I got stuck in Psalm 15 this morning…OK, more like “I got punched in the face by Psalm 15 this morning.”  It’s only 5 verses…but yikes.

The question is in verse 1 “Who shall sojourn in your tent, who shall dwell on your holy hill?”  As ESV study note says it is really asking what the “ideal worshiper of the Lord” would be…of course it goes on to tell us what that person is and is not…

• Walks blamelessly (your faith and life match)
• Does what is right (you live out the will of God – he tells us what that is…it’s called “The Bible” – keep reading.  Do it.)
• Speak truth in your heart (in other words…your THOUGHTS.  Are they truth?  See 2 Cor 10:5)
• Do not slander (you do not slander someone, nor participate in hearing or receiving slander against another brother/sister)
• Do no evil to your neighbor
• Take no reproach against a friend (look down upon, cast shame on, be overly critical always of, taunt, scorn)
• Despise the vile, honor the godly (do not value Godlessness – value Godliness)
• Keep your word – even if it hurts
• Deal honestly with money

Here’s the promise – “He who does these things shall never be moved.” (…never be shaken up, fall…in other words you will be stable, strong, and steadfast…)

This is the kind of worshiper God is looking for.  I got some work to do, how about you?

This is the power of God’s word.  Many ask “what is the will of God for my life.”  He just told you.  Start with Psalm 15.  Walk it out.

Note that this is not earning salvation…Christ has done the work on the cross to earn our right standing with God.  We are justified by faith in Christ – and we walk out our faith by living like Psalm 15!

Reading in Luke 24, and John 21-21 today…talking about the resurrection of Jesus. Besides the totally amazing nature of that in an of itself, the other thing that struck me was the prominence of the Scriptures and how it is explained in these passages.

1. All of the Bible points to Jesus. Luke 24:27 says “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Jesus is talking to his disciples after God raised him from the dead, they were “slow to understand” what everything meant and Jesus makes it plain to them…all of the Bible points to me, all the prophecies he fulfilled and all of the story of Israel is the working of God’s redemptive plan in history to bring about the events that just happened.
2. We have the scriptures written down so that we may believe. John 20:31 says “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The fulfilling of all the prophecies and God’s redemptive plan, his rescue mission for us is in Jesus…and it is all recorded by men carried along by the Holy Spirit, this isn’t something man invented. God’s word is clear in 2 Peter 1:20-21 –
   

   20knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

   All of scripture, Old and New Testaments, point to Jesus the “Christ” – the “Anointed One”, the Messiah. They are written by men, inspired by the Holy Spirit, men ‘spoke from God’ as the verse says above —  with one purpose and one story line – to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for us to believe, and by believing have life in his name.

   Let us read with word from this perspective – they are not just words on a page, they are the story of life that God offers us in Jesus!

In reading Matthew 26 and Mark 16 this morning, I spent time meditating on Jesus in the Garden right before his arrest, beating, and eventual crucifixion.  It’s an amazingly intimate picture of Jesus’ humanity.  I saw a few things that jumped out at me:

