Psalm 103 Part 2

In today’s message from Dr. Timothy Brown, you’ll find encouragement and a challenge. The process of following Jesus is just that – a process. His redemption is instant in God’s sight, but it takes a lifetime to transform one's life from the earthly point of view. A key component of following Jesus is patience and faith. God’s will and plan are perfect, but they often don’t happen on our timeline, requiring us to grow in those traits.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Truth or Transformation with Dr. Timothy Brown. You're about to hear a message from God's Word filled with biblical wisdom, practical insights, and life-changing truths. A message designed to inspire your faith and give encouragement.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

God understands that you're weary, you're about ready to give up, but Psalm 103 teaches us that God is going to renew you. It's in his time and his way. Sometimes it's not as drastic as you'd like. Sometimes it's a process. Sometimes healing is instantaneous, but sometimes it's a process. Sometimes God works through miracles, sometimes God works through medicine, sometimes God works through counselor. We don't know which ways he's gonna work, but ultimately, goodness happens and flows through God.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

In today's message from Dr. Timothy Brown, you'll find encouragement and a challenge. The process of following Jesus is just that: a process. His redemption is instant in God's sight, but it takes a lifetime to transform one's life from the earthly point of view. A key component of following Jesus is patience and faith. God's will and plan are perfect, but they often don't happen on our timeline, requiring us to grow in those traits. Prepare your heart, open your mind, and get ready to embark on a journey of faith with Dr. Timothy Brown in the book of John, chapter one, with today's edition of Truth for Transformation.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

When Jesus died on the cross, he took the wrath of God on your behalf. So let me give you some good New Testament theology. A lot of times Christians are worried about the wrath of God being poured out on them. Now that's more Old Testament thinking before Christ came. All the wrath of God was satisfied in the cross. Now, if you haven't accepted Christ, the wrath of God's still there. You better get right. Okay? But for the Christian, the wrath of God has been satisfied. Now, we do get discipline as children, the author of Hebrews says, there is discipline, but don't think of God as some angry, vindictive God as a child of God. If you are saved, if you're born again, the wrath of God has been satisfied in the cross. And all God's children said, Amen. Now, if you're not right with God, you better think about that because the wrath of God is real. And you're like, how could God have his wrath? Well, it's because God is perfectly holy, but he's also perfectly just. And his holiness has to be satisfied. And the reason why he sent Jesus is he didn't want his wrath to be poured out on his creations. He wanted his creations the chance to become children. But the Bible says in John 1.12, those who receive him became children of God. We're not all God's children. Even though Oprah Winfrey may have said that on our television show, we're not all God's children. Only those who receive Christ are adopted into God's family. So we have forgiveness. We also have healing. When we see He heals all your diseases, what this tells us is eventually, in God's timing and in God's way, He will take away every sickness. He will take away every pain. We read in the book of Revelation that there's going to be a time where he will wipe away every tear from your eye. So sometimes God heals now, but ultimately he will heal us when we enter into eternity and our new glorified body where there's no sickness and no more pain. We also see redemption. What is redemption? It is a term used in the slave market. And it means that someone has paid the price for your freedom to set you free. And here's the thing: we don't like to talk about slavery, but all of us were slaves to sin, the Bible says. All of us were slaves until Jesus came. And what was the price he paid? His own blood. He shed his blood so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be set free. And your listening guide, if you'll notice, I have several New Testament references that you can read along. Colossians 1, 13 and 14 says, He, talking about Jesus, has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his Son, of His love, in whom we have redemption through what? Through His blood. The forgiveness of sins. So we have forgiveness, we have healing, we have redemption. The fourth benefit is royalty. Notice in the Psalm verse 103, verse 4, it says, He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. The word crown makes me think of royalty. And here's the thing: when you're adopted into God's family, you go from being not a people to being a people of God. You go from being alienated from God to being reconciled with God. And that's why Peter tells us like this He says, You are a royal priesthood, a holy generation. So I want you to think about that. Let this meditate in your scripture. You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. So when you look at your life before Christ, the Bible says that we were dead in our trespasses and sin. But when Jesus comes in, he adopts us. And now you are crowned. Look at the person next to you and say, You're royalty and didn't know it. Royalty and didn't know it. Alright. So carry your head a little high, a little bit of spiritual swagger, not pride, but holy confidence. I'm a part of this royal family. And then there's also abundance. Notice it says he satisfies your mouth with what? Bad things, sour things. No, he satisfies your mouth with good things. Aren't you glad that you serve a good God? And you're like, Timothy, I haven't had very good things happen to me. And remember the distinction: there's reality and there's destiny. Your reality may be there's not good things happening, but your destiny is goodness is on the way. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. Well, Timothy, my reality is not. Listen, that's okay. Eventually your reality will catch up to your destiny. It's in God's timing and God's way. As often say, it's not your best life now, it's your best life later. So just hang in there. So what is this about renewing your youth like the eagles? And so I had to fact-check myself. I've used this illustration in the past, and sometimes it's good to see. And there was a story about an eagle. It would pluck out all its feathers, it'd be on a high cliff, and it would, it would, after the feathers are all gone, it would dive down into the water, and all of a sudden it would emerge with new feathers. How many of you have heard that story? Alright, well, maybe I haven't shared it here. I apologize for sharing that story because it's actually a pastor like legend. It's not, it's good to fact-check yourself because I've heard that story all my life, and it's like this renewal, and the eagle lives 20 more years, and it was a preacher's story. It wasn't true. Okay. So I fact-checked it, and I found scientifically eagles go through a molting process either yearly or twice a year. And so instead of this dynamic eagle that's dive bombing and all these feathers come out and it's like young again, that's not what the scripture's teaching. It's teaching an ongoing process. So molting, an eagle doesn't lose all of his feathers at once. It uses gradually, loses some, gain some, loses some, gain some. So it's the idea of biblical renewal. Sometimes it's dramatic, like Paul on the road to Damascus, he sees the light, but often it's a gradual, ongoing process of renewal. And that encourages me because I haven't had, I mean, some of some of us have had a few dynamic experiences, but how many of you most of the time it's a slow, gradual, gradual process. So when he renews your youth like the eagle, it reminds us of Isaiah 40, verse 29. It says that he gives strength to the weary, increases the power of the weak. And we got some young people in here. Here's the young people. Even youths grow weary, and young men utterly fall. But notice the next verse But those who hope, those who wait in the Lord will what? Renew their strength. They shall mount up like wings, like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint. So I want to look with love into your eyes and say this God understands what you're going through. God understands that you're weary, you're about ready to give up. But Psalm 103 teaches us that God is going to renew you. It's in his time and his way. Sometimes it's not as drastic as you would like, sometimes it's a process. Sometimes healing is instantaneous, but sometimes it's a process. Sometimes God works through miracles, sometimes God works through medicine, sometimes God works through counselor. We don't know which ways he's going to work, but ultimately goodness happens and flows through God. So look at the person next to you and say, renewal is on the way. Renewal is on the way. And that brings us to the third truth about the grateful life. The third truth is this the grateful life ponders God's mercy and grace towards every believer. Notice verse 8, it says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow in anger and abound in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. Nor has he dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. And I'm like, Thank you, Lord. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. So I want to talk to you about grace and mercy. Grace and mercy are two sides of the same coin. It's the coin of the goodness of God. On one side you have mercy. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. On the other side is grace. Grace is getting what you don't deserve. And if you've been in this church a few years, you've heard my favorite story on this. It's Billy Graham. Billy Graham was once pulled over for a speeding ticket, and the officer recognized this as the young famous evangelist at the time. But he knew he had to write a ticket. He couldn't show favoritism to this famous evangelist. So he wrote him a ticket, and after that, he felt compelled. Mr. Graham, Reverend Graham, I'm going to pay your ticket. You deserve this ticket, but I'm going to pay for it. And better than that, I want to take you out for a steak dinner. So here's the difference between grace and mercy. Mercy is not getting the ticket that you do deserve. Grace is the steak dinner which you don't deserve. Summertime, I like to give this to my kids as an illustration. It's my kids love ice cream. How many ice cream lovers do we have? Alright, every summer I think of this. Whenever you come with the empty cone, I will ask my kids, would you like one scoop or two scoop? And how many they usually say? Two scoops. So whenever you come to Jesus, you come as an empty cone. You have nothing to bring but simply a heart of faith, right? And what Jesus does, because his goodness is so profound, he pours out on you a double scoop of grace and another scoop of mercy. It's like it would be great if he just showed his mercy. We're not going to hell, but he also gives us grace. He gives us spiritual gifts, he gives us spiritual family, he gives us one fruit with nine flavors love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So I don't know about you, but I'm thankful that even though I'm just an empty ice cream cone, I came to the Father who pours out a scoop of grace, and he pours out a scoop of mercy. And the psalmist says that if I could calculate this in scientific terms, he separates my sin as far as the east is from the west. In other words, he doesn't hold your sin against you once you bring it to the cross. Now, if you've never brought it to the cross, it's a call to bring it to the cross. But those of us who have been saved, the Bible says that he chooses not to remember your sins anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

