Auto Generated Transcript
2015, I don’t I don’t know about you, but every time the year changes, the first thing I desire to do when I gather with a group of people is find the group that wants to gather together and just be sad that we’re a year older, right? So. So if you’re looking forward to that when the service is over, I can’t believe it’s 2015, but it is 2015 and I can’t believe I’m getting older, but I am. I don’t have to call myself old yet. I don’t think you’re as old as you feel. Right. And today it’s not that bad. But 2015 is, um. I just really be honest with you? I want one goal this morning to start the new year off right, and my desires for us just to simply begin our year by finding rest and security in Christ as as a church. Uh, we’re in a series through the month of, of, uh, January, and we’re going to call it Soul Detox. And really, what we’re going to do is go through the book of Psalms, some thoughts from the Book of Psalms, and look at some particular passages from Psalms, and allowing our soul to refresh in the Lord. And let me tell you why. New Year’s resolutions come around. And a lot of times we like to think of ourselves as as people who like to make these resolutions, to get back to the way that we used to look in our early 20s.
Right. Or or or financially recovering from Christmas or whatever, whatever it might be. We set these, these goals for our lives. Okay. This year will be the year. No chocolate. Don’t do that to yourselves. Don’t do that to yourselves. But whatever. No sugar, no sugar or whatever, whatever goal you’re thinking of. And we we we have these thoughts in mind. You might have made some resolutions. Maybe you’re not even big on resolution. So let me just give you one this morning. What about your life spiritually? Sometimes we like to think of ourselves physically. I put a picture of myself on the screen this morning right there for you to think, right. You’re right. That’s how I am. When I flex in the morning, I get up and I strut around the house until Stacy wears. You know, that’s not it. In my dreams, right? You husbands, you husbands know what I’m talking about. We have these plans for ourselves physically. But what about our lives spiritually? Um. The Bible tells us that man looks on the outward appearance, but what God looks on and in is the heart. He’s interested in you, where you are in him. It’s a good place for us to start off our our new year, just resting where we were created to rest, to find ourselves being identified not and not in some picture that I would like of myself physically. But really what Jesus would like of me spiritually. And I wonder if sometimes in life you ever get to the place where if we were just to pull back the curtain on, on the outward appearance, to look on the inside, what it is we might discover.
Maybe rather than this, maybe it’s this. Right now I know nerd is the new cool, but dad, lock your doors. That’s what I think when I see this picture, right? You don’t really have anything to worry about. You just blow and he falls over. But. What about your spiritual life? In relationship to the Lord. When Jesus sees you, when he looks at you as a being, what? What does he think of? Your relationship with God is the fuel to your walk with the Lord and the way that you serve him in life. The power behind what you do for the Lord in this world is discovered through the time that you have to settle your soul before him, and to find strength in God. In fact, the book of Proverbs in verse chapter four and verse 23 says this watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the wellsprings of life. Meaning the way you choose to live your life impacts your soul, and the way we live life demonstrates what has impacted our soul. God sees it as precious. That its strength and its purpose finds the reason for its existence and its sustaining power, and in who God is. And so my, my, my goal in this morning, and very simplistically for us as we look at this new year, is simply for us to find a place to discover in God what he has for us in 2015.
The Bible indicates to us as people that we tend to live life as restless souls. In Genesis chapter four, after Cain kills Abel, it says that he’s going to wander the earth as a restless soul. And in chapter four, verses 11 and 12 for the rest of his life. And in fact in the book of Ecclesiastes and just referencing man and his daily living, it says, for what does a man get in all his labor, and his striving, with which he labors under the sun, because all his days his task is painful and grievous, even at night his mind does not rest. This, too, is vanity. It’s kind of one of those Eeyore chapters of the Bible. But the point of the passage is that there is this struggle within our lives, that we seek to find satisfaction in it, and only the only thing that it’s sustained for is to find our rest in Christ. Nothing else ultimately satisfies. And so this Ecclesiastes passage says this, this individual, he’s anxious, he’s tense, he’s worried. He’s stressed. He never shuts off. And and he never rests. He’s he’s got this anxiety just building up within him. And he’s trying to labor in his own strength and in all of this. His soul was created to find rest in God.