• Jesus goes to a secluded place to pray
• [do we run to God or away from God in tough times?]
• He takes his close brothers with him, and takes his inner circle with him closer still
• [do we have trusted brothers/sisters? do we let them in?]
• He confesses to them that he is “very sorrowful, even to the point of death”
• [do we confess to them when we are struggling?]
• Jesus prays three times an honest prayer from the depths of his soul
• [do we pray, repeatedly, honestly?  how is the nature of our prayer?]
• Each time Jesus presents his request “If possible, remove this cup from me” – he then speaks truth to himself – “Not what I will, but what you will”
• [A message God continues to beat into my head - despite what society has been telling me for 41 years, it's not about me and my self-esteem, and personal happiness - the Bible says it's all about God.  Jesus models this perfectly, even being obedient to the point of death (Phil 2); how much more so should I be seeking the Father's glory and will in much smaller matters today?  In his glory is the ultimate happiness anyway!]
• Jesus continues to ask the Father in repeated requests, pouring out his heart, and then speaking truth to himself – despite the fact that we see no answer from the Father.
• [Do we continue in prayer, even when there seems to be no answer?  Jesus knew the answer - press on, for God's will and purpose, not mine.  Prayer is a powerful demonstration of our dependence on God and in that he reminds us of the truth and what we need to do for Him...sometimes even without a verbal answer, the Holy Spirit directs our hearts as we seek God's purposes]
• Jesus comes to a resolution – “It is enough, the hour has come.” He is seemingly at peace with the situation, as he has poured out himself to God in prayer. I’ll bet that there was some serious self-discipline going on there.
• In our lives, our feelings cannot drive the bus.  Even if we don’t “feel” resolved we know the direction we need to take – take it.  Do it.  Discipline yourself to move on deeper into what God wants you to do, do not wait for the feelings to come and then do it.  Move ahead in faith. Press into God in prayer.  Preach the truth of the gospel to yourself and get on with it…(Phil 3:12-14)
• The situation didn’t change – God certainly didn’t take away the cross (“the cup”) – but Jesus pressed on.
• Many times the situation may not change, but our outlook on the situation will, perhaps sometimes only by pressing in and doing what you know in your heart God wants you to do, even if you don’t feel it.  Some of us may be facing really bad situations – but God is bigger than all of them.

http://marshill.com/v/wfowy2lqjcr8

I was reading the Parable of the Talents this morning [Luke 19:11-27 / Matt 25:14-30] and it kinda hit me in a new way.  Jesus tells this story of a master who gives three servants three different amounts of money – Matthew tells us it was five talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent each according to their ability.

OK, so stop right there.  Does God still give us things according to our ability to handle them well for His glory?  I think the answer is yes…we all have been given different gifts, abilities, and life situations – each custom designed by a sovereign loving God to fit who we are, where we are and what we can do to bring glory and honor to Him.

So, back to our story – the master goes away and the first two servants invest the money and when the master returns they give it back to him with interest.  Obviously, the master is happy about this.

So, again…stopping to ponder – when Jesus does return and when we stand before him to give an account. [Rom 14:10-12].  Those who are followers of Jesus will not be judged for our sin, (that already happened on the cross, and when you trusted in Jesus you were instantly justified) – we will be judged for our lives – our actions – what we did with what he gave us.   I think this story tells us that we are supposed to be growing God’s gifts to us.  Are you growing what he has given you?  We are getting closer to New Years’ resolution time BTW…

The master then gets to the third servant who, out of fear, doesn’t invest what the master gave him.  Instead he hides it.  When the master returns, the servant says “Here is your money back.  It’s all there.  I didn’t lose any of it!”  The master is pretty ticked off, yes…he didn’t lose any of it, but he didn’t gain anything either which was the point – the servant was supposed to make more with what he has been given and he didn’t do that.

I was reading a commentary on this passage this morning that had this to say about the third servant –

He is a believer who has not found the state of grace offered by Jesus so brilliant as he hoped – a legal Christian who has not tasted grace, and knows nothing of the gospel but it’s severe morality. It seems to him that the Lord gives very little to exact so much. With such a feeling, the least possible only will be done. God should be satisfied with us to abstain from doing ill, from squandering our talent. [Godet, Commentary on Luke, 222]

Ouch.

The sum of Christianity is not keeping the rules and waiting around for Jesus to return and we can go to heaven.  This story tells us that God has given each of us something, according to who we are in his sovereignty – and we are called to be responsible and grow what he has given us and bring him glory.  Not to just keep the rules and hide our gifts.   Out of the astounding grace that he has shown us in Jesus – why wouldn’t we?

Who are you more like today?  The third servant or the first two?

