All right, hey guys, across all of our campuses, man, we're excited to jump back into the book of Psalms today. So if you have a copy of scripture, we're going to be in Psalm 36. And as you guys are turning across all of our campuses to Psalms, to Psalm 36 today, I got to do this, man.
This is one of my favorite weekends of the whole summer, even though the summer has just started, okay? And the reason is for Mercy Hill, and if you're home folks, you're going to know this, guys, this is the weekend that our college students come in for our summer projects this summer. We have 33 kids that are doing the initiative, 15 of those initiative kids, our city project kids.
Can we just welcome them across the entire church? Hey, you know, listen, a third of all of the missionaries that we have ever sent from Mercy Hill, we met on the college campus. It is a very strategic time of life for them. And the city project and the SIT initiative, and I know I'm speaking some insider language, but basically it's this. These students decide to come and spend a summer getting shaped, being poured into, and pouring themselves out for the sake of others.
Man, it is a summer that will change their life forever. A third of all of the city project students and SIT initiative students that we've ever had, they end up choosing to say yes to a two-year initiative through Mercy Hill in the long run, meaning they go plant a church with us. They go on a two-year mission stint with us.
They do a residency with us. My point is, these students that come in, it is just very strategic for what we're doing as a church long term. And man, people talk about the next generation and college students and people are believing the faith and all that. And man, I can't decipher some of that.
Here's what I know. Across many college campuses, and I'm telling you right here across the campus of the triad, there is, the spirit is doing something. God is reviving.
There is a breakout going on, all right? And so here's what you can do. You can email Daniel Thompson, who is our college pastor. He is also the Clifton Road campus pastor. Okay, so shout out to Clifton Road. But you can email him if you want to help in any way. Listen, they need snacks provided. There's a million events that you could help serve at.
If you just want to be on the prayer team, any of that stuff that you would love to do pouring in for the college students this summer, you guys email him and they will get you set up. All right? Psalm 36 is where we're going to be today. And I'm telling you, this Psalm is nothing short of wrestling with one of the deepest truths in the Christian life. And that truth is that we constantly need to move from a self-centered view of life into a God-centered view of life.
And that, listen, that does happen one time, right? When you end up going from death to life. When you get saved and your whole life is not just about you, all of a sudden you give your life over to God and yes, that happens. You move from self-centered to God-centered, from wicked to righteousness. But in the Christian life, guys, it's not just a one time deal. This is something we die to all the time. Man, we go through pain, things hurt, we forget about disciplines, we haven't been in the Word.
And guess what happens? All of a sudden, self and that old man, the Bible says, that old man begins to rear his head and he begins to look really big and clouds out everything else about the steadfast love of God and how big God is to be to us. And so even for us that are believers, Psalm 36 provides a really, really good place to go when we are trying to refocus on what is life about? What am I created for? Who's life about?
Who's life is this anyway? God, listen, your word, your people, your church, we want to live for you. Okay, what is the big truth that we need to kind of get there?
I think it's this. Y'all, we got to go back to God's love. God's love is the fountain of life. His love is the fountain of life. Self is not the fountain of life. Our rebellious hearts, not a fountain of life. Okay, I would even say this. God's gifts to us are not the fountain of life.
They're good. And I want to praise him. And we say this all the time. We praise God for his marvelous works, man.
I totally get that. But the gifts are not the fountain of life. There is a giver, God himself. And he is the fountain of life. And we need to feast on his abundance and drink from the river of his delight.
That's what Psalm 36 is going to say. We got to move from the gift to the giver. I don't know, dads, if you guys have ever had this or if some of you guys have traveled, I know when my kids were really young, you know, I'd go on a mission trip or I'd go on a church trip. I got to travel a decent amount for my job, probably not nearly as much as some of y'all, but I'm going a decent amount.
And I'd be gone for three or four days and come home. And I don't know if my experience was anything like y'all's, but my kids, they didn't care anything about what was in the suitcase. They just cared about me.
Okay. They just said, oh, father, we're so glad that you're home. All right, father, you have restored our family. We have been longing, right? We thank you so much for the hard work that you go and do.
And our greatest desire was just to have you back home. Is that what, is that your kids? Okay. No, my kids were like, what did you bring me? Okay. You weren't on an airplane, which means you bring me something. I don't know if it's candy. I don't know if it's a stolen tiny shampoo bottle from a, from a hotel. Okay.
