Review / Introduction:
"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation... the delight is incomplete till it is expressed." - C.S. Lewis
Why I Am Compelled to Worship (Psalm 34):
- God has never Disappointed me. (Psalm 34:4-10)
- God has taught me how to Live. (Psalm 34:11-16)
- God has Comforted me through difficult times. (Psalm 34:17-20)
- God has taken away my Guilt. (Psalm 34:21-22)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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All right, turn in your Bibles with me, please, to Psalm 34.
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Psalm 34.
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Now we've sort of broken up the music part of church, by putting the sermon in the middle.
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Let me ask you something.
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Let's just take a giant step back and evaluate this thing that we do called church.
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And let me ask you, why do we sing?
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Why do we sing?
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I mean, can we just be honest?
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Doesn't that seem like a strange custom?
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That on a Sunday morning, I mean, think about this.
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On a Sunday morning, you would get up, you would get dressed, you would drag your kids to a place where you sing.
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And I mean, you sing with some people here who are friends and some people here that quite frankly are complete strangers.
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but when we gather in this room, all of a sudden we're supposed to be this choir?
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I mean, doesn't that seem strange to anybody else?
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Why would we do that?
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Singing is sort of like an outlet of emotion.
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Singing is like an outlet of expressing joy.
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And I was thinking about this this week.
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You know, we sing a lot, actually.
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And we sing often in very strange settings, don't we?
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For example, a birthday party.
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What do we do at a birthday party?
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Well, we get the person whose birthday it is and what do we do?
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We sing at them.
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Actually, we say, "Hey, because it's your birthday, we lit a cake on fire for you.
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And it's your job to put the fire out.
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but before you do, we're going to sing at you.
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I'll make sure you make a wish.
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I mean, doesn't that seem strange?
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We sing or we go to the baseball game.
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This one always confused me.
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You go to the baseball game.
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What's the song you sing at the baseball game?
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You know, take me out to the ball game.
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And when did we sing that?
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At the ball game and what Mike?
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In the seventh inning.
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Like why are we singing "Take Me to the Ball Game" when the game's almost over?
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Just a strange custom, isn't it?
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And I've seen that at baseball games.
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Not only do we sing, but we put our arms around complete strangers and we're swaying.
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♪ Take me out to the ball ♪ Isn't that weird?
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Or is it just me?
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Am I the only one?
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You know the weirdest singing context by far?
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This one I don't get at all.
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I mean, I can kind of get the other two, but this is by far the weirdest one to me, is Christmas caroling.
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Christmas caroling.
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You know, you and a group of friends, you show up outside of somebody's house and you're like, "Hey, come out into the cold so me and my friends can sing at you while you're trespassing.
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What are you doing with the hose?" But isn't that weird?
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New Year's Eve, we get together and we celebrate and we sing, what's that song we sing?
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Old, old slang, old slang, old slangs.
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I should have looked that up.
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Anyway, singing is a very emotional thing, isn't it?
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How many songs on the radio are about a deep profession of love?
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How many songs on the radio are about heartbreak?
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How many songs on the radio are about passion?
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Why?
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Why are these things the subject matter?
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Because singing is emotional.
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Which is why singing is one aspect of worship that we really go after here.
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You see, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with your heart, with your soul, with your mind, with your strength.
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In other words, the greatest commandment is you are to love God with everything that is in you.
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So the question is, how do we love God with our emotions?
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Well, God gave us something that we are to use to love God with our emotions.
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And that thing that he gave us is music.
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That is how we worship God, how we love God with our emotions.
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Look at what C.S. Lewis said.
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He said, "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment.
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It is the appointed consummation.
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The delight is incomplete till it is expressed." He says it's not just expressing enjoyment, he says it's that praise that completes the enjoyment.
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Like when you're on a roller coaster, what do you typically do on a roller coaster?
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You sit there and stone-faced and have your church face on on the roller coaster?
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No, what do you do?
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You scream, you laugh, you put your hands up.
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And why do you do that?
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Because somehow that expression completes the enjoyment.
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Or, I don't know if you heard, but there's a football game on today.
