Faithful Love part 2

Previously...

We are looking at the second response to what Jesus has done and continually does for us. We saw that we respond to Him through faithful love. As we considered that, we looked at Ephesians 5:22-24 & Psalm 37 and discovered:

Because Christ is the head of the bride, the bride submits to Christ.

The church submits to Christ through faithfulness to Him.

We live faithfully to Christ when we trust Him, regardless of life’s circumstances.

We live faithfully to Christ when we do good because of what He has done for us.

We live faithfully to Christ when we find our delight in Christ.

Commit your way to the LORD…verses 5-6

The Hebrew term translated as “commit” here means to dedicate or trust entirely to a specific person, activity or cause.

I love that the word “entirely” is added to this definition, because today people tend to be less-committed than ever before.

That’s not to say that our schedules aren’t crazy busy. We are certainly over-committed to various different activities.

But this kind of commitment is different because the idea is committing or dedicating how we live our lives to following God, even when things get hard.

There is the rub: we have developed a society around us that is largely based on utilitarianism and self-actualization.

What does that mean? Self-actualization is the the state where feel fulfilled in all the areas of our lives and utilitarianism is that the value of something or someone is directly linked with how useful it is for us.

This comes into conflict with a biblical worldview because we aren’t called to find our greatest satisfaction by how we feel or how we perceive our circumstances are beneficial to us.

Instead, the believer recognizes that God’s uses all our circumstances for His glory and our good; though it doesn’t feel like that at times.

My next long sermon series will be looking at the life of Joseph in Genesis. Not only is he one of my favorite people in the OT, but Joseph’s life is a testament of committing one’s way to the LORD, regardless of what he was facing.

He knew that God uses all sorts of circumstances to bring about His glory and our good, to the point that he expressed this to his brothers:

Genesis 50:19–20 (ESV)

But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Joseph’s life is an example to us because no matter what came, his ways were truly committed the the LORD.

He trusted God, and God acted, in His time and according to His purposes.

1 Peter 5:7 (ESV)

casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

We live faithfully to Christ when we commit our way to Christ.

Patiently wait upon the LORD…verses 7-9

Here’s the easy part, patience!

Patience on Christmas morning...

This isn’t necessarily that kind of patience.

In fact, when coupled with verses 8-9, we can see that the patience David is talking about here is being patient with the LORD.

When he says to refrain from anger, and forsake wrath, the context is that we are not getting angry and wrathful towards God because of injustice we may be experiencing.

Instead, we need to learn to trust God’s timing, justice and concern for you.

I believe most of us need to keep reminding ourselves that God’s timing is exactly perfect, even when it doesn’t seem so at the moment.

God is far more just than you or I will ever be.

God’s concern for you goes far deeper than you’ll ever be able to comprehend, going so far as to become the embodiment of sin for you and me.

Okay, how do we do that then?

Look at the beginning of verse 7:

Be still before the LORD...

We would all benefit from practicing the discipline of silence.

I listen to podcasts and videos on my phone a lot...

The world is too dang noisy. We rarely, if ever take time to just be still and quiet before the LORD. And yet, Scripture is full of the encouragement to be silent before the LORD.

Psalm 46:10 (ESV)

“Be still, and know that I am God.

Psalm 62:5 (ESV)

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him.

Lamentations 3:26 (ESV)

It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

Exodus 14:14 (ESV)

The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

Habakkuk 2:20 (ESV)

But the Lord is in his holy temple;

let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Isaiah 30:15 (ESV)

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

James 1:19 (ESV)

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Mark 1:35 (ESV)

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

Blaise Pascal: “All human unhappiness comes from not knowing how to stay quiet in a room.”

We live faithfully to Christ when we wait patiently upon His provision.

A challenge: Try taking five minutes every day this week and just be quiet before the LORD. Don’t sleep, listen to music, read, mess with your phone, watch television, listen to podcasts, etc...

Humble yourself before the LORD…verses 10-11

As opposed to the haughtiness of the evil doer, God’s people are to humble themselves before Him.

The term meek doesn’t mean weak. It means humble.

A humble believer is someone who knows the God of the universe well enough to know some vital truths: God is awesome; you are not; we are children of the awesome God because of His gracious love and not because of anything we bring to the table; therefore, we own Him everything.

Look again at this verse: it says “shall inherit the land.” I said last week that a better term than “inherit” would be “possess.”

The children of Israel did nothing to earn the land. The land was already their inheritance because of God’s covenant promises to Abraham.

But, they could possess it. But, in order to possess the land, they needed to humble themselves before the LORD.

Throughout human history, the strong typically overpower the weak. It’s why nations without a military have never grown powerful. So, the idea that a people would possess a land through humility doesn’t seem to make sense.

And yet, let me remind you of the story of King Hezekiah…(2 Kings 19)

King Sennacherib (Senn ach e rib), king of Assyria, had conquered much of the Middle East and had already taken the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

When the Assyrian king was at the very gates of Jerusalem, Hezekiah prayed this prayer:

2 Kings 19:15–19 ESV

And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”

What happened? Look at 2 Kings 19:35-37.

2 Kings 19:35–37 (ESV)

And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, A-dram-melech and Sha-ree-zer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Ee-sir-haddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah humbled himself before the LORD and the LORD answered!

We live faithfully to Christ when we humble ourselves before Him.

They say humility is a funny thing, in that once you think you got it, you don’t.

But, if we want to develop in humility, we need to spend time with our Lord Jesus, considering His majesty, our salvation that He won, and the reality that the only way we could possibly be His bride is because of Him.