I don't know what it is. Souvenir, but you bring, and, and listen, that's fine. Okay. Actually, actually it's a really cute memory, but here's the thing.
You hope that they kind of mature out of that, where they really do care about you and your presence and, and, and your, your, you know, your interaction with them and relationship with them. Right. And that's where we got to get with God. It's not, listen, God has given me things. He's given you things and I praise him for that. I'm so, I'm so grateful for it. But the maturity is in moving a little bit beyond that to say, God, you are the giver. You're the very giver of life. And honestly, your love David says is better than life. And if that is true, then we got to push through the gifts and to the giver. All right, let's do this. Let's get in Psalm 36 together.
Now this is, this is funny. This is all about God's love, all about God's love, but look how he starts. Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart.
There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. He has ceased to act wisely and do good.
He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good and he does not reject evil. Now Andrew, you just spent five minutes in this intro setting up that this Psalm and what we're talking about today is all about God's love, his steadfast love, how much he loves you, feast on his abundance, drink from the river of delight. It's all about God and yet, how does it start?
It starts with transgression. Why? Here's why. Because God's kingdom shines against the backdrop of human wickedness, right? You guys remember the Chronicles of Narnia? Why is Aslan's kingdom so important? Why is it so good? Why are we drawn to it? Because it's set against the backdrop of the lifeless frozen hatred of the white witch. And what we have here is a little bit of a contrast, right? Psalm 36 contrasts the love of God with the wickedness of man.
The light shines in the darkness. God's love jumps off of the canvas when the background is evil. And so for a few minutes here, yes, we're going to get into God's steadfast love and that's where we're going today.
But for a few minutes, we've got to talk about the alternative. How good is the steadfast love of God? Well, that only makes sense if we understand the wickedness of man. Verse one transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart. Now, transgression is rebellion. Transgression is spiritual revolt.
Transgression is saying, God, I know the way that you have outlined life and I at the bottom of my heart don't want it. I don't want the way you think about family. I don't want the way you think about money. I don't want the way you think about community. I don't want the way you think about forgiveness.
I just want what I want. That is rebellion. That is spiritual revolt. And that is transgression. And what the Bible says is that for the wicked, transgression speaks to their heart. You could say it like this. Transgression speaks the heart language of the wicked.
Now, how many of us have ever done this before? Somebody says something you're resonating with and you're like, man, you're speaking my language now. You've said that before. If you say to me, if you start talking about chainsaws and four-wheelers, man, you're speaking my language. You're speaking my heart language.
If you start talking about oat milk lattes and emotional support alpacas, which is a thing. You're not speaking my language anymore. You're speaking somebody else's language now.
That person is probably from California too. So it's like, you're speaking somebody else's language. Um, but, but you understand how you're wired, right? You just like, dude, you're speaking my language for the wicked. Transgression is their heart language. You're getting all the way down into me now. Like you peel back the layers and what's at the very bottom of that heart is, is revolt is revolt and rebellion and spiritual transgression.
Now, why does that matter? I think, listen, I think sometimes in an environment like a Mercy Hill church, okay, we have a lot of people that are new to church, but we have a lot of people that are coming back to church. All right. That's what we praise God for. It's a good thing. Here's what happens. People grow up in a church, different, different, uh, environments, different kind of genres of church, whatever they get a little bit older, maybe they fall away.
Maybe they start coming back. And what they're asking now, what you might be asking now is, well, am I actually a Christian? And we can talk about a lot of angles of this.
Okay. Man, you only become a Christian, not from your works, but from the blood of Christ. And we can talk about a lot of that stuff. But one of the ways I think you can test if you're a believer or not, and if God has actually changed your heart, you think about what he's saying here is the bottom of your heart is that heart language, rebellion and revolt. Now, every one of us as a, listen, I've been believing for a long time.
Every one of us struggles, but that's the point. It's a war. It's a war with the flesh.
Paul says it. I do the things I don't want to do. I don't do the things that I want to do. Is that war happening in your life or is it actually not? And what's at the very bottom of your heart is revolt and rebellion. What I actually want. Let me, you know, another way to think about it. Why do you want to go to heaven?
Think about this. Seriously, why do you want heaven? If you want heaven because you don't want hell, that's not, that's not what heaven is. Okay.
I actually, I mean, that's not it. Do you want heaven because you long for the day when God's governance and rules are something that you no longer have to fight in war against, but you just want with everything you have. Do you want that? Do you want, do you want to read the Bible and say, this is the very bottom of my heart every day, every moment, every breath before him is going to honor him.
