Courageous Worship - [Psalm 115]

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What a joy it is to sing to the Lord and be reminded of a lot of grace and mercies and in singing
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The title for today's message this evening message is courageous worship and the text is found in Psalm 115
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So if you want to turn there we are also going to be looking at some passages in Daniel as Illustrations of the truth that we're going to be studying in Psalm 115
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When you think of courageous worship, I want you to begin by asking yourself that question
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Are you bold in your worship of God and as you reflect on that?
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You might you might think how do these two things come together? Why does where does courage and worship?
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In what circumstances are they conjoined when we think of courageousness? You know in the face of adversity in the face of fear
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Well, we want to press on to do what is right. What is God honoring and when we think of worship typically we think of Corporate worship gathering together as an assembly and exalting our
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Lord but the kind of worship that we are going to be looking at is the worship that we do in the quietness of Our hearts in the circumstances where you may actually be alone
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But may still need to lift up and exalt your God In the way in which you act in those circumstances and like I said, we will look at Daniel's Several chapters and Daniel's for some illustrations on how we can worship
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God with boldness and courage When God places us in those circumstances,
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I Hope you are in Psalm 115 I would like to actually read the psalm first and then get into the message
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Because I expect us to get to about half of this this evening in the message itself
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Psalm 115 verse 1 Not to us O Lord not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness
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Why should the nation say where is their God? Our God is in the heavens.
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He does all that he pleases Their idols are silver and gold the work of human hands
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They have mouths but do not speak eyes, but do not see they have ears but do not hear
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Noses, but do not smell they have hands, but do not feel feet But do not walk and they do not make a sound in their throat
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Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them. Oh Israel trust in the
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Lord. He is their help and their shield. Oh house of Aaron trust in the Lord He is their help and their shield you who fear the
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Lord trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield The Lord has remembered us.
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He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel He will bless the house of Aaron.
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He will bless those who fear the Lord both the small and the great May the Lord give you increase you and your children.
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May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth The heaven are the
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Lord's heavens But the earth he has given to the children of man The dead do not praise the
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Lord nor do any who go down into silence But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore praise the
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Lord let us pray a Loving and gracious father. We thank you
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Lord for giving us your word your revelation To us and even this evening as we open this word
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Give me strength. Oh Lord to proclaim it faithfully by your spirit. Oh father
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Use it in the lives of each of us here this evening that we would be Clear in terms of your call to us and that we would be empowered by the spirit
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To live out the life that you've called us to in Christ name we pray Amen Okay, I Mentioned that Daniel is one of the books that we are going to be turning to so keep your
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Fingers in first Psalm 115. We may not actually have to turn to Daniel But we're going to be looking at some illustrations of what it means to live courageously
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In the face of adversity what it means to worship God with courage and boldness
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In fact, if you remember the stream throughout the book You may pick up Daniel as a as a young person who is carried off into captivity and even as a young child
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He would worship God with what he ate When the king's food was offered he would say no like can may
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I please have vegetables and water? Food that is not intended to make you strong and and Well built but in order to honor
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God Daniel and his friends would Take a bold step in order to obey
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God rather than Eat the food that was offered possibly to idols But from the king's table and then as we go further on we will see many events and then finally even in this very old age
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We see Daniel who would continue his lifestyle of prayer Even when the king's edict comes alongside and wants to divert people from praying to God Daniel was would still remain faithful still remain bold and courageous and Live out the faith that was begun a long time ago, and hopefully we will learn some
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Insight from these examples how we want to press on in our bold Worship of God and this worship needs to extend into all aspects of our life, and that's my goal today
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It is for sanctification of believers. So those of you who call yourselves
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Christians, I hope that this would give you just that shot in the arm when you go back into your work
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Spaces when you go back into your homes to trust in the Lord and to worship him with boldness
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The History of the psalm is a little uncertain. We don't exactly know the context and the circumstances that are surround this
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Psalm one thing we do know it was written in a time of humiliation in the nation
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So if you look at verse 2, why should the nation say where is their God? There is a context in which the nations that surround
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Israel are possibly mocking Israel for its state we once again
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We do not know what the state is but the commentators seem to think that this could be a time where the nation was either defeated in war or Surrounded by enemies who are stronger or it could actually be even in captivity
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They cannot the commentators couldn't decide if this was something that was pre exilic So for example when
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Sennacherib comes from the time of Isaac I and says, you know what God can protect you
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You know, we've destroyed all the gods in this in this land as we've overrun nations So it could be pre exilic or it could be doing the time of exile like in the time of Daniel.
