12.10.2023 - Advent Love

Scripture: Psalm 85:1-2

Psalm 85:1–2 NIV

1 You, Lord, showed favor to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins.

Psalm 85:8–13 NIV

8 I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants— but let them not turn to folly. 9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. 10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. 11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. 12 The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. 13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

12/10/2023

Order of Service:

Announcements

Advent Wreath Reading

Mission Moment: Berit with IOP

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Love

The Flow

There is an elusive thing that people have been chasing for generations, sometimes referred to as the “flow.” Artists, such as painters, sculptors, musicians, or writers, often refer to it as more than a feeling and almost a kind of spirit that melds with us when we find ourselves in the right place, at the right time, and able to use our gifts well. When artists enter this state of being, their art comes quickly and is done with few mishaps.

Many others seek the flow as well. Athletes strive to get into the flow where they can use their bodies to directly extend their minds into physical actions, like dancers on the playing field or court. Every effort becomes a perfect motion on the path to victory. Factories are built around this concept of flow, and they only achieve maximum efficiency and productivity when all of their workers are able to achieve it together. I can even imagine farmers long ago aligning their plows and planters so they could sit behind the horses that pulled them and gently ease them right or left to stay in the flow of their work. Indeed, part of what makes Mondays so challenging for those who do not work on the weekends is that their flow is interrupted, and they have to find it all over again.

Our scripture today reminds us that God has a kind of flow. It is love. He invites us into a relationship with Him to receive, return, and share that love. Rather than spend our lives looking for superstitious ways to get into that flow, God spent His life in Jesus to give us eternal access to that flow because Jesus is God’s love and righteousness.

Forgiveness and Restored Fortunes

Last Sunday, I shared that the Psalms are prayers and that we can read them as examples of how we can pray ourselves. They are word pictures showing how the Psalm writers saw God working in their lives. Today's scripture is an excellent example of how the Psalm writers included what God had done in the distant past. This Psalm begins with the reminder that God restored Jacob’s fortunes and forgave the sins of His people.

One of the prayer techniques that we see in this Psalm and that you may have heard about elsewhere is praying to God and reminding Him of His promises and past actions. Now, I can tell you that God is not forgetful. He does not need daily reminders of Who He is and what He has done. He knows more about the past than we ever will. So, we do not pray about His past actions for His benefit. We pray about those promises and works of God so that you and I will remember Who God is and what He has done.

Psalm 85 is a prayer that reminds us, along with the descendants of Korah, that we have sinned, and our sin took us out of the flow of God’s love. It was no mere hiccup either. Our sin pulled us away from that sheltering flow of blessing and love, locked us up in prison, and threw away the key. We cannot pay the debt we owe. We can do no superstitious acts to regain that state of flow. We are condemned and cannot get out unless someone rescues us, and that will not take place until we are forgiven.

The psalmist uses Jacob as an example of this saving, forgiving, and restoring love of God. Jacob’s story covers the entire second half of the book of Genesis, ending with his burial in the Promised Land. He spent more than half of his life living up to his name, which meant “trickster,” as he swindled his family out of an inheritance that was not his by right.

At the crisis point of his life, He left all his possessions and family and went to face his elder brother. That night, as he waited to face his consequences, the angel of the Lord appeared and wrestled with him. When he left, he had an injured hip and was given the new name “Israel.” He made peace with his brother, and all his fortunes and family were restored. This marked the moment Jacob became a new man.

Jacob spent his entire life trying to make his own way and build his own fortune, and he was often led astray by others. He was in a wrestling match of wills with God and refused to give in. When Jacob finally stopped running and took that struggle directly to God, he could be set free and forgiven for his past and set on the path to a new future with God. That is the life model that the Psalmist uses to begin this prayer.

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Love and Faithfulness

Rather than continuing to fight against God, risking God’s anger and frustration, the Psalmist seeks revival and new life. So, like Jacob, he says he will stop fighting against God and surrender his will. He will listen to what the Lord says. He knows he can only find that love and life he yearns to receive there in obedience to God.