                I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.  (Philippians 4:10-13 ESV)

“Care” groups:

• We’re drawn together primarily by location, Green Pond common bond
• When we meet together we:
  • Fellowship
  • Worship
  • God’s word
  • Open hearts for prayer
  • Encourage each other
  • But we also “Gospel” each other:
    • we bring the truth of the gospel to bear on another’s life so that we may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus[1]
    • This means talking about the S word – SIN.  And learning how to bring the truth of the Gospel in God’s word to bear on our lives – letting it fall on us and letting the Holy Spirit change us, change our heart.  We need to be spurring each other on in our sanctification journeys – urging us to become more and more like Jesus and less like sin in our actual lives.

Tonight is one of those “Respectable” Sins – as author Jerry Bridges calls it.  It’s not murder, it’s not pornography, or stealing, or drunkenness. It’s an attitude of the heart which sometimes spills out of our mouths  – as the word says – out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

So this passage is about contentment . Specifically learning contentment and living our lives in the power of the Gospel of Jesus.

First let me offer a definition of contentment:  sufficient satisfaction within the heart through the fellowship with and power of Jesus Christ apart from external circumstances and people.[2]

What is the key here?  What do we see?

• Satisfaction is where? in the heart
• Who gives it?  Jesus Christ
• Where is it not?  external circumstances and people.

I would offer one helpful addition that segues into our text – how is it received?  It is learned.

DA Carson writes – ‘the secret o contentment is not normally learned in posh circumstances or in deprived circumstances, but in exposure to both.’[3]

We see this from the Apostle Paul – OK, this guy has been through it all, beatings, stonings, multiple imprisonments, he is about 2 yrs away from having his head permanently separated from his neck.  This guy is the one saying he is content, that is perspective this is coming from.

I wanted to look at the Perspective of contentment in the scriptures[5]

• A content person is able to accept their condition (Phil 4:11-13)
• A content person is able to accept their contents (Heb 13:5)
• A content person is able to endure their circumstances(2 Cor 12:10)
  • “Endure circumstances because we know the God of circumstances”
  • “Enjoy the good. Endure the bad.  Live for neither, live for Christ”
  • This is one of Gods attributes – Sovereignty – it means he works all things to the counsel of his will, his plan.  (Eph 1). He is over all things and in him all things hold together (Col 1:17)
• A content person is pursuing Christ likeness (1 Tim 6:6-8)
• A content person is not a complainer (Phil 4:11-13; 2:14)
• A content person has an attitude of consideration (Phil 2:3)
• A content person is depending on Christ (Heb 13:5; Phil 4:13)

Jerry Bridges writes “whatever situation tempts us to be discontent, and however sever it may be, we need to recognize that discontentment is sin. When we fail to recognize these responses to our circumstances as sin, we are responding no differently from unbelievers who never factor God into their situations. ..whatever your circumstances, and however difficult they may be, the truth is that they are ordained by God for you as part of His overall plan for your life.  God does nothing, or allows nothing, without a purpose. And his purposes however mysterious and inscrutable they may be to use, are always for his glory and our good.”[4]

Ed Hart from ABC puts an exclamation point on that by saying “his glory and my good are never in conflict.”

Rom 8:28 cannot be read and understood apart from Romans 8:29 – he works everything for good, but what is the good?  To be conformed to the image of his son.  Not our image of what we think things should look like – the image of Christ – which by the way is for our best good.

NIV study Bible note sums up these verses well “Union with Christ is the secret to being content and the source of Paul’s abiding strength.”

I can do all things thru him who gives me strength.  Strength to do what?  Live for myself? When we are in stressful situations and trials and we are reaching out to God – let’s search our hearts – where is the sin…it’s gotta be in there somewhere.   On the contrary -  In the context of this letter – to let your lives be worthy of the gospel of Christ (1:27).  Look at all the other instructions in this letter.  Very often when we pray we fall into saying the same thing over and over again – “Be with” or “Help” – Yes and Amen – but what also is helpful is how David prayed – “Search me, O God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps 139:23-24).  There is always sin to be dealt with.  And we deal with sin by the cross of Jesus Christ – this too comes back to the gospel.  When we get sin dealt with where it belongs and re-orient our minds, our inner selves towards pleasing God instead of us – we see the power of God in Jesus in our lives.  But knowing this is the hard part – that’s why Paul prayed in 3:10 – that he wants to know Him and the power of his resurrection.

