The Village Church
Wholehearted Praise, pt 1 - Psalm 103:1-5; 20-22 - 2024/06/30 - 2024/06/30 - Audio
You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good morning. You all sound awesome. There's not a lot of you, but you sound. That's nice. Y'all make me want to do that again. Welcome to the village church where our mission is to know Jesus, to enjoy Jesus, and to glorify Jesus. I want to welcome our first time guests. If we have any, don't see any, but welcome if you're out there. If you're a first time or a hundredth time guest, you can scan the QR code in the front of your worship guide. That'll take you to pretty much any of the resources you may have questions about for the church and allow you to connect with us and us to connect with you. I think there are some changes in the life together section of your worship guide, so please take note of that. Update your calendars. Also check the back of your worship guide. We've got some summer fun going on that you don't want to miss out on. Several of the youth had fun at the lake yesterday. I'm a little jealous. I should have gone with my kids. They came back just raving about it. So thank you to the palace for that. For the youth, there is a summer calendar printed and available in the lobby next to the worship guides. And just FYI, the church office is closed on Thursday in celebration of the 4th of July. We do believe here at the Village Church that the giving of our ties and offerings is an active worship. And you can give in three ways. Online through the website, you can mail a check to our address, which is also in your worship guide. And there's an offering box at the back of the sanctuary just to the left of the door. These are our announcements. Please go and yourselves accordingly. I'll start with the next thing. So now if you will stand if you're able for our call to worship from Hebrews chapter 12. Our reader says leader and if you will read with me where it says people. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. Amen. Good morning church family. That was somebody. Good morning church family. This is the day the Lord has made and let us rejoice and be glad in it. Can we give a lot of hand cup of praise this morning? I said, can we give God a hand cup of praise this morning for waking us up this morning, for bringing us to church and for bringing us here to worship His holy name. This song just says this is the day. This is the day the Lord has made. It's just worship with us as we sing praise unto it. That's gonna stop me like that, yeah. Why here church? This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. That the Lord has made. I will rejoice. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Can we glad? Oh, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. I trust this is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. That the Lord has made. I will rejoice. I will rejoice and be glad in it. That oh, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. This is the day. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. That the Lord has made. I will rejoice. I will rejoice and be glad in it. That oh, this is not the church. Oh, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. 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This is the day that the Lord has made me glad. This is the day that the Lord has made me glad. This is the day that the Lord has made me glad. And now hear your assurance of pardon from Hebrews 13. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. I guess I could have brought my Bible here. Please join me if you can. If you can stand for the reading of Scripture. This is the day that the Lord has made that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Sorry, I can't really read it. Okay. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. Bless the Lord, O you, His angels, you mighty ones, who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers, who do His will. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. This is the word of the Lord. Dear Lord, today we recognize that you have dominion and that you are the source of all wisdom and justice. You have forgiven us in ways that we can't imagine and you have redeemed us and we thank you so much for redeeming us, for rescuing us, and for bringing us into healing. I pray that you will remember your promise and that you will continue to heal us because we know that we do not have the capability to do that ourselves. I pray that you will comfort those whose illness and grief and other things that have robbed them of joy. For those things that linger, I pray that you will remind them that you will heal and that you comfort in the meantime. We want to remember that you have crowned us with love. I pray that you will let us really believe that and that we will know that we are loved and we forget and we ask for forgiveness that we have not focused on that and that we sometimes believe that we are not forgiven and we do not even forgive ourselves. This season I pray that you also protect us from any distrust or discord and I pray that you will give us a sense of unity united by your spirit. I pray that you will protect us from strife, protect us from hopelessness and that you will guide us through a season of politics and I pray that you will protect us through that and show us what really matters and that you will walk us through that. Please be with us today and I ask all this in your name. The song of reflection is why this is God. Why this is God? I want to try something. Our hands are lifted up to God right now. All our hands are lifted up to God and repeat after me. God, I opened up my heart to you. God, I opened up my heart to you. May all the other names fade away. I just want this time to be in the personal between you and God. Our hands are lifted. Our hearts are open. May all the other names fade away. The names of failure. The names of depression. The names of sickness. The names of