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When the team scores, why don't we jump up and scream and high-five each other?
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Somehow that heightens our enjoyment.
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And it's the same with singing to the Lord.
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That expression, that praise, that letting that out before the Lord completes our enjoyment of our experience with the Lord.
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When it comes to this singing in music, you know God's pretty fired up about it.
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What's the biggest book of the Bible?
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It's the biggest book.
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Psalms.
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And what's Psalms?
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Israel's song book, right?
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The biggest book in God's Word is the Song Book.
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And Revelation chapters 4 and 5 describe heaven as the ultimate worship service.
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In fact, Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 that the Father is seeking worshippers.
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That's why we're pretty fired up about it.
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And that's why pillar number two of Harvest Bible Chapel is lifting high the name of Jesus through worship.
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So let's look at Israel's songbook here.
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Psalm 34 says, "I will bless the Lord at all times.
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His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Notice that's not just a Sunday morning thing.
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all times, continually.
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Verse 2, "My soul makes its boast in the Lord.
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Let the humble hear and be glad.
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O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." You can underline all the synonyms for worship in those verses.
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Bless, praise, boast, magnify, exalt, and I'd really love to spend time talking about all these, have time for that, but I do want to talk about one in particular. I want to talk about the word "boast." The reason I want to talk about boasting is because usually boasting has a negative connotation.
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So what is boasting? Boasting refers to that on which a person would value themselves. Boasting refers to that on which a person would value themselves. In When you hear somebody boasting, they're saying, "This is what makes me important." Right?
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For example, when you hear somebody boast about how much money they have, "Here's how much money I made last year." "Oh, you won't believe how much money I made last year." And, "Oh, I'm doing really well at work.
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You won't believe how much money." You know why they keep saying that?
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What they're communicating to you is, "Hey, here's how important I am.
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Do you know how important I am?
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Let me tell you how important I am.
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I'm so important that they're throwing money at me." That's boasting.
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Why money?
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Because that makes me important.
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People boast about all kinds of things.
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People boast about their muscles.
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Hey, guess how big my arms are.
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You wanna guess how big my arms are?
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Do you wanna guess how much I can bench press?
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Do you wanna guess?
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Do you wanna guess?
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I can, yeah.
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Why do they get it?
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Because let me tell you, this is why I'm important.
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This makes me special.
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Please acknowledge how special I am.
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There are people boast that they, maybe they know a celebrity.
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Hey, do you know that I'm friends with so-and-so?
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Ooh, you know so-and-so.
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Like, people boast about that, "That makes me important." "My accomplishments." "The type of job they have." All these things people think give them importance, but the Bible says, Jeremiah 9.23, 1 Corinthians 1.31, the Bible says, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." Because He alone, listen, He alone is what gives you real value.
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If you know the Lord, only then do you have something to boast about.
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You're a recipient of his grace.
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So then you aren't even boasting in yourself.
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You're boasting about how awesome God is.
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That's boasting in the Lord.
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Like, look, you know what?
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I'm weak and helpless and nothing and totally dependent.
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And I am a speck of dirt.
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But let me tell you about my God.
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My God can save people like me.
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"My God takes care of me. My God provides for me." That's boasting in the Lord.
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So when you come in here, and the music starts, Darren gets up and he's playing the guitar, Jay's slapping the bass, Muckles pounding on the drums, Darren Keller's back there strumming his guitar, As soon as the music kicks up, you have a choice to make.
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And the choice is you can participate, or you can watch.
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And look, I'm not condemning at all.
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Because the sermon I want you to see, here's why I choose to participate, the sermon title here, "Why I'm Compelled to Worship." And I'm just going to share some things with you from the Word of God.
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This compels me to worship.
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My hope is after you go through the text and evaluate your own life in light of the Word of God, when we fire up the music again, you're going to be compelled to worship.
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To express that emotion in boasting to the Lord.
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Number one, why I'm compelled to worship, the first reason is this, God has never disappointed me.
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God has never disappointed me.
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2 Timothy 4-10 David writes, "I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
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Those who look to Him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed.
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This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
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The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.
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Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
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Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.
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Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack.
