SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Harvard Church.
SPEAKER_00: Today, this scripture comes from Psalms chapter 126.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Emma.
SPEAKER_00: I serve on the Connections team, and it is my joy to read God's word in our gathering this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, this is Psalm 126.
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
SPEAKER_00: Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has done great things for us.
SPEAKER_00: We are glad.
SPEAKER_00: Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb.
SPEAKER_00: Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_00: He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, Harvard Church.
SPEAKER_01: It is an honor to be here.
SPEAKER_01: I will say from the outset, I'm sorry if you can't see me.
SPEAKER_01: Ryan and Trevor are tall guys, and I'm vertically challenged, so we'll try to get through it.
SPEAKER_01: I am honored to be here with you all.
SPEAKER_01: I do serve as one of the co-lead pastors at City Light Church in Council Bluffs, and I get a serve on the City Light Family Board, which we're celebrating what God is doing right here.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you part of the reason why.
SPEAKER_01: Ten years ago, when I uh planted in Council Bluffs, it was the third church plant in the City Light family.
SPEAKER_01: And we as a small family of churches all shared the same mission to multiply disciples and churches.
SPEAKER_01: And that was our mission because we believe that actually that's Jesus' mission.
SPEAKER_01: He said things like, I will build my church.
SPEAKER_01: And then we see in the book of Acts early on, it says that the church, walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, multiplied.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Jesus said he would build his church, and then the church was being built, we believed that the same God and the same Jesus who worked like that back then is still working like that right now.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to share Jesus' mission.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just prayed.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, would you make us a family?
SPEAKER_01: Where we see disciples and churches multiplied beyond what we've seen now.
SPEAKER_01: God would do more than we could ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And 10 years later, my little church from Council Bluffs, a place where uh people said church plants go to die, a place where in the first six years I lived there, I saw six church plants start and fail.
SPEAKER_01: Now our church has made it 10 years, and we've planted two more churches, one in Council Bluffs and one outside Council Bluffs.
SPEAKER_01: And now, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And now we get to see the City Light family.
SPEAKER_01: 20 churches have been planted, and there are some five or six more in the pipeline coming soon.
SPEAKER_01: Harbor Church, you are an answer to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Harbor Church, you are evidence that God is at work in the world right now.
SPEAKER_01: You are proof that the God who made promises to his people in his word keeps those promises.
SPEAKER_01: You are proof that the blood that Jesus shed on the cross was not shed in vain, but he still seeks and saves the lost.
SPEAKER_01: You are proof that Jesus is seated on the throne in heaven so that he could send his spirit to multiply disciples right now.
SPEAKER_01: You are evidence of God's goodness to his people.
SPEAKER_01: You are part of something much bigger than yourselves, part of something much bigger than the City Light family.
SPEAKER_01: You are part of the work of God in the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: And for that reason, I stand humbled to be behind a really tall podium sharing God's word with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And so, with that introduction, I would love to get into Psalm 126 with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'll set it up like this.
SPEAKER_01: Ten years ago, I was preparing to plant the church in Council Bluffs, and just before we launched, uh, something really cool had happened.
SPEAKER_01: I had spent a year as a tech executive at a company in Omaha.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't, I was not qualified for that job.
SPEAKER_01: I should never have gotten that job, but I was a tech executive for one year.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you something kind of amazing about being a tech executive in Omaha, you make a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: Like a lot more money than I ever thought I would make.
SPEAKER_01: And I gotta do that for one year, and the end of that year coincided with my 10-year anniversary.
SPEAKER_01: And so I gotta do something cool.
SPEAKER_01: The week before we did our launch as a church, I gotta take my wife on a 10-year anniversary trip to a little all-inclusive resort in a place called Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.
SPEAKER_01: And we're at this resort, it was amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the sandy beaches, the ocean just splashing on them.
SPEAKER_01: There were pools and restaurants with French food that I don't even know if I liked, but I felt fancy eating it.
SPEAKER_01: And one day we went on an excursion uh to a mountain, and we got to ride this off-road vehicle up the mountain about two-thirds of the way, and then there was a donkey uh ride that took us the rest of the way, um, which I didn't enjoy, honestly, but uh it took us up there.
SPEAKER_01: It's a memory.
SPEAKER_01: We got all the way to the top, and to work our way down, we got to do uh a bunch of zip lines.
