SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: This morning's reading is Psalm eighty-six.
SPEAKER_01: Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
SPEAKER_01: Preserve my life, for I am godly.
SPEAKER_01: Save your servant who trusts in you, you are my God.
SPEAKER_01: Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you, for to you do I cry all the day.
SPEAKER_01: Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
SPEAKER_01: For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abunding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
SPEAKER_01: Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to my plea for grace.
SPEAKER_01: In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me.
SPEAKER_01: There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.
SPEAKER_01: All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
SPEAKER_01: For you are great and do wondrous things.
SPEAKER_01: You alone are God.
SPEAKER_01: Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
SPEAKER_01: Unite my heart to fear your name.
SPEAKER_01: I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name for ever.
SPEAKER_01: For great is your steadfast love towards me.
SPEAKER_01: You have delivered my soul from the depths of Shoal.
SPEAKER_01: O God, insolent men have risen up against me.
SPEAKER_01: A band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them.
SPEAKER_01: But you, O Lord, are a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to me and be gracious to me.
SPEAKER_01: Give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant.
SPEAKER_01: Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
SPEAKER_01: So reads God word.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to you if you joined us while we were singing.
SPEAKER_02: My name's Mark, I'm the Lee Pastor here at City, and you're very welcome.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I've been off for uh uh a few weeks.
SPEAKER_02: This is my first week uh back after some holiday time.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you've kind of joined in the last three or four weeks, I'd love you to come and say hello because I haven't met you.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're one of these people that has been here for six months and I haven't met you, come and say hello too.
SPEAKER_02: Um and forgive me if I'm like, oh, is this is this your first week in your no?
SPEAKER_02: I've been here for a year.
SPEAKER_02: Um we are in uh Psalms in the summer, so I'd invite you to turn up Psalm 86.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, either you have uh one of these old school paper bibles or you can look it up on your phone.
SPEAKER_02: Um I was thinking increasingly, it might be good actually, I know it's dark in the room, but to prioritize bringing one just because it means that there's a deliberate thought of we're here to uh to be in the word together.
SPEAKER_02: I know there's the convenience of having it on our phone, but I think there's something about kind of bringing our Bibles to church uh and actually studying it together.
SPEAKER_02: So just a just a thought uh that I was thinking while while I was off.
SPEAKER_02: But Psalm 86, and if you're looking it up on your phone, don't be ashamed, it's okay.
SPEAKER_02: Um but if you brought a Bible, well done you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh that's what we're going to be looking at.
SPEAKER_02: Uh when was the uh when was the last time you prayed a panic prayer?
SPEAKER_02: You know the panic prayers?
SPEAKER_02: So you're about to go into the job interview, they've just called your name.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, Lord, I need you now, help me.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: In, right?
SPEAKER_02: Panic prayers happen uh on the way to accident and emergency.
SPEAKER_02: So you need to go to A E, your child's sick or injured, and so you're driving along there and you fire up the panic prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, just pray that we get seen really quickly and that everything will be okay.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Or uh if there's bad news, we pray the panic prayer.
SPEAKER_02: When was your last God help me now?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Panic prayer.
SPEAKER_02: It's like pulling the uh pulling the ripcord, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Uh for the parachute to open.
SPEAKER_02: Just need you right now.
SPEAKER_02: When was your last panic prayer?
SPEAKER_02: Panic prayers are normal, right?
SPEAKER_02: They're a they're a little human reminder uh that we don't control all circumstances, and a little reminder that we need uh something or someone outside of ourselves to intervene and to help us.
SPEAKER_02: It's a a natural reflex, or rather, I would say it's a supernatural reflex that God has has left there.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I don't know if you've noticed, but maybe you're not somebody who quite believes in God yet.
SPEAKER_02: You're still working it out.
SPEAKER_02: We're really glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_02: But what you'll notice either in your own life or even just for people that um that don't follow God, what tends to happen is uh imagine they're in a swimming pool and uh they've got a beach bowl.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just back from France, so I remember swimming pools and beach bowls, right?
SPEAKER_02: Uh and our what we do throughout our lives as non-Christians, people who aren't following Jesus, is we push the truth about God under the water.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to see it and we don't want to interact with it.