all the negativity God. Faded away. Faded away in Jesus' name. Thank you, Jesus. Worse than the dust. Why is this God? The news. Hands up, hearts open. Why does this die? We lift you high. We lift you high. Hands up, hearts open. Why does we cry? God, we lift your name high. The Stomerton Church. Hands up, hearts open. Why does this die? We lift you high. We lift you high. Hands up, hearts open. Why does we cry? God, we lift your name high. Let's proclaim it on stage. Let all the other names fade away. Thank you, Jesus. Let all the other names fade away. Till there's only you. Let all the other names fade away. Worship. Jesus, take your place. Jesus, take your place. Hands up, hands up, hearts open. Why does this die? We lift you high. We lift you high. Hands up, hearts open. Why does we cry? God, we lift your name high. Just sing it off to God right here church. Hands up, hearts open. Why does this die? We lift you high. We lift you high. Hands up, hearts open. Why does we cry? God, we lift your name high. Sing it off. Let all the other names fade away. Thank you, Jesus. Let all the other names fade away. Till there's only you. Let all the other names fade away. Jesus, take your place. Jesus, take your place. Worship at one time. Let all the other names fall. The other names fade away. The names of the question, the names of sickness, pick it up. Let all the other names fade. Till there's only you. Let all the other names fade away. Jesus, take your place. Jesus, take your place. This next part is just this. To worship you, I live. To worship you, I live. To worship you. That's our prayer this morning. Just sing it off to worship you. To worship you, I live. To worship you, I live. To worship you, let's just worship God together this morning. To worship you, to worship you, I live. To worship you, I live, I live. To worship you. To worship you, I live. To worship you, I live, I live. To worship you. All the other names turn. Let all the other names fade away. This is you and God, this is you and God. Let all the other names fade away. Till there's only you. Let all the other names fade away. Jesus, take your place. Jesus, take your place. We just have the voices. Just sing it out with all the other names, Church. Let all the other names fade away. There's nothing else but you, Jesus. Oh, let all the other names fade away. Till there's only you. Let all the other names fade away. Jesus, take your place. Jesus, take your place. We bless your name, Jesus. Jesus, take your place. You may be seated. Let all the other names fade away. Amen? What are all those other names that need to fade away? What are all these other names that you give honor and praise to in place of Jesus? They need to fade away. They need to fade away. Good morning, Church. My name is Pastor Alex. I'm the pastor here at the Villa Church. Thank you all so much for being with us. I have a question that I want to ask you all today. And here's the question. What stories have you told yourself about God and other people in yourself this week? What stories have you told yourself about God, about others, about yourself? If you tuned into the Presidential Debate this week, what stories have you told yourself about, from and about? What stories? A blogger named Alberto Wright's self-talk is everything you tell yourself, everything from the uplifting words to the derogatory put downs so many of us apply daily to ourselves. This week we've engaged in self-talk by telling ourselves stories. These narratives that we tell ourselves, they have the power to shape our thoughts and perspectives. So again I ask you, what stories have you told yourself this week about God, about other people, and about yourself? And how many of those stories are actually true? Please pray with it for me. Holy Spirit as we approach the preaching of the Word, my prayer is that you will continue to draw our hearts into genuine worship. That wherever the Word needs to land today, that it will land. It will encourage, it will convict, it will challenge, it will comfort. However it is that each of us need this morning, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you will supernaturally take the preach word and let it land on humble hearts and teachable minds. None of us have arrived. None of us have arrived at a place where we need less of God's truth, where we need less of the Word, where we need less of the Triune God. The closer we grow toward you, the closer we realize how, we see how far away we are from you. So I pray that you will break pride. You will help us get out of the mindset where I've studied this passage before, so there's nothing new for me to learn here. There's always something new for us to glean from the Word of God. Even in passage and in verses we've known for years, there's still things there that our soul needs. So protect us from being familiar and help us be able to glean from the truth today, the things that we need. And I pray for all of these things in Christ's wonderful name, amen. In Psalm 103, David practices self-talk. He calls his soul to praise the Lord God. If you look at verse 1, it says, "Blessed the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul." Those are positive, positive and beautiful uplifting words. And how often do we speak similar words to ourselves? Have you ever said to yourself, "Blessed the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name?" The National Science Foundation has discovered that people will approximately speak to themselves between 12,000 to 60,000 times a day. Between 12,000 and 60,000 times a day, we talk to ourselves and we have thoughts. And that's a lot of self-talk. The foundation cites that 95% of our self-talk is repetitive. Our inner dialogue remains unchanged from day to day. It's on repeat. Now, here's the kicker. 85% of our self-talk is negative, according to this foundation. 