Introduction:
Lifecycle of Redemption (Psalm 107:10-22):
- Recognizing our need for it is as hard as we make it (Ps 107:10-12 | Ps 107:17-18)
How do we recognize our need for redemption?
- How are things working out for you now?
- Are you trying to do it on your own?
- Is there some nagging sin you're dealing with?
- How's your walk?
- But being redeemed is practically free as we make it (Ps 107:13,19)
How do we cry out to the Lord?
- In humility
- In reverence
- In faith
- Submissively
Psalm 145:19 - "He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them"
Psalm 66:18 - "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would have not listened"
- And fulfills our needs abundantly (Ps 107:14,16,20)
Psalm 50:15 - "and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
Revelation 4:11 - "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."
How do we respond to being redeemed?
- Thanks and gratitude (Ps 107:15,21,22a)
- Sharing what he's done for you (Ps 107:22b)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
We'll be in Psalm 107 today and we'll be in verses 10 through 22.
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While you're turning there, I'd like to share some life updates with the congregation.
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You might know that I'm a father of two young kids.
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I have a daughter Lydia who's five now and Silas is around two and a half.
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And with them getting older, they're able to learn and take in a lot of stuff now.
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They're ripe for that age where you can mold them, you can define their behaviors.
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My wife Jessica and I will often read to them bedtime stories from a children's Bible.
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We want to teach them about God, his character, his son Jesus, and what he did for us on the cross.
00:37-00:40
We want to do that in a way that they can understand that.
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We want it to be with a message that's true, but simplified for them.
00:45-00:52
I think there's a lot of families that maybe raise their children on a similar Bible, but it's one where there's a lot of illustrations and pictures.
00:54-01:55
pictures in it are drawn idealistically, right? Everyone's clean, everyone's happy, and the thing that I get a kick out of with this is there are situations in the Bible where you know that you would be terrified or things are just going crazy and everyone's still drawn oddly calm. Like they illustrate Daniel just hanging out with the lions, even the lions they have smiles on their faces, and Lazarus being raised from the dead he just appears from the side of the building like, "Hey y'all, you know, I've been dead four days, whatever." And I get it, my kids are young, but when you read the Bible cover to cover, you find and discover that it's wrong, right? There's life and death situations, war, pain, struggle, it's all there. After all, not only is this God's word, but it's also an historical book too. So today we're going to be looking at some passages that are on that raw, true life side, when there are extreme lows and extreme highs.
01:56-02:01
Our passages today, we're going to be starting at the extreme lows and moving our way up to the highs.
02:01-02:08
Now, if you've ever watched a comic book movie in the past, you know, last decade, they follow a similar pattern, right?
02:08-02:25
They might not start at that low, but there always comes a point in the story where things are at their bleakest. Then somehow, through humbling themselves, through willpower or friendship, They overcome and win, they end on this high note, right?
02:25-02:30
That transformation, that shift from low to high, that usually comes through redemption.
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There's stories about redeeming themselves.
02:34-02:36
That's the focus of our passages today.
02:36-02:40
We're going to be talking about redemption and our need for it.
02:40-02:44
But before we get diving into the scripture, I want to talk about that word, redemption.
02:46-02:49
It's one of those biblical terminologies that often gets secularized.
02:50-02:52
So we need a little bit of clarity here.
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When I hear the word redemption or redeeming, two things come immediately to my mind.
02:59-03:01
A Bob Marley song and Chuck E. Cheese.
03:02-03:05
You might be wondering what both of those have to do with one another.
03:05-03:08
They don't, but maybe you can find a connection yourself.
03:09-03:13
The reason I think of Bob Marley is because he has a song called Redemption Song.
03:13-03:17
My dad used to play his albums in the car and around the house, so it's a bit of nostalgia.
03:18-03:24
But there's one part in the song where he sings, I'm not gonna sing, but he sings redemption songs, redemption songs.