SPEAKER_02: But what happens in those emergency circumstances, when our reflex is to pray the panic prayer, it's the truth about reality actually pops right back up to the surface.
SPEAKER_02: Like when you push the ball under the water, what happens?
SPEAKER_02: You can keep it under there for maybe a few seconds, and then it pops back up suddenly.
SPEAKER_02: So in those reflex moments, what's happening?
SPEAKER_02: Well, actually, the truth about reality, the fact that you don't control all circumstances, the fact that there is a God there, is popping back up.
SPEAKER_02: And so you rip the cord, you pray the panic prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, God wants us to run to him in times of trouble, and that's what David is doing in Psalm 86, and not for the first time, if you've read any of the Psalms of David.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, what is that saying about our relationship with God, if that's the extent?
SPEAKER_02: If God is simply the ripcord god that we pull in case of emergencies, that he's just a kind of a parachute, a safety net there.
SPEAKER_02: If you're, I guess, a pilot, if you fly jets, I imagine that you don't spend an awful lot of time thinking about the parachute.
SPEAKER_02: Or if you fly yourself, I don't imagine, unless you're somebody who's fearful of flying, that you spend all of the time of the flight thinking about the fact that the uh life vest is under your seat.
SPEAKER_02: You would only think about it if something was going wrong.
SPEAKER_02: So if our relationship with God is in case of emergency break glass sort of a relationship, then there's a whole bunch of other times when we're not really thinking about him, interacting with him.
SPEAKER_02: He's just there as a safety net.
SPEAKER_02: David's prayer goes beyond ripcord rescue.
SPEAKER_02: If you think that God is just there for emergencies like a parachute, then of course, why would you think about him?
SPEAKER_02: But what David is pointing us to is something far richer, something much more beautiful, something much more soul satisfying, than more than ripcord religion, but a deep and enriching relationship with the God who rescues and the God who transforms.
SPEAKER_02: Why wouldn't you want that?
SPEAKER_02: You're here kind of maybe think, well, what is my relationship with God?
SPEAKER_02: Is it mostly ripcord?
SPEAKER_02: He's just there for emergencies.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he came to you and said, actually, you can have something that's far more meaningful, far more enriching, far more transformative to your life.
SPEAKER_02: Why why wouldn't you want that?
SPEAKER_02: Why wouldn't you want more than just a safety net?
SPEAKER_02: That's what David's found in this, Sam.
SPEAKER_02: He's found not just the God who rescues, but the God who reshapes.
SPEAKER_02: Both the God who rescues and the God who reshapes.
SPEAKER_02: So since this is my first week back, I'm gonna ease you in with two points this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: No subpoints, just two points.
SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
SPEAKER_02: Grace rescues us.
SPEAKER_02: God's grace rescues.
SPEAKER_02: Like many of the Psalms of David, David's in distress or trouble.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what he did with his life, but apparently he was getting himself into scrapes all uh all the time.
SPEAKER_02: And there are people who are attacking, seeking him.
SPEAKER_02: He's spent, he's exhausted, he's in the emergency room.
SPEAKER_02: He's where everybody wants to pull the ripcord, where everybody would do that, and he cries out to God for help.
SPEAKER_02: Now, looking at the Psalm as a whole, this is why it's good to kind of have your Bible open.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible or the Psalm, Psalm 86, folds into three main sections, right?
SPEAKER_02: You've got one to seven, you've got eight to thirteen, and then fourteen.
SPEAKER_02: Now, section one and section three are kind of like brackets around the Psalm.
SPEAKER_02: And those two sections focus on God's grace to rescue.
SPEAKER_02: And then they both point into the middle section about how God transforms us, right?
SPEAKER_02: So we're dealing with those outer brackets, the first two sections, one to seven and fourteen to seventeen, okay?
SPEAKER_02: And then the second point we'll come to that in the middle bit.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is how this is how Hebrew poetry often worked.
SPEAKER_02: That the point, as it were, was in the middle.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the Hebrews were terrible, the Israelites were terrible joke tellers, because the punchline was in the middle, right?
SPEAKER_02: Uh so the punchline is in the middle.
