to fight or move to give your security back… or will you trust God and seek to do things his way?
d. It’s probably good to get wisdom from others about what to do… but avoid seeking the comfort which will not satisfy
3. Instead, David reveals the weaker we feel, the stronger the Lord can make us ( 2 Cor. 12:10 ), [ix]
After David confesses his failure to us, he returns to giving reasons

3. Your praise should be Laud God (9-10)

i. Explanation
1. David shows us this example of how we should pray… give reasons
a. God cannot be bargained with, but remember
Psalm 37:4- Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
b. If you’re delighting in the lord, your desires will be right
c. How do I show my desire are right except in explaining them?
d. So David explains why God should hear him
2. He cannot praise God in his death
Isaiah 38:18- For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness
a. Israel had a special job to make all the world see how great Yahweh is
Deuteronomy 4:6–8- Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
b. And they couldn’t do this with a dead and defeated king
3. This isn’t a lie, but it is true repentance
a. Before, he was only concerned about his comfort and getting the results he wanted
b. Now, He has only concern for God’s name must be praised in front of other people. [x]
ii. Illustration- let me try to explain how living matters
1. We were singing He will fold me fast with our kids the other night and so I was trying to explain to them that as much as we love them and want to take care of them, only God can watch over them
2. Being so inquisitive, they asked… how are you not strong enough?
a. Well we cannot be everywhere, and no matter how much we love you, one day we’ll die and not be there for you
b. My daughter replied, “but you will still love us when you die
c. And it hit me, yes, we will still love our children, but when we die we won’t be able to tell them or do anything to show them
3. In the same way, heaven will be full of unceasing praise to God for every joyous moment we have
4. But that the people here are earth cannot see that, there is no great witness to what God has done
God alone can keep doing that
iii. Application
1. There is a sadness to death, we miss hearing the wisdom and encouragement, and love of those gone
2. But let me be positive
a. Some of you have said.. .I don’t know why God is extending my day
b. I’m not sure I want to be keeping living because all of the things I did I cannot do anymore.
c. But notice David’s example of what you should say!
i. Praise to God.
ii. In heaven we will stand beside the throne, throwing our crowns upon him
d. But, right now, this testimony is for those around you to be reminded of how worthy God is
i. It is a act of love for all of us
The psalm ends where it started, thanking for God what he had done

4. Your praise should last Forever (11-12)

i. Explanation
1. God has changed the situation
2. Sackcloth was something worn in times of mourning but now David is dancing
3. So David will sing and wants the temple to be a place of singing
ii. Illustration
1. We are pretty sure we’ll see the sunrise tomorrow, right?
2. Because there have been somewhere around 4 million of them every single day
3. So, how are confident God’s mercies will be new each morning?
a. Because he has been faithful over and over again to his people
b. We can be sure by the stories of many witnesses like David who say he is good… it will lats forever
iii. Application
1. Brothers and sisters… I know you want that joy
2. So, the solution is not a change in situation, but a heart and mind filled with God
a. Think about him for what he is in himself and for what he has done. And then, when your heart is overflowing with his praise, speak about him to others, as David is doing in this psalm[xi]

III. Therefore

1. Since we have seen (Cohesion)-

To avoid the danger of SELF

i. Show others how great God is
ii. Express our own failures
iii. Instead Laud God
iv. Praise will last Forever

2. We know we must (Resolution)-

i. Seek the only place true comfort exists, not in easy circumstances
ii. But in trusting God’s kind control overy all things in your life
iii. So, when God kindly brings those trials into you life Say like Charles Spurgeon

​

You have often left Christ; has he ever left you? You have had many trials and troubles; has he ever deserted you? Has he ever turned away his heart and compassion? No, children of God, it is your solemn duty to say 'No,' and bear witness to his faithfulness. Spurgeon

IV. Closing prayer

1. Lord, may we not seek comfort, but seek you
2. And please may we find that comfort in you

V. Final Hymn

1.
📷
​
[i] OCTOBER 21, 2017 | BRETT MCCRACKEN. 8 Signs Your Christianity Is Too Comfortablehttps://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/8-signs-your-christianity-is-too-comfortable/ [ii]Douglas B. Miller, Ecclesiastes, Believers Church Bible Commentary (Scottdale, PA; Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 2010), 225. [iii]James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament)(Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997). [iv]John S. Feinberg, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God, The Foundations of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 338–339. [v]James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 264. [vi]Augustine of Hippo, “On Continence,” in St. Augustin: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. C. L. Cornish, vol. 3, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 393. [vii] 1. Dreher, Rod. Live Not by Lies (p. 183). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. [viii]5. Dreher, Rod. Live Not by Lies (pp. 185-186). [ix] ESV Gospel Transformation Bible (Kindle Locations 125883-125886 [x]Willem A. VanGemeren, “Psalms,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 5 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991), 261. [xi]James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 266–267.
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