85% of what we say to ourselves is negative. And if 95% of what we say is on repeat, so that means you're saying a lot of negative things to ourselves every single day. If this research is true, we spend majority of our self-talk beating ourselves up, dragging ourselves through the cold, not believing we're good enough, not believing we're worthy of love, not believing we have worth, and value, and dignity. If you are a Christian, someone who has saved in faith in Jesus, someone who believes that, hey, that actually died on the cross for my sins, and he was resurrected from the dead on the third day. And through faith in him, when I surrender my life to him, to his finished work, that means I am not reconciled to God and I have a relationship with God. And so if you are that type of person, do you believe Jesus wants 80% of your self-talk to be negative? Do you believe that? To be negative without any grace, without any compassion, without any forgiveness. So let's make that 80% positive. Let's take our self-talk and thoughts captive and make him obedient to Christ. Let's remember to be mindful of the way that we talk to ourselves about God. Let's be mindful of the ways we talk to ourselves about other people, and let's be mindful of the ways we talk to ourselves about who we are. In Jesus, you are beloved sons and daughters of the excellent Heavenly Father. Not a father who is good sometimes, not a father who is compassionate sometimes, not a father who listens to you sometimes, but you have a father who is excellent all the time to his beloved sons and daughters, even in the midst of discipline. He's still excellent. So we're going to practice self-talk right now. So if you are a male, you're going to say I'm a beloved son. If you are a female, you're going to say I'm a beloved daughter. Go. Yes. Say it again. We have to remind ourselves of who we are in Christ. We have to remind ourselves of that. We live in a time where I only have my phone, but if you got one of these, you are inundated with a lot of information and a lot of it's on repeat. Do you have who you are in Jesus on repeat? Do you have who you are in Christ on repeat? Do you have reals, you two reals that remind you of who you are in Jesus? Do we? A soul resting in Jesus can declare, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul." Only a soul that's learning to find its rest and peace in Jesus can actually say those words to itself, and it be true. And so, where are you resting right now? Where are you resting? Where are you going to give yourself peace to make you feel secure and significant to help you get over the things that you deal with day in and day out? Who are you blessing? Who is the Lord of your life? All that exists within David, that is referring to his eternal thoughts and his emotions. And his word here echoes the words of Moses, and in Deuteronomy 6, 5, Moses writes, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." "Bless the Lord, O my heart. Bless the Lord, O my mind. Bless the Lord, O my thoughts. Bless the Lord, O my emotions." David commands himself to adore the Lord wholeheartedly. He kneels in reverence before him. This is wholehearted praise, wholehearted praise, blessing the Lord with all that is within us. We can endure the Lord with our hearts and our minds. We can bless him with our emotions, with our thoughts. You can bless him with your body and your soul. You can love and respect Jesus with your whole being, with all that is within you, with all that is within you. When you reflect on your week, when you reflect on your worship, when you reflect on where you spend your time, is Jesus there? Is he there? Wholehearted praise is individual and it's personal. People come to a life-changing faith in Jesus Christ as individuals. Jesus died for your sins. He died. He resurrected for your justification. He reconciled you to God. And every Christian has his and hers own personal relationship with the Triune God. Another person's relationship is not your relationship. You have your own relationship. And the same is for young people. Your parents' relationship with Jesus is their relationship. You have to have your own relationship with him. And so, and through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, this relationship can flourish with the intimacy and communion. Do you have a relationship with the Triune God that is filled with intimacy and communion? Do we? Do you love him? Or do you just know a lot of things about him? You can know a lot of things about him, but your heart can still be far from him. Do you love him? This relationship, when you have this growing relationship with Jesus, man, telling you, it can reduce that 80% negative self-talk because it changes the way you view yourself. Your relationship with Jesus, it starts to change the way you view yourself and the ways you talk about yourself. It changes the way you view God. It changes the way you view other people and how you talk about other people. Death and those who are different than you. It changes everything about us. Because the love for God will also extend to love in your self-war and love in other people. So, if we're not loving others well, if we're not loving our self well, there's something about the love of God that is not registering. There's something about what Christ has done on Calvary in His finished work that I'm really not able to connect the doubts with. Because if I'm loving this way, it works itself out in these relationships. If you say there's certain people I just can't love, what does that say about the God who died for you when you were His enemy? He loved you. We didn't have anything to do with him. He loved you. That changes you. You're telling me that when I was doing my dirt, when I was doing things I shouldn't do you telling me that Jesus died for that person. He died to turn an orphan into a child, a sinner, into a saint. He did all that so that he can change my whole life, turn me around, place me on solid ground. You're telling me that's what Calvary did? It did all of