Matthew 1128 and 29. Jesus comes along and he says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you what. Rest. To start any day, any year, any time of doing anything in this world to start it off right. It’s important for us to understand that God has created us to first find purpose and meaning in him, and in that rest through him we find the strength to live and sustain in this world. What I think about our human soul is. Restlessness is one of the most dangerous places that we can be. I think we as believers get dangerous when we get restless. And let me just give you an example why I don’t think any of us go to bed at night contemplating how we can just live the worst life possible the next day, right? We don’t dream dreams of of just contemplating horrific sin, that we can do. What typically happens in the life of us as people is we get so busy with busyness that we forget to reorient our life around what matters, and so we find our souls rest restlessly, looking for rest. And saying to God, God, you know, I was created for you. But, you know, I got all this, this happening. And so, God, I, I’m not I can’t really find rest in you right now. I’m just going to go and do what I do.
And so we’ll look at ourselves and we’ll say, you know, I’m living a good life. I’m living a moral life. But do you know, it’s possible to live a good life and to live that life completely devoid of your relationship to God. Good as mankind would call it. Good. I mean, it’s possible to come to church on Sunday to do your church, your church thing, to leave on Monday throughout the rest of the week and do good. But never rest in God. And I believe one of the primary things God created you and me for is, is to find his rest in him. And so we’re going to start this series together, going through the Book of Psalms. And let me let me just tell you why. It’s because what God desires for us in our soul is expressed beautifully in the poetic books of the Bible. I don’t know if you’ve ever taken time to really study and research the poetic books. I’m going to show you why that’s important for us. This morning. We’re going to look at just a few portions of some of the poetic books, and we’ll dive further into some of these poetry books in the weeks ahead. But but the poetry books are unique in the Bible. If you read the Old Testament, the first 17 books or historical books, and then after that you’ve got the first five books, which are the poetry books job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.
These five books are different and unique than, say, a typical historical book or a theological book. Most of those books deal with God’s response to man. But what the poetic books reveal to us is man’s response to God. How do we take our heart, our soul that may be struggling, and offer it back up to the Lord to find the strength of which he has created us for? That is the poetic books of the Bible. And I would also include in those five books the Book of Lamentations. The Book of Lamentations is written in poetic form. It’s an acrostic. There’s five chapters. Every chapter starts with the first letter of the Hebrew, uh, Hebrew alphabet, and ends with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet for five chapters in a in a beautiful acrostic form. All of these books are man’s response with the soul God has given us and respond. And in giving it back to him and discovering what God has created us for. If you particularly just were to study the Book of Psalms. These these books are not necessarily historically written, but what they they do for us is they show how the human soul interacts during historical periods of Israel’s life. As they encountered trials as they encountered victorious moments in the history of the nation. How was it there? Their soul responded to God. Psalm 90 is likely the oldest psalm. It’s written by Moses. Psalm 137 is probably the newest psalm written during the Babylonian captivity.
Just the Book of Psalms almost spans a thousand years of history of how how man has interacted with God. In 2015 for us. Desire to be no different than what you find in the contents of the Book of Psalms. One where we recognize as people what we are created for finds its definition and meaning in God. And that we would find rest in him. Rather than being a restless soul and starting the year off with but but we come to God and say, God, I understand out of everything, the most important thing that I could seek after is what you desire to do in me and through me. And so as we look at these Psalms together, I’m just going to point out just a couple of them to us. We’re going to particularly look at the way the kings of Israel interacted before the nation of Israel on behalf of their relationship to God. If you think of all the people that had any excuse to be stressed out and worried about circumstances that they were facing in life, it has got to be people in a high power authority positions, right? I would never in a million years want to be the president of the United States. As soon as you’re elected, 50% of the websites have something negative to say to you. And out of those, half of those call you the anti-Christ.
I’m, I don’t I don’t I don’t want to do that. But to be in those positions is a is a place of stress. And if there’s anyone who understands how important it is just to allow your soul to have opportunity to find rest in God. It’s got to be those who knew him and sought him in their leadership positions. When David writes Psalm 62, in verse one, he he writes for the sole purpose of finding rest in God. In Psalm 62, the. The historical background of these Psalms adds beauty to what the text is about. And so when you pick up a Psalm, it’s nice to read the thoughts that God expresses through his people in these Psalms, but it becomes so much more beautiful and adds so much more life to the text of the psalm. When you take just a little bit of time and you answer the question, why was this Psalm written? In Psalm 62 was written by King David. Now I’ll tell you, the scholars who study the psalm historically aren’t sure the exact reason David writes this psalm, but they know it’s one of two things happening in his life. Either David’s being attacked by Saul. Or is being attacked by his son Absalom. David being anointed by as king a couple of times in his life. His his kingdom comes under attack by people within Israel who desire to take away from him. One was King Saul, the other was his son Absalom.
