A Burning Invitation

Hook:

Have you ever felt out of place somewhere? Maybe you were in a new location with a lot of new people, so you were not sure how to act, and you felt like you were the odd one out. Or maybe you badly misread the dress code, so you showed up overdressed or underdressed. Or maybe you were in a new position of authority or leadership and felt woefully unqualified.

When you’re in a situation like that, you can’t help but wonder if anyone can tell how uncomfortable you feel. You can’t help but think everyone is staring at you and wondering what you of all people are doing there. Everyone else belongs, but you are an imposter.

In Psalm 95 we find an incredible description of God—and, somehow, we of all people are invited into this incredible God’s presence.

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. Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your 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.”

Read Psalm 95:1–7 “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.

The Invitation has been sent.

Who sent the invitation?

The depths of the earth are in his hands. The mountain peaks belong to im. The sea is his, he made it. He formed the dry land. Reigned down plagues from heaven. Led people by cloud by day and fire by night. Turned waters to blood to convince Pharoah to let the Hebrew people free. The design of human body. The design of nature. The laws that keep order and prevent the entire from falling apart.

In a world that is longing for connection,

When you say yes to the invitation, are you going to fit in?

Have you ever been invited somewhere, but not know if you wanted to go…or felt welcome or prepared…didn’t have the physical skills, social skills, spiritual skills, right clothes, etc.

Calling to ministry…how am I going to do this? How am I going to be a youth pastor? How am I going to be a senior pastor? How am I going to to Hawaii? Washington State? Washington County?

How am I going to lead my kids to Christ? How am I going to serve in kids ministry in a way that leads kids to take next steps toward Jesus? How am I going to step up and serve as a leader? Some of you may be being called to ministry, leader, pastor, board member. How am I goign to get up and be baptized in front of the church knowing I am not perfect.

Application/Transition:

Remember who it is who has invited you? God creator of heaven and earth. He wants you there.

The very fact that He invites us speaks…

So often you and I focus on ourselves and our own shortcomings, how we will have to sacrifice, what we don’t have, what we don’t bring to the table, how we won’t fit in, how we aren’t good enough, how we are going to feel…

WHEN WE NEED TO REMEMBER that the CREATOR has sent the invitation and He wants you to RSVP. He wants you there.

When he says come, follow me, come and see, draw near to me. He means it.

Come, Worship, Sing, Serve, Love, Go, Invite. Let’s accept the creators invitation.

Troubles come with hard hearts.

Psalm 95:8–9 “Today, if you hear his voice,” 8 do not harden your 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.”

The invitation in today’s psalm was given to the Israelites. And they should’ve known the value of the invitation.

God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Didn’t just deliver them, God wiped out the Egyptian army. God provided manna miraculously for them in the wilderness. God provided quail as they wandered int he dessert wilderness.

They knew all of the things I mentioned previously about God, who invited them. And yet they did not have hearts to receive of believe it.

In Exodus 17, they went to Moses demanding water. Here is what they said to Moses and ultimately about God.

Exodus 17:3 “3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

Although, this scene in Exodus 17 is the specific situation referenced in Psalm 95, this is not the only time they were ungrateful and unappreciative of their invitation to follow him and be his people.

They repeatedly made ungrateful demands of God. A simple google reveals that text records the Israelites saying it would have been better to die enslaved in Egypt than to journey in the wilderness with God.

Israelites were hard of heart.

We can be just like them.

——————

During the season of Lent, the church has intentionally built into our rhythm a time that will remind us of wilderness times in order to draw us closer to God. The forty days that we observe are symblic of the 40 days the Israelites spent in the wilderness and the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. Both 40 day seasons were times of stretching, development, and temptation.

The wilderness is not fun. It is not easy. None of us look foward to wilderness. (really only what is the outcome)

The Israelites were completely right to worry about good and water and safety in the desert. They were weak, small, vulnerable, and had no provisions. When they were hungry, thirsty, the Israelites didn’t remember the back-breaking demanding labor the Egyptians were forcing upon them They only remembered having enough to eat.

We do this in life too.

Sometimes we romanticize another job that God delivered us from. When we forget the environment and toxic environment we worked at.

Middle schoolers look back on elementary school and think that was more fun. When we forget we longed for the freedom that comes with being a little older.

Young adults fresh out of college look back on their college years and romanticize it. When we forget the long hours of testing and large amounts of class time we had endure.

Sometimes we romanticize the past friends or relationships that God delivered us from. When we forget how that relationship was distracting us from God’s plan for your life.

The problem for them and us is that we focus too much on the romanticized version of history and forget where God has us right NOW. That is the TRUTH. We are not journeying alone. They are journeying in the presence of the living God. We are invited to JOURNEY the living God.

The works HE has for you have been prepared for you to do. You have been given the gifts to accomplish the tasks in front of you. When wilderness seasons come though…In wilderness, it is easy to romanticize the past, no matter how bad the past was.

And our hard hearts and hard heads don’t remember who invited us. who is with us.

Application:

Who needs to remember that where you are right now is where you are and God is with you. Some of you are in a wilderness season right now! Some of you need to be reminded of who it is that has invited you. Some of you need to remember who it is that you walk with.

We need to remember how to live into and live out one of my favorite songs that goes like this…

In the Graden (C. Austin Miles)

I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still not he roses.

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear. The son of God discloses.

And he walks with me and he talks with me

And he tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

none other has ever known.

Where ever you are…wilderness, lost, worried, fear in a difficult season…YOU CAN STILL RSVP

You can still RSVP

RSVP is an appreciation of a French phrase meaning: “Please Respond”

Hard hearts and hard heads is still a thing. Wilderness seasons do sometimes distract us. But the invitation is still sent.

God’s invitation to follow him and rest is still available to us. He did not unsend His invitation. (allude to text messages)

The wilderness is not easy. Lent is not an easy journey.

You will have the opportunity over the next days together to examine yourselves. Even the things you would like to keep hidden.

If you accept the invitation of God seriously, it will force you to slow down, to deal with your sin and the brokenness it has caused in you or in the world around you.

You will be faced with calls for repentance.

If you take the time this season to look intently in the face of Jesus, you will have the opportunity to take next steps in your faith.

You will be challenged to trust in big ways that may be invonvenient and uncomfrotable.

And that is what the season of Lent is about. (The fasting, the prayer time beginning on March 16, the intentionality of growth)

God have your ways in us and may we all RSVP.

God may be calling you into a new season. (Job or relationship) But you don’t want to leave it behind because you romanticize your reality. You don’t know the future. But God does. And if God is calling you.

God may be calling you into a season or prayer. And you need to jumpstart this habit by participating corporately. And when you heard of the church praying for 21 days straight at 6am. You are like that is for me. But you know that time is going to be hard. Wilderness seasons aren’t meant to be easy.

The wilderness of God often comes through seasons of trial and wilderness. Will we RSVP?

If you know you need to take a next step today and God has convicted you and you know you need God’ strength to answer that call. These altars are open for you. Our pastors and prayer team will pray for you.