Do you want that? Or is it like, yeah, but that means I can't get drunk anymore. All right. But that means I can't have this illicit, illicit sexual thing anymore or pornography thing anymore or whatever. See, what I'm saying is for the Christian, they're struggling all those areas, but that's the point. It's a struggle. It's not the very bottom at the very bottom of the heart. It's like, man, what I want is God and his kingdom. That's not true for the wicked. What he wants at the bottom of his heart with the heart language is revolt and rebellion. Look, there is no fear of God before his eyes, for he flatters himself in his own eyes and his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. Of course, he can't find out his own iniquity because he has flattered himself because he doesn't fear God.
Now, fear, fearing God is a concept that if you're new at a church, we always have people like this every single week, every service, every campus. Okay. It might be you today. You're just coming around.
You're trying to figure it out, man. And this church exists for you. All right. We're growing the believer, but man, we have a, we have a big emphasis on the loss coming to know Christ. And that might be where you are.
Okay. You're like, man, I don't understand fear of God. Like, am I supposed to be a, is fear of God mean I'm afraid of God? Like, as in, you know, he's got his thumb right over my head. And the next time I mess up, he's going to squash me like the bug I am.
And that's sort of my, how I relate to him. Actually, it's a little deeper than that. The fear of God is a little more of a reverential awe and a good picture of this. And I know not everybody has a good picture of this. Okay. A lot of people don't have a good picture of father and dad in their life.
And actually you, you might even know what it was supposed to be even more by not having it sometimes. Okay. Like you, you have that longing. What, what is the heart long for in a father?
Here it is. Okay. A three or four year old kid looks at their dad and man, he's Superman. He's big. He's strong.
Okay. He can do anything. He, he, he's the man. They love to play. They can't wait for dad to get home so he can get on the floor and wrestle or throw the ball or whatever. And they love that.
And they're drawn. Honestly, kids are drawn to that father figure in a way they're not drawn to anything else. I know there's uniqueness in the mother figure as well, but there's something about that father figure they're drawn to. And yet they know that he's the one who holds discipline. And they know that he's the one who is the authority and they know, Hey man, at the end of the day, I might kick and scream, but what he says goes, and there is an awe. There is a reverence there. Okay. That's the idea of God, the father, our God as a father, our fear of him does not mean I can't wait for him to get home.
It doesn't mean that I don't want relationship. It means that there is a reverential awe where I understand there is an immense power and immense strength and immense authority that is with him. And when we forget that and we remove the fear of God, there is a vacuum there. And what happens all of a sudden we begin to rise up and take the place. We begin to see nothing but ourselves.
That's what he says. Look, there's no fear of God for he flatters himself in his own eyes. When you don't fear God, you'll begin to flatter yourself. And the more you flatter yourself, guess what you will have no reason to fear God. It's just kind of this cycle. You could say it like this.
We flatter ourselves when we don't fear God, when we don't have that reverential awe, that fear. You know, I was at the, uh, I was at the ocean, uh, maybe two weeks ago, last week, two weeks ago. And, um, just incredible. You guys know it. You sit out there, you're looking at the beach.
There is a reverential. It doesn't mean it's not fun. Doesn't mean it's not beautiful, but the kids go swim and you tell them you better be careful, right? You're sitting on that beach.
And I don't know if you're anything like me, but you're like, you're sitting there and you're like, this is so beautiful, but I'm also understanding the power that is there. I mean, one crack in the bottom of the ocean, a mile away, and that thing is going to send a wave and we're all cooked. Okay. We got no chance. I mean, there ain't no where you can run. There's nothing. There is a power there. There's a reverence. When we, when we stop viewing God in a reverential way, what ends up happening is we look at ourselves and we begin to see nothing but ourselves. When God is big, we are small.
When God is small, guess what? We in our own minds become very big. We become very proud. We become very arrogant. We become very full of ourselves. And that's what he's saying here.
He flatters himself to the point where he can't even see his own iniquity and sin. This is like the person that says, you know, you, you, they can't see it. You come to somebody and you in love and you tell them, Hey man, you got a blind spot in this area and you tell them what it is. And they say, well, I don't see it that way.
And you say, I know that's why it's called a blind spot. Okay. Of course you don't see it. Right. But I'm trying to help you see it.