And David’s at a place where he is struggling relationally. He’s at a place where it has him tense over what’s taking place. And so David resolves within this psalm what he desires to do in order to see the footsteps of what God wants in his life being accomplished in these moments. And so David says this in Psalm 62 and verse one, truly my soul finds rest in God. My salvation. Comes from him. You know, I like the life lessons that’s being taught here. You think when David’s writing this Psalm, this is not just something private he’s expressing within his journal, but he’s really opening up his heart to the rest of the nation of Israel. Who’s going to read this Psalm? And he’s really opening up his heart to everyone who’s going to touch the Bible, right? And read through the Psalms. You know, one of the beautiful things I love about the Book of Psalms is it gives us an opportunity within our hearts just to be raw. And I think we need that as people. And there’s a guy. I don’t know if this is a guy trait or not, but we’ll just call it a guy trait and blame it on men. Um, I’m very I’m task oriented. Like when when Stacy, she tells a story, she likes to tell the details of the story, and then I’m left with the question, now, what am I supposed to do? You know what? Let’s get task A, task b and so when I read the Bible, I kind of approach the Bible like that.
Uh, I want to just get to point A to point B to understand, you know, a plus B equals C in my head. And one of the things that’s often neglected or can be neglected, I think if that’s your nature and mind, is just the opportunity and reading God’s Word, not to just read it, to read it, but to just simply stop and allow your soul to reflect in it. And to be raw. I’ll tell you the secret as a pastor and writing messages on Sunday morning for people. I’ll tell you, here’s my secret I don’t know how other people do it. I’ll tell you how I do it. On Monday, I come into my office and I read the text and I know I’m going to be sharing on Sunday. And I’ll read some commentaries on the text, and then I’ll read the text repeatedly until it’s embedded in my heart. That way, when I walk out, I can think through it verse by verse. Because my desire is throughout the week. I want to wrestle with it. I want it to become personal. I want to meditate. I want it to rub me raw and expose me. For I am so that when I get up and I communicate about it, I’ve been through this text and I know where it impacts my heart.
And so that way it’s it’s personal to me. And I think that’s what the Psalms does for us. And I think that’s what David’s communicating to his people, is that there is this place in our lives where we just need to be raw, and we need to be personal, and we need to come before the Lord. And this is what David’s teaching his people in Psalm 62 verse one, truly my soul finds rest in God. My salvation comes from him. What what David is saying is the same God who ordains the end is also the God who ordains the means. I mean, sometimes we we like to take control of things, but in reality, God is always in control. Matthew six and verse 27, Jesus says this, and who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to his life? And so David’s coming to Sam and saying, you know, the same God that’s in charge of the results is the same God that’s in charge moment by moment. And God has created me to trust in him in it. I may not exactly understand what’s happening. I may not understand the result, but God created my soul to rest in him. And God is the same God that ordains the means that ordains the end. And I. I trust him in the journey. Um, that’s not easy to do. Trusting God in the journey. Is it? And I can say, God, you’re in control.
Until something happens that I don’t like. Especially if you make me mad. I’m in control then. I bring the wrath. And then I give it back over to the Lord. And I say, Now God. You’re in control. But I didn’t like that. God. So I’m going to take that. I’m going to take that. That’s mine. And now God. You’re in control. And what David is teaching us in this passage is not just about the end, but about the circumstance. When I was in college, I had this bright idea to go into journalism. And then when I went for my, um, uh, theology degree, it turns out I found out in both of those areas of training, um, there’s a lot of speech classes involved in that. I think in my theology degree I had like 6 or 8 speech classes. I had to get up and orate in front of people about different things. And and if you knew me when I was 18 or younger, um, I was not a public speaking person at all. Whatever that that phrase is. Right? I didn’t like the I didn’t like to get in front of people and talk. In a matter of fact, throughout grade school, if there was a book we had to read to give an oral report, I would read the book and I would try to psych myself up and I’d get to school, and then I’d just look at the teacher and be like, yeah, just give me an F.
There’s no way, there’s no way I’m doing this. And so, so in Bible college, I’m taking these speech classes, and the only thing in my head is, okay, let’s just get up there, get it done. No one’s going to remember it. I’ll get the grade. And that class will be over. And I’ll make up for it if I get a bad grade anywhere else in the education I’ve got to get right. And, um. And I was all about the end result. Just get out of there. But a God had in mind was the journey. First day in speech class, they assigned to us a speech they wanted us to give. They wanted us, believe it or not, to take a children’s book. Everyone in the class was assigned a children’s book, and you had to get up in front of the class and give a speech related to the this children’s book. And what do they give me? A country kid from West Virginia. They give me a book. A children’s book on Italian guys who rode Harleys. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried. We had we had to use voice inflection and impersonate this, these individuals. So here I am saying jabroni and whatever else in an Italian voice with a southern twang. It did not come out pretty, but at the after it was all said and done. You won’t believe what our teacher did. She records all of the speeches.