03:25-03:29
So I looked up the lyrics 'cause I wanted to understand what does redemption mean to Bob Marley?
03:30-03:34
Well, I found that he was writing about freeing yourself from mental slavery.
03:35-03:41
And I don't wanna get into his beliefs, but I do wanna make the point of correlating the words freedom with redemption.
03:42-03:44
So let's hold that on in the back of our minds.
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So now, what about Chuck E. Cheese?
03:47-03:52
Well, I think of it because we all know that nobody goes there to see the guy dressed up as a mouse.
03:53-03:55
We go there for the prize counter.
03:55-04:04
For all those outside the loop or living in a different country, Chuck E. Cheese is a family entertainment center where they have food games and corondolace ball pits.
04:06-04:11
A big part of their operation is a chain of exchanges or redemptions, right?
04:12-04:16
You buy tokens to play games, to earn tickets, to redeem them for prizes.
04:17-04:29
They had like little rubber snakes and bugs and candy for like five to ten tickets each and always something ridiculous like a 50cc dirt bike for 500,000 tickets that's been there since '97.
04:29-04:30
Nobody's going to get that.
04:32-04:39
Again, it's a bit of nostalgia here, but their whole business was centered around exchanges of this and that to get or redeem for something.
04:39-04:44
So we have these two concepts that make up redemption, freedom, exchanges.
04:45-05:02
we can also glean a few more general concepts. To buy back, to free, to repair, restore. Biblical redemption has similar parallels. There's this idea of purchasing or exchanging something for freedom, but it's not between men.
05:03-05:22
Biblical redemption is between us and God, and the thing we're being freed from is our sin. See, after the fall, the cycle of needing redemption and ultimate began ultimately have the goal of getting us back to the state that God originally intended us to be in fellowship with.
05:23-05:32
So God is buying us back from that socially distant state to live in eternity with our Creator in a restored or redeemed state, free from sin.
05:33-05:34
So how does that work?
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How do we go about getting redeemed?
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What is this life cycle of redemption?
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Let's go to God's word and pick up Psalm 107 and read verses 10 through 22.
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Here we're going to read two stories of redemption, the first being in verses 10 through 16.
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We'll start there.
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Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons.
05:58-06:03
They had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
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So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor.
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They fell with none to help.
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Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.
06:12-06:16
He brought them out of the darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart.
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Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man.
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For He shatters the doors of bronze, and cuts in two the bars of iron.
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We'll continue on with our second redemption story, verses 17 through 22.
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Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction.
06:39-06:42
They loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.
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Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.
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He sent out His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.
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Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man.
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And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of His deeds in songs of joy.
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My immediate reaction when reading this was, it's pretty dark and bleak, right?
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Each story starts out extremely hopeless.
07:10-07:14
Both start with a situation of extreme affliction, the lobes.
07:15-07:16
The first story, there's imprisonment.
07:17-07:19
The second, sickness to the point of death.
07:20-07:21
How did they get there?
07:21-07:24
Well, scripture doesn't say exactly, right?
07:24-07:29
Whether they were taken by force for imprisonment, or maybe they didn't go to the doctor and that's why they're sick.
07:29-07:34
But we clearly see that they waited until their needs were extreme.
07:34-07:38
And that brings us to the first point on your outline, our need for redemption.
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Number one, recognizing our need for redemption is as hard as we make it.
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This is verses 10 through 12, 17 through 18.
07:48-07:51
So people are pretty good at messing up and making things harder than they need to be.
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You see in both stories, the cause of their affliction, it's sin.
07:57-08:01
The first, it's sinful rebellion against God and His Word and spurring His counsel.
08:01-08:04
And the second, it's foolish ways and iniquities.
08:05-08:07
I think we can agree that the cause and effect are evident.
08:08-08:11
If you do something sinful and wrong, there's bound to be some consequences.
08:12-08:15
One difference between these two stories, though, is verse 12.
08:16-08:16
Read it again.