You've been listening to Pastor Timothy Brown. We'll be right back with the message. But first, we'd like to share some exciting news with you. We're releasing Dr. Timothy's new book called Go After Jesus. This book is a fresh approach to discipleship and focuses on your identity in Christ as the launching pad for Christian growth. In Go After Jesus, Pastor Timothy paints the picture of the six identities for every follower of Christ. You are a seeker, a disciple, a friend, a fisherman, a warrior, and a lover. We're currently offering two free chapters of this book as a digital download. To get your free chapters, go to Dr. Timothy's website at drtimothybrown.org. Now let's get back to the rest of the message with Pastor Timothy.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Now that doesn't mean God has a forgetful memory. It doesn't mean that once he forgives you, he's no longer omniscient. But when it says he remembers your sins no more, it's saying that he doesn't hold them against you. They're cast into the sea of forgetfulness. He's held them behind his back, as another scripture says. In other words, your sins that have been forgiven are not held against you. And all God's children said, Amen. And that brings us to our final point about the grateful life. When I look at the grateful life, I'm told this the grateful life perceives God's love for his children. Look at verse 13. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows their frame, and he remembers that we are dust. So how many of you have children in the room? Maybe not in the room, but you have your parents, okay? They're not in the room. Let me phrase it. How many of you have kids, all right? Isn't it interesting, at least for the mothers? Sometimes us dads are different. But you know, when your kids get in trouble in school, most moms are like, not my kid, right? It's like I I could tell you how many times I got in trouble. Uh I never told this story from the pulpit. I've told it to my kids, it lives in infamy. But in the fourth grade, we went to some somewhere called Camp Greenville, and it was like a you go and it's like a discovery day for school, and I was in a bad mood that day. You ever had those days when you're in a bad mood? And so I wanted to show off as a fourth grader. So I had this t-shirt they give you. It's like a memento to remember for the rest of your life. This is how much it meant to me. I decided I was going to rip it, but I couldn't rip it because I had fourth grader strengths. But I thought through how do I rip this shirt? I poked a hole in it with my pencil and I just ripped the shirt off. I had a shirt underneath, by the way. It wasn't like I was bare chested. And so other boys saw me, and like every boy on the fourth grade bus began to rip their shirts off, too. And it just started this whole thing. And so my mom got a call and she's like, Well, Timothy, don't do that again. That was it. I mean, I didn't get major consequence. Why? Because she pitied them. Now, when God pities us, it doesn't say that God overlooks our issues. He knows about them. But what it is, is because we are adopted into Christ, we are in Christ. When God sees us, he sees the cross. This big cross behind me, the book of Colossians and other passages throughout the New Testament says when God sees you, he sees you as pure, blameless, and without fault. Doesn't mean he doesn't see your sin, but he's saying the sin's paid for, right? It's not guilty. So thank God, right? Thank God that he pities us. If you think your parents pity you, God has greater compassion than you can imagine. Verse 17, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. Notice it's on those who fear him. It's conditional. You can't just live like what you want and expect to experience God's goodness and mercy on a daily basis. It's those who fear him and his righteousness to his children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to such as remember his commandments to do them. I just want to look at you with compassion and just let you know this. God cares about you. But yet he has compassion. Yet he has sympathy for you. And the grateful life is remembering because of God's goodness, I don't have to focus on the badness around me. It doesn't mean I'm naive, it doesn't mean I'm not aware of what's happening in the world. No, it means I see what's happening, but yet it's filtered against the lens of God's goodness, that in the end it's gonna work out. So this is the biblical evidence for a grateful life. But for all my scientific people, how many nurses do we have? Medical doctor, we've got several in the first. All right. I'm gonna give you the science. We believe the Bible 100%, and sometimes science will actually be like the Bible's true regardless, but a lot of times science will corroborate it. So there's been multiple studies about a positive winsome, living a grateful life, it actually benefits you physically. I'm gonna give you a few benefits. First of all, is improve cardiovascular health. Did you know that if you're thankful and grateful and positive, you're less likely to have a heart attack? Did you know that you have lower levels of inflammation, healthier cholesterol levels? Did you know that if you do have heart surgery, you recover faster? This is just science. You also have a stronger immune system. Isn't it interesting that positive people have greater immune systems? You're less likely to get the common cold. You're less likely to suffer from diabetes, hypertension, even cancer. Now it doesn't say if you're positive, you won't get these things, but you're less likely. Um, you have better mental health. That would make sense, right? If you're negative, I mean, no wonder how much challenges we have with mental health. But it lowers your level of depression, higher life satisfaction. Now, this this other science really um it uh it just really bewildered me. I don't want to tell you where it's from. It's from the Mayo Clinic, did a study and also study published in the Journal of Psychology and Social Psychology. They did a lot of research. The Mayo Clinic discovered they studied older people, and they found out that if you're positive, if you have an optimistic perspective, you're 50% less likely to