And then you had to go to a private room and relive the horror of a speech. And after that got finished, then you received a stack of papers from all your classmates that critiqued your speech for eight classes or something like that. I had to do that. All I wanted was to get through it. And all they wanted to use it for was to train me in the journey. The whole point of reliving that speech was that I could open up my eyes in those moments. To learn how to better communicate. It’s not just about the end. It’s also about the journey. And I think what God wants to do in your journey. It’s just as important, if not more, than the end. What God wants to do in you and through you, in your life, and communicating and finding rest and soul as a believer in him is so important. Because our soul is designed to find rest in God, and so we’re created to listen to him. And so David comes here and says, in all the turmoil, Israel that you’re seeing me going through, whether it be from my son Absalom, who’s coming against me, or Saul, who’s trying to attack me, I just want you to know this. Not only am I trusting God for the result, I’m trusting God in the journey and truly my soul finds rest in God. I mean, we all need a place in our lives where we can just expose ourselves.
And, you know, to be honest, when we get like that, when we get raw and we just want to expose ourselves to God, this is what tends to happen when you train your life to do this, that rather than just be about complaining, you’re raw, upset feelings crying out to God really becomes about worship. Even in the pain. Matter of fact, the Bible tells us that God loves a broken spirit. So I would say in the pain. Just rest. What is 2015? Maybe that’d be the phrase we tack on it. Rest. God gave you a soul. Not to look like a nerd, right? Let’s be strong in him. The trust what he has for you. Probably one of the most famous somse. If I said quote me a psalm, you would probably start with the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want Psalm 23. But then somewhere at some point, I know out of our group here, there’s going to be a few people that would say, and Psalm 4610, right. There’s a few times this is said in the Psalms, but here it says, and God says, be still and know that I am God. We all know that, right? You can say that we don’t need to listen to this. We all know that. But I can just tell you when it comes to the Psalms, again, the history behind the psalm is really what creates the beauty to the text.
When when this Psalm is being written, Psalm 46 4748 is all written by what they believe is to be King Hezekiah. King. Hezekiah was king during the time the Assyrians come to conquer in Israel, and he surrounds the city of Jerusalem. The Assyrians do, and they’re going to take down Jerusalem. And and the tendency of the nation of Israel, when things were going stressful, was to look everywhere they could possibly consider to find a solution other than God. A matter of fact in Isaiah 30. In verses one and two, it tells us that Israel would often look to the land of Egypt for strength in order to fight against surrounding nations. And stop and think. As I considered before saying this Psalm, how, how many times in my life have done that? Or I’m stressed out worried. I feel like the need to be tense and just think about all the possibilities in my in my head. And I want to struggle and fight and get get through some circumstance. And all of a sudden it just hits me like a ton of bricks. Why didn’t you just stop and take it before the Lord? Psalm 4610. Chapter 46 is Israel. In those moments before the Assyrians threw King Hezekiah. Coming before God. In Second Kings 1919. It lists for us Hezekiah’s prayer to the Lord, and then God responds in Psalm 46 and ten. If you read this whole psalm, you’ll see what it communicates is the nations just warring around you.
And all this reasons to be tense and stressed out about what’s happening politically, because you can’t turn the news off because it’s happening in your back door. And then God says this. Be still and know that I am God. If I were Israel in this fortress, I know what I would be busy doing. If it wasn’t sharpening my weapon. It would be training with my weapon for whatever battle we had coming, knowing there was a nation around us periodically asking, you know, we’ve got a couple thousand. They’ve got, you know, 100,000. Could we surrender? Is there a possibility here? You know, but stressing out about all the things we could do as a nation, and then God comes in in the middle of all this and says, be still. Notice God doesn’t say, be busy. I know that I’m God. Let me give excuses to him. Right? This verse exists because God already knows you. You’re busy. And this verse existed to Israel because they’ve they exhausted every resource they had and tried to find a solution to the problem they’re facing with this nation that’s invading them as they surrounded Jerusalem. God says be still. The Hebrew text in this passage literally means take your hands off. Can you think about that as a warrior fighting for battle and you got your your weapon in your hand, and all of a sudden God shows up and he says, and put it down.
