Song of Secured Hope

PREACH FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME

Good morning - thank you for joining us

We are continuing in our study through the 15 Psalms of Ascent - a collection of 15 songs that we sung by the nation of Israel as they journeyed to Jerusalem to meet with God 3x / year.

For us, our desire is that the themes of these songs with accompany us on our faith journey.

Today’s theme in Psalm 125 is much needed.

It is a SONG OF SECURED HOPE

INSECURITY

CONNECTION

More than Weak Slogans thrown at deep insecurities to mask our pain.

“Hope in God,” I’ll pray for you but let’s not talk about anxiety, depression, suicide, fear, injustice, brokenness. Just “Hope in God” and be blessed.

I’m not interested in some pithy, emotional, tweetable statements that are impotent in ministering to such brokenness.

Real Pain

CDC Study from June of 2020 compared to 2019

3x More Anxiety

4x More Depression

2.5x More Suicidal Thoughts

Article this week talked about the toll of stress through the Pandemic

Sleepless night

Hair Loss

and cracked teeth

Disney has laid off 28,000 employees

I overheard people talking about the significant layoffs in their departments and the ongoing tension they felt and how that fear peaked as the phone rang.

RELATIONSHIPS

Isolation, friction

POLITICS

Both sides saying America is under threat if the other person wins.

As if either person has the ability to lead outside the sovereign hand of God

DO WE HAVE A SECURE HOPE

Yes! Yes! Yes!

The darkness of despair is thick but the light of hope is searing and sharp - cutting through the darkness like a flaming sword swung by a warrior King.

We are not given to despair but joy and perseverance (James 1:2-4)

Why? How?

READ THE PASSAGE | Psalm 125

MOUNTAIN OF HOPE

FIRM FOUNDATION (125:1)

TRUST IN THE LORD

What do you trust in?

When the darkness descends - where do you hide?

When the ground around your feet begins to shake - where do you stand?

Where do you lay the foundation of your house of your hope?

Those who trust in the Lord have a firm foundation?

Those who lay the foundation of their hope in anything besides the lord - faces sure destruction

LIKE MOUNT ZION… UNMOVED - ABIDING FOREVER

Chosen by God

Psalm 132:13 “ For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place”

When the darkness descends we hide in the light of God

Psalm 27:1 “ You, LORD, are the light that keeps me safe.

Joel 3:17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.”

When the ground around us begins to shake - we stand on the foundation of God

His presence

His power

Together as his people

UNSHAKABLE FOUNDATION

UNSHAKABLE

God is...

INFINITE - Self- Existing, without Origin - meaning - he has always been and willing be forever. No beginning, and no end.

UNCHANGING - have you ever stood in the sand where the waves crash over your feet as your feet sick in deeper and deeper. The grains of sand slowly shifting with each new wave? God is the opposite of this. He is a rock - waves crash but he does not change or shift.

SELF-SUFFICIENT - He has no needs for himself and is fully capable and willing to meet us in our need.

ALL-POWERFUL

ALL-KNOWING

ALL-PRESENT

ALL-WISE

ALL-FAITHFUL

ALL-GOOD

ALL-JUST

ALL-MERCIFUL

ALL-GRACIOUS

ALL-LOVING

ALL-HOLY

ALL-GLORIOUS

VULNERABLE BUT PROTECTED (125:2)

YES - WE ARE VULNERABLE (125:2a)

LANDSCAPE

East - Mount of Olives

North - Mount Scopus

West & South - Other mountains, all taller than Mount Zion and the city of Jersualem.

INVERTED PYRAMID

Center is at the lowest point

Vulnerable BUT PROTECTED

YES - WE ARE PROTECTED (125:2b)

Tonight -

Imagine you knew that someone was going to attempt to break into your home and harm your family.

Would you rather trust you deadbolt and glass windows.

Or the Presence of God

Unmoved, abiding, surrounding, forever

In our HEAD - We trust in the Lord

In our HEART - maybe both, maybe something we can see

We often hope in the mountain but live in the valley of fear.

VALLEY OF FEAR

OUTSIDE ATTACK (125:3a)

SCEPTER - This is the rule and reign of a godless outside kingdom coming in.

The fear of what is out there...

Pandemics

Economy

Politics

Relationship

Etc, etc, etc

But our fears are more than just what is “out there”

More than the things that “go bump in the night.”

More than the unknown

Our fears are also in what we know to be inside us

INWARD REBELLION (125:3b)

GOOD HANDS DOING BAD (125:3b)

When intentions and actions don’t align

When the threat of evil, brokenness, sin - isn’t just out there - but it is in us.