SPEAKER_01: It was like a dozen zip lines and some repelling and some water slides, and then they served us dinner at the end, and then they brought us back to the resort where I sat in a hot tub and looked at the sun setting over the ocean.
SPEAKER_01: It was amazing.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember sitting there thinking, this place is gorgeous.
SPEAKER_01: This woman that said yes to me 10 years before is still with me, and she is gorgeous.
SPEAKER_01: I'm living the dream right now.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I never should have gotten to do this.
SPEAKER_01: People from Council Bluffs don't go to all-inclusive resorts, all right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying it.
SPEAKER_01: Council Tucky can't afford stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't get to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Guys from Iowa don't wake up to ocean breezes blowing on their balcony.
SPEAKER_01: You wake up to the smells of the Missouri River blowing across the city.
SPEAKER_01: All right, it's different.
SPEAKER_01: I sat in that hot tub and thought, I shouldn't live this life.
SPEAKER_01: This is for someone else, not for me.
SPEAKER_01: This is like living a dream.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever felt like you were living a dream?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I think that's where Psalm 126 wants to take us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the headspace the psalmist wants us in as we read this psalm.
SPEAKER_01: As we get into it, I think you'll find that the psalm is broken up into two halves.
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll break it up the same way.
SPEAKER_01: I would summarize it and outline maybe like this two parts.
SPEAKER_01: The first half, the dream came true, and the second half, we're dreaming again.
SPEAKER_01: All right, there's our outline.
SPEAKER_01: The dream came true, we're dreaming again.
SPEAKER_01: Let's jump in.
SPEAKER_01: First, the psalmist was living the dream, but he was not at an all-inclusive in Porta Vallarta.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he was remembering what God had done for his people.
SPEAKER_01: He's simply reflecting on the work of God for his people.
SPEAKER_01: Times when God had done such incredible things that the people of God couldn't tell if the existence that they were living was reality or a dream.
SPEAKER_01: The psalm begins like this.
SPEAKER_01: Remember his words with me.
SPEAKER_01: When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
SPEAKER_01: When God worked for us as people, it was like we were living the dream.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible doesn't tell us, the psalmist doesn't tell us exactly what he had in mind when he penned these words.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he was remembering when God worked through Moses to set his people free from 400 plus years in slavery to taskmasters in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe he was remembering when God used Deborah, the judge, to set his people free from 20 years of oppression to the Canaanites.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe he was remembering when God used Gideon to deliver his people from slavery to the Midianites for seven years.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe he was remembering when God worked through Jephthah to set them his people free from Philistines and Amorites ruling over them for 18 years.
SPEAKER_01: God's people were enslaved a lot early on, all right?
SPEAKER_01: They just kept going back.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the psalmist used intentionally vague language in a way that inspires us, the readers, the people of God, to recall the many, many, many situations where God restored the fortunes of his people.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I would suggest to you that these songs of ascent are Hebrew meditative literature.
SPEAKER_01: We're not intended to read these six verses, close the book, and walk away.
SPEAKER_01: We're intended to read these six verses and chew on them and wonder, God, what were you pointing to?
SPEAKER_01: Where else did we see you working like that?
SPEAKER_01: That the psalmist is describing.
SPEAKER_01: So, whatever the case he had in mind as he penned this, there was a time when the people of God were oppressed and God redeemed them.
SPEAKER_01: He reversed their situation.
SPEAKER_01: It was like they were living a dream.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible is filled with all kinds of accounts of God's power to redeem his people in unbelievable ways.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's what the psalmist is directing our minds towards.
SPEAKER_01: God restores his people.
SPEAKER_01: And when he restores his people, he does it in a way that it's like making dreams come true.
SPEAKER_01: It's only what you could dream about.
SPEAKER_01: You can't achieve it on your own, but God could do that.
SPEAKER_01: Those sorts of restorative dreams, that's how God works for his people.
SPEAKER_01: It hardly feels like reality.
SPEAKER_01: It's so amazing that the restoration goes viral.
SPEAKER_01: Like everybody starts talking about it.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that's the case as the psalm goes on.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the next verses with me, verses two and three.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist writes Then, after God had restored the fortunes of his people, then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_01: Then they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord has done great things for us.
SPEAKER_01: We are glad.
SPEAKER_01: So much that the nations around them heard the accounts of what God had done for his people, and they declared, the Lord has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_01: You know who those nations included?