SPEAKER_02: I think the punchline actually is verse 11, but we'll get there in a second.
SPEAKER_02: So we're dealing with these outside parts of the structure of the Psalm, 1 to 7 and 14 to 17, because that's where David is focusing on calling upon God's grace to deliver.
SPEAKER_02: That's the focus of his prayers on the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at it.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, he points it out in verse 3, in verse 6, be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you I cry all the day.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 6, give ear, O Lord, to my prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to my plea for grace.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 15, which is over the page to me.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 15, but you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 16, turn and be gracious to me.
SPEAKER_02: So his plea for rescue is rooted in what?
SPEAKER_02: In the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: How is it that he knows that he will be delivered, that he will be rescued?
SPEAKER_02: Because God is kind.
SPEAKER_02: He is merciful, he is gracious.
SPEAKER_02: Grace is not just something that God has, it is something that God is.
SPEAKER_02: He is the gracious God.
SPEAKER_02: So the ripcord is an inanimate object.
SPEAKER_02: It simply performs its function.
SPEAKER_02: But David is saying, no, no, when I run to you, I'm running to a God who has a particular set of characteristics.
SPEAKER_02: He has a nature.
SPEAKER_02: There's a way about him that we can know.
SPEAKER_02: And what is that way?
SPEAKER_02: What is he like?
SPEAKER_02: Well, he's gracious.
SPEAKER_02: Why would you run to God on the way to A and E?
SPEAKER_02: Why would you run to God in the hospital room?
SPEAKER_02: Why would you run to God before you get called in for the interview or you're facing suffering or a trial?
SPEAKER_02: Because his nature is to be gracious to you.
SPEAKER_02: He is the gracious and compassionate God.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 15 is picking up on a very famous verse from the book of Exodus, where Moses asks God to show himself.
SPEAKER_02: And God says, Well, bit of a problem there, Bocco.
SPEAKER_02: You can't see me and live.
SPEAKER_02: So what I'll do is I'll basically allow you to see the tail end of me and I'll declare to you what I'm like.
SPEAKER_02: And so he hides Moses round the back of a rock, and he causes what the book what the book of Exodus says is all of God's goodness, it's a lovely way of putting it, passes by.
SPEAKER_02: And Moses kind of peeks out and sees the tail end, the shadow, the trail-off of God's goodness.
SPEAKER_02: And as God is passing by, he declares to Moses what he's like.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, The Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate God, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: That is what he is like.
SPEAKER_02: And David's saying, You are still the same.
SPEAKER_02: You're still the gracious and compassionate God.
SPEAKER_02: And that is why I am able to run to you for rescue.
SPEAKER_02: He shows his kindness to those who don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_02: That's what grace is.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know?
SPEAKER_02: Have you benefited from the grace of God?
SPEAKER_02: The undeserved kindness of God towards you.
SPEAKER_02: We run to God because he is gracious.
SPEAKER_02: He hears us.
SPEAKER_02: But David gives us another reason for running to God.
SPEAKER_02: We run to God because of his gracious character, but David also speaks about his relationship with God as a reason why he can run to him in times of trouble.
SPEAKER_02: If you think that God is just a ripcord to pull, well, you're not really in a, you have no relationship to the to the ripcord.
SPEAKER_02: It's just there in case of emergencies.
SPEAKER_02: But David says that he has a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read it to you.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Preserve my life, for I am godly.
SPEAKER_02: Save your servant who trusts in you, you are my God.
SPEAKER_02: Preserve my life, for I am godly.
SPEAKER_02: Because what it sounds like, David is saying, is save me because I earn it.
SPEAKER_02: I've merited it.
SPEAKER_02: I've warranted it.
SPEAKER_02: I deserve it.
SPEAKER_02: I am godly.
SPEAKER_02: I've done godly things.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, please save me.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read the verse again with more of what the actual sense is and see how it changes.
SPEAKER_02: Preserve my life, for I am of you, God.
SPEAKER_02: It's different, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: It places not the it shifts the focus from David and David's character and places the focus rather on his relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: I am of you.
SPEAKER_02: I am part of your family.
SPEAKER_02: I am in relationship with you.
SPEAKER_02: I am your child.