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It could be possibly That this nation which was once strong and mighty has now gone into captivity
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There is no longer a king ruling in Israel And then these nations could be mocking Israel and say where is your
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God the God that was supposed to keep a king on your throne Or it could be post exilic
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More like maybe like in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah during the rebuilding of the walls here You have a mighty nation
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All you have are these ruins and here are these people Remnant a small group trying to somehow feebly build up this wall and then here are all the other people outside looking and mocking
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Where is your God? We do not know what it is one thing we do know is that this was a time where the nation was humbled and it is quite likely that it might have
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Been a result of apostasy as we look through the Old Testament You see several circumstances in which the nation of Israel walks away from God and God brings judgment to it so whatever the circumstance is
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We see the psalmist in this humiliating circumstance
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Exalt God and then Give us that same kind of courage When things are when the chips are down when everything is going not so great
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In fact, this psalm is actually one of the hellel psalms. It is one of the praise psalms that are sung
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During major festivals, especially the Passover the psalms from Psalm 113 to 118
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Actually form one of those groups of hellel psalms that are sung during Right after the
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Passover meal so you can actually almost picture Jesus after the Last Supper singing this psalm with his disciples
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So, let's quickly break down the psalm and then we will get into this text itself The psalm breaks down into three groups
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The first one is from verses 1 through 8 and that's most likely what we will cover this evening
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And the and the focus of that Section is that you must worship God the
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God of heaven and not idols and then verses 9 through 15
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We see that you must trust God who is your provider and then the rest of the psalm from 16 through 18
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Your God deserves your worship So with that, let's get down into Psalm 1
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We are going to look at this section Which I've themed you must worship God and not idols and the reason is
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God alone Deserves worship and we see this in verse 1 not to us. Oh Lord not to us
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But to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness
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Some of the psalms actually open up with a with a trumpet call and When you read this verse, you should just get that wake -up call
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Clarion like in your ears not to us in fact When I read this psalm over and over again the image
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I get is something like this Here is the psalmist saying not to us not to us. Oh Lord, but to your name to your name
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There is just this stark contrast in the way in this this psalm is poetically written with the repetitions to just exalt
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God and to take the psalmist and the Israelites out of the picture and The question for us this evening is this when we think of worship
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We have a choice. The choice is is that am I going to live my life?
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worshiping myself and What surrounds me or am I going to keep
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God as the focus of my worship We want to be very clear about this because very often we as Christians kind of amble through life
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We we do these this thing we do that thing and then when you just step back and look it's like why did
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I do these? things what what is it that's That's describes my life this day this week this this year
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Is it something that is just completely centered around myself or are these actions that I commit committed in order to glorify and honor
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God and For the psalmist the answer is very clear not to us not to us
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In fact when you look at the history of Israel They didn't have a lot really to boast about when they began when when they were chosen by God They were a small people, but when they were chosen and favored by God and God built them up and exalted them
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They were not the kind of people that you would say. Oh here is my Class model student these were a people that were stumbling and falling the when
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God was Putting his hand upon them and leading and guiding them They would constantly waiver and turn and fall and so the psalmist here makes this stark contrast to say
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If we had to boast in ourselves, especially in this time of national humiliation
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We really don't have anything to boast about and we do not want us to be the object of glory but we want you to be glow to be glorified and Why is that?
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Why should God's name be glorified the psalmist gives a Few things here in verse 1 the first thing is the name of God But to your name give glory
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It is in the name of God You're talking about the character of God to the attribute of God who
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God is that deserves the glory And in fact when you think of this term that to your name be glory, you probably want to remember
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Moses and Joshua If you remember when Moses was leading the people of Israel under God There was a time when the
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Israelites were just getting so So difficult to deal with God would be faithful He would lead them but they would just constantly grumble
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God would show give them food and provision But they would constantly walk away into adultery and God at one point discloses to Moses his friend
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I'm going to destroy this people and then you hear the cry of Moses back to God and this is what?
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Moses intercedes for the people he says these people Deserve the judgment, but we want
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I would I want your name a lot to be exalted I want the people the nations that are surrounding not to say their
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God just brought them out of Egypt to destroy them in the wilderness but we may your name be exalted as you bring them forth into the promised land and And that is the kind of mindset that the psalmist has here as well
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We want your name to be glorified even in the state of humiliation in which we are today and then he brings forth two attributes in verse 1 the 1 the first one is a steadfast love and The second one is
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God's faithfulness when you think of the Steadfast love of God you want to think of the covenant -keeping love of God and for us as Christians post
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Christ we can think of how God in Christ has Covenanted with his people.
