Todays Psalm is one of only seven of its kind in the Psalms. It’s known as a penitential psalm. That is, it’s a Psalm of confession and humility before God. The Psalmist expresses sorrow over sin, or spiritual failures, and recognizes his need for God’s favor and forgiveness.
How well do you think you know yourself? I want to show you how David rolls this out in our Psalm today. He begins today by declaring that God is actively aware of your every action and anticipates your innermost thoughts. God knows you inside and out.
We’re looking at Psalm 103 as we continue in our Psalms of Summer this morning. This is a psalm of praise rooted in thanksgiving for all that God is and all He’s done. It’s divided into three sections, like nested circles, with each circle drawing out why God deserves to be worshipped: why He’s worthy of praise.
Our Psalm today is Psalm 91. Most of us will never be in legal protective custody, but Psalm 91 celebrates that each of us can live in the protective custody of God.
Today’s psalm was written by a guy named Asaph. Asaph was one of the members of the tribe of Levi whom David put in charge of the worship music. Asaph was responsible for taking some of David’s Psalms and putting them to music. However, as we see today, Asaph was also a songwriter as he wrote Psalm 73. After reading this psalm, I learned Asaph is my kind of guy. None of this fake Christian, happy smiley face; my life is fantastic; look at my three well-behaved children, my precious moments’ figu...
Psalm 51 is a Psalm of David entirely devoted to confessing sin. The description in the heading of Psalm 51 tells us that David wrote this after Nathan the prophet confronts him on his sin with Bathsheba. David wrote this great confession, and it breaks down really nicely into 4 elements or sections for us to walk through. Next time we blow it perhaps we should remember these four steps and follow them when we confess our sins.
Psalm 46 is known as a Song of Zion. This psalm, along with a handful of others, is different because instead of celebrating God’s character, the Songs of Zion highlight and rejoice in God’s special relationship to Mt. Zion/Jerusalem, where His temple is located, and to His chosen people who worship Him there.
This morning we’re going to press on in our Psalms of Summer series by camping out in Psalm 40 where we learn that the people of God are marked by trust and obedience.
Psalm 34 is broken up into two sections. Verses 1-10 are recorded praises and verses 11-22 are David’s teaching. Let’s go ahead and start with what I believe to be the main subject to what David is writing on: The fear of the Lord.
Psalm 33 tells us that corporate worship is imperative. These first three verses contain six imperatives and use six different Hebrew words for worship. David is not suggesting but telling all who have been made righteous because of God’s forgiveness that the only appropriate response is worship.
This psalm is all over the map structurally. It is a mixture of wisdom literature and songs of thanksgiving. It is classified as a psalm of penitence with 6 other psalms, and yet it is also full of rejoicing and thanksgiving. There is reflection, declarations of praise, words given by God, words of wisdom and calls to worship and praise. It’s kind of a hard psalm to nail down, though the message is very clear. The big idea of the Psalm comes down to this: We are happiest in life when we walk in ...
Today we are going to be looking at David’s Psalm of celebration recorded in Psalm 30. In order to fully appreciate why David is exalting God in his Psalm, we have to know the backstory that prompted it. It’s a story of David’s mess and God’s mercy.
David wrote Psalm 27, which he would use for his meditation, but it was also a liturgy that Israel used during the coronation of kings and even before a king left for battle. The psalm contains three sections. Part #1 and #2, as we will see, is a statement of confidence in which the worshiper (The King) publicly declares his faith to the congregation and intends to offer his sacrifices and praise to God. In part three, the king's ceremony shifts to a prayer not given to the congregation but dire...
Our text for today gives us solid wisdom on the way to ensure that your life is satisfying. It literally tells us how to ensure that our lives are meaningful and significant and how we can experience that deep sense of satisfaction in our lives. It tells us how we can prosper in life.
Today is a different kind of Sunday morning service. Today is our Annual Ministry Celebration. Once a year at this time we stop and take a few moments to look back and celebrate what God has done, and then we glance at the year ahead and highlight a few of our hopes and dreams. If you’re visiting today, perfect. It’s the perfect day for you to get a taste and an overview of our church.
Today marks the end of our series in Proverbs. All along the way Proverbs has recognized that in reality you and I are making choices about the kind of people we are going to be. When you stop to think about it, every moment of every day we are faced with choices about the paths we are going to walk in life…the words we’re going to speak…the actions we’re going take, and the attitudes we’re going to display. Recognizing that reality, Proverbs attempts to coach us towards God’s path. Proverbs has...