that. Yes, and much, much more. And much, much more. Much, much more. Sometimes you have to remember where God brought you from. To give you great appreciation for who He is presently in your life. What He's brought you from. We're going to have to remember that. So tell yourself, say to your soul, blessed to try you, God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You can tell yourself that. You can say to yourself, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all this within me, bless this holy name." And that positive self talk is healthy to remind yourself to praise God and to give Him things. We all have bad days, we all have bad weeks, and life happens to all of us. Even in the midst of it, somehow we can still see the goodness of God somewhere in our life, even in our darkest hour. And if you can't sit, you may be the call of brother's sister to help remind Him. Because He's good. Even when life isn't good, somehow He works all things to the good of those who love Him. So these things are either true, or I'm just a slick horse. I'm just going to use car salesman here. So this is either real or it's a lie. There's a lot of things in life that shades the grave. But when it comes to Jesus, it's black and white. Either He did it, either He paid it all, or He didn't. Either I'm forgiven or I'm not forgiven. I'm either a child or I'm not. I'm not going to sacrifice, either pay all the price for all of my sins, or it did not. Or it did not. There's no in between. So it's not only helpful to remind ourselves to praise God, it's also helpful to remind other Christians to do the same. And that is what David does in verses 20 and 23. He calls all the creatures in the universe to blast the Lord God and to join Him in offering wholehearted praise to God. He says, "Blessed the Lord, O you angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the divorce of His word. Blessed the Lord, all you His hosts, His ministers who do His will. Blessed the Lord, all His works and all places of His dominion. All the creatures below, great and small, blessed the Lord." TVC thinks wholehearted praise is also communal and corporate. It ain't just individual and personal. It's also communal and corporate. People are indeed saved individually, but they don't live individualistic lives as Christians. As beloved sons and daughters, you are part of a family. If you're a member of this church, we are your immediate family in Christ. And all the other Christians, they're your extended family. We're your immediate family. We're a commanded, y'all. We're commanded to gather for worship and do life together. Because we're not saved in a place on the island. We're not saved and just walking on the beach with just Jesus is my boyfriend type stuff. Just me and Jesus, you and Jesus and a whole bunch of other people too. It ain't just you and Him. There is a family. There is a community that He wants you to be a part of. Now, is it perfect? No. We mess it. But in family, you work through the mess. Think about your biological family. Did you get along with every single member in your biological family? You're going to see some of them on the fourth of July. Did you get along with all of them? No, you don't, but they're your family. The cousin that you can't stand, the uncle that gets on your nerve, they're still your family. And you work through and you figure out how to do life together. And the same thing is no different here within the body of Christ. We ain't going to all completely like each other all the time. You're not going to be close with everybody here. And that's fine. But we can respect one another and honor one another out of reverence for Christ. Those who we are in Jesus, the blood that has reconciled us to God has the power to bring other Christians together in community. Even Christians that you probably thought you can never hang out with, you'll hang out with because of the blood. Because of the blood. That's the power of the gospel. That's the power of Christ. But do we believe that? Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 says, let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works. Not giving up meeting together as the habit is of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as we see the day drawing near. Our weekly worship gathering, it allows us to offer whole hearted praise to our God together. We bless the Lord, people of TBC. Blessed to Lord, thanks to God at TBC. We bless the Lord through our religion. These things that we do in the order of worship, it ain't just things that just dare to get through the service. All those elements, the call to worship is there to help you bless the Lord. The prayers are prayed to help us bless the Lord. The confessions of faith is there to help us bless the Lord. The confession of sin and the assurance of parting are there to help us bless the Lord. The songs, the praise and worship is there to help us bless the Lord. You ain't got like all the songs, that's fine. It's there for a purpose. Whether you clap or you don't clap, it's all there to help us bless the Lord. The testimonies and the ministry moments, all those things, the scripture reading and the preaching of the word. The celebration of the sacraments, all these things are done to help us corporately bless our God and King. It's for a purpose to bring us into genuine worship, not so that we can get through the stuff and go eat lunch. Now what exactly are we blessing when we bless the Lord? What are we actually blessing? David tells us, hold up for a moment, he says bless his holy name. Bless the Lord or my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name, his sacred, undefiled, hallowed name. The Lord says in Isaiah 42, 8, I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory, I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory, I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. What does that mean, Pastor? What does it mean? I think God is very