transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] You're listening to audio from The Village Church. If you'd like to check out more resources or give to our ministry, please visit us at thevillagechurch.net.

Speaker 2:
[00:09] Good morning, church family. My name is Abigail Camacho. I serve on the worship team with Women's Bible Study and in the Miscarriage and Infertility Connections Group. There was a time in my life when I believed that my value only came from what I could do for others and for God. And it led to a very lonely and exhausting life of trying to earn love. But God in His grace showed me that love isn't earned, and His grace is available to anyone who would ask for it. Our reading today comes from Psalm 24. We're starting in verse 3. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who is not appealed to what is false, and who was not sworn deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. Such is the generation of those who inquire of Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah, this is the word of the Lord.

Speaker 3:
[01:14] All right, Sean, we gonna do it today? I just heard you already. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. Psalm 24 is where we're going to be. Last week, I did a sermon that was more like what and why around this consecrate event that we're having this week. This week on Wednesday night, all day Thursday, all day Friday, we've kind of set aside those three days to seek the face of God as a community of faith. And then so I wanted to kind of prepare us for that moving into the week. And so last week, we looked at King David's single mindedness. And we talked about the what and why behind doing something like that, like we're doing. And then now what I want to do is go, okay, now how do we approach this week? And really bigger than that, how do we approach the Christian life rightly, maybe as a better way to think about it? Because whether or not you got into consecrate or coming or could or couldn't or whatever, the truth of God's word today, I'm just telling you out of the gate, it's a little weighty and it might even feel like I'm trying to start a fight with you, but I promise I rarely am trying to start a fight with you. I'm trying to love you well. Let the Bible read us more than we just read it. So we're going to be in Psalm 24 and it's not as cute as it looks on the surface. The military conflict between the Philistines and the nation of Israel in the Old Testament lasted for close to 200 years. The Philistines had every advantage. They were larger, they were more violent, they were technologically in a different universe than the nation of Israel. So fierce, so frightening were the Philistines that when God delivered Israel out of slavery in Egypt, the Bible explicitly says he took them the long way around and the reason he did that is in the text. It said that he knew that if they saw the Philistines, their spines would vanish and they would run back to slavery. So that's what we're dealing with. We're dealing with chariots and iron weapons, something that Israel had none of. We're talking about a vastness, a superiority, and a love for violence that transcended anything that Israel had known, like in no measurable way. In no measurable way. Would you ever put these two nations on a piece of paper and throw it to people? They're gonna fight who's gonna win. Like 100% of the time, everybody's like, Philistines got it. They have air superiority, if you will. They've got this, they're gonna win. And yet, God, the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Armies, would continually give Israel these victories over the Philistines in the way that defied logic. The way it would work, I wish I had two hours. I don't, I'm not gonna take it. No, I'm not, I'm not gonna take it. I wouldn't do that to you. Someday I will, it won't be today. And so the way it would work is when there was a threat from the Philistines, the elders of Israel with the king would go to the prophet. It's important that you note that the prophet was an office. There were three offices in the nation of Israel. There were prophet, priest, and king. And so when you're reading about these prophets, that's like an official position in the life, in the organizational life of Israel. So they would seek the face of God through the prophet, and the prophet would say, God has given them unto our hands, or we better get ourselves right before we step out on that field. And that's the way it would work. Now, Israel is not all that different than we are. The people of God are the people of God. The people of God have always been the people of God. And so when you read back and you read the Old Testament, you're like, why are they so dumb? I would just ask you, why are we so dumb? And so Israel had a tendency to forget their need for God, trust in their self-sufficiency, and redefine the victories God had given them as victories they had earned. And in 1 Samuel 4, that's exactly what's happened. They want, they're feeling themselves. And so they head out onto the field of battle to take on the Philistines. They did not counsel the prophet. They did not seek the face of God. They did not consecrate themselves. They just went out. They've got all these victories behind them. Weren't their victories, they were God's victories, but they started feeling themselves. So they head out day one as a disaster. 4,000 men killed. So you'd think 4,000 brothers fall on the ground. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what do we? Okay, you know what we need to do? We need to repent. We need to turn back to the Lord, need to seek his face, need to go to the prophet, need to get the elders together and go do this thing the way the Lord told us to do it. But that's not what they did, because God's people are dumb. And so what they do is go, you know what? We don't really want to do that. That requires humbling ourselves and admitting error. So why do we, well, let's do this instead. Let's just get the Ark of the Covenant. Let's get the Ark of the Covenant. Remember Indiana Jones, Tybala Jones, basis melt off Ark of Covenant? Am I too old for that illustration? Am I too young in the room? I just felt like, what's he talking about? All right. So they go get the Ark of the Covenant. And when they bring the Ark into, back to the battlefield, the armies of Israel, they just know now, think that scene in Braveheart, right? Like, Frieda, like, everybody just goes off. Victory is going to be ours today. They charge in to battle with the Ark of Covenant and get slaughtered. 30,000 men die that day, and the Philistines take possession of the Ark. Bible tells us, Philistines take the Ark and they bring it into the temple of Dagon. That's their primary deity. And they put the Ark there as like a spoil, that Dagon's got more power than Yahweh. And they actually chant this in the text, that Dagon is greater than Yahweh, Dagon is greater than Yahweh, Dagon is greater than Yahweh, and then they leave the temple, they do their little party thing, and then they go to bed. Wake up the next day, go back in to worship Dagon, and Dagon's on his, the giant statue, on his face before the Ark of the Covenant. That seemed weird to them, but they're not quite getting the clue yet. So they pick their big idol up, bolt him back to the wall, sing that song again, play it again. Dagon is greater than Yahweh, Dagon is greater than Yahweh. They go do their celebration party thing, and then go to bed the next morning when they wake up. Dagon's statue is yet again face down in front of the Ark, except now his head and his hands have been removed. This is enough to wig him out. And so they're like, you know what, let's get this thing out of here. Let's send the Ark of the Covenant to Gath. Now, Gath is the land of giants. It's where Goliath was from. And so they're thinking, let's take this thing and let's get it out of here and put it in the land of our giants, our champions. And so as soon as it gets there, the whole nation breaks out in tumors and a swarm of rats brings a plague onto. And for seven months, seven months, the Philistines just moved this thing around. And you're not going to believe me, and I don't care. The tumors, the Bible says that everyone got were in their nether regions. And so, like most scholars think there's like hemorrhoids, like God gave the whole, you know, the whole nation of the, and I'm not, let me, if you have hemorrhoids right now, I'm not saying that God's judged you, right? You probably just need to put your phone down when you go to the bathroom and things will get better, right? Somebody needs to doom scroll for 45 minutes on the, that's not God's judgment, that's yet again, being dumb. And so they've got all these tumors, there's rats everywhere, and they're finally like, we got to get rid of this thing. And so they like send a little special forces group to take the ark back into Israel and just hide it in Israel. But whatever the ark went, God's blessing followed once it was in Israel. And fertility and fruitfulness followed the ark. David realizes that the ark is back in Israel, and he's gonna go get it, he's gonna bring it back to the tabernacle where it belongs. But even our boy David doesn't seek the face of God, go to the prophet. David just, he's a passionate guy. So he just runs to get it, and he violates almost every command of God on what to do with the ark and how to treat the ark. And so he gets two cows, and he gets basically a little trailer, and he puts the ark of the covenant on the back of this trailer and he's trying to get it back to the tabernacle. It hits a rough spat, the wheel falls in the ditch, the ark tips, Uzzah, our boy, who's just trying to help the Lord, puts his hand out, touches the ark, and is struck dead immediately. And then David, finally, now that we have enough people of God, the people of God go like, we should probably, it seems like. And so they go back and they seek the face of God, and they head to the prophet, and bring two acacia poles, which is how it's supposed to be moved, and they bring a procession. And this is the story I told you last week, where the Ark of the Covenant has brought back integers, brought back into the Tabernacle, and David's just dancing before the Lord in a way that embarrassed his wife. Do you remember that? And his wife's like, it's not very kingly of you. And he was very quick to say, ah, audience of one, I'll become even more undignified than this. You think this is embarrassing, keep watching. And so that was that story. So he finally gets it there. It's in that context that this psalm was written, all right? The context of getting the ark back into the tabernacle where it belongs. So that's going to shade this psalm. So let's look at verse three. Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? So the question right out of the gate is, who is worthy to be brought into contact with the God of such might and glory? Here's my argument, like, that doesn't land on us on any kind of way because we're in a reverent, silly culture. Like, this question, this question has both longing and terror in it. Do you hear it? Like, who can do this? Who can stand in his presence and not be devoured? Who could be around him in his perfect holiness and not be obliterated? Nobody thinks like that. Like, we are so irreverent. Our entire culture is irreverent. No fear of God. No fear of his holiness. But when David's asking this question, he comes from a long line of history where people violate the holiness of God and pay for it. So we could go back to Leviticus 10, 1 and 2. They're the sons of Aaron. Just completely disregard the Lord's commands in regards to his presence. They offer what the Bible calls strange fire before the Lord directly violating his commands, and the Lord had that fire completely consume them to dust. Our boy Azusa just put out his hand and touched the ark and is struck dead in a moment. This is all like our, it's not that big of a deal to the holiness of God. It shows we're completely ignorant to how terrifying his holiness is. Like his holiness will obliterate anything that is not holy. And so when David says, oh my gosh, who can do this? Who can ascend? Who can get in his presence? Who can stand in light of these things? It's this concept that we don't talk a lot about. It's not really overly popular, but I will prove today that I am more in love with the Lord, that I am in need of your approval. Fear of the Lord. It's a weird concept, one that's almost gone, like friendship with Jesus, we love that one. But fear of the Lord, and yet fear of the Lord is one of the most consistent themes in the New Testament. Let me show you what I mean here. I'm not talking about a spirit of fear. We've been freed from a spirit of fear. I'm talking about fear of the Lord. I'm talking about awe, respect, concern, fear. The apostle Paul writes, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2, 12. So you got saved, you had this moment, gave your life to Christ, you got baptized. Now from here to glory, work it out with fear and trembling. Those are weird adjectives, aren't they? Like work it out with, okay, what are the two things you need to get from here to here? Fear and trembling. Again, he instructs the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 7.1, Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. How do you mature? How do you go perfect in holiness? A fear of the Lord. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12.28 says, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. The apostle Peter writes, if you call on the father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. Weird. Jesus hops in on this. This is Matthew 10.28, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So the concept of fear, it means awe, terror, profound respect, trembling, dread. And yet, which of us would describe our relationship with God like that? I just really dread the presence and power of God in my life. I don't know, it's just such a weird thing for us, but these aren't words to describe like a minor aspect of our life in Christ. Rather, these identify how our salvation has worked out. So let me talk about that idea of salvation being worked out. I'll put it on the screen. Working out our salvation, it's a term that describes how our efforts in cooperation with and empowered by the Holy Spirit bring to full maturity what Jesus freely provides for us. I'm telling you, every word in there matters. So it is a term that describes how our efforts, now look at me, the gospel's not opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning. Right, so we're not meant to work to earn, but it doesn't mean that we don't labor. It doesn't mean that we don't toil. It doesn't mean that we're not putting effort into maturing in our faith. What he's done, or what I've done in this definition is, look, our efforts are cooperating with the Holy Spirit's work in us, so that even my own maturation is the result of the Holy Spirit. And what's the Holy Spirit actually doing? Carrying me into the maturity that Jesus died to get me. And so the more I'm serious about working out my salvation with fear and trembling, the faster the track to maturity is. And the less I am, the slower I be, right? Some of us have been in the fourth grade for years. And no smoke, man, I did the fourth grade twice myself. It's fine. It was difficult. It was difficult years. The fear of the Lord, though, it shouldn't be repulsive to you. It's an invitation. Like it's so invitational. Holy fear has a drawing effect, not a repulsive effect. Let me try to unpack that quickly. The fear of the Lord enables me to hate sin. If I don't fear the Lord, I won't hate my sin like I'm supposed to. Like I know sin destroys. That's the first thing. So a holy fear of God lets me know that sin is real and that sin destroys. And then the other piece that's there is God sees. Here, let's make some eye contact. I know you're tired. You know, it's the 11, 15. You're already ready to eat something, get on the couch. You, here, look at me. You ain't got no secrets. Not a single one. How you treat your spouse, how you treat your kids, how you spend your money, what you're doing when no one's around. You ain't got a single secret. God sees, not only does he see all, he's there when you're doing it. And that's where this fear of God thing should settle into our heart because most of us don't think that's too big of a deal. And I think we don't quite understand the holiness of God, but a fear of the Lord helps me see all sin and hate it. It also helps me hate injustice because God has come to bring peace. It helps me depart evil in every sense, thought, deed, and action because I want to please the Lord. I