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So when you become a Christian You have seen a powerful demonstration of the love of God that has been emblazoned forever in history and in your life when
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God in Christ has forgiven you and demonstrated his love to you and Then when we think of the faithfulness of God And this is
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I think very key for us as believers. There are times when we walk in great strength and confidence and There is a great joy that comes when you obey the
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Lord when you follow after him and then there are times when You sin and you you struggle with a certain area in your life, and then you think
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Do I deserve God's? love his mercy his forgiveness and Those are the times like in this time of Israel's humiliation to remember it is not your faithfulness that Guarantees your relationship with the
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Lord But it is the faithfulness of the God who called you out just like when Israel was called out by God God was the one who was faithful in leading them to their destination and likewise in our lives as well
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It is the faithfulness of God that guarantees you finishing the race successfully and We want
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God to receive all the honor and the glory because it is his love and his faithfulness
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That will bring us through to the end Let's now step back a minute and then look at our own lives
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What are some of the ways in which we can tend to draw the glory to ourselves rather than?
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Pointing that glory rightly toward God Far too often
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Boasting is one of those terms that comes to my mind All of us are probably skilled in various different things gifted
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Maybe in in certain aspects and it is not uncommon as you live in the world to be able to say you know,
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I'm good at this or I'm I excel at this and Especially if you're talking with unbelievers
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It is very common to disconnect the God who gave us that gift or gave us that ability and say well you know here is what
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I am good at and And one of the challenges I think for believers today is what
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I call a presumption we We somehow implicitly think that yes,
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I know my God gave me but I don't need to really acknowledge him for what he has given To me so I I speak as if what
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I have is mine as if it was not given to me and Here in the psalm
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We are exhorted to remember Firstly for ourselves that every single thing that we have is from God and God alone deserves the glory for what we have because it comes from God and we want to be also unashamed of Proclaiming that glory back to God and say
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God I acknowledge before these people that I am that it is you who have given me
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Whatever it is that I am glad for thankful for so for example, if it is your job, it is your family
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Whether some skills whether the way you look your strength and just your confidence in life
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Whatever it is that you have that you want to be thankful for you want to make sure you acknowledge
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God for that Skill and for that goodness that he has given to you Let me just give you a very brief example from Daniel and then we will move on to verse 2 in Daniel chapter 2 you have us very
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An interesting circumstance and I want you to think of this courageous worship once again You have the circumstance where King Nebuchadnezzar has this dream and he has called upon all the people in the land
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To tell him what the dream is and what it means and the people Throw up their hands and say
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King you are asking an impossible task No man can actually tell you the dream you give me the dream and I'll interpret it for you
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And the king says no you are fooling me and I'm gonna Kill you all because you are just cheats and liars and then
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Daniel and his friends were young and just brought into this company Are part of this group who are supposed to be killed but Daniel prays to God And God graciously gives him the dream and its interpretation now
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We will see more about this passage later But here is Daniel with a with a dream and its interpretation right before the king and I want to just read you from verse 26 what happens and I want you to be thinking of Psalm 115 verse 1 while we read this
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The king declared to Daniel whose name was Belteshazzar Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?
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And I want you to think this here is Daniel and his friends slaves in a foreign land Here is the one big moment in time before this king of this mighty powerful king in this whole
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World as you will and here is the opportunity to shine to make himself big and here is the answer of Daniel and he says
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No wise men enchanters magicians or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked
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But there is Daniel who can answer the king. Is that what he says? But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar What will be in the latter days?
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Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these and he goes on to explain what the dream was and and That should be the overriding thought process in our minds as we think of sanctification
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We want to be bold in worshipping God in those circumstances that God has placed us and we want to be unashamed of giving
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God The glory in the circumstances where God has blessed us with in this case wisdom from above Let's move on to the next verse, which is verse 2 and 3 and here we are going to look at a different circumstance
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And verse 1 it was a psalmist looking at his heart and where he stands before God and verse 2 and 3
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Deal with the mocking that comes from the outside Verse 2 why should the nation say where is their
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God? Our God is in the heavens He does all that he pleases
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As I said this psalm is written in a time of humiliation. So you have two aspects of If you will a trial that is going on one is from the outside Which is the mockery of the people that are observing
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Israel and then in response to the mockery of this people the nation of Israel you also have doubt that comes from within the land and Maybe even within the psalmist own breast.