Then, in this prayer of surrender, he tells us what living in God’s love is like. He says:

10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

This is one of the most beautiful descriptions in the Bible of what it means to be in a relationship with God. So often, we want to figure out how to handle things ourselves. Then, when we get frustrated by the challenges that are far beyond our ability, we turn to God and want Him to fix everything... not unlike Jacob. Yet being in a relationship implies a partnership where we each have our part and responsibility. God has His part, and we have our part. So which is which?

The Psalmist gives us a poetic description, which means these are not cut-and-dry definitions, but it is an excellent place to start understanding our shared responsibility with God. God is love, the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:16, and that love is explained in John 3:16 and nearly every page in the Bible. That means God calls us to meet His love with faithfulness. We receive His love and respond by being faithful to Him.

God is righteousness. Because of sin, none of us are righteous, not one, according to Romans 3:10-12 (where Paul quotes Psalm 53). If there is any doubt of this, we can look at nearly every page of the Bible again. God is righteous, and we break his law and his heart repeatedly. He meets us in righteousness, and we can choose to rebel against Him, or we can choose to respond in peace.

When we choose to be in this relationship with Him, faithfulness springs up from the earth like growing crops and spring flowers, and it meets the righteousness of God, shining down on us like the sun and rain that nourishes their growth. It is not just a pipe dream of a perfect world. It is a picture of the original model and the restored world that Jesus will return to recreate.

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Serving God

The Psalmist knows that this beautiful picture of a restored creation is not dependent upon the stock market or government legislation. He is not worried about the wars and fighting in foreign countries. Even the issues of poverty, justice, and healing are not the factors that hold him back from living in God’s love. His challenge is his own heart. He knows that if he cannot be faithful to God, he can do nothing about those other issues. Faithfulness begins in our hearts and our homes.

So, how do we move from a place imprisoned by sin into God’s love?

First, we have to confess our sins and ask God’s forgiveness. It is a continual work, like washing our hands. We may not notice how dirty they are, but the longer we go without washing them, the messier and germier they get, and eventually, we will get sick. As we confess our sins to God and each other, we can take our next steps into God’s love. We do that by serving Him.

How do you love and serve an all-knowing, all-powerful God, the source of love and righteousness? That is a question we could spend our life figuring out. Some people will tell you that you can only give your love to God through praise and worship. By process of elimination, they have decided that that is the only thing we can do for the Lord of Creation, Who can do everything for Himself better than we can.

Others jump right into loving others, knowing they can do nothing directly to serve God. Whether they serve with their hands and feet or give generous amounts of money to churches, community services, and people in need, they find ways to love others for Jesus. Some make a significant life choice to go into vocational ministry. They choose to serve God by preaching, teaching, leading, and serving in many different ways, and they may do it at home or far away in foreign lands.

All of these options are valid ways of showing God our love, but the Psalmist tells us what He desires is our faithfulness. God does not want to receive random acts of kindness from us as if He were a stranger. He wants to be given intentional acts of obedience from us that show Him to be our Heavenly Father. To do that, we need to know how He wants us to serve Him individually.

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Jesus put it this way:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” - Matthew 16:24

Yes, even in this mysterious and wonderful season of Advent, we are still cross-bearers. And we do not get to make or pick our crosses. Jesus assigns them to each of us. We serve God by bearing the cross that He puts before us. Cross-bearing can be hard, humbling work, and often, we are not thanked or even noticed for it. The world does not understand the love of God or how He lives it out in and through us. But if we keep our eyes on Jesus and stay close to Him, we can see God’s work leading and guiding us, and He will sustain us every step of the way.

Our Psalm ends with that promise:

12 The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.

13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

He is the love our faithfulness meets. He is the righteousness that we greet with peace.

Where do you meet God?

What happens in you when you stand in His righteousness?

What cross is He asking you to carry today as a faithful response to the love He is giving you?

As you carry the cross He puts it before you, you will know what it means to live in the flow of the love of God. As you faithfully carry that cross, He will prepare the path ahead of you and sustain and strengthen you each step of the way.

Please stay and join us for lunch. We will begin with our music and presentation and we would love for you to move forward toward the front of the sanctuary.