They can't. Man, all I see is self and humans are me monsters y'all. I don't, I mean, you, you've had this example at some point in your life. Okay. Somebody from work wanted to sit down and talk. Somebody wanted to go to coffee.
Somebody wanted to take, you know, go to lunch together or whatever. And you went and you sat down and now don't raise your hand if you've had this experience. Okay. I know you, you, you sit down and you do the thing for one hour and they talk about nothing but themselves and do not ask you one question.
Have you ever had that experience? Don't raise your hand. Okay.
Some of you were like, I've never had that experience. Well, that's cause it's probably you. Okay. You're the one that did that. You know, and my, my point is, my point is we are naturally kind of like me monsters.
Okay. All I see is, is me every day, right in front of my own eyes. Like it's my life, my, and what the Bible is saying is that is in line with the wicked. That is how we are. We need the fear of God to come out of that. Now, what else about the wicked? Two more verses here that we're going to move on. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit. What did Jesus say from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Okay. He has ceased to act wisely and do good wisdom and foolishness.
These are the two paths. Rejecting God's governance, running headlong into foolishness. He plots trouble while on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He does not reject evil. Y'all the wise life is lived in submission to God's governance. The wicked life is lived in rebellion to God's governance.
And this is the foolish path through and through. Doesn't care about what he says. He wounds with his words.
You know, the whole idea from Proverbs death and life are in the power of the tongue. Nope, trouble and deceit are flowing from his mouth. He does not want to act wisely. He's going to reject God's governance.
Look what it says. He plots trouble while in his bed. Now this, this, this spoke to me because I don't know how you are. And I know everybody's got different routines and all that stuff. I think generally for humans, when we finally laid down at night and listen, the kids are asleep, man, the, the, the house has picked up.
Maybe you're a college student. The, you know, people are finally gone. Okay. They were watching this show or they're playing this game right now. People are finally, you know, and, and you're, you finally get a chance to just, it's calm. It's dark.
It's it's, it's cool. It's you lay down. What happens? The deepest thoughts begin to bubble up. The deepest things from the heart begin. You start thinking about how you were treated. You start thinking about mistakes you made. You start thinking about what the kids have going on tomorrow and how that plays into their future.
You start all of a sudden having dreams that come, man, things are 10 years from now, whatever that stuff begins to bubble up. It's stuff that's at the bottom of the heart. And you know what this says for the wicked, what's at the bottom of their heart is plotting and deceiving and evil.
And that is what is coming up in that late hour when you lay down and you finally take it all off and what comes up. And here's the point. Okay. The Bible has given us a snapshot of, of the, of the, of the wicked life, the self, the self aggrandizing life. All you can see is you that's over here. Now this is crazy. All right. In the Psalms, this is one of the biggest turns you're ever going to see.
We were going one direction and now we're going another direction. Look at verse five. Your steadfast love O Lord extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like the great deep man and beast you save O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life in your light. Do we see light? Now this is, this is awesome. Okay. But we got to just set it in a context for what it is.
All right. This is one of the greatest theological right turns that came out of nowhere in all of the Psalms. I mean, you got to look at this and you're like, David, one through four wickedness, wickedness, wickedness, verse five. There's no transition sentence. There's no, Oh yeah. This no, no, nothing.
All of a sudden we have just gone into one of the most beautiful scriptures that produced the greatest third day song ever. Okay. And some of you guys remember that and, and it's like, Hey, we just, we just went from here to here. I mean, it's like David, do you have a touch of something?
ADHD? I don't know what's going on. Okay. It's like, we're going this way and then squirrel.
All right. Now we're going over here and, and you're like, why is he doing that? I'm going to tell you why he's doing it. David sets up a contrast as land's kingdom shines out of the background of the wickedness of the white witch. The canvas is human evil.
And in the picture he's going to paint is the light that's shining out of the darkness. And here's what happens in our life. You and I have to wrestle with this and we're going to break it down verse by verse.
We got to wrestle with this idea. The steadfast love of God. That is our abundance that we feast on. That is the river that we drink from. That is in contrast to human wickedness.
Okay. And here's the thing. Many of us right now, many of us on our campuses all through the triad, we are living somewhere between verse four and verse five. Man, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not fully into the plotting evil on my bed at night or trouble or I'm not fully there, man.
I don't know that I'm fully here. I don't know that I would say precious is your steadfast love because honestly what's precious to me is my kid's future. What's precious to me is the job. What's precious to me is making another buck. What's precious to me is this hobby. Not saying those things aren't good, but this is getting an ultimate.