SPEAKER_01: They included people who worshiped other gods.
SPEAKER_01: They included people who had wandered away from the God who created them.
SPEAKER_01: They included people who probably rejected the idea altogether that there even is a God.
SPEAKER_01: It was people who did not know or believe or follow the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: They are the ones hearing the accounts of what God has done and declaring the Lord, Yahweh, the God of the Bible, has done great things for his people.
SPEAKER_01: And then the people hear that and echo it back.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord has done great things for us.
SPEAKER_01: We are glad.
SPEAKER_01: This is a song of assent.
SPEAKER_01: This is a song that's drawing us into the worship of God.
SPEAKER_01: And in this one, he's drawing all of the nations into the worship of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's unbelievers seeing the work of the Lord in his people worshiping God.
SPEAKER_01: Is that not amazing?
SPEAKER_01: And friends, I think, I think that still happens today.
SPEAKER_01: Like earlier this summer, I was talking to a friend of mine, his name's Reggie.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a son that uh had just graduated high school and he was going off to college.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Reggie has done ministry for his whole life, been on staff at churches, he raised all of his kids to know the Bible, to know and love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, his son, late in high school, did what many um young men late in high school do.
SPEAKER_01: He just started questioning is this faith that my dad is trying to pass on to me, is that really mine?
SPEAKER_01: Do I believe what my dad believes?
SPEAKER_01: And he started questioning it.
SPEAKER_01: And then he went off to college with those questions.
SPEAKER_01: He did his first year of school, and then uh uh this summer he got a job out on the East Coast doing door-to-door sales.
SPEAKER_01: And as he's doing these uh orientations for this job, he meets a guy there who is just on fire for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Like so much so that he doesn't just love Jesus himself, he won't talk about anything else.
SPEAKER_01: He wants everybody else to love Jesus just as much as he does.
SPEAKER_01: And so you got this young man, Reggie's son, who's questioning, do I even believe what I know about the scriptures, what I know about God?
SPEAKER_01: Working shoulder to shoulder, hours on end, day after day, with this guy who is just on fire, passionate for Jesus, and he keeps talking about Jesus and keeps sharing what God has done in his life.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, Reggie's son says, And how do you know that what you believe is true?
SPEAKER_01: You know what this guy said?
SPEAKER_01: In all of his fire for Jesus, he did not open the word and take Reggie's son to a scripture passage, which would have been a legit thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't like channel his best apologetics training and try to use reason and logic to convince him that it's right and good to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Although that's a legitimate way to go.
SPEAKER_01: When this skeptic, this critic, this questioner asks, how do you know what you believe about Jesus is true?
SPEAKER_01: You know what this guy did?
SPEAKER_01: He simply shared the work that God had done in his life.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot deny the God who has moved in such incredible ways in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what was shared in that conversation, but what I do know is that Reggie's son, that very night, called his dad and said, I talked to my coworker, and I cannot deny God has done great things for him.
SPEAKER_01: It is literally the song of ascent on replay in real life.
SPEAKER_01: It is the testimony of the people of God, of the great work of God's hand in their real life, in this real world that made the skeptic declare God has done great things for him.
SPEAKER_01: And I while he hasn't done that for me yet, I want him to.
SPEAKER_01: Step number one, how do we put this on replay in our own lives?
SPEAKER_01: Spend time remembering what God has done for you.
SPEAKER_01: Just take time to remember.
SPEAKER_01: Especially as Americans who are so ambitious, I think we're always wanting to look forward.
SPEAKER_01: What's ahead of us?
SPEAKER_01: What do we achieve next?
SPEAKER_01: And we just rarely take time to turn around and look back at what God has done.
SPEAKER_01: And so, step number one, how do we put Psalm 126 on replay in our real lives?
SPEAKER_01: We just spend time remembering what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_01: How have you experienced his restoration and power and love in your life?
SPEAKER_01: When has he given you a dream come true sort of experience?
SPEAKER_01: How has God restored you?
SPEAKER_01: Reflect and remember.
SPEAKER_01: That's step number one.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, how do we hit replay on Psalm 126 in our lives?
SPEAKER_01: You feel the feels.
SPEAKER_01: As you look back and remember, you just let joy rise up in you.
SPEAKER_01: And I know I'm talking to a Midwestern crowd, all right?
SPEAKER_01: I know we love to be low-key and subdued.
SPEAKER_01: We never get too high, we never get too low, especially men in the room.
