The Faithfulness of God

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A Clean Heart devotional - starts Feb 20

Congregational meeting today

Introduction

In the mid-1870s, several families moved from Cambridge to Stoughton and started a Bible study. The Bible study grew, and in 1882, they built a church building at 111 S Page St, and started the Norwegian Danish Methodist Church. For over 60 years, they held services and Bible studies in the Norwegian language.

They worked with other churches and Bible studies in the area to do things like purchase land on the shoreline of Lake Waubesa and build Lake Waubesa Bible Camp. They also started a Youth for Christ ministry in the mid-1940s.

Around that time, the Methodist denomination started closing its non-English-language churches and consolidating Norwegian-, Danish-, and Swedish-speaking congregations into churches that held services in English. The Norwegian Danish Methodist Church of Stoughton was on the docket to be closed.

But in 1947 they hosted a Youth for Christ rally and invited Ken Anderson to be a guest speaker. When he learned that the church would soon be closed, he contacted pastors from Rockford Free Church and Bethany Madison Free Church, and they raised money to purchase the building from the Methodist denomination so the congregation could start a new church in their building.

That “new” church was officially chartered as Calvary Evangelical Free Church on February 6, 1948, with 27 members. They held their first official worship service on Sunday, February 8, 1948. Over the years the church grew and moved, and in 1999 they built a new building on the north end of town next to Sandhill Elementary School and changed the name of the church to LakeView Church.

What that means is that tomorrow, February 6, 2023, LakeView turns 75. This year is our 75th anniversary year!

So, what I’d like to talk about this morning is the faithfulness of God.

Scripture: Psalm 119:89-96 (ESV)

Let’s talk briefly about the structure of Psalm 119, and this specific stanza… Nerd alert!

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and more than twice as long as the 2nd-longest Psalm. It’s a poetic masterpiece praising God for his Word. It is written in 22 stanzas of 8 verses each. It’s an acrostic, with the first word of each stanza beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So, the first word of the first stanza begins with the letter aleph, and the first word of the second stanza begins with beth, and so on.

The stanza we’re going to look at is found in verses 89-96, and it begins with the letter lamedh, which makes the “L” sound in Hebrew (perfect for LakeView!).

This stanza is written in two halves, with each half beginning with the same word, translated into English as “Forever” (see Ps 119:89). Unfortunately, this gets lost in most English translations, which translate Psalm 119:93 as “I will never forget” instead of the original Hebrew “Forever I will not forget...”

It’s also written in what biblical scholars call a chiasm, which means it has the same ideas both forwards and backwards… like a word that is spelled the same forwards and backwards (rotator, level, Hannah). Here’s the structure of this stanza:

The vast scope of God’s Word (vv. 89-91),

And what it has done for me (v. 92);

What it has done for me (vv. 93-95),

And the vast scope of God’s Word (v. 96).

Now that we sort of know what we’re looking at, let’s read it together. Note that I’m using the ESV, but I’ve changed the translation in verse 93 to reflect the Hebrew “Forever” and the poetic form of the stanza. Read Psalm 119:89-96.

Psalm 119:89–96 ESV

89 Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. 90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. 91 By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants. 92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. 93 I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. 94 I am yours; save me, for I have sought your precepts. 95 The wicked lie in wait to destroy me, but I consider your testimonies. 96 I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad.

From the poetic form and structure of this Psalm, looking at its two halves, we see two points: (1) Forever God is faithful, and (2) Forever I will trust him.

Body

Forever God is faithful!

Exposition: God’s Word is so vast it encompasses all of creation and every generation (Psalm 119:90-91).

Psalm 119:90–91 ESV

90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. 91 By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.

Illustration: My dad told me, “Every person in your life will fail you at some point. Every pastor, every teacher, every friend, even your mom and me. But one person will never fail you. God will never fail you.”

Application: God will never fail you! Look at Psalm 119:92. One commentary I read said this: The same word of God that establishes the Universe saves the servant of God. Note that God does not save us out of the world and its troubles. But he does save us in the troubles, and he carries us through them.

Psalm 119:92 ESV

92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Forever I will trust him!

Exposition

Psalm 119:93, Life is found when we live in obedience to God’s Word. Freedom comes from submitting to God’s laws. God’s laws are designed to teach us how to live the best possible life. But in order to have that life we must submit to God’s Word.

Psalm 119:93 ESV

93 I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.

I’m not free to sit down at the piano and play something beautiful unless I submit to the regimen of practice.

God’s Word is better than perfect! (Psalm 119:96)

Psalm 119:96 ESV

96 I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad.

“Perfection in verse 96 is a thought-provoking, ambivalent word. ‘Perfect’ means complete, finished—and finished means finite… but God is infinite! Following of the commands of God takes us beyond the limits, and the limitations, of this world. If all people were to serve him, as all things already do, they would find in that service perfect freedom.” ~ Michael Wilcock

Illustration: Bethany Madison Free Church is a tiny little congregation still gathering for worship in Madison. They’re not a mega-church. Their pastor, who recently retired, isn’t a best-selling author. He doesn’t have a podcast with thousands of followers. Their new pastor, who just started, doesn’t have a book deal and isn’t a conference keynote speaker, either. The building the church gathers in isn’t big or fancy or new or technologically advanced. But that little congregation in Madison was instrumental in starting LakeView Church 75 years ago. They helped plant two other churches in Madison, whose names you might recognize: Blackhawk Church and Door Creek Church, both of which are huge churches reaching thousands of people.

Application: Sharing the faithfulness of God

Our mortgage is paid off and we’re debt free!

$7500 for Levi

75 days of prayer

Bless 75 local families in need

Have 75 volunteers serve at the food pantry

Get to know our neighbors and invite them into our homes.

Biblical hospitality = Sharing Jesus with others relationally

Conclusion

The greatest demonstration of God’s faithfulness was giving his one an only Son.

Communion reminds us that forever God is faithful. And by taking Communion, we declare that forever we will trust him.