What is precious? You know, David is the one who says in Psalm 63, your love is better than life. Do you love the love of God better than life itself? Can you say one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere?
I drink like a deer pants for water. That's how I pan after you. That's what he's trying to get us to see. Many of us are like, well, I don't want verses one through four.
The question is, do we want to live in verses five through nine? Now here's here. Let's just kind of walk through this. Okay. Verses five and six, verse five and six creates an incredible picture. All right. Your love extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains, your judgments, both man and beast.
Okay. I referenced that third day song, old Christian band. Um, you know, that, that, that's kind of the, one of the best songs they ever produced in my opinion. And it comes right out of this. And what it's trying to get us to see is just like Psalm 33. You guys remember there are times in our life. If we need to move from all we can see as ourselves to getting a God view, we need to look around and see what creation is speaking back to us.
All right. What about the, what about the mountains and the sky and the ocean? What did they say about God? You can say it like this. God's creation is an index for his character.
What is an index? And you, you, you go here, but it points over there, right? I was, my kid is so funny. Just grow. I'm a, I was born at 83. Okay. So I am a millennial, but I am a geriatric millennial. All right.
So I meant eighties, nineties. You guys get it. Um, so, uh, you know, many of you in this room right now, some of you at our campuses have never used a pay phone in your life. Okay.
You don't know what that means to put money in. I saw this thing on America's funniest home videos. These kids, little kids were looking at a pay phone. They picked it up. They were looking at it and all this.
And one of the kids looked at the other one and said, I read about these in my history class. Okay. So pay phone, pay phone, VHS tapes. Okay. Probably the greatest thing that I'm sure. I don't know. I have not been in a library in a long time. Okay.
I would imagine that the first thing chat GPT did in our world is replace the library card catalog. Okay. I don't know if you guys remember this in school, you know, you got a whole class on how to read the card index in a, in a, in a, in a library setting. All right. Now you're, you're, if you remember, you're open that thing up, you're filing through all the files. You pull it out. What does it say?
It's an index for where to go. It's, it's actually pointing you to a greater truth. Think about this. Does not the night sky, the mountains and the ocean are an index to point you to a truth about God.
And the truth is right here. How unsearchable are the heavens? That's what we're supposed to think about God. How strong, how impregnable are the mountains? That's how we think about the strength of God.
How inexhaustible is the ocean? And that's how we think about God. And guys, they stand as symbols for a God who is a God who is amazing and awesome, awesome God.
And these things, his handy work, they're symbols for us. And let me just say this kind of step aside for one minute here. And I'm going to tell you, man, if this is where you are, and you're coming from this kind of background, or you're struggling with this, even right now, I want you to know you have a place here. We want you here. And we want to walk with you through this.
Okay. But here, I got to say a message to our church right now. June, June is now. And what that means in our culture is you're about to see flying everywhere you can. One of the greatest symbols actually of God's forgiveness and future love, although it's been co-opted to mean something totally different as we see rainbows everywhere around us in the month of June. And here's I'm going to tell you, Christians don't surrender symbols. Christians don't erase the index of what is supposed to point to something else. Here's my point, guys, especially with our kids, we cannot be scared of the rainbow. What we have to do is we have to constantly say, Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Let me tell you biblically what a rainbow actually is.
It's when the divine warrior of heaven decided to hang his bow in the sky so that he would no longer destroy the earth again with water as he did. Instead, he's going to save. And we've got to be able to say that we don't surrender symbols.
We don't erase the index. We don't run from this stuff. Instead, we realize God has created the world in a certain way so that our heart would connect to something in creation, and we would see him. And I pray that you will, but it's not just a big liquid. He says in verse seven, how precious is the steadfast love? Oh, God, your steadfast level. God, the children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delights. This word number seven, how precious is your steadfast love? It is a major, major context in all the scripture in the Old Testament in particular.
If you need a good definition of it, one comes from the Reformation Study Bible. Steadfast love is the loving devotion in which God binds himself to his people. The steadfast love of God is his continual covenant kindness.
It never ends. It's knowing that God loves you, that he is making his face shine upon you, that when he brings you into his family, he will no wise cast you out. This is the steadfast love of God. Now, what's crazy is we get a chance to see even a better picture of the steadfast love of God than David had.