08:16-08:20
It mentions that God Himself brought about their affliction.
08:21-08:32
And I don't think I'm reading this wrong when I'm extrapolating from it, but it clearly states, "He bowed their hearts with hard labor." A.K.A., God himself was directly responsible for their affliction.
08:33-08:37
See, in the second one, it's just like, they sinned and they got sick, right?
08:37-08:43
Maybe they were neglecting their health or they were drinking themselves silly, but does it matter, right?
08:43-08:49
Between these two stories, does it matter that God intervened in the first one to bring about their affliction and not in the second one?
08:50-08:50
No.
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After all, it's not God who started their troubles, right?
08:54-09:11
I mean, when I read these two stories, these situations, they seem almost parental in nature, right? They remind me of how I discipline -- well, and Jessica -- discipline our kids, right? There's some times when you have to step in immediately and you have to put that foot down, right?
09:11-09:13
You don't talk back to me and disrespect me that way.
09:15-09:20
Other times, you just have to provide warnings and let the kids kind of destroy themselves.
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off of mommy's exercise ball. You're gonna slip and fall.
09:24-09:37
Five minutes later, "Ahh!" and I'm consoling my child, probably Lydia. I'm just rolling my eyes and just thinking to myself, "You know, I told you so." That's what I see God is doing here.
09:38-09:52
They reveal their iniquities. And I'll go out on a limb here, but practically all examples of my life, when things are going rough, I can trace it back to similar behaviors, lack of relationship with God, thinking I can do it on my own.
09:53-10:09
And I don't think I'm alone here. After all, how often is it driven into our heads as Americans, right, that you can be and do whatever you want? We live in a country that affords us every opportunity available, so don't let anybody stop you from doing what you want to do.
10:10-10:16
That gung-ho, can-do attitude often leaves little room for God and plenty of vacancy for sin.
10:17-10:34
So we're slogging through, aiming for a prize or some end goal along the way, or just rebelling against God, committing iniquities. So what do you expect to happen? And as things unravel and your situation gets worse, when do you expect it to change? I mean, how do you expect it to change?
10:35-10:40
That's why the first point I say, recognizing our need for redemption is as hard as we make it.
10:41-10:50
Depending on how stubborn or bullish you are, coming to the end of yourself and understanding You need God's redemption can come quickly or it can take a fair bit of time.
10:51-11:02
See, I relate to both of these examples because it took them a while to recognize their need for redemption. After all, they ended up in those extreme lows, in prison, on the verge of death.
11:03-11:47
See, I tend to do that myself. I rely upon myself to keep, I just keep digging that hole downwards, right? My work is one area where I struggle the most with this. See, I work with a team of people, technology, we obviously all have our specialties, but every one of us gets seen as like a subject matter expert in a given area. So, you know, I'll help people out. People often come to me to help them out with some certain problems, but some days it just turns into constant distractions, right? I can't get my work done, so I then get behind and it just snowballs throughout the entire week. I spend more time working, so I'm tired and it gets hard to separate that work stress from home. So then it just builds, builds, builds.
11:48-12:01
The whole time I feel like, "No, if I can just do this, if I can finish this, get this done, then it never goes according to plan." So I'm not physically in prison. I feel overwhelmed and imprisoned by my own futile efforts, sickened by them.
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Like I said, some of you might recognize your need for redemption quickly. A need to get out of your situation and that you need God's help with that. But coming to that recognition is key.
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So on your outline, our sub-point under number one, how do we recognize our need for redemption?
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Coming to this recognition requires taking some stock in your situation, right?
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And we're gonna ask ourselves some questions.
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Not all of these are gonna apply, but here's some questions we can ask ourselves to gauge where we're at.
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So letter A, how are things working out for you right now?
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Are things going well?
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Or would you say something's out of control?
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My guess is if you're asking this question to yourself, then it's the latter.
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Understanding that something, understanding there's something wrong is important.
