Song of Rescue

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME

GOOD MORNING

THANK YOU FOR JOINING US

RENEWAL

Context with Ephesians

August & September - Renewal

Need for renewal - tired, isolated, beat down

Soil of Renewal being the glorious, unlimited re

Hope of Renewal to have our inner being, our head Mind), hearts emotion), and our hands (will).

Roots of Renewal - understanding and experiencing the love of God

Growth of Renewal as we are filled with the fulness of God

Fruit of Renewal - the glory of God

Psalms of Ascent

15 Songs…

REVIEW

Week 1 - Song of Repentance

“In my distress I called to the Lord… sojourn”

Week 2 - Song of Providence

“I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help comes from?”

Week 3 - Song of Gathering

“Let us go to the house of the Lord...”

Week 4 - Song of a Servant (Unresolved Lament)

“I lift my eyes for mercy...”

TRANSITION | Song of Rescue

Dawning Sun after the long darkness of night...

Last week was a song of lament, waiting for mercy but the song ended and mercy had not yet arrived.

Today, as we look at the next song - mercy arrives

“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” Psalm 30:5

Community Song

“Let Israel now say...”

Don’t make me say this by myself...

SONG OF WHAT IF...

Song of What Ifs - Raging Risks and Dangers

Song of What Is - Real Rescue and Deliverance

READ | & Pray

WHAT IF… | Serious Risks!

ISRAEL | “If… Then…” (If 2, then 3, 4, 5)

Sayings...

“Swallowed us alive, anger kindled against us”

“Flood would have swept us away...”

“Raging waters”

REAL & IMMEDIATE DANGERS FROM MAN & NATURE

"People” - word for Adam, Mankind

Listen to the overwhelming terror of what abandonment would have meant

“Swallowed up alive”

“Flood swept us away… gone over us”

“Raging waters”

SUDDEN, IMMEDIATE, COMPLETE DESTRUCTION

Monster under you bed that doesn’t even need to chew you for you to be consumed.

The ground giving way beneath your feet and swallowing you into darkness.

SUDDEN, COMPLETE, DROWNING

Describe Wadis

Death is better than drowning

Gasping, convulsing, longing for air but lungs filling with water

Inescapable prison

ISRAEL EXPERIENCED THIS REALITY

Slavery in Egypt

What if God didn’t free us, no plagues against Egypt, no passover

What if there was no cloud by day or fire my night to lead them

Walls of Jericho

What if the walls of Jericho never fell - the shouts and trumpets sounded and then silence, laughter as the powerful walls remained standing.

On and on the list could go

Sometimes we take for granted God’s redemptive work.

We assume on it, and without further consideration we fail to even say thank you

Like children who assume their parents will buy more food, cook another meal, that clothes magically get cleaned and put back in the drawer and the become upset with those same parents when they don’t get their way, or a particular meal but never stop to actually say thank you

So we are with God

What thought did you give this morning that the sun rose - air filled your lungs

Grass is green, birds in the air, fish are swimming in the ponds, flowers are saturate with colors, food is growing in the garden, cloud are holding and releasing rain.

YOUR PAST

I’VE EXPERIENCED THIS MOMENT - As I meditated on this passage this week I was reminded.

Kirsten and I had been married for 3 months - I was studying Psychology with a minor in Art with a desire to use art therapy with kids. I was beginning to look at graduate schools when I felt like God was renewing in me a call to ministry.

I said no!

Black hole - falling - beyond fear - sheer TERROR - abandonment - desperation

Such was the all-consuming despair that I could only cry out

I’m yours

I’ll go wherever you want me to go, I’ll say whatever you want me to say, I’ll do whatever you want me to do - I just never, ever want to be outside of your presence.

Where would I be today if I called the darkness and despair my home

What if God did not save me from my own comfort and path?

What if...

Where would I be?

Who would I be?

HAVE YOU EVER ASKED ‘WHAT IF...’

Consider some of your deepest pains, fears, brokenness, failures, sins

What if - God left you there. What if that was your only reality?

What if God wasn’t near, didn’t intervene, wasn’t present

Where would you be?

Who would you be?

YOUR PRESENT

Consider YOUR PRESENT CHALLENGES - sins - fears - brokenness - pain

What if God completely abandoned you to these?

No light - no rescue - no redemption - no good comes out of it - nothing positive

No everything works for the good of those who follow God

No - people meant it for evil but God uses it for good.

Only darkness - instant, sudden, drowning in darkness, drowning in despair

Gasping for something of hope or goodness but only breathing in more despair and you fall deeper and deeper into darkness

This is what the Psalmist invites us to consider

not just personally

But collectively

WHAT HOPE DO WE HAVE AS A CHURCH - WITHOUT GOD

Political Divisions

Racial Injustices

Corrupt Culture

Greed, Pride, Power, Hatred, Individualism

Without God that waters rage

Without God it feels like we are consumed alive - in a single bite - gone

The waters cover us, bury us

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR STORY THIS MORNING - WITHOUT GOD?

WHAT IS… | Sufficient Rescuer!

BLESSED BE THE LORD

DROWNING -BEGGING FOR AIR - The instant the air rather than fluid fills the lungs. The gasp, the relief, the hope, the possibility that all is not lost, that death is not imminent.

The real fear that surrounded us, confined us, imprisoned us - IS BROKEN

Light pierces the darkness

Hope pierces the despair

SERIOUS RISKS… SUFFICIENT RESCUER

TO THE MONSTER THAT TRIED SWALLOWING US WHOLE - IS REAL

Bitten but no consumed

“prey to their teeth...” - This isn’t telling us we will be free from all danger. It is telling us that we are rescued from real danger.

THE BIRD TRAPPED IN THE SNARE

Ensnared but not killed killed

Caught but not killed

Ensnared but not enslaved

Real rescue from real danger.

REAL RISKS IN OUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY TODAY

DANGERS IN OUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IS REAL

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW PAIN/DANGER/RISK - WITNESS

“Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made the heaven and earth”

“In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me.” - St. Augustine

We taste the sweetness of God’s goodness in the midst of the life’s bitter pain

“When we think of “witness,” we tend to think of simplistic slogans or aggressive proselytism. But in Christian thought, the word witness is always connected to the expression of the cross as well as the experience of the cross.” - Josh Moody

Story to Tell - How have you experienced God’s rescue?

This is your story

APPLICATION

What is your if… then… testimony

If not for God… Then...

But “Praise Jesus..” This is my truth today

Who will you tell?

FUTURE RESCUE | Gospel Connection

WITHOUT GOD… SWALLOWED WHOLE - CONSUMED -SHEOL

All of us, upon birth, was held captive, enslaved to sin.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

WITH GOD… RESCUED & WORSHIP

Isaiah 25:8–9 ESV

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 ESV

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

WORSHIP

Hebrews 13:15 ESV

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

COMMUNION