WE KNOW… WE HAVE CROOKED AFFECTIONS

Wickedness isn’t just out there - far off

It’s inside - close

JUDGEMENT (125:4-5)

JUDGEMENT (125:5a)

God would lead away those who turn aside and trust crooked ways

Let this sink in for a moment

Have you ever trusted your:

Bank account

Job

Relationship

Politician

Position

Health

Intelligence

Anything - more than God?

If so, we deserve to be led away with all the other evil doers.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR PROTECTOR BECOMES OUR PUNISHER?

Where is our hope?

If your hope for God’s protection is only as strong as your own goodness - then how secure is your hope?

GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Thousands of miles long

30 Feet high

18 Feet thick

Built for security against the northern invaders

Massive construction, impenetrable if you disregard the gaps.

Mongols got through by simply bribing a gatekeeper.

EXILE

What if your faith and your goodness were the gatekeeper to God’s protection?

If your hope of protection is only as strong as your faith than we have a VERY INSECURE HOPE.

This is why it is a PITHY STATEMENT to simply say, TRUST IN GOD, YOUR HOPE IS IN GOD.

Though it is true - the danger is that we believe that our Hope is only as strong as our faith.

Roughly 300 years after this was written, God allowed the Babylonians to invade Israel and take them from the land he promised. While God would ultimately remain faithful to his enduring promise, there were severe and foretold consequences for the people’s disobedience.

As part of God’s covenants - the people of God were called to :

Do righteousness and justice in the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 18:19)

Specific and Numerous Standards of righteousness described in the Mosaic Covenant. (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 26-28).

Consequences foretold that became a reality.

YET - THOSE WHO TRUST IN THE LORD ARE LIKE MOUNT ZION

Unmoved

Abiding Presence of God

Surrounded by his presence.

We not only have hope in God

We have a SECURED HOPE

JESUS SECURES OUR HOPE

Let me explain… I want you to feel the weight and joy of the hope we have this morning. This is not a pithy religious slogan meant to make you feel good for a moment.

This truth has the power to heal the most deep and broken parts of your life. The deepest corners of darkness and hopeless will flee when they are bought into the presence of this glorious truth.

The secured of your hope is not conditioned on the strength of your faith but the object of your faith.

The object of our faith is JESUS

JESUS’ RIGHTEOUSNESS

GOD’S STANDARD OF PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS

JESUS - WAS PERFECTLY OBEDIENT - SECURING OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

OUR HOPE SECURED THROUGH HIS LIFE

JESUS’ DEATH

OUR SIN REQUIRED US BEING LED AWAY WITH ALL EVIL DOERS

JESUS - WAS LED AWAY TO DEATH IN OUR PLAY

OUR HOPE SECURED THROUGH HIS DEATH

JESUS’ RESURRECTION

THIS LIFE WAS CHAINED & ENSLAVED TO DEMANDS & IMPERFECTION

JESUS - ROSE FROM THE DEAD, ENTHRONED IN HEAVEN - THROUGH HIS SPIRIT -

Not only surrounding his people but indwelling his people

Abiding in us and us in him forever

OUR HOPE IS SECURED THROUGH THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

Because of Jesus - living a perfect life in our place, we cannot be moved (the sands do not shift, he is our rock)

Because of Jesus - dying and rising for the dead, and ascending into Heaven, the Holy Spirit abides within us

Because of Jesus siting on the eternal throne of David - we are protected from this time forth and forever more.

CONCLUSION

OUR INSECURITIES

Bring you insecurities, vulnerabilities before God this morning

It is not the strength of your hope and standing

It is the object upon which you place your broken hope

JESUS’ VICTORY

You can look to God with a secured Hope

God’s protection of you is not based on your obedience or good works but on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

CS LEWIS

Joy tells me that once, years ago, she was haunted one morning by a feeling that God wanted something of her, a persistent pressure like the nag of a neglected duty. And till mid-morning she kept on wondering what it was. But the moment she stopped worrying, the answer came through as plain as a spoken voice. It was “I don’t want you to do anything. I want to give you something”; and immediately her heart was full of peace and delight. St. Augustine says “God gives where He finds empty hands.” A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift. Perhaps these parcels are not always sins or earthly cares, but sometimes our own fussy attempts to worship Him in our way.  

SECURED HOPE

I don’t want you to hear “Hope in God” as a command that your effort secures and provides the hope

I want you to hear “Your Hope was Secured was Jesus” - Now rest in him with empty hands and broken hands - rest in him.

LEAN IN

“Trust” - the act of confiding, object of confidence

COMMUNION

Communion is the sign/symbol of God’s New Covenant

Covenant with Abraham was circumcision

Covenant with Israel, through Moses was the Sabbath

As God establish a New Covenant, A Covenant of Peace - he gave us a new sign and symbol to remind us