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It's not, it's a distinction that there's something bigger to this than just a mishap or an unfortunate event.
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Letter B, are you trying to do it on your own?
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Where are you placing your trust and strength from?
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From yourself or from God?
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From his word, from his people?
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We're not meant to do life alone.
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Is there anyone aware of your situation and are folks able to pray for you?
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You're not as strong as you think.
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Letter C.
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Is there some nagging sin you're dealing with?
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Sin is a major catalyst for trials.
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Both verses 11 and 17 explicitly mention this.
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It was the cause of their affliction.
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So is there anything you're doing or continuing to do that is feeding into your situation?
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Finally, letter D, how's your walk?
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Are you fellowshipping with God and other Christians?
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Asking God to show you through this, reading his word, understanding his character, and pursuing what he instructs us as Christians to do?
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Now this isn't a comprehensive list by any means, but the idea is to get to a point where you recognize your need for redemption.
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I mean, you can continue to beat your head against the wall or dig your hole, but once Once you're ready to turn it over to God and ask for his redemption, what do you do?
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How much is it going to cost you?
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Well, there's good news because the next point in your outline, number two, but being redeemed is practically free.
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Verses 13 and 19.
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One thing you might notice is that verses 13 and 19 are the exact same.
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Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress.
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Now, I don't see anything before that that says that they recognized they were being sinful so they went to the soup kitchen, they said "Five Our Fathers," they donated to charity and then they promised God, "I'm never going to do that again." No, it's simple.
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What did they do to get redeemed?
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They cried out to the Lord.
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Now what does that mean to cry out?
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Is it like weeping and sobbing?
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I don't know, maybe.
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I mean, that could be part of it.
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emotional outpouring of feeling of distress and helplessness, but it's beyond that.
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There's a pleading, a desperation, a reliance upon God.
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You've recognized your need for God's deliverance and have come to the end of yourself, so you're turning it all over to Him.
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Come to the cost question, right?
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What did they pay with in our stories?
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Again, nothing.
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No works, deeds, or negotiation with the Lord.
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And I think there's a lot of time where people can get caught up with this concept, right?
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They try to penalize themselves or think that there's something that they need to do to earn God's mercy and grace for their eventual redemption.
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But if you think that's the case, then I have bad news for you.
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Like it or not, there is nothing you can do to earn God's redemption.
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We all fall short of the glory of God, but more on that later.
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They cry, God responds.
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So after we recognize our need for redemption, how do we ask for it?
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Well, we're told in these verses, right, after all they repeat themselves, it's got to be pretty important, we cry out to the Lord.
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Okay, so what does that mean?
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How do we cry out to the Lord?
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Well, I'm glad you also asked that rhetorical question because it's the next sub-point on our outline.
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Letter number two, how do we cry out to the Lord?
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Letter A, inhumility.
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At this point, I'd hope you understand you need God's help, right?
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You can't go begrudgingly to the Lord like, "Fine, please help me, I guess." That's not how it works.
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Your heart needs to be ready for Him.
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All throughout the Bible, when people cry out to the Lord in humility, He responds.
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Letter B, in reverence.
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Reverence is the fear of the Lord.
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It's when you understand his power, his holiness, and you have a healthy respect for that.
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God listens to the reverend.
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Psalm 145, 19 tells us so.
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It reads, "He fulfills the desire of those who fear him.
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"He also hears their cry and saves them." In letter C, in faith.
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Do you believe in God's ability to help you or is this just a last ditch effort?
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It's one of those, "All we can do is pray" type of deals.
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We love that here at Harvest, right?
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You're asking the Lord who created the heavens and the earth to help you.
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Our God is not small.
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But maybe you think your problem is one that God doesn't want to deal with, right?
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He doesn't want to hear about it and he's not concerned with it.
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The scripture would tell us otherwise, right?
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He hears the cries of the affliction.
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He knows the number of hairs on our head.