SPEAKER_01: So can I just speak to the men in the room for a moment?
SPEAKER_01: When I put feel the feels on the screen, you say, I'll do number one and skip to number three, all right?
SPEAKER_01: That's for the ladies.
SPEAKER_01: I'm out.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really get emotional much.
SPEAKER_01: Uh let me tell you about an experience I just had.
SPEAKER_01: My kids go to a school in a little town outside Council Bluffs called Underwood.
SPEAKER_01: They have a 4th of July parade that's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible because there is a Jack Lynx beef jerky facility in Underwood and they have a float.
SPEAKER_01: And unlike every other float in the parade that throws out Tootsie Rolls and Candy, the Jack Lynx beef jerky float throws out real beef, all right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's real beef.
SPEAKER_01: They call them protein snacks.
SPEAKER_01: They throw out some sort of meat, all right, in a package.
SPEAKER_01: And most of what they throw out are the little beef sticks.
SPEAKER_01: But among those beef sticks that rain down on the crowds gathered for the parade, there's some small pouches.
SPEAKER_01: And there's some of those 10 ounce and 16 ounce bags of beef jerky.
SPEAKER_01: You see these?
SPEAKER_01: They're like nearly$20 if you try to buy them at Casey's, and they're getting thrown out for free.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you something that happens in Underwood when the Jack Lynx beef jerky float drives by, you know what happens?
SPEAKER_01: Grown men rise out of their seats and they fight, little children lined up in front of them, reaching over top to grab the bags of jerky that rain down on them.
SPEAKER_01: And when those grown men battle successfully and they grab one of those bags, you know what I see?
SPEAKER_01: I see smiles adorn their faces, and shouts of joy pour from their lips.
SPEAKER_01: Grown Midwestern men have the ability to get excited.
SPEAKER_01: Beef jerky is proving it to me, all right?
SPEAKER_01: I get excited talking about it.
SPEAKER_01: I was just there and I still got some because I fought.
SPEAKER_01: I fought hard, all right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm a little guy, but I got little dog syndrome, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make it happen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm that's not in this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm getting off track.
SPEAKER_01: Step number two, feel the feels.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: That's for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: God has done great things for all of us, and it is intended for all of us to be filled with joy and gratitude for him.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what I'm telling you is if we're gonna put Psalm 126 on replay in our own lives, we gotta stop forward movement to look behind and remember what God has done, and then we have to let that impact our hearts in such a way that we can do the third thing, and that is to tell somebody about it.
SPEAKER_01: You tell somebody about because your joy in Jesus is an invitation to the world, to those around you, to experience that same joy.
SPEAKER_01: Is that not what Psalm 126 said?
SPEAKER_01: That when God Had done great things for his people.
SPEAKER_01: They were filled with laughter and shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_01: The nations heard and they declared, God has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_01: And so, how do we put this on replay?
SPEAKER_01: We're going to remember what God has done, and we are going to be filled with joy, with laughter and shouts of joy in such a way that the world hears it.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to share that.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to let the Spirit fill us with joy enough that it spills out of us.
SPEAKER_01: And the world can see what God has done in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, oftentimes a person's first step toward Jesus is not the result of a preacher like me standing behind a pulpit like this preaching a sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes a person's first step toward Jesus doesn't even come from a Bible verse when they open the scriptures and read it on their own.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes a person's first step toward Jesus comes when they see the way someone else has been loved by Jesus and loves him in return.
SPEAKER_01: And they say, I want that.
SPEAKER_01: God has done great things for them, and I wonder if he could do great things for me.
SPEAKER_01: And so how do we put Psalm 126 on replay in our own lives?
SPEAKER_01: We remember, we feel, and we tell.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, that's that's number one.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist was living the dream.
SPEAKER_01: Look, I don't even know when I'm supposed to be done.
SPEAKER_01: That's dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: Is this a countdown timer?
SPEAKER_01: It's a count up timer.
SPEAKER_01: That's worse.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we gotta get going.
SPEAKER_01: Dreaming.
SPEAKER_01: The first one, they were living the dream.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're we're dreaming again.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: The second half shifts.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of remembering how God had made dreams come true in the past, restoring the fortunes of his people, the psalmist begins to dream again.
SPEAKER_01: It seems that the people of God are in a season of struggle and they're looking for God to restore them.