serious about his glory and the praise of his name. That he ain't going to give it, not even to his people, not even to his ministers, not even to his missionaries, not even to his kids. Basically God said, I want my credit, and I ain't sharing my credit with y'all. I love you, but my credit is my credit, and I ain't sharing it with you. That's what it means, give God his credit. So wholehearted praise is you praising God for his character and for his attributes. Because his name represents who he is, in his character and his attributes. And if you don't know his character, and if you don't know his attributes, then how are you going to bless his name? How are you going to bless his name? This is why theology is important, because theology is a study of God. This is why knowing your Bible is important, because that's how we learn about God. Because you can't bless the name of God when you don't even know who he is, for yourself. We can't live on other people's knowledge of God. We can't live on other people's faith. We're going to have our own faith, our own relationship. Charter Canada has a question. One says, question four says, what is God? This is God is spirit, infinite, eternal, untrainsable, and his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. That's who he is. That's who he is. And so if you've never done any type of study on the attributes of God, I highly recommend you do. Because it shows you a God who is transcendent, meaning he's other than us, and a God who is imminent means he's close to us. He's both ends. He's also personal. He's also father. He's also holy. He's always existed. Before Genesis 1, he's always existed. I can't defend him. The only reason that we can know him is because he got friends in low places. He came down to make himself known. If he didn't come down to make himself known, we would never be able to know him. He condescended to us. We never reached up to him. He came to us first. He is creator. We did not create ourselves. He's creator. And so if he is creator, that means he sets the rules on what that means. He created this stuff. It's his creation. Even a follower instead of his creation. He's king. He's lord. He's the beginning and the end. The Alpha and the Omega. All these things are found in God's truth. And so if you again, you can't bless his holy name. If you don't know anything about it. Our assessment, you know what the assessment revealed about us? We are very biblically illiterate church. That's what it revealed. So how do we change that? We have to be in the Word. If you can't read it, get it on CD. Get an app. Get it in here. Get it in here. Because again, you are inundated with information daily. Daily. And it's teaching you how to think about this, how to think about that, even how to think about God. So what are you giving yourself to help form your thoughts about who God is? Who are your prophets? Who are your teachers? Who are you listening to? A sound understanding of theology and consistently studying scripture are critical if you want to be able to praise God's holy name. It's critical. Born in sound theology and growing in understanding of scripture, that is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. That's one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit is in you to help you understand scripture. And that means you can pray to him and ask him to help you. You can pray to him to ask to give you discernment so you can be able to distinguish what's true and what is not true. You can do that. He can give you that type of discernment. Ask them to help you grow in those areas. That's my encouragement to you, amen to myself. Learn about the attributes of God, study them, memorize them, and it will help you in the ways in which you praise him. Because you'll be praising him for what is true and not for what is made believe. We don't get to take the God who he is, he takes himself to us. We come to the world to learn about them. Many of you know I've been volunteering with the denominational work for years. We are part of the Presbyterian Church in America and for about 16 years now I've been volunteering with African American Ministries, which is a ministry of mission to North America. And recently I finally decided it was time for me to step down for my volunteer role after 16 years. It was just time God laid it on my heart. It was time for me to focus the majority of my energy here at the Village Church. And on June 6 I attended my live Zoom call, Staff Zoom call with Charles McKnight and Kelly Brown. And it was an emotional heartfelt meeting. I didn't know that was going to do what they did. So they gave me my flowers. It was thanking me and speaking blessings over my life, how much they appreciated me and my service with AAM. And it really touched me. It really made me really like man. I didn't know I was having this type of impact in people's lives. I was just trying to serve. So it felt good hearing that. But as they were giving me my flowers, they were sleeping through my hands. The blessings they spoke was having a hard time selling in my heart. And after that meeting, I completely forgot all the positive things and encouraging things that said to me about me. But if their words were negative, and if they were critical, they would have been branded on my soul. I would have remembered every single word, I would have remembered their facial expressions, I would have remembered that the mood and tone of their voice. If everything that said to me was negative. And so I shared all that with my counselor because it was like, why is it hard for me to remember these type of things? But it was always easy for me to always remember the negative. And so she encouraged me to start writing down the positive affirmations I received from those that start writing in my journal to help me remember. Writing it down to help me remember those things. My counselor's advice is helpful when it comes to helping us remember God's