SPEAKER_02: The child who's had a bad dream knows exactly who to call out to to chase the monsters away.
SPEAKER_02: And before they know it, Daddy is there by their side.
SPEAKER_02: David knows that he can run to God because he has a relation.
SPEAKER_02: He is saying, I am your child.
SPEAKER_02: You are my father.
SPEAKER_02: I am of you.
SPEAKER_02: Again, because of your grace.
SPEAKER_02: See how it changes it?
SPEAKER_02: It's David, needy and fragile and frail, saying, I need you, father.
SPEAKER_02: Not because I've earned it or because I deserve it, but because I am your son and you are gracious.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, another reason why I don't think that this is based on David's merit is because of one of the other things that he says about God in uh in verse 5.
SPEAKER_02: He says, For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon it.
SPEAKER_02: Why does David here recount that God is a forgiving God?
SPEAKER_02: Not just that he has the power to save, the power to rescue, but also the power to forgive.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think it's maybe because David realizes that he has his own stuff to deal with.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's so important.
SPEAKER_02: Because have you ever thought, you know, you've been in a concerns are weighing heavy on your heart, or things aren't going particularly well, and the rap chords right there, and you want to pull it, you want to run to God, but what's keeping you back?
SPEAKER_02: Your shame.
SPEAKER_02: You feel ashamed to run to God.
SPEAKER_02: You've got sin, you've got guilt.
SPEAKER_02: You think, I can't, I can't go down.
SPEAKER_02: And so you're free falling, and you don't feel like you can rip the cord.
SPEAKER_02: Because you don't feel like you're deserving enough to do that.
SPEAKER_02: You have this image in your mind that God might say, Oh, you want me now?
SPEAKER_02: You looking for my house?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, of course you are.
SPEAKER_02: That's why this verse is here.
SPEAKER_02: Could you imagine if the ripcord only worked on a parachute if you'd been good that day leading up to the crash?
SPEAKER_02: That'd be terrifying.
SPEAKER_02: We run to God, cast ourselves upon his grace, ask for his rescue, even though we're messed up ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: We have our own sin that needs to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: Our own shame that needs to be cleansed, our own guilt that needs to be taken away.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps there's another reason why it's important to remember that God is not just gracious but forgiving, is that it's a subtle reminder that people aren't black or white.
SPEAKER_02: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_02: Have you noticed that about yourself?
SPEAKER_02: That all of us are shades of grey.
SPEAKER_02: David's in a sticky spot.
SPEAKER_02: There are definitely people who are up against him.
SPEAKER_02: And they're in the wrong, and he's in the right.
SPEAKER_02: And yet he's recognizing that he's got his own stuff to deal with, too.
SPEAKER_02: It's a very godly, humble, mature place to find yourself in.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I've been wronged.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, there are things that have unjustly happened towards me.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm not just a victim.
SPEAKER_02: There's stuff that I need to work on myself.
SPEAKER_02: There are things that I need to have forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: The rescue that David needs, therefore, is not just from his circumstances, but from himself, from his own sin.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see how God is so much more than the ripcord god of our panicked prayers?
SPEAKER_02: He's the gracious, rescuing and forgiving God.
SPEAKER_02: That's who we run to.
SPEAKER_02: That's who we invite you to run to this morning.
SPEAKER_02: And in the end, in the second or the third section, rather, David knows that God is so gracious that he even asks God for a sign.
SPEAKER_02: Let me remind you.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 17, last verse.
SPEAKER_02: Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame.
SPEAKER_02: He asks for a sign of God's favor.
SPEAKER_02: Not as a test of God, but as a plea for reassurance.
SPEAKER_02: There was a there's a season at the start of the year where ministry life for for me outside of City was pretty tough.
SPEAKER_02: I and a few others were were dealing with some uh some difficult circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: Again, outside of City, so if you're if you're sitting here, you're like, oh, what's going on?
SPEAKER_02: Nothing.
SPEAKER_02: It's fine.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm okay.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm very glad of my three weeks off.
SPEAKER_02: Um and it was about late January, early February, and it was just right on the on the very coal face of of that season.