Paul sums it up very well in this prayer in Ephesians 1:17-21

“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”

Ouch Questions:

• What do I want that I cannot control getting?
• What am I getting that I don’t want and can’t control it?
• How am I responding? Is it sinful?
• What do I need to accept that God has allowed?
• How do I need to obey God in this situation?
• What has God promised in his Word that I can rest on in accordance to this situation?
• How can I adjust my desires to match my situation?
• What verses in this passage or elsewhere has the HS grabbed you this week?
  • How do you need to change as a result?

I wanted to share some thoughts that I recently shared with our worship team at this week’s rehearsal from Nehemiah.

I think there remains a misunderstanding that  the Bible is silent on musical worship.  True, it is not prescriptive and we don’t have exact details of what songs to sing, what to wear, etc. but we do have some references to musical worship that we can learn from and apply.  Let’s look at four things the Bible clearly mentions about musical worship – (1) it should be organized well, (2) it should be passionate, (3) we should consider the state of our hearts before the God we are leading others to worship, and (4)it should be culturally relevant

Musical worship should be organized well…

Did you know that Worship Leaders are in the Bible?  Look at Nehemiah 12 – the Jewish nation is rebuilding the temple, and hey…what is a construction project without music?  :-)  Neh 12:2 says that the Levites were in charge of the songs of thanksgiving. and later in 12:46 there is a reference to “long ago in the days of David and Asaph there we directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.”  We see that we have a “point person” that is responsible for the musical worship.  That’s good organization, that’s why we continue to do that today.

Our god is a God of order, not of chaos. (1 Cor 14:33) – we see Biblical support for organization and procedures in the musical worship of our God.

We want to do all things to the best of our ability and effort for God.  We aren’t earning favor with him, but our aim is to not be a distraction for others.

…it should be passionate

Few things in life are as much of a turn off as someone who is half-heartedly doing whatever they seem to be doing. One of the things that struck me the most when I started going to church again about 10 years ago was the passion-less worship.  I recall sitting in the back listening to a congregation sing “Our God…is an awesome God…” like they didn’t believe a word of it, nor cared.  It left a very negative impression on me a new believer that these folks must not really believe what they are singing, as their outward passion (or lack there of) was in direct opposition to the words they were singing or the “awesome” God they were supposedly singing to. God wants our whole hearts.

In Neh 12:27 – we see the people sang with gladness and thanksgiving. Many times in the Bible there are references to physical expressions of worship – lifting of hands, clapping, dancing, even shouting!  (NO WAY!)  Everyone on the worship team is a worship leader.  The body is looking at you to “lead” (go first) in worship or our GREAT God – who has created us, sustained us, and redeemed us in Jesus.  We should be passionate about that, we NEED to be passionate about that.  If we aren’t will we do a good job of encouraging others to be?  If we aren’t we may need to look somewhere closer to home…

…we should consider the state of our hearts before him

The Bible calls us to examine our hearts and test our ways (Lam 3:40).  As we cannot truly know our hearts, (Jer 17:9)we are to ask God to search our hearts and see if there be any wicked way in us. (Ps 139:24).  In our Nehemiah text, we see in 12:30 that the Levites ‘purified themselves.’  Yes, this is talking about ceremonial/ritual purification – but in the New Covenant (Heb 8, Jeremiah 31, John 4:21-26) it is no longer outward purification and ritual – it is within our hearts.  We must spend time before leading others in worship to draw near to God ourselves in our hearts, have him search our hearts, confess, repent, and bask in the forgiveness and grace of Jesus.