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The young lions suffer want and hunger, But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing." First reason we see right from the text why I'm compelled to worship is because God is never disappointed.
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Verse 5, look back there again, He says, "Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." You have never met someone who sincerely trusted God, who sincerely looked to God and were or let down by God.
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You haven't met that person.
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Now listen very closely to what I'm saying because I know we like to have fun and we laugh here, but this is a point that some people are going to check out.
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And I don't want you to do that.
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I want you to hear what I'm saying.
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We face disappointments in life.
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For sure.
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From our circumstances.
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The question is, has God ever disappointed you?
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Because I know there's somebody sitting here today that's thinking, "Yeah, you know what? God has disappointed me." And I want you to check yourself on this.
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I want us to be really honest about this.
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If you think that God has disappointed you, have you had unbiblical expectations of God?
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this, are you claiming promises from God that He never made?
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Are you trying to cash checks that God didn't write?
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See, that's why some people are disappointed with God, because they are trusting God to do something that God never promised to do.
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Now, Erin and I had a dear friend that her mother, this friend's mother, was like in her late nineties, you remember?
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She was in her late nineties and a nursing home, foot in the grave, like ready to die any second for months living in this near vegetative state.
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Again, late nineties, lived a long life.
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Well, this friend's mother eventually died and our friend was completely distraught.
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I scream at God every day, why did you let my mother die?
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Why did you let my mother die?
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And she was so bitter towards God.
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And it's very hard to say compassionately, what were you expecting from God here?
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Were you expecting your mother to live eternally in perfect health?
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Because the Bible never promises that.
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Why are we mad at God?
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Are you trying to claim a promise from God that he didn't make?
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Because the Bible says that we're going to die.
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We're going to wear out and die appointed unto man wants to die and your mother actually had it pretty good living as long as she had, as healthy as she was for so long.
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Now that was this woman's situation, what about yours?
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Are you trying to claim promises from God that he never made because the reality is God has always delivered on what he's promised.
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And the provision that he promises and provides is perfect.
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you might say, "But I wanted this so bad and God didn't give it." Well, you know, Jesus described God as a father, right?
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And every parent knows you don't just give your kid everything that they ask for.
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And God in his perfect wisdom says, "You know what?
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That's not gonna be good for you.
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I'm not gonna give it to you." That's what Jesus said, right?
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If your son asks you for bread, are you gonna give him a stone?
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No good parent is going to do that.
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God is a perfect parent.
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He's going to make sure that anything that comes from His hand is going to be good.
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That's why verse 10 He says, "I lack no good thing." Everything that comes from God is good.
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He says it's more likely that the king of the jungle is going to be in need than a child of God.
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And that's the satisfaction that Jesus Christ offers.
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When you hunger for the things of God, going to be fulfilled.
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Verse 8.
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You probably all knew verse 8 going into this, right? We've all heard this verse, maybe you memorized it, maybe you quoted it.
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"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good." I love that verse, because that verse is an invitation.
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"Taste and see that the Lord is good." Can I tell you about a day that changed my life forever?
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You're like, "Oh, you're going to tell us your testimony?" No.
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That changed my life forever, but this is, it's not as great as that day, but it's pretty far up there as far as days go.
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But I remember growing up, it just wasn't part of our family culture.
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We just typically never had Chinese food growing up, right?
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We just, we never had it.
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And I remember, I can't remember the context where or who.
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I think it was on break at work.
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I can't remember, and I'm gonna tell you why here.
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When you hear what happened, everything else just sort of fades away except this one thing.
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Okay, so I just remember somebody said, hey, would you like a bite of General Tso's chicken?
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And again, I've never had Chinese food.
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I'm like, yeah, I don't eat Chinese food.
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I never had it, but I'm like, I don't eat Chinese food.
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And they're like, oh, dude, you've got to try this.
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Like, no, thanks, I'm not great on trying new things.
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And, dude, you've got to try this.
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"Nah, I'm not really interested.
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"You gotta try this." Put it on the fork, had it to my mouth, "You got to try this." And then finally, just to get the person off my back, like, "All right, I'll try it." And I remember I put it in my mouth and like rainbows exploded from my face.