SPEAKER_02: And there was one evening, a friend of mine who I hadn't yet spoken to about any of what was going on, another pastor, he sent me a message, WhatsApp pings, and he says, Um, don't know why, but I've just been moved to pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: I hope that you're okay.
SPEAKER_02: I love you.
SPEAKER_02: That was it.
SPEAKER_02: Show me a sign of your favor.
SPEAKER_02: Not as a test, but just as a reassurance.
SPEAKER_02: It's a kindness of God when He does those little moments.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you can think in your own life of just those little those little things that even as you look back at them, you didn't recognize it at the time, but as you look back, you kind of you see his divine fingerprints and go, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02: You were kind to me in that way.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't I didn't see it, but yes.
SPEAKER_02: You show me a little sign of your favor to just to reassure me.
SPEAKER_02: And I I didn't know it at the time, but I I see it now.
SPEAKER_02: Run to him, praise him, thank him, the gracious God.
SPEAKER_02: You might say, God's never done that for me.
SPEAKER_02: He hasn't given me any sign of his grace or his favor.
SPEAKER_02: Ah, but he has.
SPEAKER_02: He has.
SPEAKER_02: The gracious and compassionate God, abounding in steadfast love, has lived among us.
SPEAKER_02: He knew that we needed forgiveness, just as David did.
SPEAKER_02: And so the Lord Jesus died that we might be forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: He died that we might live.
SPEAKER_02: And so now the Lord Jesus invites us to run to him in repentance, turning from our sin and placing our trust in him by faith, casting ourselves and our cares and our burdens upon him.
SPEAKER_02: What is our sign?
SPEAKER_02: The cross.
SPEAKER_02: And the tomb that now stands empty in history.
SPEAKER_02: They reassure us that our enemies do not have the last word.
SPEAKER_02: They reassure us that our sin does not keep us from the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_02: They reassure us that there is hope beyond whatever darkness we are in.
SPEAKER_02: They reassure us that we are his and he is ours forever.
SPEAKER_02: Has God shown you a sign?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, he has.
SPEAKER_02: Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders.
SPEAKER_02: Are you weary?
SPEAKER_02: Heavy laden?
SPEAKER_02: Come to him.
SPEAKER_02: Come to him now.
SPEAKER_02: He is gracious and forgiving.
SPEAKER_02: Is God your last resort or your first refuge?
SPEAKER_02: It's a bit of both, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: It's hard.
SPEAKER_02: If your heart is saying, I want it to be first refuge, I wanted to be first refuge more.
SPEAKER_02: Come to him, ask him, pray that prayer.
SPEAKER_02: He is gracious and far more precious than the ripcord.
SPEAKER_02: Second point.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't say that the points were going to be short.
SPEAKER_02: But this is the last catch for anything.
SPEAKER_02: This is the last one.
SPEAKER_02: David is not simply content to be rescued, he wants to be reshaped.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to live differently, he wants to be transformed.
SPEAKER_02: And so the second point is if grace rescues us, God's greatness reshapes us.
SPEAKER_02: God's greatness reshapes us.
SPEAKER_02: When God is the ripcord rescuer, we don't need him through the rest of life.
SPEAKER_02: You go through your transatlantic flight never having seen the life jacket that's below your vest.
SPEAKER_02: And if you do have to see it, something's gone terribly wrong.
SPEAKER_02: We run to him in an emergency, and once the emergency has passed, well, we get on with the rest of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks, I've got the ball again.
SPEAKER_02: Off we go.
SPEAKER_02: But in the very center of this Psalm is a plea, not just for rescue, but for growth.
SPEAKER_02: Have a look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
SPEAKER_02: Unite my heart to fear your name.
SPEAKER_02: See, if this psalm is just about, I just need you to deliver and rescue me, verse 11 wouldn't be here.
SPEAKER_02: But David knows that God invites him into and offers way more than just rescue.
SPEAKER_02: And so David prays, don't just rescue me, Lord, teach me.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to learn, help me to grow, unite my heart.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna look at it.
SPEAKER_02: If a child cries out to a parent for help, of course the parent steps in and rescues.
SPEAKER_02: But a good parent also teaches, guides.
SPEAKER_02: He does a little review, okay?