want to please the Lord. And so every thought, deed, and action is brought before. But I want to watch my thoughts. My thoughts lead to my actions. And I developed a filter late in life. Didn't have one early on. It cost me much. And so I'm trying to learn to take every thought captive, not get it out there and see its effect to see whether or not that was good or bad. I need the Lord to sanctify this area of my life. I want to guard my thoughts. There are things I still think that aren't in line with his truth and aren't in line with his heart. I know he sees him, I know he knows him, I want to be quick to get those to him. The starting place for any intimate relationship with God is a fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is actually the greatest force of confidence, comfort and protection available to us. Think about it this way. The bigger and scarier God is, the safer and more confident you should be. And I think we know this at some base level. Let me give you a couple examples. If you've ever been to the Grand Canyon, you did not, I don't care what your attainments in life are, you didn't stand at that massive opening, doesn't even look real and feel yourself. You weren't looking there at the Grand Canyon and thinking, man, you know how much money I made last year? A new car, like you ain't thinking about your, you feel small and something feels right about that. If you've ever been in front of the ocean, I'm not talking about the Gulf of America, that's not the ocean, it's a gulf. I'm talking about like a real ocean when it's up. Years ago, Lauren and I went to Hawaii, I was teaching, but we would drive to the North Shore every day when I was done, because the Vans Triple Crown of surfing was up there. And so two things about that, we got lawn chairs, we never got in the water. And so we would just watch them surf pipeline and all those things. And we were at this beach where the, it was like a wall of water that would just land right there on the beach. Like no way I was getting in. And this, I guess they were other tourists that didn't know better. They brought their little kids, they had little skim boards. And it's so bad. It was so rough that day that the lifeguard in front of the entire beach said, if you brought children to this beach, you're a terrible parent. And then you're like, they're the only ones there with kids. He might as well learn their name. But like said that, so then they packed up and was shame, left the beaches, that kind of deal. But like no one's standing in front of that and feeling powerful. Nobody's standing in front of that and feeling big and strong. You feel small and yet something about it resonates with you. See, the smaller God is and the bigger you are, the more you gotta take on stuff that your frail self can't handle. But the bigger God is, like how confident can I be in the God of the Bible? Who knows all things, does all things, holds all things together. But if I need to make him small so I can be the God of my life, I am heaping on myself. Anxiety, I am heaping on myself. Fear and stress because I know I can't. But it's not gonna stop me from manipulating and making a mess. And then I'll wake up to it and remember a fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is actually the greatest force of confidence, comfort and protection available to us. The smaller you make God to fit in your little tiny worldview of who he is, the more you sow anxiety and fear into your life. Fear of the Lord drives out fear of man, fear of the future, fear of you name it. Look at where the text goes next. So the question, who can get in this presence? Who can be this close to the holiness of God? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false and who has not sworn deceitfully. So most of this is straightforward. Clean hands, he whose hands are free from acts of sin. Here, do this for me real quick. Look at, look around you. Just look around, look at the, okay, just find two or three people, make some eye contact. You got it? Okay, now look back at me. Nobody you just looked at has clean hands. Not a single one. You didn't lay eyes on a single person with clean hands. So we're already in a bit of trouble. Am I like, who can ascend? Who can get in the presence of God? Who can be around the holiness of God? You gotta have clean hands. And they'll look down and be like, oh no. Right? Well, maybe it'll get better. Pure heart. This is, I think, this idea, this idea of pure heartedness with Jesus teaches in the Beatitude, which Paul circles back around, it's the thing that should kill moralism in your life. Well, like Jesus isn't asking for perfect heartedness, he's asking for pure heartedness. Are you trying to be like, the fact that God continually in his law and in the teachings of Christ goes after the heart before the action should really deconstruct the idea of moral improvement is really what God is after in my life. Like Jesus in his sermon on the mount, the sermon on how the kingdom of God was breaking into this world, said things like this. You have heard it said, do not commit murder. But I tell you, you got anger in your heart, guilty of the same sin. So what's the goal? Is the goal to modify the action or to transform the heart? Well, it's to transform the heart. He goes on to say, you have heard it said, do not commit adultery. But I say that if you look upon a woman lustfully, guilty. So what's he trying to stop? The action or transform the heart where he's after the heart. And so he's saying, who can come? Clean hands, pure heart. Pure heart's not perfect