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That moment changed my life.
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Now those of you that have tried that, am I exaggerating?
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No, right Jack?
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I see Jack's back there like, he ain't lying.
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See the point was, there was somebody that had tried that and experienced it and loved it so much.
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They insisted that I try General Tso's chicken.
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They're like, dude, you don't know what you're missing.
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They insisted to the point that they practically shoved it in my mouth.
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And I mean, if we can make such a spectacle over something like that, and it's good, but for those of you that have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, shouldn't you be a little more insistent that other people try it?
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Look, you gotta know Jesus Christ.
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You gotta know Him.
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You gotta know Him.
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I was so lost, and I was so guilty, and I was so, my life was a mess.
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And do you know what He did for me?
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Do you know how He changed me?
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Do you know the purpose that He has given my life?
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You gotta try Him.
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You gotta come to church.
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You gotta come to my small group.
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We should be just as insistent as whoever that saint was that made me try General Tso's chicken.
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That's why the best evangelists and worshippers are the ones who are always mindful of what God is doing and has done in their lives.
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That's why I have no problem inviting people to this church.
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I have no problem.
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And not because it's my job at all.
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It's because of the ways I see God at work here.
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The way I see God moving in the lives of people and families.
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The way I see God blessing people here.
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The thought never crosses my mind that someone would take me up on an invitation to come, and they would leave here on a Sunday morning disappointed, because when God moves, no one is disappointed.
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And that compels me to worship Him.
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He doesn't disappoint. Not ever.
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Number two, why I'm compelled to worship.
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Because God has taught me how to live.
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Look at verses 11-16.
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He says, "Come, O children, listen to Me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord." What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?
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That's a rhetorical question, by the way. It's pretty obvious, right?
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He's like, "Do you know anybody that wants to live a good, long, happy life?" Like, "Do you mean everybody that ever lived?" "Yes." He says, "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.
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Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.
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The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry.
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The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
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God's taught me how to live.
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You know, sin is such an interesting thing.
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We crave our sins so badly, and it always, ultimately makes us miserable.
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Such a crazy thing.
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Just as we said God always satisfies, Sin never has. You realize that?
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Never in the history of the world has somebody lived in sin and thought, "Yeah, that works. That's fulfilling. That's making me happy." And people foolishly think of the Word of God as restrictive.
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People laugh at us church people, because the Word of God is so restrictive.
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And I've heard it so many times it makes me sick.
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People are like, "Oh, God doesn't want me to have fun. Is that it?" You know, you believe in the Bible, "Yeah, God just doesn't want us to have any fun." Well, let me ask you, is it really fun?
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I want you to look at the porn addict.
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Driven by lust, and driven to constant guilt. Is that fun?
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Sit down with that guy and get him to be honest with you.
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Is your sin fun? How's that working out for you?
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He's miserable.
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Verse 14 tells us to pursue peace.
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Look at the contentious person.
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You know a contentious person just wants to fight with everybody about everything?
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And then they don't have any friends because nobody wants to be around somebody like that.
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And they feel lonely.
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"I just don't feel close to anybody. I don't feel like I have a real friend in the world." Is that fun?
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Is it fun to fight with everybody? Is that fun?
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Oh, we could go on and on.
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What about the lazy person?
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Driven to comfort.
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Easy path of least resistance every time.
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What's comfortable for me?
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What's easiest for me?
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And then they're feeling unfulfilled.
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I just don't feel like I have any purpose in life.
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I don't feel like God's using me for anything in life.
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I just wonder all the time, why am I here?
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Why am I here?
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Is your laziness fun?
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Is that working out for you?
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Take the drunk person.
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Driven to party, right?
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Life is a beer commercial and it's so fun, it's so fun, it's so fun.
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Do you know what's not fun is addiction.
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You know what's not fun is needing to be in rehab, whether it's drinking or drugs or whatever.
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That's why God calls us to repent.
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Let's get that on the table now.
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God calls you to repent for one simple reason.
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It's because He loves you.
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And when God tells you to turn from your sin, as we saw in this passage here, when God tells you to turn from your sin, what He's saying is, "Look, stop destroying yourself.