You know why? Because David's faith was bound in looking forward to the day when God would send a savior to his son, Jesus Christ, to save his people. You and I have more of the story. We get a chance to look back on what David was looking forward to, okay? And when we get a chance to look back, here's what we see. The steadfast love of God is so amazing that it could not be overcome by our sin and it could not be won by our feeble attempts to work out for our salvation.
It's something way bigger than that. Man, the steadfast love of God is something that he gave us in the cross. See, the gospel is this.
I know not everybody is up to speed here. Let me give you the gospel in short, okay? This is where you go from death to life, non-Christian to Christian, is when we begin to understand Jesus Christ lived a life that I didn't live. In my life, I sinned. Sin deserves eternal separation from God in a place called hell forever, all right? But Jesus came and lived a sinless life, but at the end of his life, he took what I deserve for my sin.
It's called the great exchange. Jesus goes to the cross and takes my penalty so that he can give me the rewards of the life that he lived. And then three days later, God wakes him up and he rises from the dead as the first born of a new humanity that through faith can come and be joined to him. If that has happened in your life, if you have put your faith in Christ, the steadfast love of God is bound to you. His covenant kindness covers you and will for all time. And yes, you are more sinful than you could have ever imagined, but now because of Christ, you are more loved than you ever dared hope.
And it will never run out. I mean, this is how, here's what he asked. I'm gonna ask you, how precious is the steadfast love of God to you, bound in Christ? Let me ask you a question. Maybe you had a rough week, maybe it was rough at home, maybe you yelled at the kids, you were nasty at home, whatever it is, okay? How precious is it to you that even in despite of that ugliness, the steadfast love of God has not run out on you today? You didn't get the promotion, but the steadfast love of God has not run out. Man, you failed exceedingly, but your life is not defined by your grace. You're not defined by your greatest failures.
Why? Because the steadfast love of God has been poured out for you. It's so awesome. I think one pastor said it like this, we serve a God who takes you to ice cream even after you lose the ball game, you know? And how true is that, right? It's like even in our sin, even in our brokenness, our God has poured out for us. And here's the this is what we got to understand today, all right? You were made to search and long and find the steadfast love of God that I'm talking about right now.
When we were created, we were fully known by God, knowing him, knowing us. I mean, this is what the garden is, but here's the deal. Something we lost in the garden can only come back to us and be found in the gospel. In the garden, here's what we lost. We lost the affirmation of God, the felt presence of God. We lost that ability to say, in God's sight, I'm okay.
And you know what happens? Because we lost that affirmation. We have become a vessel, a cup that needs praise of man and affirmation poured into it all day long. But you know what?
It's leaky at the bottom. And without the actual affirmation of God, we will be looking for praise anywhere we can be anywhere we can get it. We on the high school campus, people will be looking for affirmation in relationships. It's no different than the CEO looking for affirmation and another acquisition to tell how awesome they are. Another zero in the bank account, whatever it is, we will look for this affirmation anywhere we can get it. We were made for it.
The problem is it wasn't in all those things. We were made for this. It's the steadfast love of God. That's the satisfier. That's where we can say, man, maybe the world thinks I'm XYZ, but God almighty has looked upon me and his face has shined on me.
And I am a son or daughter of the king. And that is enough for me. And this is what we are built to thirst for and long for. That's what the sermon is about. Man, don't hang between verse four and five.
Move away from verses one through four and into the full acceptance of this truth. I hunger off the abundance of his house. I drink from the river of his delight. Can you remember the thirstiest you've ever been in your life?
Can you, I mean, just think about it. When was I really, really thirsty? I mean, was it on a hike? Was it on a ball field? Thirstiest I've ever been in my life.
My dad takes a group of high school, middle school kids on a canoe trip with our church, small church, a long time ago. And we go to the Swanee river out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And he, he, you know, there ain't no cell phones or nothing.
It's just, he just got a map and he's looking at the map and he pulls off side of the road, some redneck dude, Hey man, if we go here to here, what do you think it is? I don't know about four hours. Good enough. So we get on the river. Four hours go by, hadn't seen the bridge where they dropped the car. Another couple of hours go by.
I hadn't seen the bridge. Okay, dad, now we don't have any more water. All right.
Uh, or food. We have exhausted our resources. Okay. Um, you know, we're still on this river. This thing was supposed to be over. He pulls everybody off, off the river. We get on this bank. He get, he, he pulls all the guys.