heart, it's pure heart. Those aren't the same thing. Like some of you have created distance from God because you think you're supposed to have a perfect heart and God just asked for a pure one. I'm telling you, this is the thing that keeps so many of us from experiencing the presence and power of God in our life. We've got this thing, we're just kind of ashamed of it. And we think, man, I shouldn't doubt like this, I shouldn't be disoriented like this, I shouldn't be struggling with this, I should've outgrown this, I can't believe I'm still stuck in this. Let me create some distance from God and keep working on it. And then eventually when I get it clean enough, I'll go back to the Lord. Well, that's not being pure in heart. Pure in heart is dragging that nasty thing back into his presence, saying, I hate this about me. Will you help me? I hate that. I know you're asking me to be better than this. I'm not better than this, will you help me? Like that's what the Lord's after. And then he says, not appealing to what is false. Here's, we don't really talk like this anymore, but he has him view like, who is not lusted after vain and worthless things? Whose desires are subdued, brought into captivity to the law of God and kept under strict control. He's just saying, who hadn't acted like an animal, but acted like a human being? I've used this illustration before, my dog Woodrow. I like Woods, he's a good pup. I wouldn't call him a member of the family, he's not on any of our Christmas cards, but he's a good guy. I will be sad when he goes home to be with the Lord or into dust, however you do that in your theological grid. Woodrow's a good man. Also powerless to stop himself from eating things that are on the edge of the counter. And he will choose. He knows there's discipline coming. He knows if I eat that, if I eat dad's fajitas, there is a possibility for violence and absolutely a possibility that I'm outside for the next two days. And don't all me and don't, poor dog outside. He's a dog. All right. He ain't like, I don't have a bathroom out here. Where am I supposed to get water? He's fine. And he'll choose it. He is so like wired on kind of compulsion that before he knows it, that brother ate my fajita and is having his best life for the next two days outside as punishment. Assuming I'm in a good place. If I'm in a bad place, it might get worse. Right? Like, but he's saying here, how many of you are like Woodrow, can't control your compulsions? You have no, no willingness to submit yourself to the law of God. Like you want what you want, you're gonna take it and damn to be the consequences. Like how many of us are actually living that way right now? So who can get in his holy, you better not be acting like that. And then the last one, nor sworn deceitfully. So false swearing in the Old Testament in particular is like the worst of the sins of the tongue. It's tearing down someone else with your words so that you could exalt yourself, or it's just exalting yourself. This is false witness is what the Bible says. Here's what the psalmist is doing. He means to say that a man is not fit to draw near to God unless he is righteous in act, in thought, and in word. And that ain't any of us. Right? Now, here's the good news, because if you're like, Chandler, calm down, bro. Yeah, no, you and I are on this side of the resurrection. So let me read you this, because he's, like Paul, is going to answer David's question, who can ascend the hill of the Lord in Ephesians 2, verse 13. Now, here's what he says. I'm gonna start in verse 12. At that time, you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. Look at verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Do you see what just happened? Like David's going, who can ascend the hill of the Lord? And Paul's answer is the ones who are brought there by the blood of Christ. Not those who have cleaned their hands because you can't clean your hands. You can't wash off sin with sin. Right, you'll just smear it. You ever ask your toddler to clean something and trust that they did? You just catch the smell a couple of days later. You gotta go up there and see somehow they've like woven it into the fabric of the hardwood. Like they didn't clean anything, they just like smeared it all and made it harder to clean. So then you gotta get up there and pressure wash their bathroom or you gotta, right? That's this, you can't clean yourself. You must be cleaned. So the answer to who can ascend the hill of the Lord is no man by his effort. But all who would trust and believe in the finished work of Christ. So that Christ has brought me into the presence of God. I have not been able to ascend the hill. I have been brought up to the mountaintop and placed in by the blood of Jesus. And I know if you're not a Christian, that blood thing's weird. I've often just kind of joked, the only two people singing about blood are Christians and death metal bands. Like nobody else, who else is singing about blood? We sing about blood a lot. Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, oh the blood. We love us some blood because what we're saying is that the only thing that can cleanse us from unrighteousness is the blood of Jesus. His shed blood on our, that on the cross, he absorbs all of God's wrath towards us. And then he imputes to us his perfect righteousness. So I don't have clean hands, but he's got clean hands. And so he's gonna clean my hands and set me free so that I can ascend the hill of the Lord. This is why we're gospel people. Can I get into the presence of God by no act of my own? Through no moral righteousness of my own? Through no testimony of how I used to do this and now I don't? I can't self-improve my way into the presence of forgiveness of God? I must receive it freely in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And I am warned even in that not to presume upon the kindness of God. On three separate occasions, the apostle Paul was like, this grace is astounding. This grace is unbelievable. You better not play with it. You better not play with it. Shall we sin all the more so that grace may abound? Paul says, may it never be. You want to do a little language work. He's more, it's a little bit stronger than that. He's like, you're damned if you do. It's Paul's way of saying, if your default posture is I can do whatever I want because Jesus is going to forgive me, that's probably evidence that you're not a Christian. And do you not know, like here's, let me just let you in the pastor's heart here. Sometimes I wonder what the world we're doing. Like, what are we doing? So I'm a Gen-Xer. So I can testify this. I'm not making a moral judgment, so don't try to put a moral judgment on this. I never got to go to a corner or a step and think about my behavior growing up. Never happened. Like my father, my mother, my teachers, my whoever, random people in the store, never saw me behaving in a kind of way that was inappropriate and pulled me aside. And was like, hey, I want you to go over there, take a couple deep breaths, want you to sit down, and I want you to consider, is this really how you want to behave? It's not the world I grew up in. In the world that I grew up in, every teacher had their own paddle. And in every school, there was a rumor that the principal's power had supernatural power. Like his paddle, it was electric, where it had holes in it. I'm telling you, it was a different day. My dad, he's going to listen to this. He made a paddle in our garage and named it. Named it The Last Resort. And I testified before God and man that it was never The Last Resort. Sometimes it was like prepayment of something that might happen that he not catch me with. It was a different day. I'm not making a moral judgment. I'm not saying that was better. I think it's probably a bad idea for random people to be able to whip you. It's not a good idea. But I want you to hear the writer of Hebrew says, that the Lord disciplines those he calls sons and he scourges all those whom he loves. What in the world are we doing? I'm telling you, it haunts me. Do we have no fear of God? If I could broad brush stroke this thing, this pornography thing that's eaten us all up alive, do you think you're watching that in a vacuum? You think the Lord's not present? You think the Lord doesn't see? You think the women and men in those scenes are living their best life? Like I'm just saying, I just feel so like, are you not afraid of God? What happened to those girls that turned them into those women? Nothing good. And what, we're gonna make that base entertainment? Feed a trillion dollar industry? And I'm just here like, no fear of God? Really, none. You know the kind of wicked stuff's going on in the marriages of people at this church? I will never ever settle in to how many of you over the years I've watched, in this room, fricking taking notes, raising your hands wide, and then saying cruel, nasty stuff to your spouse, being cruel to your husband, destroying this little space that God's given for disciple making. Like I just like, what are you doing? You have no fear of God. Who can ascend? The one who's received, the one who's been brought in, but don't presume upon the kindness of God. He sees, he does discipline those he loves. And so here's what I had to learn, here's what that paddle taught me. Better to obey than to get a couple. Because another thing that was true, and I don't, Pastor Morris, like, if I got it at school, daddy wasn't going, how dare you hit my kid? That'd be like. How many, how many did you get? Oh, you got four, okay. Make that six then. And then he'd go, like, it's doubling up. Doubling up. Like, I'm just, no, no fear, none at all. That God sees, and that God has promised that in His love for you, He can't let that slide. No, this isn't vengeance. It's not wrath, it's discipline. Discipline those He loves. Verse five. He, the man, woman, who does those things will receive blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. To the man who comes to God with an honest and true heart, God will give additional graces. What are those additional graces? Well, this is why I'm so glad we're resurrection people. We know what those are. Those additional graces are justification. We stand justified before God. Like, who can bring a charge against me? Who can bring a charge against you? God knows our guilt and has paid for it in Christ. So how are you gonna shame me? How can the enemy shame you? How can the enemy go to God and go, you know about them? It's like, yeah, I know about them. That's why I died on the cross for them, right? Washed them clean. Don't you see that they were sin abound or where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more? Yeah, I covered that. I paid for that in full, clear, perfect, spotless, beloved is my name for them. Gives assurance, perseverance, unwavering hope. These are all additional gifts given to us by God when we hate sin, fear the Lord, push into his presence by his grace, and are super fast to repent of all things, large or small. He ends the passage with, such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of God, of Jacob. And then he puts Selah at the end. Selah, it just