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He knows us intimately, what troubles us and what we need.
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So there's no separation or categories of affliction when it comes to God.
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It's like, he'll deal with this first, but you've been prioritized behind my gates.
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No, have faith in God's power to help you, and he will.
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Finally, D, how do we cry out to the Lord?
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Submissively.
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So turning over yourself and your situation to God is crucial.
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There's no more room for you.
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Time for you to let God work.
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This includes addressing some of those questions that we asked ourselves prior.
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So you're not walking with the Lord?
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Get on it.
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Sinning? Cut it out.
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Psalm 66, 18 gives us a perfect picture of why we submit when crying out to the Lord.
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Or rather, what would happen if you don't submit?
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It reads, "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would have not listened." We can't get much clearer than that.
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Lay it all at the foot of the cross.
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So should we go Old Testament on this and bring out the sackcloth and ashes?
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I mean, I guess if you're inclined to, but the heart of a cry out to the Lord is your heart.
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You can cry out silently in prayer or aloud from your rooftop, but again, the important factor is what is driving that cry and your heart and intentions behind it.
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I suppose that's why our point number two was saying that redemption is practically free.
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We aren't paying with money or good deeds, but we are paying with ourselves, giving up our pride, our sin, our time, all that for his redemption.
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Really, that's all I could see would be the only cost here.
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Now, one other thing I wanna bring up is that there is no mention of timing here.
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When it comes to the imprisonment, how long did it take for them to be delivered?
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Well, it doesn't say.
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And for the sick, was it a supernatural healing, something instantaneous, Or did God work through what we would consider to be typical methods of letting our bodily functions rebuild and recover, taking a few weeks or maybe even a couple of months?
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I don't know, it doesn't say.
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The one thing that we can be sure of is that God responded and delivered them from their distress.
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He heard their cries and it did not fall on deaf ears.
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And I know personally, it can be hard to wait for God's deliverance, especially when we're in this hyperactive, instant gratification world.
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But if you're looking for God where He's working, you'll find it.
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If you come back to my work situation example, I find that often when I'm overwhelmed and I've come to the end of myself and I'm asking God for His redemption, it happens.
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It's subtle, but it does happen.
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For instance, there's been many times where I've been on a project or something and people know like, "Hey, Mike, you need help.
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You seem like you got a lot on your plate.
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And you know, it's simple, right?
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But I get redeemed from those issues.
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Or I have meetings that are blocking up my calendar and, you know, people just push them or cancel them.
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So I have more time to do what I need to do.
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And I'm sure I could chalk that up to happenstance or just luck, but for that to happen over and over again when I really need it, come on.
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I know my God.
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He raised his son from the dead so he can push a meeting or two.
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So maybe you're in a situation where redemption is a small need or rather it's very large, a big need.
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But the one thing that we can be sure of, and this is the final point for today, number three is that God's redemption fulfills our needs abundantly.
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Or rather if we're continuing the sentence, and fulfills our needs abundantly.
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This is verses 14, 16.
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So coming to these verses, I mean, these are the most exciting verses in the scripture, the most promising ones here, right?
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It's the result of being redeemed, right?
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And these people, prison, close to death, they submit to God, they cry out to Him, they're in trouble.
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And what do they get?
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A little redemption.
21:54-22:00
No, no, you know, like the imprisoned got an extra meal and it says that they got some extra basketball court time.
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sick they got some Tylenol to help their headaches. No, that's not what I'm reading here, right?
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God fills their knees in total. He delivers them. Imprisoned. Freed. Iron bars cut in half. Bonds bursted apart. The sick healed and freed from their destruction.
22:20-22:25
You know, when I read this, it's hard not to get amped, like God's coming in like a superhero to save the day.
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But God's not a superhero.
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And what I mean by that is that after redemption, he requires glory.
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See, our comic book heroes we read about, typically they hide in the shadows.
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They stop at a speeding train and then off, off and away.