If you are a senior high guy, he pulled you over into a little meeting and he got in our face and he was like, Hey, you guys get in the back of the boats. There is no playing around. There's no jumping on each other. There's no tumping the canoes. We got to go.
I don't know where we are, but this is not good. I mean, there's nothing around middle of Swanee river and it cannot get dark on us out here. So we get in the boat.
We, man, we take off hour after hour after hour. It was the thirstiest I've ever been in my life. So thirsty that me and the other bonehead guys that were pushing those canoes down the river started jumping out and swimming down to the bottom of the Swanee river where we would see bubbles coming up, knew it was a little spring and drinking out of the bottom of the Swanee. I would not recommend that.
Okay. Do you remember the thirstiest you've ever been? Your soul is meant to thirst for the steadfast love of God like this.
And here's the beauty of it. The more you thirst for it, the more he will supply. And I don't mean that in a cosmic way. Listen, you've already got, if you're a believer, you've already got as much of the steadfast love of God as you're ever going to have, but he will give it to you and measure in terms of your felt experience. You will grow deeper into him.
You will become more mature in him. You know, we pray, we, there are songs that we used to sing, you know, I want more of your spirit. And, and I think, I think the spirit of those songs, listen, once you become a, once you become a believer, you don't get more of the spirit some other time.
Okay. But, but it's this idea in, in, in terms of the, I want the, I want the experience and the growth and the depth and the maturity that comes. I want the felt presence of God. And I long for it and I thirst for it. And that's what we're called to do. We feast on the abundance of his house. We drink from the river of his delight. Now here's what we're going to do.
We're going to do something that I have not done in probably 10 years. And that is, there is no application for the sermon. There's not an application point. There's nothing else for you guys to write down who are doing notes furiously. Okay. It's going to drive my wife crazy because she's got to have all of her stuff. And where's the application point?
Not have one. Here's the, because the application point is this, man, we just need this truth to just sit right here. That's it. We need to be able to say this last verse, continue your steadfast love to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright of heart. Well, we're going to do now at all of our campuses is we're going to have an opportunity to come and respond and pray. The song we're going to sing is, Oh, come to the altar. And we don't mean that metaphorically.
Okay. We're, we're, we're, we're opening up times to pray today. You said, well, what's the exact prayer point. Here's the prayer point.
God, verses five through nine. Show me that what I am built to long for and be satisfied by is your steadfast love. It's not a marriage. It's not more money. It's not a better future. It's not my kid's success. I'm not saying those things aren't great. Good gifts. That's fine. What I am built to long for and be satisfied by is not the gifts.
It's the giver. And my prayer today for our church is that we would be radically affected. We would come to the altar and we would come forward.
We would pray and we would just pray what he says in verse 10. God, continue your steadfast love to me and wake me up to this beautiful truth. I want to move one author said like this, the contrast in this passage is the claustrophobic self-absorbed nature of sin. Moving from that to seeing that the love of God is as high as the heavens majestic as the mountains and as inexhaustible as the ocean.
That's the experience that we want to have today. I don't know what's clouding your vision from it and maybe that you're just not even a believer yet. You're like, man, verses one through four, that's kind of characterized in my life.
I would call you to come out of that today. Come into verses five through nine. Admit your sin. Believe in what he has done. Confess him as the Lord of your life.
It really is that simple. I pray you do it today. But for others that are like, man, I know I'm a Christian and I know that when God looks at me, I understand that he sees me firmly as planted in his steadfast love, verses five through nine. But I feel like today I'm hanging somewhere between verse four and five practically, you know, I'm pulled on all this and I don't know what it is.
I know for me, listen, when I go through things that are hard, when I go through pain, when I go through uncertainty, if there are broken dreams in my life, that is an immediate factor that leads me to just all I think about himself all day. All I see is me in my life. Think times like that mean, what do I need?
So I'm 36 to help me with what? To help me to wake up, to realize those broken dreams, whatever I thought it was going to be, that is still not the giver and nothing about the giver has changed. I need to see the steadfast love.
I need to see how inexhaustible and impregnable and strong and huge his love is for me. Maybe that's what you need today. All right. So I pray this, we're going to close and then we're going to have a response song. And as we do that, man, I pray that you'll come forward or if you need to pray in your seat, but just pray, God, allow me to drink from the abundance of your house, the river of your delight. Let's pray. Let's pray. Father, we come before you right now and we just ask God that you would move in incredible ways all across our church today. God, you are, are great and greatly to be praised. God, wake us up to your steadfast love. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