means, hey, stop for a second. Take a breath. You know, he's not like, I gotta get, I gotta hurry up and get to Psalm 25. He's like, I've said some things here that are probably landing on you in a kind of way. So why don't we take a breath? Like stop, breathe. Because what he just said is that men and women who take serious what he just covered, they will be the generation that seeks the face of the God of Jacob. And better than that, finds it. Better than that finds it. And that's what we're trying to do. Seek the face of the God of Jacob. I want to read a quote to you, and then we're going to just respond to this. This is from John Eldridge. The act of consecration is repairing the wiring, the first step before God's protection and provision can flow. Listen to this. It is the fresh act of dedicating yourself or your home, a relationship, a job, your sexuality, whatever needs God's grace deliberately and intentionally to Jesus, bringing it fully into his kingdom and under his rule. I want to create space today for you to freshly consecrate the areas of your life to the Lord that need to be consecrated to the Lord. I want to create space for you to be able to repent of places where you have not taken sin seriously, and therefore you have not taken God seriously. I want to give you space to take those areas of your life that are indifferent and say, I don't want this to be indifferent. I set this aside for holy use. I love that Eldridge used the word freshly because, guys, listen, I've been consecrating certain areas of my life over and over and over again for close to 35 years now. Like this isn't a one-off. We drift. This isn't a one-off, man. We can be lulled to sleep. It's not a one-off. It just takes one little moment of disorientation for me to snatch back from the Lord and begin to do it on my own strength. Doesn't take much for me to forget I've run to the Lord first, seek the council of saints first, and run out on my own strength. Yeah, so I'm asking, what are you, I'm asking, like, lovingly, what are you doing, man? Like, I hate shame. I'm not trying to shame you. I love conviction. Conviction is an invitation to the table of God to experience his grace and grow in maturity. And so I want to do this and not make it easy at all. Like, no head bow. No, and like, open up your eyes wider. Here's what I want to ask. Because I think if you would be too cowardly to do it in here in front of a bunch of saints who are hungry for the same thing, you won't change at all walking out this door. How many of you would say, I have got some significant areas of my life where I am in need of the deliberate and intentional grace of God. I need to freshly consecrate and repent of some significant things in my life. And you're always like, God, that's me right now. Yeah, look at us. Wow, praise God. We're gonna do it. All right, we're gonna do it. So let me tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna pray for us. And while I pray, our prayer team's gonna come up here and our elders are gonna come up here and we're gonna just be waiting for you. But there's also the altar itself. And so maybe it gets crowded up here and you can't. So just turn and or grab your friend that brought you or that's a Christian that you know, serious about the Lord. I think it's important that we say these things out loud to someone. There's some kind of spiritual power they lose when brought into the light. And I don't think you'll feel the weight lift off of you until you say the thing to someone who you think is gonna get you all kind of judged and instead receive the grace of God through another person. It's just one of the more beautiful aspects of the Christian faith. So I'm gonna pray and as I pray, there's gonna be a ton of prayer team, men and women, that come up here with some of our elders. And we're just gonna be ready to receive you. And man, you've got, you're like, man, I need to consecrate this area of my life. I'm asking you to move and do it. Don't make eye contact and I'll be done, I promise. God does not owe you, convicting you ever again. That's a weird idea, guys. He is long suffering and patient. And if you're convicted right now, what the Spirit's doing is drawing your heart towards the Lord. And it's a scary idea to me that you would go, nah, I'm good. Just receive his grace, conviction his grace, move towards him. He doesn't know you this. It might not ever happen again, and the Bible puts you in the category of those that have seared their own conscience. God didn't sear your conscience, you seared your conscience. And so anytime the Lord presses, we need to be quick to respond. Don't harden your heart. Don't do that thing. It might lead to a severed conscience and you never feel conviction again. Dangerous place. Father, I bless these men and women in the name of Jesus. I thank you for how much you love us. That you are our friend. That you are the friend of sinners. That you call us friend. I thank you that you would say that we are beloved, known, seen, cared for, and you're holy, and you're fierce, and you're the Almighty. Why would we trust you if you weren't the Almighty? But you know how simple and silly we are. Would you help us? Let's be quick to repent. Just confess we don't want to learn the hard way. If we can avoid the shed, we want to avoid the shed. So I pray courage into the bones of some of these men and women who know, and are internally wrestling even now. So prevail upon a spirit of the living God. It's for your beautiful name, I pray. Amen. Would you stand with me as we sing this psalm back to the Lord.