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been making our way through the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is one of those books I remember growing up that my mom would regularly encourage me to read. A proverb a day makes the stupid gene go away. I read a quote that gets at the practical impact wisdom can have on our life. “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” Wisdom impacts your life, so you want to pick up the phone when it calls. While we have been unc...
We’re continuing with our Wisdom Calling series this morning and we’ll be looking at the first eight verses of chapter three. If you noticed my uncreative title, let me explain. This chapter is really a continuation of what Brian walked us through last week in chapter two. But it drills down on one key area that Brian showed on his positive reinforcement loop image. The loop illustrates when wisdom is cultivated and practiced, you thrive. And that’s precisely what we’re going to see unfold in ou...
God is the origin and source of wisdom and affectionate reverence opens the valve allowing wisdom to flow into our lives. However, the “fear of the Lord”—affectionate reverence—is only the beginning…because wisdom must be implemented to be activated. Remember wisdom by itself is unwise. You only enjoy wisdoms benefits and blessings when you apply it to your everyday life situations. Wisdom will not be attained or experienced by only knowing the wise to do; one must do it!
This morning we are stepping into a 5-Week series in the book of Proverbs. Our text for today is Proverbs 1:20-33. Wisdom is personified as a woman who calls out in the most obvious places possible to all who will listen to her. And she has an important message for each of us today about how to avoid self-defeating…self-destructive behavior in our lives.
We are wrapping up our Daniel Series together. It has been such a timely journey through this amazing book. And today I want to try and squeeze out some final nectar for us to teach us and inspire us. Today I want to focus on the person of Daniel, rather than the writings of Daniel. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to study the stories and prophecies Daniel wrote about, but it’s also important to understand the life that Daniel lived.
Easter, as many of you are aware, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. A lot of people say, “I believe in the resurrection; I’m just not sure what it means for me.” So, here’s what I want to do in my time with you today. I want to talk about two things: What does Easter mean, and why does it matter?
Welcome to our Good Friday service. This afternoon, we will take time to remember what Christ did on our behalf in two ways. First, by reflecting on the scriptures’ account of Jesus’ work on the cross, and secondly, by doing what Jesus told us to do.
Today in our series on Daniel, we will be covering the last three chapters. While that may seem like a lot, it is essential to note that these last three chapters contain one long narrative. This narrative breaks into three movements. The first movement is chapter 10, where we will read a description of how Daniel received his final vision recorded within scripture. From there, we will dive into the second movement, which is a detailed explanation of the actual vision. Finally, in the last movem...
Daniel has been receiving visions about God’s plan for humankind in the end of the age. In Daniel 9, he receives some defining events which help us understand some big picture sequencing on what is going to take place and things to look for as God unfolds his plan for the end of the age.
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Daniel’s vision in chapter 8 comes two years after the dream in chapter 7. Much like the dream that precedes this chapter, Daniels's vision is prophetic, and it contains animals that represent kingdoms and horns that represent kings. In fact, this vision is focused on one particular horn that emanates from one of these animals that demonstrates hostility towards God and his kingdom. While this vision predicted what happened centuries ago for us, it also serves as a mold for what is to come. We m...
Today, in Daniel 7, I want to look at a dream Daniel had that has different elements, but they represent the same realities as Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2. I want to review these two dreams with you and then overlay a passage from the book of Revelation that adds to it. Each of these visions/dreams when combined begins to give us an overall picture of the events to come at the end of the age, and what we can begin to look for.
Coming back to this story of Daniel in the lion's den as an adult has been a lot of fun because I realized that Daniel’s one night in the lion’s den is the capstone experience to his lifetime of survival in a hostile and dangerous environment. Daniel had spent the entirety of his life as an exile in a foreign land, and through all of it God protected, and guided, and used him in amazing ways. This morning we are going to learn some lessons from Daniel about how we can survive the lions in our li...
Between chapters four and five, twenty-three years have passed. King Nebby has repented, and shortly after he dies, a series of sons and sons-in-law have taken the throne. After some assassinations, many scholars now recognize Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson Belshazzar is ruling, and Belshazzar likes to party. It is at this party that we get to witness the collision of pride and humility… and we will see who wins. Let's check it out...