goodness in our life. Sometimes you've got to write it down. You've got to write it down. You have to write down sometimes the ways in which God has blessed you and yours to help you remember. Because we're prone to forget the ways in which God has blessed us. We're prone to forget it. It's just built into our DNA. David says to himself, "Blessed your Lord, all my soul, forget not all his benefits." He could have easily written that in the positive, right? He could have easily said, "Remember all of his benefits." Instead, he writes it in the negative. Do not forget all of the Lord's benefits. Don't forget it. Think about it like this. If you get a new job and they tell you about your pain, what's the next thing you want to do? And they tell you about your pain, what's the next thing you want to know about? Along with the pain, that's something that you're going to want to know about. Because it's just important, it's a salary. Your benefits package. What's my benefits? What's my 401k? What's my time off? My family medical leave? How many weeks of vacation I'm going to get? How much sick leave I'm going to get? How much are you going to pay towards my health care? I need to know what my benefits are. And so you want to know those benefits. And here's the thing, only an employee of the company can get the benefits. Okay. I don't work for NASA. But if I go in the arsenal and say, "Can I have some of these benefits, sir?" I want that great health care, that $9,500, $9,500. I want that health care. I want those options. Are you an employee? Yeah. Are you an employee? No, I don't have all those things, but I want the benefits. It doesn't work that way. And neither does God benefits. You don't get them if you're not a child. You don't get them if you don't have faith in Jesus. You don't get them. The only reserve for those who have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus would get the benefits package from him. David is saying to himself, like, "Bro, don't lose sight of God's goodness in your life." Sometimes you have to tell yourself that. I might not have what I want. I might not be where I want to be, but God has still provided for me. He has just showed up for me. So you have to figure out how you're going to remind yourself of those blessings, of that goodness, definitely when you're in a season where you're in the valley. Because when you're in the valley, all everything's negative. You can't see because everything is foggy. So where are you going to go? Where are you going to go? Where are you going to go? You're going to go up and up and say, "On June this date, God made a way for my family." On this date, he made a way for my marriage. You may have to write that stuff down so that when things are hard, you can go back and remind yourself, "Yes, he made a way." Because he made a way then, somehow I believe he's going to make a way right now. Because he's never left me hanging. He's never left me hanging. Tuesday, even the Waikita and I attended a wonderful concert held at Southwood Church and Church. One of his members was during the concert. He covered some songs by some other artists and some of his original songs. One of the songs that he wrote is called "Shoe Boxes." My favorite line from it says, "It kills me to see you. It kills me not to see you. It kills me to remember. It kills me to forget." You see, back in the old days, when I was growing up, I didn't have a smartphone. So if we had pictures, guess what we kept those pictures in shoe boxes? That's what the pictures were kept. So whenever you want to go back and reflect, you go to those shoe boxes. And all those pictures are memories of vacations or family reunions. You go back and you go back and you relive those moments. And so we need a shoe box to store God's blessings to help us remember and not forget them. What is going to be your shoe box? Is it going to be your journal, a notepad? Is you going to have a blessing? What it is that you have that's going to help you remember the goodness of God in your life? We have to be intentional about it because we're going to prone to forget. And so I have a journal. I'm going to hope they're going to start with it. Write those things in my journal. That's my shoe box because I like the journal. Everybody doesn't like the journal. So you got to find work works for you so that you can help yourself remember God's goodness in your life. This is taking ownership for your own spiritual wellbeing because it doesn't happen by accident. It happens by intentionality. You have to be intentional or it just won't happen. David lists five benefits that can be stored in your shoe box. And each of these benefits are benefits that you experience right here, right now. Not in the past, not in the future, but they're all written in the present tense. And they're all from God. He says, forget none of his benefits, the one who forgives all your iniquity, benefit. Forgiveness of all your iniquity is the benefit of the Lord God. All your sin, past, present, future have been nailed to the promise. Do you remind yourself of that? That's a benefit. That's a memory. And what you tell yourself, it is going your shoe box. The one who forgives all your iniquity, not forgave, not will forgive, but forgives right now. All your iniquity. So whatever it is you're struggling with, thoughts, actions have been nailed to that over at the cross. And when you don't allow yourself to experience that forgiveness, it's negative, self-taught. Because you don't have to get on a cross with him. The Lord has no answer that a lot. It's already been painful. The things you currently struggle with, do you think it surprises God? No. He died for that very sin. He died for that very thing. So when you're encouraging yourself to remember that all your sins are forgiven, that frees you to set boundaries in your life. It frees you from the sin. It frees you to repent. It frees you to repent to other people. Not to