God's Steadfast Love
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
John 3:16.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Christmas is the perfect time of year to remember the culmination of God’s love in Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection. Yet walking in the reality of this love is difficult for us anytime.
We all have so much competing for our attention; so many thoughts swirling in our heads. Meditating on Scripture is a great way to walk in the love that God has demonstrated to us in Jesus. Psalm 103 is a good Psalm for orienting ourselves to walk in the reality of God’s steadfast love.
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
David is having an inner dialog with himself, also known as self-talk.
Have you ever thought about your inner dialogue?
We all have one. Each of us are having some conversation with ourselves in this service. You probably had one before going to sleep last night and when you woke up this morning when you were getting ready for church.
Some of us pay very little attention to it, some of us are aware of it and intentionally craft it, and some of us obsess over this inner dialogue.
In which of these three categories do you find yourself the majority of the time?
In the book “Healing Grace for Hurting People,” Wright and Renetzky write, “We all carry on conversations with ourselves daily. We call it self-talk. But are you aware of the importance and impact of this? Self-talk initiates and intensifies our emotions. Self-talk directs the way in which we behave toward others. Self-talk determines what we say to others. Self-talk can keep us stuck in our past and sabotage our future… Self-talk is the message you tell yourself about yourself, others, your experiences, the past, the future, or God.”
H. Norman. Wright and Larry F. Renetzky, Healing Grace for Hurting People: Practical Steps to Healing Broken Relationships (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2007), 207.
David, in Psalm 103 models for us self-talk that brings us in line with God’s love for us in this busy season.
In verse 1 he instructs his soul to bless God, to praise God . This Hebrew word comes from the root “to kneel and to make kneel”. David here is taking control of his thoughts.
You may feel like a victim to your thoughts, but you are not a victim of your thoughts. You have a vote; you have a voice. You can exercise thought-prevention. You can also exercise thought-permission. The more we sift our thoughts through the Word, the more God’s grace can abound in our life.
Therefore, we must, through praise and worship of God, make our thoughts kneel before him who is the creator, holy and worthy of our submission through worship. In the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ...”
In verse 2 he instructs his soul to forget not God’s benefits. In other words, remember. Christmas is an excellent season to remember, and yet we need to remember God’s benefits in every season.
What are the benefits of God we are to remember?
The benefits of God are innumerable. Today we focus on the benefit of his steadfast love expressed to us in Jesus birth, death and resurrection.
Let us join David in correcting our self-talk by remembering the benefits of God’s love shown.
He shows his steadfast love by forgiving all our iniquity.
He shows his steadfast love by healing all our diseases.
He shows his steadfast love by redeeming our life from eternal death in hell.
He shows his steadfast love by crowning us with steadfast love and mercy.
He shows his steadfast love by satisfying us with good, and he is what is good.
Psalm 103:6-18.
6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
Verses 6-18 form a chiasm where David shows God’s steadfast love by his actions through history to remove our sin from us though we are creatures, dust, and fading flowers.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
God shows his steadfast love by his rule.
All should kneel in worship before the God who loves.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
This healthy self-talk does not happen unless we believe what God has done, for self-talk is based on our beliefs.
Will you believe in the steadfast love of God. Paul says in Romans 5:6–8 “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Church, we have a choice to control of our self-talk through the Spirit of God working through submissive worship in our lives.
May we join David this Christmas in saying, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits, which are expressed through his steadfast love in the person of Jesus.” For in the fulness of time Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered death on a cross, was buried and rose to life, being seated at the right hand of God. All this to demonstrate the love of God. These truths must shape and form the self-talk we engage in.