He is our God

Good morning and welcome to those of you who are watching online. I am so grateful to be here with you this morning as we celebrate our graduates. For the past 12 years, they have worked hard to receive their diploma’s. There have been amazing memories with friends, significant achievements, challenging days, confusing situations, and at times hard losses. Yet, today we look to celebrate you. Because you have have not only overcome these challenges and put in the hard work, but you have in many ways excelled. We as a community want you to know that we are so proud of you! Can we give our graduates a round of applause?

In considering how to challenge you as a class and us as the body, I want us to consider reclaiming a lost habit. For centuries, the book of Psalms has functioned as a prayer language and song language for God’s people. However, in the past few generations, it seems that this habit of spending time each day in the psalms has been lost. My encouragement to you and to me is to reclaim this habit for ourselves and for our families. That we as the people of God would learn to articulate the truths of God and the reality of our existence using the language that He has provided. That in seeking God through the book of Psalms, we would experience and know deeper realities of who He is and how He walks with us.

John Calvin had a high regard for the Psalms and said this;

“The Psalms are an anatomy of all parts of the soul.”

Meaning that if we are experiencing pain and hurt, we can find language for that. Not just words, but words that bring us before the throne of God and help us to understand our pain in His presence.

If we are experiencing a sense of abandonment or loss, that we can learn the language of lament.

If we are lost and wayward. Not walking with God but having drifted from the flock - we can learn to talk to God again and He will help us find the path back to Him.

If we are are over joyed and celebrating, we can learn how to praise God for the many blessings that He has given us.

No matter where you are, the Psalms can help you interpret life with a deeper perspective, with greater clarity in prayer, and more meaningful worship of our God.

Eugene Peterson reminds us that any language you know is learned. And the language of prayer is learned through the Psalms.

So with that, lets jump into our Psalm today, we are in Psalm 95. We are going to walk through this passage one verse bit by bit and then at the end, we will all read it together.

Psalm 95:1 “1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!”

Oh come

The psalm leads off with an invitation to come to the Lord.

It doesn’t matter where you are or where you have been. There is a sense of longing to come together as the people of God. Not to be part of a social gathering or to see people who you have missed. But to come as His children, to gather with the nations with a desire to praise the Lord.

Do you ever experience those longings in your life? To be surrounded by people of God? Having a desire to be together for no other reason than to worship God?

Its a remarkable freedom that we have here in the states. That freely, day after day, week after week, we can choose to gather and worship God! And our gathering for worship is a beautiful image. Its a picture of all kinds of people, from all kinds of places. Different backgrounds, different heritages, different ethnicities coming together with longing and purpose.

A longing to know God personally, to walk with Him freely. Not held back by the sins of my past but in full surrender allowing Him to do a work of renewal in me.

Also coming with a purpose. To recognize and proclaim that He is our God. That we have no other God. That we hold Him as more valuable than life itself and more worthy than we can imagine. God is good, and He is worthy of our praise.

So no matter if you have been walking with God or walking without God, today is the day, to surrender and invite Him to have His way with you. To recognize Him, not just as the king of kings, but the Lord of your life. Meaning, that He gets to have His way with you. He gets to mold you and shape you. He gets to prompt you and lead you. He gets to use you for His purposes, why, because He is worthy! Worthy of all the praise we could ever sing! Worthy of all that we could ever give! Worthy of everything we could possibly offer!

“Oh Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”

There are many reasons to worship God. One of those reasons we sing with joy is the great gift that we have received. That we can put our faith and trust in Jesus, entering into a relationship with Him where He freely offers us eternal life with Him.

Tim Keller said it this way, “All death can now do to Christians is to make their lives infinitely better.”

Friends, we get to be joyful, we get to sing, to raise our hands in worship because we can have eternal life. We don’t need to fear death, instead, we can look forward, beyond death. To a time when every need will be met. God is a forward looking God, and He is looking forward to when we will be with Him, restored, no longer broken. But instead, pure, holy, and acceptable to Him.

We sing because our God is a God of salvation. In looking forward, He saved us from death by personally defeating it on our behalf.

2 “Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise.”

One of the interesting experiences we have as Christians, is the more we reflect on God’s gift of salvation, the more we desire to worship Him. Yet, this is profound, because we can reflect on this gift for all of our life and never loose interest.

Those who dwell on the gift that God has given them, recognize the cost of what they have been given. When you wrestle with everything God has done for you, in order to offer you eternity with Him, it inspires worship.