Put it down. Just find rest in me. Trust me. The same God who ordains the end, ordains the means. Just rest in me. You who are anxious in your spirit. What anxiety do you have that adds just a single hour of life to your day? Be still. Hezekiah. Saying to these people, take your hands off. Martin Luther, a famous man who led the the Protestant Reformation, not Martin Luther King Jr, but the white Martin Luther from Europe. He used this psalm to write the hymn a mighty Fortress is our God. History tells us that one of the practices of Martin Luther, as he led the Reformation, his life got busy. But no matter how busy Martin Luther’s life got, he always found time for God. Matter of fact, history tells us that if he knew his schedule the following day was full, he would wake up even earlier just to rest in the Lord. Be still. Be raw. Take your complaining before the Lord and the things that’s upset your heart. Know that God desires to hear from you and rather, rather than just complain, turn it over to him and worship in the depths of the raw experience of your life. Rather than be still. What about this? If I if I just put it a different way in Psalm 37, David is. Whoa! Psalm 37. Sorry. That’s scary. 37 seven David writes this, this Psalm later in his life.
And so Psalm 46 he writes early on Psalm 37. He’s writing later in his life. And this is a psalm where David’s in his older age, his mature age, his wise age is sharing something with us that he discovered very early on. He says, rest in the Lord. And wait patiently for him. Rather than be still. What about this? Wait. Have you ever done that? Sometimes I think when we like to encounter God in our lives, we do so by putting God on our timetable, right? We show up and tell God he’s got to fit in this story at this particular time. God, I gave you. You got two minutes, man. Make it, make it happen. You know, when you read biblical accounts of the life of people who’ve done great things for the Lord, um, no one has done a great thing for the Lord historically without first encountering him. When you read the life of Moses, you’ll see in Moses’s life as it writes within history, before Moses does great things for God, there are 40 year gaps in that man’s life. Abraham’s 100. Paul takes over ten years as he travels from Damascus and goes back to his hometown before the Lord calls him anywhere. I mean, there are gaps in the in these lives of these great saints that we look at and these things they’ve done for the Lord. And here’s why. Why I think God did that is that they learned just to wait on him.
To let God move in his timetable rather than our own. Following Jesus is not done in a microwave. What I mean is, um, when you come to know the Lord, the next step may not be perfect. Nor that following one or any after that. God matures you in him. It’s a life that grows and sustains as you rest and wait on him. This word wait literally means be quiet. You know, one of the best lessons for a disciple, for anyone who wants to learn, is to stop talking. A teacher can’t teach when his students or her students won’t listen. We all need a place in our lives where we have the opportunity within our soul to listen to what God desires. In Proverbs one seven it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. To put God in his proper place to understand my soul was created for him, to give him that place in my life where I just pause in silence and just listen. A place where I can just be raw before the Lord and open and all that I’m experiencing to allow God to build into my life. If you’re interested in this in order to start the new year off right, we we printed out a Bible plan. Now we I wrestled with this because I wanted to do a read the Bible in a year plan, but instead what I did was read the New Testament in a year plan.
Some people maybe look at a bigger plan and find it overwhelming, but at least get through the New Testament in the year. This is called the five by five by five plan. What it is is five minutes a day, five days a week, and it gives you five ways to dig deeper into God’s Word. And it lists for you just passages of the Bible so you can work through the New Testament just to give God the time to work within your soul. To wait patiently for him. Can I tell you that the the best events opportunity thing, whatever you want to call it, that happened in in my life when I was a young guy going into college, I was looking for a degree that I thought would satisfy my my future. And so I started as I was considering what I might do, I was thinking about the fact that I was designed by a higher being. There had to be a creator somewhere in my mind, and I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with my life. And so I thought to myself, you know, if I could just figure out what this God thing’s about, maybe why he created me, then it would give me some direction that I want to pursue in life. And so if I follow, if I follow that, then, then I’ll find a career that at least satisfy me for a little bit.