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Stop living in misery.
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Turn to Me." And I can tell you, I tried it my way.
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And I was completely miserable.
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But living God's way has maximized my joy.
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That's why God's Word is a delight, as we talked about last week, and that's why I'm compelled to worship Him.
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Because He's taught me how to live.
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Thirdly, God has comforted me through difficult times.
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God has comforted me through difficult times.
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Look at verses 17-20.
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When the righteous cry for help.
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Look at that, right on time, cue the cry.
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right there in the passage. You see that?
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Thank you.
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"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
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The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
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Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers Him out of them all.
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He keeps all His bones, not one of them is broken." Am I compelled to worship?
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Because God has comforted me through difficult times.
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God doesn't always eliminate problems, but He has promised to sustain us and strengthen us through them.
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And that's why the sorrowful, if you're here today and you're going through a hard time, you're going through a rough patch, whether it's lasted a week or whether it's lasted 20 years, the sorrowful get to know God in a special way.
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That's one of the great things about trials.
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Is you get to experience God in a way that you wouldn't otherwise.
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It's when we realize that we're hopeless sinners, that we get to experience the awesomeness of God's forgiveness.
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It's when we are in need that we get to experience the awesomeness of God's provision.
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And in this passage here, verse 18, it's when we are brokenhearted and crushed We get to experience God's compassion and comfort.
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We get to know Him as a loving Father.
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And that's why these experiences that I've gone through, these difficult times that I've gone through, have compelled me to worship Him.
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And finally, God has taken away my guilt.
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Am I compelled to worship Him?
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Because God has taken away my guilt.
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This alone would be more than enough reason to worship Him for eternity.
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Look at verse 21.
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"Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned." Look at this last verse.
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"The Lord redeems the life of His servants." None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.
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the fear of judgment.
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For all of the sinful, selfish, stupid things that I've done because of Jesus Christ, there's no condemnation, there's no shame, there's no guilt.
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I'm forgiven.
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And I'm free.
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And I couldn't do it myself.
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Not by my good works.
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Not by my religion.
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I'm going to try really hard to not sin anymore.
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It's only when I take refuge in Him.
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It's only when I take refuge in Him that I'm free from the guilt of my sin.
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And I love that he says, "None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned." That means this is for everyone.
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So if you're sitting here today, it doesn't matter what you've done.
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God has provided forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
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And you know, when I think on that day, as we just sung earlier, on that day when it's my turn to leave the earth, and I think on that day, I'm going to be granted access to eternal paradise with God because of the blood of Jesus Christ.
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When I think about that day, do you know what that does for me now?
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That compels me to worship.
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As we close, I'd like the worship team to make their way forward.
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Mike Martin, I'd like you to come forward.
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I want to use you for an illustration.
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Can I do that?
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I'm not going to embarrass you, I promise.
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Come on up here.
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I just want you, as we close here and as we're about to sing, I want you to imagine.
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We're going to let Mike symbolize the man here.
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But I want you to imagine with me, please.
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Use your imaginations.
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I want you to imagine that you meet a man in this church, and we're going to call him the fatherly type.
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You met this man in the church, and you became friends with this man by coming to this church and getting to know this man.
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And let's say in our scenario here, over the course of five years, you have really got to know and love and appreciate this man.
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That he wasn't just another churchgoer.
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this man got invested in your life.
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I want you to imagine that this man helped disciple you.
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That there were times this man, he'd come to small group, and he'd open the Bible, and he'd share some things that the Lord had taught him.
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And over the course of the five years, this man, there were times that he provided for you.
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Oh, do you remember that time that you had that sudden problem in your house?
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You had a pipe broke, and you didn't have the money to fix it, and he gave you the money to fix it.
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Or that time that your car broke down and you didn't have the money for the repairs and he had a mechanic buddy and he made sure that your car got fixed.
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These kinds of things seem to happen a lot over the years that he helped provide for you.
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Or do you remember that time in church that somebody else in the church really offended you and you were really upset with them and you were thinking about leaving the church because you were so offended and you were never gonna forgive.
