Deacon Justin Shaffer preached from Psalm 118:1-16. He taught that a heart of gratitude cultivates intimacy with God and faith that he will deliver us out of the darkness and into his marvelous light. Lector: Asia Filipiak
Deacon Justin Shaffer preached from Psalm 118:1-16. He taught that a heart of gratitude cultivates intimacy with God and faith that he will deliver us out of the darkness and into his marvelous light.
Lector: Asia Filipiak
Peace be with you church! Happy New Year!! We did it!!! In the last few weeks we have hosted Women’s Gift Exchange, Affordable Christmas, had staff Xmas parties and send-off parties for beloved members, we’ve gone caroling, and shown up for numerous family, work, and school shindigs and it’s all just a little extra dose of wacky and wonderful every seven years when Xmas Day and New Year’s Day happen to land on consecutive Sundays! Right?! So good job! We made it through record cold temperatures to usher in 2023!!
Intro:
Cultivating thankfulness is easier around the holidays, isn’t it? I mean it’s hard for the hardest heart not to pause and offer thanksgiving when God’s provision is so clear and obvious… we thank each other for thoughtful gifts. We thank God for full bellies, for a warm house when the temperature dips well below zero. We happen to live in a very old and leaky house that has a cabin with a wood stove and a separate HVAC system back there… the provision of a warm dwelling is VERY apparent to us when it gets as cold as it has been. I keep the wood stove going 24/7 and it’s no problem maintaining a cozy 72 degrees… but when we open the cabin doors and venture into the rest of the house a 45 degree draft burns our face and chills our bones and if you didn’t know that there was a heater working in the cold to keep it 50 degrees warmer than the outside temperature, you’d guess there was no heater working at all.
…the list goes on - we thank God for a fulfilling career that provides for food, shelter, and clothing. We thank God for friends, family, and the gift of quality time with them. You’ve experienced the rest and freedom that the Gospel brings. Xmas lights and decorations lift the spirits. You thank God because your boss, a loved one, or your doctor recently brought you good news of great joy!
Cultivating thanksgiving is also harder around the holidays, isn’t it? I mean, it’s hard for the softest heart to pause and offer thanksgiving when God’s provision is anything but clear and obvious. Santa didn’t fulfill your Xmas list. Mom and dad say: “No more cookies and candy!” Crone’s disease or high cholesterol keeps you from eating your favorite foods while everyone else goes back for seconds. Your heater goes out on a negative 30 wind chill night and all the HVAC crews are backed up until Tuesday and when they finally do come, “how will we pay for it without getting behind on bills?” Work is a slog… there are many miles or great emotional distance between you and your loved ones. Perhaps no matter how you try, you remain enslaved by an addiction. The coldest shortest days of the year are accompanied by seasonal depression. Your boss, a loved one, or a doctor yet again delivered bad news of great sorrow. And your heart is weary, and full of despair.
Yikes (the universality of God’s goodness)
Psalm 118 remembers a desperate situation and it begins with the declaration of a truth which is totally and completely universal - thoroughly and infinitely true always and forevermore in eternity past, present, and future: “The Lord is good and his love endures forever.”
But how do we understand this truth? What does it mean? Turn with me down to verses 10-13… For just a moment, I want to disconnect the first half of these verses from the deliverance that follows. Turn on your imagination and consider the kind of situation the Psalmist is in:
10 All the nations surrounded me
11 They surrounded me on every side
12 They swarmed around me like bees
13 I was pushed back and about to fall
Sounds utterly hopeless.
Now it goes without saying that unlike the Psalmist here, not one of us will ever be the commander in chief of God’s chosen people during a time of heavy persecution and military siege, and save our veterans and first responders, most of us will never encounter anything remotely close to this kind of acute adversity in the face of a powerful military enemy; this complete desperation to be saved from bodily harm. Yet we have our enemies, don’t we? As Paul says “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” -Ephesians 6:10-12 NIV
Can you imagine your enemies? Can you name them? Maybe the list of hardships I mentioned earlier touched a nerve. If we’re honest, the coldness - the darkness and the difficulty are overwhelming.
And we ask ourselves; how can God be good and allow me to languish? I’m freezing! I can’t see clearly and I’m tired.
Woof
This is how Satan wants you to understand God’s goodness: - if the devil can get us to believe “now that I’m a Christian, God’s goodness means a mostly pleasant life for me… at least in the really big areas. He won’t let any really bad things happen to me.” When he has convinced you that this is how life is going to work for you, that for the most part, God has a life of health and wellness for you - when the bad stuff happens and the trial goes on, and bad stuff WILL happen, you’re gonna pull back from God. You’re gonna say ‘God can’t really be good… certainly he’s not good to me… how can a loving father allow me to endure blow after blow after blow, hardship upon hardship. These are not good gifts, this is nothing to be thankful for, this is a stocking full of coal, if God is sovereign, then these are cruel cosmic practical jokes. “The Psalmist says ‘give thanks!’ But I have nothing to be thankful for! Not really…” and so God if you’re real, I don’t trust you. We lose hope that God is working in our lives. When he has convinced us of this, Satan has lured us to languish in a land of hopelessness.
We just want the hurt to go away! But what if the Lord is after something more?? What if God is trying to give you a better gift than what you think you’re looking for??
Hmmm
So utterly exhausted, completely at the end of our rope, trying to get what we think we need out of God, he patiently and tenderly steps in to give us the deliverance we truly need in the way that he wants to give it. Underneath our hopelessness is a great wound that needs healing, and underneath the wound is a deep desire to be loved and known.
Aha
So one more time I ask you to be brave and call your enemies to mind. (pause) This is your hope, Christian:
10b in the name of the Lord [you will] cut them down.
11b in the name of the Lord [you will] cut them down.
…and in due time;
12b they [will be] consumed as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the Lord [you will] cut them down.
13b but the Lord [will help you].
…and he may not help you as quickly as you like, or in the way you want, because fulfilling your deepest desire for love and intimacy is what God is really after! He’s after your heart Christian.
There’s an old saying: “The person who loves to walk will get farther than the person who loves the destination.” Having journeyed through the longing of the Advent season and celebrating the coming of our Lord Jesus, this New Year, let’s cultivate a heart of gratitude that we can learn to love to walk with Jesus – To trust him, to take refuge in him, that God can grow in us a long view of what the hope is for: Intimacy with our triune God, full maturity in him, complete deliverance from our enemies Satan, Sin, and Death, and ultimate healing in him: Emmanuel; God with us!
Let’s pray…