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They don't linger. They're oh so humble.
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They just want to serve the people of Gotham.
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Not God.
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He demands and deserves glory, and rightfully so.
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And for those on the fence who think I'm making this up, there's a perfect verse that addresses this.
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Psalm 50 15 it reads, "And call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you shall glorify me." In fact that verse kind of sums up the entirety of our scripture today, right? Crying out in trouble, getting redeemed, and now glorify God. I don't know that might seem a bit prideful, right? Selfish, right? Demanding glory? Well maybe to us as people.
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I mean I know if somebody asked me to them, my initial response would be, "Who are you?" Right?
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"Who are you that I need to glorify you?" Let's flip that question back on God.
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Imagine us asking God, "Who are you?" How about the I Am, our Father who created everything by speaking it into existence, who lives outside of time and space, who cares so much about us that he sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins?
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Now, this is kind of getting into another sermon, but what it boils down to is that God is really the only one who deserves any glory.
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Revelation 411 sums this up kind of nicely.
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This is where we're at the throne room, and you have the 24 elders surrounding the Lord, and they say, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, "to receive glory and honor and power, "for you created all things, "and by your will they existed and were created." Just reading this, who or what else can compare to our Lord?
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Now, when it comes to giving God the glory after redemption, I feel like I fall short of this many, many times.
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I don't give him the glory that he deserves.
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It's easy for us to go through a situation and then just move on to the next thing, right?
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Probably more a result of our hyperactive culture, but it's not the appropriate response.
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So on your outline, the last bit of writing today and the sub-point under number three, How do we respond to being redeemed?
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Now unlike the last set of lists, these actually come from the text today.
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So you might have noticed there were a few verses I didn't address.
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Well, they'll be addressed here.
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So letter A, how do we respond to being redeemed?
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With thanks and gratitude.
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This is verses 15, 21, the first half of verse 22, which I will call 22A.
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So in verses 15 and 21, we have repetition.
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Again, the same verse, "Let us give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men." Upon being redeemed, there's a lot to be thankful for, right?
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Not just because you were delivered from your situation, but the fact is that God will redeem you over and over again.
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And we know this because in the scripture, it calls His love steadfast, right?
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It's not a changing love.
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It's not a conditional love.
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No, it's fixed.
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We can always come to God for redemption.
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If he's redeemed you 10 times in the past, he's gonna redeem you 100 times in the future.
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Verse 22a adds a little bit more onto our response, right?
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And I labeled it as gratitude, but the delineation I wanted to make here was that thankfulness was more verbal, whereas gratitude is more an action, right?
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The first half mentions in 22, let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving.
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So what is that exactly, a sacrifice of thanksgiving?
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Well, in the Old Testament, it was usually an animal sacrifice, but it was given voluntarily, right?
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And it was shared amongst the Lord, his priests, and the worshippers.
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Now, today we don't have a system of animal sacrifices because Christ fulfilled that in full with his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection.
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But the idea of a voluntary sacrificial offering still stands.
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So how's that done today?
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Well, you know, it could be through volunteering, could be through missions work, ministry work, giving back financially.
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Point is, we should be giving back to God, not out of obligation, because we have Thanksgiving in our heart for what he's done for us, and that calls us to an action.
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So the next way that we need to respond to being redeemed is letter B, by sharing what he's done for you.
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And this is the second half of verse 22.
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Second half of verse 22 reads, "And tell of his deeds and songs of joy." So here we're called to share what he's done for us with others.
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You know, I say that because talking about songs and songs are meant to be sang out aloud among other people.
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I think our worship leader, Darren, would agree.
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That's the point of a song.
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And during this time when it was written, that's what folks would do.
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During feasts and celebrations, they'd write songs of praise and it would get sang for all to hear.
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Now, I myself am not a songwriter.
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My singing voice is not my spiritual gift.
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Let's just put it that way.
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But I think the important takeaway here is the idea of praising and sharing what he's done for you in your own private way, right?
