It was all a dream… Testify of the Lord’s restoration!
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Big Idea:
Big Idea:
Testifying of the Lord’s restoration increases faith and inspires dreams.
Intro:
Intro:
Good morning church!
On October 15, 2016 we had our very first worship service at a little red brick, white steeple church on Hebron Avenue. Although it currently is no longer a church, 9 years ago, there was handful of people gathering on Sunday mornings at Pilgrim Christian Fellowship.
Before our first services, I had met with the pastor and he said we could use the building for free if we met on Saturday nights. That worked for us! So, on that first Saturday, we opened the doors and had a lot of visitors (74 to be exact). But one couple in particular stood out…
It was an older couple. They sat in the back left corner. I tried to circle them in the picture. The unique thing about this couple is… THEY ACTUALLY CAME BACK THE FOLLOWING WEEK! That sounds sad, but it’s the truth. In the early days, people didn’t often come back to The River Church…
I often say, “Our first service had 74 people! Then, I grew the church to 19 the next week. And to 9 the following week!” Those were hard years! Cold New England nights preaching to my family, the Owens, and sometimes, this older couple.
Btw, their names were Howard and Kay Wood. And the story behind why they came to our first service was Howard’s dad was the pastor who built that church decades before. Then, his dad passed it off and Howard and Kay moved away. When they finally came back to Glastonbury, they were attending another church, but in 2016, sensed the Lord was calling them to something new.
When our story about starting a new church -in the same building his dad built - appeared in both “Glastonbury Life” and the “Citizen,” they felt led to come. And soon, they became an important part of our new church. But before I tell you anymore about their story, I’d like to read you a note Kay sent me a few weeks ago…
This note is a response to a sermon I did right after returning from Brazil last May. The sermon was on “sharing your testimony.” She was so challenged that the following Monday, she called me confessing how rarely she shared her testimony. And since she doesn’t like public speaking, I asked her to send me her testimony in a letter and I’d read it for her. This is the letter… [Read Kay’s Letter]
In a nutshell, that’s Kay’s testimony. It’s her story testifying to the “great things the Lord has done for her!” And today, in our series titled, “It was all a dream,” we will once again explore the importance of sharing our testimony.
And Psalm 126, the passage this series is built on, speaks to this. Testifying of the Lord’s greatness is a major theme of this Psalm. I mean, check out the first three verses…
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.
As we saw last week, this Psalm is the story of when God brought back His people from exile. A century before this, God disciplined Israel’s sinfulness by allowing Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and take them away as captives.
However, God had not given up on His people. His divine discipline was not for utter destruction, but repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. And after 70 years, God freed His people and brought them back. And when this restoration happened, it was like a dream come true!
But this story didn’t just impact the Jewish people returning to Israel… it also impacted the surrounding nations. The world was watching when God’s love restored His sinful people by grace. The nations responded to the story, “The LORD has done great things for them!” Almost as if the nations were wondering, “Who is this God? And can I know Him? Because I want a God who can do great things for me too!”
You know, that’s a great question, “Who is this God?”
Body:
Body:
I believe this Psalm answers this question. Consider its purpose…
This Psalm is known as a “Song of Ascent.” These were psalms sung by the Jewish people as they made annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem. And they’re called songs of “ascent” because Jerusalem is set on a hill. To get to the city, you must go up!
More than that, as you moved up, you looked up. And as you looked up, it’s like you sang vertically. In other words, these songs set your heart upon God. And, if anyone asked, “Who is God?” These songs declared, “He’s there! The One we sing to! Look up! Seek and you shall find!” This psalm helps you discover who God is!
And look what else this psalm says about who God is…
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad.
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Here’s a few things I discover about God’s character…
First, he’s a God of abundance. When the Lord restores, He doesn’t do the bare minimum. That’s not who He is…
How do we know this? Look at the response… Their mouths were filled with laughter (not just a giggle or a smile). Their tongues with shouts of joy (not just a whisper of gratitude or monotone singing). They could not contain their response because of God’s outpouring of abundance!
And this is consistent with what the rest of Scripture says about God, right?