SPEAKER_01: The second half of the psalm then is a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Let's read verse four.
SPEAKER_01: This is the prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev.
SPEAKER_01: Restore our fortunes.
SPEAKER_01: So verse one started when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion.
SPEAKER_01: Verse one is saying, I know God has done this in the past.
SPEAKER_01: Now, verse four is saying, restore our fortunes.
SPEAKER_01: God, because I know who, I know this is who you are, be that God for us right now.
SPEAKER_01: Restore our fortunes.
SPEAKER_01: And this request is coupled with really beautiful poetic imagery.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Restore our fortunes like streams in the Negev.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Negev was a dry, arid desert region in the south of the promised land, the place that God had given to his people.
SPEAKER_01: And so you might think in the United States it might be like Arizona, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Dry, arid desert south of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of thing that the Nageb is.
SPEAKER_01: And so they got so dry for so long that water totally dried up.
SPEAKER_01: All the creeks, all the streams, all the lakes, they all dried up all together.
SPEAKER_01: The land was parched.
SPEAKER_01: You can imagine it.
SPEAKER_01: Then something really beautiful and amazing would happen when rain finally fell.
SPEAKER_01: The water would come and it would gush down the dry land.
SPEAKER_01: And the parched, cracked land would soak it up, and dormant desert flower seeds would drink that in and sprout up.
SPEAKER_01: This beautiful thing happened when streams flowed through the Negib.
SPEAKER_01: A lifeless place would become full of life.
SPEAKER_01: An empty place would be filled with the beauty that God had designed it for.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the psalmist wants us to see as he prays and asks God to restore again, like streams and the negeb, restored.
SPEAKER_01: Water, watering the dry ground, satisfying thirsty seeds, giving life where there was no life.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, I wonder if the state of the church today might inspire us to pray prayers like this.
SPEAKER_01: Ten years ago, when I planted City like Council Bluffs, there were 99 churches in my city.
SPEAKER_01: 99.
SPEAKER_01: Today, 10 years later, there are 77.
SPEAKER_01: Which means we've lost two to three churches every year, year after year, for a decade.
SPEAKER_01: And among the remaining 77 churches, enough churches are struggling that we could go another decade at the same rate before we bottom out and see the trend change.
SPEAKER_01: Unless something miraculous happens, the big C church in Council Bluffs will be cut in half in the first 20 years of my ministry there.
SPEAKER_01: It is dry ground.
SPEAKER_01: And I would I would suggest to you, while I don't know the statistics quite as well, I would suggest to you that Sarpee County is in a similar situation.
SPEAKER_01: And you may look at me and say, really?
SPEAKER_01: Declining?
SPEAKER_01: Like Harbor Church started in February, live church is opening across the street later this year.
SPEAKER_01: There are two other churches that were started right in this area in the last decade.
SPEAKER_01: Is Sarpee County?
SPEAKER_01: Is the big C church in Sarpee County really declining?
SPEAKER_01: I'd suggest to you that the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_01: Because for every church that started here recently, two churches have closed or are considering closing.
SPEAKER_01: Sarpee County is growing.
SPEAKER_01: And even if we simply keep pace at replacing the churches that already exist here, we are not taking ground and multiplying disciples in a growing population.
SPEAKER_01: So while the situation is different in Sarpee County than Council Bluffs, the reality is the same.
SPEAKER_01: The land is dry, and we need God's renewing grace.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, there are different ways to respond to that truth.
SPEAKER_01: We could get angry and fight against whoever we think is to blame.
SPEAKER_01: We could despair, turn inward and protectionist and try not to let our church succumb to the same trends that the rest of the churches around us are succumbing to.
SPEAKER_01: We could go American and strategize about how to best invest our resources to reverse this trend.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe all of those, uh maybe all of those responses have aspects that aren't inherently bad, but the psalmist in Psalm 126, he didn't do any of those things.
SPEAKER_01: What did he do?
SPEAKER_01: He remembered that God had made his people's dreams come true before.
SPEAKER_01: He started dreaming that God might do it again.
SPEAKER_01: He put voice to those dreams in prayer, and then he put action to his prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Can I say it one more time?
SPEAKER_01: That would have made a good slide right there.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't make a slide for that.
SPEAKER_01: What did the psalmist do?
SPEAKER_01: How did he respond to the dry ground around him?
SPEAKER_01: He remembered that God had made dreams come true before.