…it should be culturally relevant.

This is still one of the biggest misunderstandings in the church today. Every place/people group on this Earth has a culture.   Churches are no different.  Your church culture is a reflection of the people that make it up.  In our church, we have a wide variety of tastes, preferences, and personal  convictions.  We must weed thru them and separate the things of first importance from those of secondary importance.  The first importance things are things like Jesus is God, the Bible is inerrant, God is creator, God’s redemptive plan thru the gospel of Jesus, etc.  The secondary things are very culturally influenced – do we wear a tie or jeans?  Do we play drums or the organ? Do we sing 16th century hymns with a piano or today’s songs with a full band?  (the answer to all of those questions is YES, by the way…)– BUT here is the point — when we confuse the secondary stuff to be primary stuff – we take our eyes of Jesus and put them onto ourselves.  We elevate our personal preferences too high.

Nehemiah 12:27 says that they used the instruments available in that culture – their voices, cymbals, harps, and lyres.  If they had electric guitars and drums they would have used them too, but they sadly hadn’t been invented yet.  Music is a reflection of culture.  We wouldn’t go deep into the jungle of Africa and play Chris Tomlin songs – that’s a cultural mismatch…nor would I have an all hip-hop worship set at our church – although it is appropriate elsewhere in other bodies with that cultural make up.    When we don’t align the music of the culture with our church body culture we set up cultural barriers and negatively effect the message of the songs themselves – which is hopefully what is of first importance — the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God!

For 89% of us in churches in the US – we need to have a careful and sensitive eye to the balance of our music at our churches, thinking of others as more significant then ourselves (Phil 2:1-11).

Let us continue to search the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to cause us to understand it more as we apply it in the leading of worship to our great God!

Click here for audio

Click here for slides

Click HERE for slides

Click HERE for audio

Also, here is that video that I played…

Click here for audio

Click here for slides

It sure didn’t take long this morning for me.  He nailed me in the first 2 verses:

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will recount all your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you;

I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.  (ESV)

So the first thing I see is the four “I will” statements – talk about setting your mind right!  The author of the Psalm is telling himself what to do. That is very important that we tell ourselves truth instead of lies.  We cannot be slaves to how we feel.

• I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart – Meditate on all that you have to be thankful for and thank Him.  With your inner person, your core, your whole self.
• I will recount your wonderful deeds – “recount” – KJV says “I will shew forth” – another meaning of the Hebrew here is “rehearse”  – So, resolve to rehearse, to recount, to take account of His wonderful deeds – not past sin that he has paid for and is gone; not the enemies lies.  Dwell on the wonderful deeds he has done.  He has done them!
• I will be glad and exult in you – telling yourself how to feel.  I love it, Martin Lloyd Jones would be proud!   Another translation of “exult” is “rejoice.”   Set your mind to be glad and take your joy in God in Jesus Christ.  He has done the most wonderful deed ever by reconciling us to Himself through Jesus death on the cross. (Rom 3:21-26)
• I will sing praise to your name, O Most High – determine yourselves to praise his name in singing.  Of course as a worship leader this makes me happy.  We should be praising our Lord in singing – even if it’s out of our comfort zone.  Focus on the truth in the lyrics of the songs and praise him with a heart full of joy.  Get over your personal preferences and musical style issues and praise the One that is higher than us all.   [I expanded on this rant in an earlier post...]

Now, don’t feel like doing any of these?  Great!  Pray that you will.  Pray that God will enable you, through the Holy Spirit to give thanks to Him with your WHOLE heart, recount his wonderful deeds – start thinking of them…naming them.  I’ll bet you’ll start to become glad and exult in Him, focus on Jesus in the ultimate expression of the Father’s goodness, mercy, grace, and love for us.  And sing.  Even if you can’t and even if you may not like the style or the worship leader’s hair (or lack thereof).  Sing out with a heart full of the joy of God.