And I remember when I was in high school, there was this guy who would come visit our high school. He was a youth pastor at a local church, and he’s actually come out here for mission trips a few times. But he would come and visit the school and he would ask, uh, the kids there to come be a part of his youth group or just talk to him about the Lord. And he always come up to me, and I was probably the most offensive person he would encounter all day. I didn’t want him. I didn’t want anything to do with his God, and I certainly didn’t want him taking up my space in the hallway. And so I would let him know that. And then the next week he would be back and he would invite me. And I got to the place where I started questioning God in my life. And the first person I thought of was this guy. I’ve been mean to my whole life. And so I went to him and I said, hey, um, I explained to him what I was thinking, and I just said, hey, if, if, if you can show me truth and it’s resting in God, I’ll follow you and what you’re saying and I’ll and I’ll, I’ll believe in what this God that you’re telling me about. But if I can disprove it, I want to continue in the same selfish path that I’m living for me and just find satisfaction in what I want to do.
And so I went to him and I shared this, and I asked him the question, why in the world he’d always come and share with me that maybe this is an encouragement to you. He told me I was the only one that was ever honest with him. Everyone else would tell him they’d come to church and not show up. That was the only person that was ever just blatantly honest what I thought. And and so he loved the honesty. So he as a refreshment, he would come back to me. And so sure enough, we sat down and we started studying the Bible, and we looked at historical reasons of why you should believe in Jesus and why the Bible can be trusted, and what Jesus did for me and and paying for my sins. And and I started looking at other religions and I was easily disproving other religious belief systems, but I couldn’t shake what he was saying about Jesus. And and so finally one night I realized. She. She’s just made me. Jesus made me and I belong to him. And everything I’ve been looking for was him, is in him. And to be honest, one night I went up into the woods after this youth event that we were having and, um. To be really raw and honest. I didn’t want my life. I wasn’t happy. Yeah, everything in my life was cared for from a physical perspective.
My family didn’t have. Once we we if you looked at it from the outside, thought, you know, that’s that’s good. But I didn’t want it. I didn’t know anything that I had. I didn’t want to pursue the direction I was in. I was empty, I was I was lost for what even doing to do in the following day. I didn’t want any of it. And then I came to learn about Jesus, and and I went up on this hill and I just said, you know, God, I don’t want this life. I don’t I don’t want what I’m doing. I don’t want what I have, I don’t want it. And so you made my life. It’s yours and I’m giving it to you. God, I know what you’ve done for me. I know that you’ve created me for you. And so, God, whatever. Whatever you want, this is yours. For me, I’d say that turned out to be the best moment of my life. And I know you’re thinking that guy is married and he has got kids. Don’t let his kids hear that, you know? But the truthfulness is, had that moment not happened in my life. I would have never met the lady that I’ve married, and I would have never had the children that I have. I would have never been in Utah, and I certainly would have never had a speech class. But a moment of rest.
For the first time in my life, I could just lay it down raw before God. Not having to carry the anxiety and stress of the world and trying to figure things out. I just let God do it for me. God, this is your life. And Psalm 116 and seven it says this return to your rest, O my soul. For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. Maybe I’ll just stop with that and say this for us. If we can’t find reason. To reflect on the goodness of God. It’s communicating something to us about our walk with him. Because God has given us plenty of reason to praise him. If I say to you this morning, rejoice in the Lord and think about what God has bountifully blessed you with. If it if it takes some time for something to come in mind, that’s an indicator to us. I really need to get back and resting in him. Because God has given us reasons to praise his name. I mean, today is a gift of his grace, Christ giving his life to you as a gift of his mercy and grace. The fact that he’s giving you a future and a hope is is a gift to you. The reason that you’re still breathing says to you, God has a plan for your life he wants you to get on board with in him. There’s reason to praise. So let me ask you this morning.
What does your soul feel like? Let me tell you if it’s needing to hit the weight room. Book of Psalms. It’s a beautiful place. To be raw and who you are, and just lifting up before the God before God that rather than complain in your hurt and brokenness, you you turn it to praise. And knowing how to find rest in him and knowing how to be silent before him. Just giving God the opportunity to communicate to him so that you can take New Years and make it look like a party, right? Let me give you what I would call the big prophetic prediction, okay? It’s the only prediction I’ve ever given in church. Let me tell you what it is. As long as you trust in Christ in 2015. Everything. It’s going to work out just fine. God has created your soul for him. To find rest in what he is. It doesn’t matter. The problem you face, or the situation you have in comparison to what God has for you. And for us, that isn’t to undermine what we’re going through. Or whatever we’re thinking about, or whatever’s heavy on our lives or whatever reason doesn’t get us to calm down. Um, it’s not to undermine that, but it’s just to simply say, whatever it is, God cares. And he’s bigger. And so it’s important for us. Wherever we are. Maybe, maybe in our lives we don’t know what the next step is. But God does. And the place that he’s called you to. Has to rest in him.