SPEAKER_02: What went wrong?
SPEAKER_02: Why did it go wrong?
SPEAKER_02: What do you think you might do differently next time?
SPEAKER_02: And then the next time comes and they do exactly the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: And you have the conversation again.
SPEAKER_02: We're all slow learners, and God is patient as well as gracious with us.
SPEAKER_02: But we teach our children in order to help them to avoid getting into the difficulty in the first place.
SPEAKER_02: David doesn't just talk about issues out there with the people who are opposed to him.
SPEAKER_02: He identifies an issue within himself, an issue in all of us.
SPEAKER_02: What is the issue that David has?
SPEAKER_02: Well, verse 11 seems to say it's that his heart is divided.
SPEAKER_02: If his heart wasn't divided, why would he pray, Unite my heart?
SPEAKER_02: There are disparate parts of my inner being, my heart, that need to come together.
SPEAKER_02: Feel divided, I feel torn.
SPEAKER_02: It's a bit like that question that I asked at the end of the first point.
SPEAKER_02: You are you, uh is God last resort or first refuge?
SPEAKER_02: If you're a Christian, you're probably like, it's both.
SPEAKER_02: But I wanted to be more of the second one.
SPEAKER_02: But your heart's divided, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: You're divided between that kind of last resort.
SPEAKER_02: I can do this, the old person is just like, no, I've got to kind of go after my own strength, my own understanding.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's the new man, the new woman that's being made up in the image of Jesus that's like, no, I want to I want to cast myself on the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts are divided.
SPEAKER_02: Pulled between this and that.
SPEAKER_02: And that very division is what can lead us sometimes into emergency situations.
SPEAKER_02: How can our hearts be divided?
SPEAKER_02: Here's a few ways.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe one of them particularly resonates with you.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts can be divided between love for God and idolatry.
SPEAKER_02: What's an idol?
SPEAKER_02: Well, an idol is when we love something or someone more than God.
SPEAKER_02: And we use that thing to give us meaning, identity, a sense of place and purpose in the world.
SPEAKER_02: And so we can have a divided heart.
SPEAKER_02: We can say, Oh, I love God, and you can mean it.
SPEAKER_02: But there's also things that you don't want to give up, you don't want to repent of, you don't want to move on from.
SPEAKER_02: And so you say, well, I love Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But I know that there's part of me that needs to be successful, that needs to be recognized as successful in order to feel like I am someone.
SPEAKER_02: What's going on there?
SPEAKER_02: Your heart's divided.
SPEAKER_02: Unite my heart, O God, that I may fear your name.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts can be divided by fear and faith.
SPEAKER_02: We do trust God, and yet we still find ourselves given to worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_02: It still overwhelms.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts are divided.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts can be divided between cynicism and hope.
SPEAKER_02: You imagine the person who offers hope to others, speaks richly about the promises of God and his goodness.
SPEAKER_02: And yet inwardly they're cynical, angry, bitter.
SPEAKER_02: Hearts are divided.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts can be divided between devotion and apathy.
SPEAKER_02: We trust Jesus, we love God, and yet we just know that we're just stuck in a rut, disengaged, drifting, looking for comfort and convenience rather than courageous faith.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts are divided.
SPEAKER_02: Our hearts can be divided between guilt and grace.
SPEAKER_02: We know that we're forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: We tell others that they can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: And yet we still carry shame.
SPEAKER_02: We still carry guilt.
SPEAKER_02: Say, yes, God can forgive me.
SPEAKER_02: He has forgiven me.
SPEAKER_02: But I don't think he likes me very much.
SPEAKER_02: I think lots of people think that about God.
SPEAKER_02: Where does that come from?
SPEAKER_02: Divided heart.
SPEAKER_02: Where's your heart divided?
SPEAKER_02: If God is your emergency go-to, then you're missing the depth of his care for you and how much his desire is to reshape and reform you by uniting your heart, making you single-minded, single-hearted in pursuit of him.
SPEAKER_02: How does God do that?
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's what the rest of this middle section is about.
SPEAKER_02: He does that by showing you his greatness.
SPEAKER_02: How will your heart be transformed?
SPEAKER_02: How will your heart be united?
