The Paradox of God’s Love

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The Paradox of God’s Love

Psalm 121; August 15, 2021; Drew Matter

August 15, 2021 • Drew Matter • Psalm 121

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“The Christian life is going to God. In going to God, Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same governments, pay the same prices for groceries and gasoline, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses, are buried in the same ground.

The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are ruled by God; and therefore no matter what doubts we endure or what accidents we experience, the Lord will preserve us from evil, he will keep our life.”

~Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 121 (ESV)

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

The Wrath of God

August 25, 2024 • Mike O'Leary • Psalm 7

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “There are a lot of people who struggle mightily with this whole idea. They say, ‘If God is a God of love, he doesn’t send people to hell. If God is a God of judgment, he can’t be a God of love. I can’t reconcile the two things.’ Yet the Bible insists that not only is God a God both of love and wrath—not only do those two things not conflict with each other, but they actually establish each other. One without the other is nonsense. One without the other is meaningless. If you actually try to somehow extract, remove surgically, excise the Christian message of the wrath and judgment of God, what you actually have is nothing left at all.” ~Tim Keller, Pastor & Author “If we do not protect God’s wrath, we lose the bad news, and if we lose the bad news, we lose the good news — we lose the gospel.” ~Tony Reinke, Senior Writer at http://desiringgod.org “God’s wrath is more horrifying than we can ever imagine, but he will pardon any who take refuge in the shelter Jesus provides.” ~John Piper, Pastor & Author “’Til on that cross as Jesus died The wrath of God was satisfied For every sin on Him was laid Here in the death of Christ I live.” ~“In Christ Alone” by Keith & Kristyn Getty SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 7 (ESV) 1 O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, 2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver. 3 O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, 4 if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, 5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah 6 Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high. 8 The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. 9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God! 10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; 13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. 14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends. 17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

Our Refuge. God’s Glory.

August 4, 2024 • Don Willeman • Psalm 57

***Please note: there was a technical difficulty that caused us to miss the first ~2 minutes of Don's introduction. We apologize for the error! QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “I have come to one conclusion: All that I am, all that I aspire to be, all that I was before, is by the grace of God.” ~Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and 2016 Dartmouth Commencement Speaker “...we need to fall, and we need to be aware of it; for if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know our Maker’s marvelous love so fully...” “...deeds are done which appear so evil to us and people suffer such terrible evils that it does not seem as though any good will ever come of them; and we consider this, sorrowing and grieving over it so that we cannot find peace in the blessed contemplation of God as we should do; and this is why: our reasoning powers are so blind now, so humble and so simple, that we cannot know the high, marvelous wisdom, the might and the goodness of the Holy Trinity. And this is what he means where he says, ‘You shall see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well’, as if he said, ‘Pay attention to this now, faithfully and confidently, and at the end of time you will truly see it in the fullness of joy.’” ~Julian of Norwich (c.1343-after 1416), English anchoress and writer “Religion is, as it were, the calm bottom of the sea at its deepest point, which remains calm however high the waves on the surface may be.” ~Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Austrian-born philosopher “Meek. Humble. Gentle. Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms … You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come.” ~Dane Ortlund in Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers “Peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God." ~Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910), Scottish Baptist minister SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 57 (ESV) To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave. 1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. 2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 3 He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness! 4 My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts— the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! 6 They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah 7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! 8 Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! 9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

The Power of God’s Presence

July 28, 2024 • Don Willeman • Psalm 114

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION “There is a strain of loneliness infecting many Christians, which only the presence of God can cure.” “…blessing come[s] to the church when we stop looking at a picture of God and look at God Himself…when, no longer satisfied just to know about a God in history, we meet…Him in living, personal experience.... We desperately need a divine visitation—for our situation will never be cured by sermons! It will never be cured until the Church of Christ has suddenly been confronted with what one man called the mysterium tremendum—the fearful mystery that is God, the fearful majesty that is God. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He brings the wonderful mystery that is God to us, and presents Him to the human spirit.” ~A.W. Tozer (1897-1963) pastor, author, and magazine editor “The holy is hidden and veiled; we cannot grasp it with our intellect, but only approach it with awe and wonder.” ~Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), German Lutheran theologian and philosopher “There is an experiential knowledge of God that profoundly changes a person from the inside out. God is known in the soul in such an overwhelming way that it affects a person’s entire perception of life.” ~Conrad Mbewe, founding chancellor of African Christian University in Zambia “It is easier for us to get to know God than to know our own soul...God is nearer to us than our own soul, for He is the ground in which it stands....” ~Julian of Norwich (c.1343-1416), English anchoress “A believer longs after God, to come into his presence, to feel his love, to feel near to him in secret…. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour than in an eternity of the presence of man.” ~Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), minister in the Church of Scotland “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.” ~C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), writer and literary scholar “Peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God.” ~Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910), Scottish minister SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 114 (ESV) Psalm 114 1 When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. 3 The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. 5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? 6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Jeremiah 23 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. Acts 17 28 …‘In him we live and move and have our being’… Psalm 139 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. John 7 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.