everybody. Everybody can't be trusted with your repentance. They'll have a girl in your circle of trust and to be few people. Not everybody. So he forgives all your iniquity. When you think about that, that menace is to you. How often do you say that to yourself, "I'm forgiven." Jesus has forgiven me. And through him, I can't overcome this. Do you tell yourself that? Or do you say, "I'm just a filthy, nasty sinner. I'm never going to get free from this." Which one do you tell yourself? The one who heals all your diseases. That's the Lord. He heals us. Some things would get healed on this side of heaven, and some would get healed on the other side. But either way, the healing will come. And so whatever your illness may be, if it's mental, if it's physical, you can take that to him. And somehow he may heal you, or he give you what you need so you can live with you. I'm not going to give you false hope. I'm not going to say, "If you've got this disease, and if you pray this prayer, then tomorrow you're going to be healed." I cannot do that. And I don't think that's what Dave is talking about. He's saying, "He is a God who heals, and some things will get healed, and other things will get healed on the other side." Either way is coming. And sometimes the healing is supernatural. Sometimes it looks like medication. Sometimes it looks like going to therapy. Sometimes it looks like changing your diet, exercising, going to marriage counseling. It's practical. Those are things that are within our control. We pray and we move. You don't stay on praying for a job, but you don't feel like no job application. I go ahead and tell you ain't going to get no job. You can't pray. I wish my relationship with my kids were great, but you won't do anything about it and go to therapy. They don't work that way. You pray and you move, because God worked through these other simple means of things to bring healing to our life. Go to the doctor. Go to therapy. Change your diet. Do those things. Sometimes the body will even heal itself, because there's amazing specimens. The one who redeems your life from the pit. The one who redeems your life from the pit. God, there are still areas of our life that needs resurrection. Because when you become a Christian, Jesus' work in your life has just begun. He has just begun. I don't know if God is a comedian, but once I get free from one thing, then I see something that's walking up the road that I didn't know I struggled with. What is this? Why can't I ever get free and just be free all the time? Why is it when I get deliverance here? Something else is revealed, like it never ends. Because we're always going to need grace. You're always going to need grace. We are saved and we are being saved. We are sanctified and we're being sanctified. And so, whatever it is that you feel that's broken in you, there's hope that resurrection and restoration can happen. Jesus is able to redeem you from a pit. And sometimes you fall into pits in life because of bad choices. Christians make bad choices. And that pit is the consequences of those choices. And he can still redeem us from that. So, some of you will make bad terrible decisions. But there's hope that God can still redeem that for you. That you may lose things, there will be consequences, but you will never lose your salvation. So, he can redeem you from your bad mistakes when the things, decisions that you will make in life. There is hope. And you can remind yourself of that. Yes, I messed up. Yes, I'm struggling with this. But I know God is able to make this right. Whatever that right looks like. The one who crowns you with steadfast love. These are benefits that we need to write down and put in our shoebox. He crowns you with steadfast love. Think about that. He surrounds you with unfailing love and compassion. His mercies all went new every morning. Every morning when you get up, there's a crown that should go on your head that reads new mercies every morning. New mercies every morning. That's not a day when you leave your house where you're not surrounded by that steadfast love and mercy. He crowns you with it. You don't crown yourself, he places it on your head. That's my beloved. That's my son. That's my daughter. And I'm going to crown them with my unfailing love on him. That's what he does. What happens, what eventually happens to an eagle's old felders? What happens when they get old? They fall off. They shed them and they replace them with new felders. This is called a molten process where old felders are pushed out of the eagle's follicles and by newer felders. And they can take a bald eagle years to complete that process. Years, it means those new felders don't come overnight. It can take years for a larger eagle for those new felders to be produced, but the felders will come. The Lord has a molten process for his people and it is a benefit. It says the one who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Sanctification is the sixth benefit of the Lord. And that's a lifetime. You may need to put that in your shoe box. Sanctification is the sixth benefit of the Lord and that's a lifetime. You may need to put that in your shoe box. Sanctification is a benefit of the Lord and that's a lifetime. It's where he's shed it off your rough edges and transforming you more and more into the image of his son. And the good news about all these benefits is that we don't make them happen. They are happening to us. All we have to do is receive. You are being renewed like an eagle. You are being sanctified. It's pushing out those old, pushing out the old stuff and bringing in new stuff. But you have to be patient with yourself. It won't happen overnight. For some people does, I've heard miracles where people get delivered from additions overnight. But for some people, it's a process now and it can take a lifetime. But he's that work. So look at this table before you. I want you to pay attention to it. This table here is a benefit of the Lord. It