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And you remember, this was the man who sat down with the two of you and he prayed with you and he helped you reconcile the relationship.
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Oh, he was the reconciler.
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Do you remember the time that your grandfather died and who was the first person to show up at your house?
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But your buddy from church.
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He was there with you, with your family, praying.
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He showed up at the funeral and he just put his arm around you and comforted you.
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during that time.
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All over the course of those five years, there were so many times that you called him for advice.
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Whether it's, "Hey, can you help me figure out "how to fix this plumbing issue I'm having?" Or, "Hey, can you, my kid's going through this phase, "can you tell me how to figure out how to, "what should I say to my kid that's going through this?" Or, "I just had this argument with my wife "and she's really mad at me." And there's been so many times that you've called him and he's just given you fatherly advice.
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Anytime, he just dropped what he was doing and he made you numero uno.
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I want you to imagine you show up on a Sunday and he's brought up front just like he is here.
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And I get up beside this, who's become one of your best friends on the planet.
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I get up beside him and I say, "Hey, I got some sad news.
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Due to sudden circumstances, Mike has to move.
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And because of the circumstances, he's leaving today after church.
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He's packing up and he's leaving.
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And he's been so influential in so many people.
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Is there anybody here that would like to say something to Mike?" Now, I want you to think about that.
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Just hit pause here for a second.
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When you think back of the five years that this man has ministered to you and all the ways that he's loved you and taken care of you, and I say, "Does anybody have anything they'd like to say?" Would you have something to say?
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Would you have anything that you would like to say to this man?
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I would suggest that the gratitude and the honor would passionately pour out.
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You would have so much to say to Him because of the experience that you've had with Him.
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You've received so much blessing from this guy over the course of five years.
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You're like, "Yeah, I've got to say some things.
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I've got to tell him how much I appreciated all the stuff that you've done for me.
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And I've got to tell everybody else.
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This guy was a friend to me when I felt like I didn't have a friend in the world." It would just be pouring out, wouldn't it?
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Thank you, Mike. You can have a seat.
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You see, I want to tell you we're here today because we want to say some things to someone far greater than our hypothetical father figure.
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We're here today because we want to say some things to God.
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So if you are born again, do you know what that means?
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That means Jesus died on the cross in your place so that you could be forgiven of everything wrong that you've ever done or ever will do.
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If you were born again, it means you are saved from eternal hell.
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You're never going to experience a half a second of God's judgment.
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If you are born again, that means you've been given the promise of heaven.
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That means he encourages you and guides you with wisdom, through life, through family, through work, in His Word.
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He provides every single thing that you need.
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He comforts you and sustains you through the worst trials of your life, never leaving or forsaking you.
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His love for you is limitless.
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Do you realize when you're at your very best, or you're at your very worst, His love for you is exactly the same.
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So just like we brought hypothetical father figure up and said, "Would anybody have something they'd like to say to Him?" I want you to think about Jesus Christ and everything He's done for you, and everything He will do for you, because He ain't leaving.
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And I want to ask you the same question, "Is there anybody here that has anything they would like to say to Jesus Christ?" Well, I'd like you to stand, and we're going to give you the opportunity to do that right now.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 34 (stand and read aloud; sing a favorite hymn as a group if compelled)
How would you define "worship" to a child? How would you explain to that child the purpose of worship in music at the church?
What are the nuances in the synonyms for worship in Psalm 34:1-3?
- bless:
- praise:
- boast:
- magnify:
- exalt:
What would you say to someone who says to you, "I tried trusting God once, and He disappointed me." How can we reconcile this statement with Psalm 34:10?
In church, does the music prepare you for the sermon, or does the sermon help make you a better worshiper? (Note to discussion leader: My <Jeff’s> opinion is the latter, but this isn’t really a dogmatic "right or wrong" issue. It is just meant to think through why we do what we do at HBC.)
What was your big "take-away" from this passage / message?
Bonus: What is your favorite worship song / hymn? What is meaningful to you about that song?
Breakout Questions:
How would you rate yourself as a worshiper? From this text / message, how will you seek to become a more passionate worshiper?