Psalm 107:23-32 Haven City Church Innaguration
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Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.
Pray
Did you know that on average one ship either sunk, foundered, grounded, or was otherwise lost almost every other day in 2017?
Did you know that almost 90% of everything you buy was carried by a ship?
Did you know every year, more than 2,000 sailors die at sea?
The largest ships can store 745 million bananas in nearly 15,000 containers. That’s about one for every person in Europe and North America.
Here the text says “he guided them to their desired haven.”
What is a haven?
It is defined as a harbor or a port
Also, it is a place of safety or refuge
The word is sometimes used to refer to a secure location for your money where it will not be taxed: A tax haven… The Cayman Islands or Luxembourg come to mind.
In scripture the passage is one of three occurrences for this word:
“Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea; He shall become a haven for ships, And his border shall adjoin Sidon.
Psalm
Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He guides them to their desired haven.
Passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea.
In all three occurrences it is a nautical term referring to a safe harbor where ships can sit in quiet water.
When I lived in Kauai there was a very popular beach called Lydegate Beach Park. It was especially attractive to families with kids because it had two rock enclosed ponds to create a safe haven from the open ocean waves.
Huge waves could come rolling into shore but would be zeroed out by the rock walls.
That is the idea of a haven. It is a calm harbor where your ship can rest peacefully.
Naming the Church
Naming the Church
Back in 2016 my wife and I traveled to Baltimore to determine where in the city we would start a church. There were a number of county pastors that encouraged us to go to the county. But two pastors recommended the Fells Point area.
Our trip lasted four days. We came down here on the first day and then returned on the fourth day.
It was on our last day in town that we checked out a couple of row house rentals our Fells point. We went down to the Canton waterfront park. And then on the way out of town we took a wrong turn by Target and ended up on Haven St.
That kicked off a discussion between my wife and I over the word Haven as name for the church. Once we were at the airport waiting for our flight I looked up haven in the Bible and came to this text, “He guides them to their desired haven...”
We felt like God was confirming this name for the church and with it confirming that we should live and plant the church in Southeast Baltimore.
Point #1 He guided them..
Point #1 He guided them..
These poor sailors were business men using ships to gain a profit. They were engaged in their vocation… their career. They were doing what sailors do, sailing from one location to the next.
And a storm hits…
What kind of storm was it?
The waves lifted them up to heaven then crashed them down to the depths. Their courage melted away. In other words their manliness… “I’m a dude and I can handle this”… Their stiff upper lip. Their brave demeanor… All of it disappeared through the storm.
Have you been there?
Have you been through a storm so terrible that it wrecks your normal composure? Maybe you didn’t even recognize yourself as you were freaking out.
Maybe that is where you are at this morning.
But the God of the Bible is the one who guides his people.
From the very beginning God gave guidance to Adam and Eve. God said:
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
God guided Adam and Eve to grow their family, to rule over the created world and to to eat the vegetables that were created.
The very first humans were guided by God...
God guided Abraham...
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
God guided Moses...
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Jesus: The Great Guider of Humanity
Follow me statements of Jesus...
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
and the Horites in their mountain of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is by the wilderness.
In fact the early Christians were not even called Christians they were called “The Way”. They were the followers of The Way. The people of God did life as those following a specified path. They were a guided people following a new Moses into a promised land.
Look at some of the “Follow me” statements of Jesus...
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
As He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
The invitation of scripture to humans is to surrender our own sense of direction. We can forget about blazing a new path or pioneering a new trail. And instead we surrender to God and receive his guidance.
It is exhausting to come up with your own plan.
God extends an invitation to you: “Let me guide you. Surrender your plan and allow we to give you a better path.”
But is God’s guidance good?
Point #2 The haven was desirable...
Point #2 The haven was desirable...
The haven was desirable...
One of the common cultural portrayals of Christianity is that God is a kill joy. Whether it is the Simpsons or Saturday Night Live, Christianity is portrayed as a stale, outdated, bore, that is only concerned about rules and limits.
But that isn’t the God of the Bible or the People of God in scripture...
In this Psalm the destination that God brings the freaked out sailors to was a desirable haven. The sailors didn’t have have to look at the haven sideways to appreciate it. They didn’t contort their face once their arrived. No! The destination that God brought the people to was what they desired.
All through scripture we see God guiding his people into a good land… The beauty that God described correlated to the beauty that people appreciated.
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
But the most desirable aspect of the Christian message is God himself. The more the Christian life unfolds the more beautiful Jesus becomes. He does touch our circumstances, relationships, job, house, possessions and gives us a sense of his beauty. But God is truly the object of our affection.
The goodness of God is often experienced through circumstances.
But the most desirable in the Christian faith is God himself. The more the Christian life unfolds the more beautiful Jesus becomes. He does touch our circumstances, relationships, job, house, possessions and gives us a sense of his beauty. But God is truly the object of our affection.
God’s invitation to you is not a call to abandon beauty, love, romance, excitement… No! God’s invitation is “come and let me lead you into the true beauty, love, romance, purpose that all those other experiences have foreshadowed”.
Point #3 The haven of God...
Point #3 The haven of God...
The haven of God...
What does the haven in this story foreshadow?
What is the true haven that God wants to bring us into?
It isn’t the church
It isn’t necessarily a change in our circumstances
It isn’t the fulfillment of our dreams
All of those things are byproducts of being in The Haven.
The Haven of God is Jesus Christ.
Correlation: Jesus Calms the Storm
God’s rescue for humanity was Jesus.
God loves the world and 2000 years ago He sent his son Jesus into the world on a mission. Jesus lived a perfect life and died on the cross for our guilt. Jesus fulfilled our guilty sentence.
And Jesus was raised from the dead after three days.
With his resurrection He inaugurated a haven for all who would turn to him. By turning to Christ and trusting in him, we are brought into the Haven of God.
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Mark 4:35
We are the sailors caught in a perilous storm of our own sin and the sins of others. The world we live in is deeply flawed by the rebellion of humanity. And we desperately need to be guided into The Haven.
God’s rescue for humanity is Jesus.
God loves the world and 2000 years ago He sent his son Jesus into the world on a mission. Jesus lived a perfect life and died on the cross for our guilt. Jesus fulfilled our guilty sentence.
And Jesus was raised from the dead after three days.
With his resurrection He inaugurated a haven for all who would turn to him. By turning to Christ and trusting in him, we are brought into the Haven of God.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
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.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Psalmist concludes this short story with the following words:
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.
This story invites you and I to experience God’s rescue and then turn our praise and gratitude to him for that rescue.
Will you take God at his Word and allow him to lead you into a desirable haven?
Let’s pray
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