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So we're going to look at those two aspects and how do you respond with? Worship to God So one of the things that could be going on is is this and we have this phrase
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Where is their God in a few places in the Old Testament and all of those times and those that phrase is one of those phrases that is just The Jews hated that because here is this mockery the one thing that defined them as a nation this
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God who has called them and Led them and here these these The people's the nation's those that do not know
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God are mocking these this nation Israel and like I said, sadly, this is probably in a time of Humiliation because of sin that has that has creeped into the land but Here are some things that they could have been asking
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So you are defined as a people who worship this this
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God of heaven and earth And where is your God right now? You have no nation or you are completely powerless under me.
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I am the one who has authority over you What kind of a God do you worship You know you
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The land that you speak so highly of is completely in ruins What kind of a
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God leaves his people that way? Do you really think there is a God look at our gods?
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They give us all this power and strength and you and as I'm speaking you can probably think of the various circumstance in the nation of Israel where this actually happens and Such is the mockery that comes from outside and the psalmist has no evidence if you will to say
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Oh, there is the secret plan. You just wait and see in two years. We are going to take over Babylon No, there's there's really nothing that the psalmist has in terms of what's going to happen on the ground
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But he has a he does have a response Before I get to the response, let me go a little further in terms of the mockery
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So as these nations surrounding Israel are mocking you have people possibly within Israel who are
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Walking away this morning We heard the issue of the Samaritans and that's a different context because you had people brought in To this land by the
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Assyrians who would actually intermingle and then you have this Mixed race, but you have actually people who are already apostate.
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They are being chastised probably for Idolatry and walking away from the God of Israel and now they are in a completely pagan nation if they are in exile and when they are taunted and mocked and possibly
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Attracted by these false worshippers around them There are probably many who are actually walking away from the
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God of Israel and following after these nations So you have this this doubt and internal Questioning where is their
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God? So it's not just people outside asking where is the God of Israel, but you have people asking themselves where is my
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God in all of these circumstances and Could it be that the psalmist himself was dealing with this question because there is really no visible sign of God or his help at this point in time and Then you have verse 3 and that's the response of the psalmist
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And he says our God is in the heavens And he does all that he pleases what a response of faith and this is what
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I mean by bold Courageous worship when you have nothing else to hang on except your trust in the
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Lord of heaven and earth Who has called you and who will lead you even through these times and the answer is essentially this
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While the world is successful the world is looking down upon the Israelites and upon you and saying what what is it?
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What is the basis of your confidence when I cannot see your God and I cannot see circumstances in your life that will justify your faith
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The answer of faith is this there my God is in a place where you cannot go
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He is ruling from heaven. He lives in heaven Your eyes are completely blind to the fact that there is a heaven and my
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God is a ruler and he does exactly as he pleases he is in heaven in glory and Your eyes are not open yet to see it
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But I do even when I can see the plight in which I am today and he acts sovereignly.
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He has no One to question him or demand of him that he show himself in each one's time and choosing
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He will he does what he? What is pleasing to him and I think for us one of the images that should come to mind is
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Jesus on the cross here is Christ the king of the universe in the utter state of humiliation before all the nations as people are walking by and mocking and Saying well, if you are the
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Son of God, why don't you come down? Could God could Christ have come down? Absolutely, but did he know because he is sovereign will is what is accomplished not to just satisfy the questions of the people around and I and as We turn this
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What was happening in the nation of Israel to ourselves? We want to probably ask ourselves
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What are some of the times when the people around you mock you? About your faith about the
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God whom you worship and how do you respond with courage? How do you worship your
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God in those circumstances? And I think the psalmist Response is helpful for us to just remember
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Who is it? What is it that you trust? Where is your faith grounded upon do
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I trust my sight the the circumstances that I see around myself? do
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I trust the enemy of God who has his eyes blinded to the truth and the words that I that I hear from him or Do I believe in the unseen do
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I believe in the God who has drawn me out of darkness and Brought me into his kingdom of light.
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Do I believe in the God who has changed my heart inside out the God who? Has redeemed me from the pit
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Maybe I can give you a few more examples just to keep bring this to the ground.
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Maybe some someone could be asking you Hey, you know, I read in the Bible about the church
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I maybe Christ was was a powerful person when I see the New Testament Church You know,
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I see like tongues of flame on the people, you know I see the building shaking when when the
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Spirit of God comes there And and that that tells me that there was a real movement of God among the people then you guys two thousand years later
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You're just singing old hymns and I don't see any evidence.