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
Jesus said…
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
The second thing I see is the Lord is relational. He’s not a hidden god. He’s not a secret private god. He is known and wants to be known. Again, how do we know that? Look at the response…
The nations declared, “We see the Lord! He does great things!” And Israel responds, “I know, this is our God, this is who He is, He loves us.” Yes, that’s also a Phil Wickham song.
This past Monday, I was praying with some guys at my house. No agenda. Just praying together. And not just talking. A lot of listening. A lot of awkward silence…
And in this silence, about 30-mins in, I heard in my heart, “Season with salt.” I was about to share that with the group when I sensed God wanted me to stay silent. In fact, I wasn’t to share it until I heard another person say the word, “salt.” I know, kinda weird…
Another 20-mins passed. Nothing. Maybe I heard wrong? Or, maybe I should just say the phrase? Nope. Stay silent. Then, my friend Marcel started praying. And he read a verse. In Portuguese. So, I had no idea what he was reading. Then, he read it in English… Jesus said, “You are the SALT of the earth…” (Matt 5:13)
I was like, “Holy Smokes,” Guys, there are hundreds of thousands of English words, maybe even a million. There are 31,000 Bible verses to choose from. And he says, “Salt?” That’s not a coincidence!
And, honestly, I still have no idea why God said, “Season with salt.” But here’s what I do know, God is speaking.
He is not distant. He is not hiding. He wants to talk with us. He wants to be in relationship. Why? Because…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Ultimately, God wants to restore everyone! He created us. He loves us. And He desires all of us to be in His family!
Okay, finally, and primarily, I see that God is faithful. Faithful, meaning, we can trust God. We can trust in who He is. We can trust in what He sees and says. We see this in a progressive way in this Psalm…
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
When God did this, it wasn’t random. It was connected to a promise He made. 70 years earlier, when the Jews were first exiled, the prophet Jeremiah said…
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
God promised to restore them. And in verse 1, the psalmist declares, “God was faithful to His promise!” But apparently, either the restoration was not fully completed, or something new has happened. And verse 4 says…
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
The psalmist cries, “God, we need your help, again!” Only this time, his request is supported by the experiential knowledge of God’s previous restoration - on His faithfulness. And this time, the cry for help is more like, as the Message translates it…
And now, God, do it again—
bring rains to our drought-stricken lives
I love it!
So, who is God? What is He like? Psalm 126 tells us…
He is the God of abundant goodness.
He is relationship.
He is faithful.
And it’s important that we understand this, because it shapes how we respond to Him. Who He is impacts how we respond to what He sees and says…
And that brings up another set of relevant questions:
What does God see in me?
What has He said or promised about my life?
What kind of expectations can I have?”
I believe Psalm 126 answers this too.
Again…
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
What does it mean for the Lord to restore the fortunes of Zion? Does it mean that since God is a God of abundance, that He made the people as rich as Scrooge McDuck?
Btw, did you know that the internet estimates Uncle Scrooges wealth to be 315 with 15 zeros behind it?!? This based off Scrooge McDuck once saying he would go broke in 600 years if he lost a billion dollars a minute.
First off, people have way too much time on their hands. But secondly, that’s a lot of money. If I’m understanding it correctly, that’s more dollars than miles in our solar system, at least from the Sun to the outer edge.
For many of us, that would definitely be like a dream! We’d never have to worry about money again. That’d be nice. So, is that what it means for the Lord to restore our fortunes?
No. Sorry. The Hebrew words used for “restore our fortunes” mean that God made things right. The Israelites were God’s special and blessed people. But their sinned messed everything up. But God… made all things right, just like He promised to do.
And that’s a promise for us too. It’s something we can expect from God as well…
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
God created so that we too could be His special and blessed people. But, like Israel, our sin messed that up. Yet, God’s promise to restore reaches out to us too. How do we know that?