SPEAKER_01: He started dreaming that God might do it again.
SPEAKER_01: He put voice to those dreams in prayer, and then he put action to those prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Look, the psalmist, I think, knew he couldn't fight hard enough or persevere long enough or strategize brilliantly enough to water the desert on his own.
SPEAKER_01: Only God could do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so he started praying.
SPEAKER_01: But those prayers didn't happen in a vacuum.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't passive or idle.
SPEAKER_01: The last two verses show us how the psalmist coupled praying and planting, asking and action.
SPEAKER_01: They went together.
SPEAKER_01: The psalm closes like this the last two verses.
SPEAKER_01: Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_01: He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
SPEAKER_01: Again, poetic imagery, and this is intense.
SPEAKER_01: So imagine with me for a moment, you are a farmer in the Negev.
SPEAKER_01: Your livelihood depends on planting seeds that grow in the desert.
SPEAKER_01: The drought has lasted so long that there's almost no grain left in the land at all.
SPEAKER_01: And the little grain that does remain is precious.
SPEAKER_01: It remains because that grain was never intended to be ground into flour and baked into bread to eat.
SPEAKER_01: No, that grain remains because it was seed grain.
SPEAKER_01: There's the grain that was hope for the future.
SPEAKER_01: And so imagine yourself as the hungry farmer with a hungry family, a wife, and kids looking to you to provide, and you grab one of the few bags of grain left and walk out of the house.
SPEAKER_01: Your hungry kids, knowing I could eat that if you left it here and you don't, you steal that grain from the bellies of your hungry family and walk outside and drop it into the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And as you drop that into the ground, your kids are on your mind, your wife is on your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Coming back home to hunger is on your mind.
SPEAKER_01: And every time you reach into that bag and you spread that grain onto the ground, you feel the emptiness of your own stomach and you weep for your family.
SPEAKER_01: Because sowing that grain is a step of faith, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Sowing that seed in tears is a step of faith.
SPEAKER_01: If God doesn't provide for you, you have made a horrible decision.
SPEAKER_01: You stole food from your family and wasted precious grain, literally throwing it to the ground for birds to eat.
SPEAKER_01: If God doesn't come through, you made a horrible decision.
SPEAKER_01: And so you sow the seed in tears.
SPEAKER_01: Can you feel the weight of this?
SPEAKER_01: He who sows in tears, that's not hyperbole, that's not imagination, that's reality of the people of God living in the Nageb.
SPEAKER_01: And so as he plants the seeds, he waters them with his tears, tears of sorrow, knowing that the people he loves need something that they don't have.
SPEAKER_01: His family needs something he can't provide.
SPEAKER_01: They're tears of sorrow, their tears of tension, wondering what the future holds, their tears of hopeful prayers, that God will restore his fortunes.
SPEAKER_01: And after he sows those tears and begs God to move in prayer, something incredible happens.
SPEAKER_01: God hears his prayers and answers.
SPEAKER_01: And the rain comes and the seeds grow, and what was planted in tears is harvested with joy.
SPEAKER_01: This is restoration, this is dreams come true.
SPEAKER_01: I can't imagine the cupboards filled with bread again.
SPEAKER_01: And God did it.
SPEAKER_01: This is Psalm 126.
SPEAKER_01: Laughter and shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, 5, and 6 all mention shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_01: What God did before, He does again.
SPEAKER_01: The precious seed grain becomes a plentiful harvest.
SPEAKER_01: He went out with one little bag and he comes back bearing the load of sheaves.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it looks like to put our prayers into action.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to put this as simply as I can.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just break down the picture.
SPEAKER_01: The dry ground around us is souls that don't have the living water of Jesus flowing in them.
SPEAKER_01: That's a reality for them and for us.
SPEAKER_01: The tears are the sorrow of God's people longing for their friends and family, co-workers and neighbors and classmates to know Jesus like they do.
SPEAKER_01: The seeds sown in tears, that's God's people putting prayers and planting together.
SPEAKER_01: It's weeping for the lost, praying that God would save them as they cast the seed into the soil and the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: That's God's faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: When he does what only he can do, and he brings the rain and gives the growth, the spirit moves the people here, they believe.
SPEAKER_01: That is praying and planting.
SPEAKER_01: It's asking with action.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we can see this process of Psalm 126 play out in Jesus' own life.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let me show it to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just walk through this and then we'll close.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: This praying and planting, asking with action, it happens in Jesus' own life.