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Is your God really here? As you worship. Is your God really here? Is our
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God really here when we worship? And how about yourself you say that you are a believer you have the
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Spirit of God in you when I look in the New Testament I see people like speaking in tongues when the
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Spirit of God came upon them How do you even know that God dwells in you? Do you? Obviously, I just picked these two examples as Actually, you could probably get those questions from charismatics as well.
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And and I just want to Emphasize the difference between what is seen observed and experience on the outside Versus what truly goes on on the inside now, it is true
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There could be people who just claim to be believers whose lives do not Demonstrate the power of God in their lives and you probably should examine your lives to make sure that you are indeed a believer
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But if you do know the God of heaven who has done work in your soul Who has opened your eyes to the scriptures
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So the scriptures are no longer just a textbook that you're reading but the very Word of God from heaven speaking to you if you know have a relationship with God that is
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Stronger than the most intimate of relationships that we have that of a husband and a wife if if this
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God has changed your life in the past That this moment in time no matter what that circumstances.
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Maybe it is a circumstance of humiliation You can still respond like the psalmist does in verse 3 my
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God is in heaven and he does exactly as he pleases God's presence is here in in the earth and yet he is in heaven with glory and he works here on the earth, although his workings are inscrutable to the unbeliever and He works from heaven and will wrap up all things when he comes back
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Let me give you an illustration on this from Daniel chapter 3 and here we have the other example of Daniel's friends
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Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and You have the circumstance where the king has erected an idol a statue of himself
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And this is a national occasion this is a place where the entire nation is going to come down and celebrate this great king and all that he has accomplished and Daniel and his friends as you know are now part of the state.
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They are working for the king. They are exemplary citizens they are expected to do the kind of things that all the nation does and here while the whole nation is bowing down and celebrating this national event we have
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Three men who would refuse to do so and that brings up this issue of courage and worship in Chapter 3 verse 14
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Nebuchadnezzar said to these men is a true Oh Shadrach Meshach and Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up Now if you're ready when you hear the sound of all these musical instruments to fall down and worship the image
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I have made Well and good, but if you do not worship you shall
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Immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?
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Where will your God be when I am in control here is the most mighty powerful
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King in that entire world and he wants to have his will done and he will not permit another
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God to Challenge his power and authority and listen to the response in verse 16 these men answered and said to the king.
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Oh Nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter The matter is settled in our heart this issue doesn't even
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Question what we think what we believe and what we know to be true. That's what they are saying if this be so Which is the threat that they face from the king our
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God whom we serve He is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand
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Oh King but if not be it known to you Oh King that we will not serve your gods or Worship the golden image that you have set up and again just just an illustration a very familiar story of what happened in the lives of these friends of Daniel and The point is this in a circumstance.
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I mean and that's one of the problems with familiar stories We kind of kind of walk through them very quickly. What I want you to remember is this entire nation is worshiping this false
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This the false gods and they are for bowing down before this idol and here is the most powerful king of the world
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Standing before you and asking these men and these men are not just looking going by their eyes and saying this is the most powerful man
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But their eyes are open to heaven and they can Acknowledge their God and say my God is the one who is more powerful than Nebuchadnezzar and he is the one
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I'm going to trust and I have no problem glorifying my God in the face of this danger and Adversity because there is really no danger that comes to my life
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That is apart from my God who brings it and my God is able to rescue and as you know in this
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In Daniel 3 how God does deliver? Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and brings glory to himself as Nebuchadnezzar himself acknowledges
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God Let's move on to verses 4 through 7
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So now we move to a section of this psalm, which is called a polemic. So the psalmist has
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Endured the assaults from the outside. Now you have the response of the psalmist back to the unbeliever and essentially the world goes by what it sees and it's its sight is pretty dim and the
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Christian now responds with the truth that exposes the darkness and the falsehood that is endemic in the world so verse 4
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Let me I won't read the verses, but I'm just going to speak through them. So he says their idols are silver and gold
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Silver and gold may be a little more expensive than wood and stone But what are they they are the work of human hands?