SPEAKER_02: Between fear and faith, guilt and grace, love of God, love of idolat of idols, how will it be united and brought together?
SPEAKER_02: By a vision of the incomparable majesty of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's high.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what David focuses on in this middle section.
SPEAKER_02: If we knew the greatness of God, the great God who is ours in Christ Jesus, then that would lead us to being less greedy, less envious, less fearful, less bitter, more gracious, more joyful, more hopeful, more courageous.
SPEAKER_02: David begins in verse ten in this section by saying that there is no God like him.
SPEAKER_02: For you are great and do wondrous things.
SPEAKER_02: You alone are God.
SPEAKER_02: Our God is utterly, transcendently unique.
SPEAKER_02: No other so-called deity can compare with the unmatched grandeur of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_02: No idol of money or sex or power or comfort or approval or success can compare with or save or satisfy, like the one true, holy, living God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: This is Paul's celebration in Colossians 1 of Jesus, that the incomparably great eternal being, the full revelation and manifestation of God in human form, the one who is before all things, who made all things for himself.
SPEAKER_02: He is supreme over all of humanity, he is supreme over his people, the church.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, that that great God in verse 9 will draw all the nations to himself.
SPEAKER_02: All the nations you have made shall come and shall worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because you alone are God.
SPEAKER_02: Every tribe and tongue and nation will see the greatness of Jesus and glorify him on that last day.
SPEAKER_02: The Great Commission will not fail.
SPEAKER_02: Christ will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_02: Christ will have an inheritance of nations, and that includes people of the nation of Ireland.
SPEAKER_02: How does God's greatness reshape us?
SPEAKER_02: It reorders our fears.
SPEAKER_02: No longer fearing circumstances, but living rather in awe of Him.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 11 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
SPEAKER_02: Unite my heart.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: To fear your name.
SPEAKER_02: We have about six months of Proverbs sermons, so you can go back and spotify and look at.
SPEAKER_02: It unites our hearts around Him.
SPEAKER_02: And when we see the blazing center of His glory and greatness, the paltry idols of money, food, sex, whatever it is, they just pale into insignificance.
SPEAKER_02: The greatness of God reshapes us because it shifts our focus.
SPEAKER_02: David stops for in this middle section, stops thinking about himself.
SPEAKER_02: And starts thinking about God's concern for the nations.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 8, there is none alone, there is none like you among the nations, sorry, among the gods, O Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Nor are there any works like yours.
SPEAKER_02: All the nations you have made shall come and shall worship for you alone our God.
SPEAKER_02: It reshapes us because it builds our trust in the midst of suffering.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 10, Paul or Paul, David says that God does wondrous things.
SPEAKER_02: And so in verse 16, he can pray with renewed confidence.
SPEAKER_02: Turn to me and be gracious to me.
SPEAKER_02: Give your strength to your servant.
SPEAKER_02: So you see how God's greatness and his graciousness go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_02: He sees God's greatness, and so that renews and strengthens his faith for the next time he faces trial or suffering.
SPEAKER_02: Not only are we rescued by the grace of God, we are reshaped by his greatness.
SPEAKER_02: This is why we run to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Because he rescues us from our sin and forms and reshapes us as his disciples.
SPEAKER_02: His concern is not simply just to be the ribcord for us to get us out of trouble, but the one who might renew us into his likeness by his spirit.
SPEAKER_02: This is what the good news of Jesus does for us.
SPEAKER_02: This is why we teach and celebrate and focus our attention around this good news week after week.
SPEAKER_02: This is why we teach the Bible, to show the grace of God and the greatness of God to everyone who would listen.
SPEAKER_02: So ask yourself Are you asking God to change you or just fix the broken bits?
SPEAKER_02: What divides your heart?
SPEAKER_02: Come to Him in repentance.
SPEAKER_02: Run to the gracious God.
SPEAKER_02: He will not turn and go, What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_02: He will say I am so glad you came.
SPEAKER_02: How can you behold his greatness this week?
SPEAKER_02: How has he been great and gracious to you?
SPEAKER_02: That he might reshape and reform you into his likeness.
SPEAKER_00: If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, visit our website found in the links below.