die from early death in their study. Now, the other study actually put a year on it, and this kind of bewildered me. They studied people for a time. These are like senior adults, and so one group was considered the optimist, the other group was considered the what? Pessimists. Optimists live seven and a half years longer than the other group. Seven and a half years. So it's like, whoa, this really encourages me. And when you think about this, I want us to throw 1 Peter 3 on the screen. This is the verse that um, you know, even before the science was there, it says, He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil. So I'm not gonna talk about evil, think about evil, negativity, and lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil, do good, let him seek peace and pursue it. So it was saying, listen, if you want to love life, if you want to see good, live a grateful life. Live a grateful life. So just in summary, I just want to review our four points in summary. I don't know about you, but I want to live a grateful life. How do I do it? The first thing is a grateful life praises God's name with one's entire being. Remember, worship is not about the lights and the sound, those are blessings, but it's not about that. It's about you thanking God for who He is and what He's done. The grateful life, number two, proclaims God's goodness in one's daily life. Aren't you glad that there's reality and there's destiny? Some of you are not in the reality, but you've got destiny coming. You know, you may be sick right now, but if you're a Christian, one day you'll have a body that never gets sick again. Number three, the grateful life ponders God's mercy and grace towards every believer. Aren't you glad for the double scoop ice cream? He's got grace and he's got mercy. He saved me from hell, and that wasn't just it, but he gave me his Holy Spirit. He gave me the fruit of the Spirit, He gave me at least one spiritual gift. He's given me my name written in heaven. There's there's a city that awaits, an eternal city called the New Jerusalem. And finally, the grateful life perceives God's love for his children. Aren't you glad that God loves you like a child? And you're like, He loves you so much, he shows compassion, he shows mercy. So this brings us to the gospel portion. How as Christians are we to receive this? Well, just like when I studied this and I had to repent and say, God, I'm not always positive. God, I'm sometimes negative, God, I'm sometimes critical. It doesn't mean you're not aware of the facts. It doesn't mean you're naive. The Bible doesn't teach that, but it's saying, despite what happens to me, God's doing something in me. Think about Fanny Crosby going blind and saying, I wouldn't take sight if you gave it to me, because the providence of God is using this in my life. What if the problem that you're facing now is part of the providence of God in your life? What if he's wanting to use it? So the gospel for the believer is that, man, I've got to apply the resurrection principles that Christ rose from the dead, and whatever is dragging me down, God's going to give me new life. What about the gospel for the seeker? If you're here today, I want to give you this grateful thought. Jesus loves you far more than you'll ever know. But you have to receive what he did. God has no grandchildren, he just has children. You have to be adopted. You're not a Christian because your dad or mom was a Christian or your grandfather was a pastor. You're a Christian because you received what Jesus did on the cross. There's no grandchildren, only children. So have you received the finished work of the cross? To summarize this into one sentence, our big idea for today is this the grateful life is one of worship, praising God for his goodness and his love in your life. So I want to give you some action steps on how to apply this so that tomorrow your day is different. Number one is make worship an everyday part of your life. We don't come to church just to worship, but we come to church worshiping. Not half-heartedly, but with all with God, right? Number two, it's time to raise some praise. Hopefully, you will walk away today having more things to be grateful for than when you came. Thank God for his goodness and his grace. And finally, drink deeply of the grace of God in your life. If he has been gracious to you and merciful to you, should you not be graceful people to others? Never forget the story of Donna that changed my life. I realized that how you view your life is how you experience your life. And I want to view my life against the backdrop of the goodness of God.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

We're glad you joined us on today's edition of Truth for Transformation with Pastor Timothy Brown. We're working our way through the Book of Psalms, the original collection of worship music. God knows how music can connect people to his heart. It can take us from knowing something about God into a place of knowing him deeply. It connects the mind to the heart. The Psalms are an amazing how-to for worshiping God. You'll find calls to lift your hands, clap, bow down, sing, shout, and even dance. When did you last see dancing in church? Also, the psalms show us a wide array of what we can pray and sing to God about. We can celebrate God for his greatness, and we can call out and lament, asking God to deliver us. Sometimes we think we can't tell God how we really feel, but the Psalms show us that God can handle all our emotions. There are even psalms that call for God to bring justice against Israel's enemies. We hope today's message has led you closer to God. If you'd like to share your thoughts with us, ask a question, or just say hello, please find us on social media at Dr. Timothy Brown Ministries. You can also find us online at drtimothybrown.org, where you can connect and learn more about our ministry. Remember, it's through your support that this ministry is possible. Your giving fuels the mission. And being on mission for God is so important. To give, go to drtimothybrown.org. Thank you again for joining us on Truth for Transformation.