This is why we come back to the gospel again and again. To remind ourselves, the weight of our sin, of our utter wickedness, not deserving a single blessing from God. Yet, He passes through death on our behalf. That truth, is one to wrestle with and know. It’s not just knowing that God died for the sins of the world or that He has called the world to Himself. Its having that personal understanding that He died for me. That He chose to forgive me. With all my flaws, all my sin, all my wickedness..... He still pursues me. As you come back to the gospel again and again, you will find a renewed longing in your soul; longing to worship to express your gratitude, to be found in His presence.

The easiest way to fall away from God is to stop preaching the gospel to yourself. The easiest way to come back to God is to start preaching the gospel to yourself.

In this passage, there is a concern for all of God’s people. Those are walking with Him and know Him. Those who have drifted and fallen away. As well as those, who have not come to know Him yet. The call is, “Let us come into His presence.”

Take a look at these next verses.

3 “For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also. 5 The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.”

It doesn’t matter where you are, God is there and He is the great king.

Doesn’t matter where you are physically

God is on the mountain tops, He is in the valleys. It doesn’t matter if you are lost at sea or find yourself in the depths of the ocean, God is there. You cannot hide or run from Him because wherever you would go, He is already there.

It doesn’t matter where you are spiritually.

Whether you are walking with God or don't know God. Whether you are joyful and content or angry with God. Whether you are in the pits of despair and grief or on the mountain tops experiencing life’s best.

God is calling for you to Himself.

If you don't know Him He is calling you to enter into right relationship with Him. Where you will be saved from sin, given a new identity as a child of God. Where you will experience freedom and peace in ways you have never known before.

If you have known Him, but drifted, perhaps you are not really sure where you stand with God. Know that He is calling your to Himself. That He longs for you to come back, to receive forgiveness and to walk with Him. He loves you and desires for you to experience the fullness of Christ in your life.

If you are walking with God, you know and understand right relationship and find yourself surrendered to all that He has for you. He still calls you to Himself. To spend time in His presence. To be further built up and strengthened for the ministry that He has called you.

No matter where you are, this is the call in verse 6;

6 “Oh Come,”

Would you just come to God! Would you remove distraction from your life and focus on Jesus???

Would you stop trying to prove yourself to others?

Would you gather together, for the sole purpose of exalting the King of kings and Lord of lords?

6 “Oh come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.”

Would you come to Him in this way today? To stop avoiding the sin in your life that needs to be addressed. To stop running from God as if you can get further from Him. To stop engaging in anything other than worshiping Him!

-He is our God. He is the creator of all things. He is the giver and the sustainer of life. He molded and shaped us in our mothers womb. He created each of us unique in our gifting, abilities, purpose, and placement. When we chose to go our own way, when we rejected Him, He pursued us until we came to our senses. In coming to Him, He gives us blessing upon blessing.

We have no reason to be afraid, because we serve the almighty God who have proved a deep and committed to love toward us. Wanting to be known by us, He has revealed Himself in His word and throughout history. Offering a personal relationship with Him where we can grow and mature our understanding of Him.

He is the good giver, who has given more to us than we can ever repay. So let us come, let us gather together often, let us worship and celebrate our great God!

It is so refreshing to walk through passages like this one. Reminding us, that our God is far more significant than anything or anyone else. That He is worthy of all praise, glory, and honor, forever and ever. That no matter where we are or where we have been, we can always come back to throne room and worship. We can always preach the gospel to ourselves, by focusing on the truth of His word.

As we remind ourselves of how good and great God is we must also pay attention to these next verses. Because there is also a warning that we must give careful attention. So many times in the Bible we read about God’s warnings to people and how they did not listen. Lets be sure this morning, that we carefully listen to what God says:

“8 Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden you hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my wrath “They shall not enter my rest.”

There is a great danger in not responding to the call of the Lord. When you feel the poke of the Holy Spirit in your life and you ignore it. When you feel the prompting of God in your soul but you forget it.

So often, by our actions and habits we portray ourselves as people who are seeking the Lord. But the Lord knows our hearts. He knows how we can portray ourselves as walking with Him and yet have a hardness of heart.

Jesus addressed this in Matthew 15:8-9

“8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ””

God is not interested in your religious facade.

It’s very possible that there are people in your life who look to you for spiritual wisdom and discernment, believing that you are a mature believer. Yet, all the while, you are not surrendered to God and having a heart of stone. Even mature believers have blind spots that can lead them back to having a heart of stone.