SPEAKER_01: I'll show it to you in the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: We'll start in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Look how chapter 8 begins.
SPEAKER_01: Soon afterward, he, that's Jesus, went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God, and the 12 were with him.
SPEAKER_01: So this is Jesus going out, sharing the good news of the kingdom, the gospel of salvation through Jesus the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He's sharing it and he's bringing 12 along to watch and learn.
SPEAKER_01: That's how chapter 8 begins.
SPEAKER_01: Jump to chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: How does chapter 9 begin?
SPEAKER_01: Like this.
SPEAKER_01: And he, that's Jesus, called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.
SPEAKER_01: And he, Jesus, sent them, the 12 that had just followed him, he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
SPEAKER_01: So now the 12 that originally just watched and learned, they are sent by Jesus to do the same thing that they had seen him doing, to proclaim the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And the movement keeps growing from there.
SPEAKER_01: So in chapter 8, it was one, it was Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 9, it's 12, it's his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 10, look at how it begins.
SPEAKER_01: After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, in every town and place where he himself was about to go.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, what?
SPEAKER_01: Pray.
SPEAKER_01: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, what started with one turned into twelve, which turned into 72 with prayers for more.
SPEAKER_01: This is the line that we stand in.
SPEAKER_01: What Psalm 126 gave us an appetizer, a foretaste of, Jesus began himself and is continuing with Harvard Church.
SPEAKER_01: You are the laborers amidst a harvest that is ripe.
SPEAKER_01: God has sent the rain to dry ground and he needs laborers.
SPEAKER_01: He's calling laborers, he's equipping laborers to go bring the harvest in.
SPEAKER_01: Those who sowed in tears of prayer get to reap with shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_01: This is Psalm 126 in Jesus' life, connected to your life and mine.
SPEAKER_01: We can sing the Psalm of Ascent.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, I would suggest to you as I close, this is our motivation for mission.
SPEAKER_01: Churches may be closing.
SPEAKER_01: You yourself may be in a season where you need God to restore you.
SPEAKER_01: The ground you're standing on may be dry, but know this that our God specializes in bringing life to deserts.
SPEAKER_01: So harbor church.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be people who pray for restoration and revival.
SPEAKER_01: People who plant gospel seeds, and people who trust God to do what only God can do.
SPEAKER_01: And that's good news for us, amen.
SPEAKER_01: Will you guys pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Awesome God, I thank you that you have done great things.
SPEAKER_01: That you've done great things like seeing this church go from nothing, a dream in a few people's hearts, prayers by this community for more gospel work, hopes in lost people that they don't even know what they're hoping for, but you know the desire of their hearts and know they need Jesus, and so you hear all of those prayers and cries spoken through tears.
SPEAKER_01: And God, you have done what we can't do.
SPEAKER_01: Watered the desert and given life where there was no life.
SPEAKER_01: God, you've done that at a grand scale on a church plant for a church plant, but you do that in our own hearts.
SPEAKER_01: God, in all of those ways, whereas parents we wonder, are our kids ever gonna see you?
SPEAKER_01: Are they gonna believe in you?
SPEAKER_01: Are they gonna stray like Reggie's son did?
SPEAKER_01: And maybe if your kids have, you wonder, is that guy on fire for Jesus ever gonna show up in my kids' life?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's not parenting, maybe it's work.
SPEAKER_01: You feel like you're working your finger to the bone and you just haven't achieved the life that you wanted.
SPEAKER_01: And you're asking God, God, what do you what kind of life do you want from me?
SPEAKER_01: And in tears, you give up things you never thought you could give up to find a God greater than you ever thought existed.
SPEAKER_01: Friend, I don't know what you're going through, the dry ground underneath your feet, but what I know is God gives life where there was no life.
SPEAKER_01: God restores what was broken, he redeems what was lost.
SPEAKER_01: And he does it for real people.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a fairy tale or a fantasy, this is reality.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, we ask, would you do among us what only you can do?
SPEAKER_01: Would you give life where there was death?
SPEAKER_01: Would you give light where there was darkness?
SPEAKER_01: Would you seek and save the lost among us and around us?
SPEAKER_01: We love you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for dying on the cross, shedding your blood, so that we might be made right with you and given life now and forever.
SPEAKER_01: For your glory.
SPEAKER_01: We praise you now, and we pray all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.