Let’s read the previous 9 verses of Ephesians 2…
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
We messed everything up…
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
In Jesus, we can have an expectation - we can have hope - that Jesus will make all things right, even when our current circumstances give us no reason to believe anything different. Because the God who does great things, the God of the impossible, is faithful to restore…
And that’s what the last part of Psalm 126 testifies to… That in this world, we will face trials. Our story will include pain, even when we belong to the Lord. Why? Because God - in His divine and sovereign wisdom - allowed it to be written into our story…
Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Sowing in tears does not sound fun. We don’t understand it. We don’t like it. But it’s part of God’s process for making all things right. And because He told us about this beforehand, we can trust Him in it when we experience it…
…and I don’t want to say too much about these final verses, because in a couple of our weeks I’m going to preach on sowing in tears and reaping in joy.
Therefore, heres’s what I’d like for us to consider…
Because God is faithful, we can hope in His good promises, even when we don’t understand the current painful or confusing circumstances.
We can trust He’s making all things right because that’s who He is and what He does.
…and one very important thing that helps us live this way is our testimony - the telling of how God made things right in our lives.
When we tell our God-stories, two important things happen…
We remember God’s faithfulness which builds our faith and gives us boldness to say, “Do it again, Lord!”
It inspires faith in the people around us. As the nations (or our communities) watch and hear about the great things the Lord does, they begin to ask, “Can God do that for me too?”
And as we already discussed, the answer is “YES!” God desires to restore all of us. He wants to make all things right. The ultimate proof of that is Jesus. Jesus’s death and resurrection cleared the way to make everything right for everyone.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
Because of Jesus, God’s promise to us is…
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
God is faithful to His promise!
Response:
Response:
As we close, I want to share two recent stories about what God has done…
Many of you have heard me speak about Chapel Pointe in Hudsonville, MI. They’re a church that’s like family. They’ve invested in us. And want to continue doing so. We’ve gone on missions trips together. And hope to do much more in the future.
This past week I was speaking with their missions pastor. He was helping me organize a missions trip for next Summer. To Brazil. Keep an ear out for more details soon. If you’re interested, start praying now.
Recently, they had a last second opportunity to do a missions-based basketball camp in a closed part of the world. I was like, “How come you didn’t tell me about this one!” Anyways, they had one couple in mind they thought would be perfect for it. But it’s an expensive trip. So the couple thought about it and declined. They couldn’t afford it.
But God would not leave the husband alone. Didn’t let him sleep all night. So, in the morning, they agreed to go with no idea how to pay for it.
Sleep-deprived, the husband heads to work. Goes to the boss’s office to ask for time off. And his boss asks, “What’s this for?” So, he tells him.
His boss says, “I love it. And I don’t you stressing about this. I’ll write a check for both of you right now.”
Do you see the power of a testimony?
Do you see how that inspires us to say, “God, do it again!” or “God, can you do that for me too?”
He will. Ask some people who went to Brazil a couple of months ago. God did it for them too. Because He is faithful! And He makes all things right.
One more story [as the worship team comes up]…
I work a lot with our Youth. I just spent a whole week with them at Summer Camp. And I can tell you, being a teenager is incredibly difficult today.
There’s a youth who’s been through a rough season. His life has been like a desert at times. Like the Negeb. A lot of tears. But he went to camp. And Jesus met him there. Because He is faithful. And He made things right because that’s what He does!
So much so, his parents asked me, “Who is this kid you brought back?” Before I could answer, the young man said, “He brought back a man of God.” I don’t know about you, but that response sounds like it fits under the category of a “harvest of joy!”
Again, do you see the power of a testimony?
How another struggling young person could hear that and ask, “Can God change my life too?”
How a parent can be inspired to believe for real transformation for their difficult child?
Testimonies are powerful! They help us agree with what God sees. They build our faith and inspire others to trust in the Lord too.
So today, I’ll end with this…
God has given you a story. Share it. It’s powerful and is part of God’s process to make all things right.
Additionally, if you are currently in a season of tears, don’t give up. Instead, put your trust in the faithful one. He can restore you life!
Put your faith in Jesus. In fact, if you need to do that today for the first time, pray with me… (let’s all pray together)
God, You see what’s happening in my life. Today, I trust You with it all. I know my sin has broken things. I’ve messed things up. I’m sorry. But I’ve heard Your stories today. I’ve heard You’re faithful to make all things right. Please do that today in my life. Forgive me for my sins. I trust and follow You - Jesus - as Lord and Savior. And it’s in His name I pray, amen.