Meaning that as we evaluate the whole of this passage, it is not just about coming to God. It is not just about showing up to church, bible studies, and life group. It’s not even just about reading your Bible and spending time in prayer. When David writes “Oh Come,” he is saying come in surrender. Come, ready to let go of all the baggage you have been carrying. Come, as honest and open as you know how. Come to the Lord in worship with a heart posture that wants to be molded and shaped. That desires to be pure and holy before God not for its own sake, but so that it can rightly worship God. Come ready to lift holy hands to the praise and worship of the one true king.

If we prepare our hearts and minds in this way, we will find a deep longing in us, that draws us to deeper realities of life as we allow God to have His way with us.

We need to come to worship again and again. We need to come to Him in surrender, desiring to enter in to all that He asks of us. Trusting and believing that He knows better and has plans for you that are good and right.

Worship Team come up

Today, I want to do something a little different. I want to give us some time, here in the service to come to God. To acknowledge the many ways that we stumble, get distracted, and put God on the back burner. In these next few minutes, there are going to be some pray prompts on the screen. I want to encourage you, to take this time, in the quietness of your heart to talk to the Lord. To confess areas of sin, to seek forgiveness, to recommit yourself to Him and His purposes for your life. Lets be quiet before the Lord together.

Posture has a way of communicating to the Lord. So in this time, I want to encourage you to open your hands as a sign of letting go what is not of God. Also, as a sign of receiving what He has for you.

Perhaps, if you are able it would be appropriate to take a knee. If you need to move out of your row for more space that is fine. If you want you can come right up to the stage.

If you move around, bring your communion cups with you.

Oh Come, let us pray in open confessions and repentance. In this first prompting, we want to invite the Holy Spirit to bring to light every area of sin our life. Lets pray for this together.

6 “O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker...... 8 Do not harden your hearts.

I humbly kneel before you Lord and confess my hardness of heart over.....

Those who have hurt me or broken relationships

Area’s of pride, bitterness, and selfishness.

pain of rejection.

Lord, I confess I get distracted when....

Lord, help me to forgive....

Lord, help me grow in my understanding of living in surrender to you.

Lord, your word to us says, “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah (The place of quarreling) as on the day at Massah (a time of testing). We are not to quarrel with you, we are not to test you as the Israelites did in the wilderness. Yet we do this. We second guess you, we argue with your leading in our lives, and we struggle to surrender our way of handling challenging situations. Lord, the root issue is not that we test or quarrel, but that we have a hardness of heart. That we don’t cling to you the way we should. Forgive us Lord. Forgive us of all the ways that we have hardened ourselves. Create in us a clean heart oh God. One that is soft, one that is tender towards you. Let us come to you, fully and freely. Not hanging on to pockets of sin and hurt, but surrendering all of it to you in repentance.

Communion - Bread

On that last night with the disciples, Jesus took the bread, he broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

2 “Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving.”

Let’s spend a few moments before the Lord, just thanking Him.

Thank you Lord for your faithfulness in....

Keeping your promises

Sending Jesus to die for my sin

being good, kind, and patient towards me when....

For being with me wherever I am physically or spiritually.

7 “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture,”

Lets spend a few moments before the Lord, recommitting ourselves to His purposes.

Lord, because you are my king, my shepherd, I trust you today for…

courage and boldness as I lean into....

softening my hard heart to make it more like yours

To bring me back into the fold

To strengthen me for your purposes in my life.

Oh come Lord, hear our many prayers. Lets us come to you again and again, seeking your face, desiring to worship you as we find peace in your presence. You are our shepherd, our king, and our creator. May we sing your praise again and again. Lord you are worthy of more than we could ever offer. Worthy of every moment in prayer, of every moment of seeking your presence, of every song, of every kingdom building - Jesus proclaiming action that we can take. You are worthy. So, we recommit ourselves to you. We surrender all that this world has and ask that you would fill us with your Spirit. That we would be an anointed people who loves you and seeks you. A people who follows your lead, sings your praise, and proclaims your grace.

Communion - Cup

After breaking the bread, scripture tells us, “And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Take and Drink.

Lord in heaven you are so good. You are perfect in wisdom and in love. You know how to draw us back to you again and again. You are patient in your pursuit of us. You follow us, opening door after door until we choose to turn back towards you. There is no one like you, Lord. May we praise you forever and ever, amen.

As a church, it is fitting for us to pray these verses over our graduates. That wherever they go, whatever they do, the Lord is with them. And in that place, they need to find a community of believers that will come with them before the throne of God. So I want to conclude our message this morning, by doing a corporate reading of Psalm 95:1-7. This is a corporate call, a commitment from us to the Lord, that we will come to Him again and again.

Would you stand with me as we read?

Psalm 95 “1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.