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Or not even private, I mean, just in your own way.
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For instance, praying in small groups.
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I know it's easy in prayer time to immediately launch into your requests and your needs.
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But interestingly enough, I don't know if anybody else has noticed this in their small group, is that during this whole Corona spat, there's been a lot of folks praising and sharing God's deliverance, His redemption, what He's done for them in these trying times.
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Now, maybe you can write a song or sing one that's already written, but again, the idea is share what He's done for you.
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It's an encouragement for others it glorifies God. So there we have it. Our need for redemption is as hard as we make it, but being redeemed is practically free and fulfills our needs abundantly.
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This is the life cycle of redemption. But before we go, I would make a good "As Seen on TV" spokesman if I didn't say, "But wait, there's more." Because this whole time we've been talking about situational redemption, right? Getting into trouble, crying out to God, being redeemed, and our response to it.
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That's gonna happen over and over and over again. It's almost very Old Testament in a sense, right? Where constant animal sacrifices were done for redeeming for the sins of the people. And honestly that's just the nature of our flesh and the characteristics of living in a fallen world. We're gonna go through situational redemption weekly, perhaps daily. And unfortunately that's where a religions stop there too.
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They teach that you have to get right with God and if you want to go to heaven, you're caught in sin or you're unredeemed from it, well straight to hell with you or purgatory or limbo or wherever you want to call it.
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But that's not true. See earlier I said that there's nothing you can do to earn God's redemption and I'm sticking to that because there is nothing that we can offer God that doesn't already have. He spoke the world into existence. He But interestingly enough, there's actually something additional God offers to us that fulfills our needs more than a one-time situational redemption.
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Or rather, it's someone He offered, His Son Jesus Christ, the eternal Redeemer.
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You might be asking yourself, "It gets better?" Yeah, a whole lot better.
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Because placing your trust in Jesus Christ as your Redeemer means there's no more what-ifs or uncertainty of your eternal state.
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And unlike our fight against flesh and sin and the need for situational redemption almost daily, Christ paid for us once with his blood and death for all.
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There's no need to be redeemed by him over and over and over again.
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Reading this passage over, we can see that same archetype or pattern between our need for redemption and our need for Christ.
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The same affliction, outcry, and deliverance, but this time with eternal meanings.
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And these same sermon points apply directly to trusting Christ as our Redeemer.
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So if you listen to this message, and each time I mention our need for redemption or God's deliverance, I want you to replace it with the words "Jesus Christ" with His Son.
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That's what's so wonderful about the Bible and God's Word.
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Old Testament or New, it all points to Jesus.
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So what did we learn today?
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Well, let's substitute some words.
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We learned about our need for Christ.
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Recognizing our need for Him is as hard as we make it, but being redeemed by Him is practically free and He fulfills our needs abundantly.
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Let's pray.
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Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day.
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We thank You for Your Son, Jesus, for redemption through His blood, His death and resurrection.
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We know that we screw up daily.
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We often have to ask for forgiveness and ask for your redemption, Lord.
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And that's going to continue on all the time until we are in eternity with your Son.
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But we have that promise of being in eternity once we trust in your Son, Jesus Christ.
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So we are extremely thankful for that.
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Extremely thankful that you've given us a way out of this grind, out of this fallen world.
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thank you God that you provided a way. Thank you for being able to bring your word today. Thank you for this congregation Lord and we will now end in praise, glorifying you, singing as a response to our redemption through your Son Jesus Christ. We ask this all in your Son Jesus's name.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Psalms 107:10-22
What prevents us from asking for redemption?
Why is redemption practically free and not scot-free?
How do we cry out to the Lord and why is it important to do it “properly”?
Why should we give God glory after being redeemed?
What is the appropriate response to being redeemed?
What’re your favorite ways to go about doing those responses?
Breakout
Share with one another a time you went through a ‘Lifecycle of Redemption’.