is a benefit that he gives to his sons and daughters. This Lord's meal, this juice and this bread, the Lord's table, communion. I think I need to come up with something. Is that echo? Don't hear anything? Okay. So this meal is a benefit that God has given to his people. And so if you are a Christian and a member of a church that preaches the gospel and you are welcome to partake of this meal. It's Nandi's element that Jesus, I believe the Holy Spirit uses this bread and this juice to provide spiritual nourishment to his people. And so where do you need nourishment today? You're going to spend it for moments later praying about that and I want you to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give nourishment to those areas of your life that need it. And he will come supernatural. If you're friends and neighbors, if you don't confess faith in Christ, thank you so much for being here. And if you have questions about what it means to be a Christian, I would love to sit down with you to share the goodness of the gospel with you and for the service. Adults, we ask that the kids, you abstain from the elements until they have been invited to the table by the church that you are a member of. And TVC kids will pass out your attention. This meal is a reminder of Christ's sacrifice for you. It is a reminder that he loves you. It is a reminder that he did doubt on the cross for your sin. And as your pastor, it is my prayer that each of you, little ones, would come to saving faith and be able to protect this meal with your parents and your church family. And as I always say, if you have any questions about this meal or about Christianity, about the Bible, your parents have my number. We can go get coffee or ice cream, or you might not want coffee, but a treat on me and I can try to answer any questions you may have. I may not have the answer, but I would do my best to give you the answer to your question if that's the reminder. So let us go to the Lord now, and I want you to, those of you who will be protected, ask the Holy Spirit to provide the supernatural nourishment to the areas of your life that need it. Let us go to the Lord now. I'd like to call forward the two brothers helping me. [Music] The Holy Spirit, as we prepare to receive the Lord's meal, I pray that you will take these common elements of Christ's Spirit to the present that you were used in to give nourishment to us. You know, for myself, I need nourishment and pride and my thought life, even how I view myself. I need nourishment in those areas. And so I pray that you use this bread and this juice to encourage God's people. And I pray for this in Christ's wonderful name. Amen. The Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread and having given things he broke it and he gave it to his disciples. He said, "Take and eat. This is my body which is where you do this in remembrance of me." We also have prepackaged elements, so if you'd like to prepackage one, you may have one. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] This is Christ's body broken for you, yet of it, all of you. [Music] In the same manner, Jesus took the cup and when he had given things he gave it to his disciples and said to them, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for many with a remission of sins." Right from him, all of you. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] 11 sons and daughters of a good father, to Christ's blood, shed for all your sins, past, present, and future. [Music] Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for your atonement sacrifice. Thank you that you have satisfied the wrath of God and through faith in you we are no longer under that wrath. We have been set free, we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of life and that is your kingdom. So I pray as we head out and go into another week that we will go knowing who we are in Christ. Being able to speak blessings over our life and remind ourselves of your faithfulness and the ways in which you have been good to us. I pray for all of this in Christ's wonderful name, amen. Saints, will you please stand as we close our service? [Music] Our closing hymnist to God be the glory, to God be the glory, great in things he has done. To God be the glory, great in things he has done. So lofty the world that he gave us his life. To him that is my death, a total death for sin, and opens the life gave that all may go with. Prays the Lord, prays the Lord, let the earth hear his voice. Prays the Lord, prays the Lord, prays the Lord, let the people rejoice. Oh come to the Father, oh come to the, through Jesus the Son. And give him the glory and give him the great things he has done, great things he has done, great things he has done. And great are rejoicing, and great are we, through Jesus the Son, through Jesus the Son of pure and high earth. And greater will be, and greater will our wonder, our worship, when Jesus we speak. When Jesus, all together prays the Lord, prays the Lord, let the earth hear his voice. Prays the Lord, prays the Lord, let the people rejoice. Oh come to the Father, through Jesus the Lord. And give him the glory, great things he has done. Amen. Thank you all for joining us for worship today, and if you are a guest, thank you so much for being with us. At the end of the benediction, I would like to see those who serve on the music team. I would like to talk with y'all for a few minutes. And also for those who are in the individualist class, we meet up front, as well I'll be teaching today. Now here's God's benediction to his beloved. Let me the God appease himself, simplify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless in the common of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he was surely doing all God's people say. Amen. Please read one another saying. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Welcome to The Village Church, where broken people come together to embrace and extend Christ's love.