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here are people who make objects and bow down to them and give honor and respect and worship to their own creation and Contrary wise you and I human beings are the work of God's hands and our right
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Responsibility is to worship the God who created us and that's the contrast That is the truth that needs to be exposed while the unbeliever is mocking the
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God who made made us and and the circumstances in which we are where God has sovereignly placed us and Then he says they have mouths, but do not speak
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What are mouths supposed to do? mouths speak It communicates we have a
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God in heaven who reveals the truth from above He has given us the scriptures by which we know what he wants us to know on The on the on the other hand all that these idols can have is a fashion mouth that cannot communicate
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From these false gods to the people who worship them. They have eyes but do not see these these idols can have these
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Fashioned eyes. In fact, some of the Hindu idols have a very elaborate ceremony of opening those eyes in terms of giving that vision
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By human hands to this God who can now see but they have no knowledge
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These idols cannot see cannot observe cannot know what is going on in their devotees lives far less come to their aid
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But our God is in heaven and he observes the the actions of men
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They have here ears, but they do not hear these these false these devotees of these false gods
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Can beat themselves up run around Christ King sing chant do whatever they want toward their
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God But their God their idol has no ears to hear he cannot answer hear the prayers of his devotees, but our
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God is In Heaven and listening to the prayers there is not one prayer that comes from the mouth of a believer that is not heard by God and responded in love
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They have nose but do not smell It is just cosmetic they have hands and feet but cannot act these gods on which they trust are
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Incapable of any action in the lives of those who have committed themselves to him
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But we have a sovereign God from heaven who not only orders the circumstances according to his perfect pleasure but he acts and intervenes and responds to prayer in the lives of his his loved ones and who is
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Alive as we will see the these false gods They have they cannot make a sound in their throat
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It is said that some of these idols the false priests would make some sounds to make it look like these idols were speaking and All that you have are these fake sounds, but you have a
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God We believe a God who is alive and truly well, and he doesn't need these gimmicks for people to be
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Cheated so what is the idols alternative that we have here on earth today?
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So you and I are not challenged by pagan nations that are worshiping these idols. So We didn't um these physical idols that are that are being sold instead we have a lot of things that make up for Idolatry in the hearts and lives of the world which can again encroach in the life of believer
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If you are not careful as I began in verse 1 I said there is a choice in worship and one of the key choices that we make is do
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I want to worship the God? Of heaven and earth do I want to give glory to my God? or do I want to let myself be the center of the life that I'm going to live and And that is the same
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Question that comes even when it comes to idolatry we can choose to pick certain aspects of our life as What is going to be the object of our affection the object of our honor?
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the object of our devotion and You know in a sense that it takes away from God himself
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And I just want to throw a couple of things at you so you can think through this as you Examine your lives in terms of giving the honor where it is due.
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The first one is where? We take good things But we honor them in the wrong proportion and then the second one is to take good things but in the wrong places
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Let me go to the first one good things in the wrong proportion. I mentioned earlier That you you may be talented you may be gifted
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You may be given things from God that you ought to be thankful for whether it is your body your mind your job your family your skills
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Whatever it is that God has given you It is good that you have what
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God has given and we want to make sure that we use Those talents those skills that God has given to us in order to glorify him and The challenge for us as fallen people people who are redeemed and yet walking
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In this world Struggling with the flesh is to make sure that we have the right proportion
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In those aspects I can take for example my job and do a great job in a way that brings honor to God Or I can take that job and make that The center of who
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I am I can end up spending a lot of time in it growing successful at it and end up Destroying the life that God has given to me by being a one -stringed person.
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That just is a workaholic Or it could even be my family
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Those who have a godly family ought to be rejoicing for the goodness that you have in this world, especially in our land today
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To have a family that is not broken is hard to find and we ought to be thankful for families that God has given us especially if you have a spouse that is
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Loving the Lord and children that are growing in obedience to the truth What a rich blessing it is and yet even that out of proportion can become an idol
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I can I can just get so focused on my own family that that is all that I can be thinking about and speaking about and boasting about and We ought to be watching out for To use the gifts that God has given us in order to go back and glorify him and to thank him for What he has given us now
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What is more obvious is the second kind of idols that creep in especially to believers lives?
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And this is good things in the wrong places. We live in a culture where pleasure
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Seems to be the main goal of people Why do
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I live my life I live my life to have a happy Lifestyle Yeah, I asked many of my unbelieving co -workers, you know, what is it that you're doing?
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What do you why are you working so hard for so I can have a lot of money? I can I can retire well and enjoy this life with with comfort and and pleasure.
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No, is that is that? Is that is it wrong to earn money? No, is it wrong to be able to provide for yourself?
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no, but if What defines my life is just the pleasure and the happiness and the comfort and if that is the object of my life?
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That becomes a little idol that I am trying to seek now that pleasure can find various venues in which it can express itself
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It could be and and it can find wrong ways to satisfy itself as well.
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It could find for example instead of Enjoying the pleasure of sex within marriage it can be sex outside of marriage or pornography or Take for example rest it can tend to laziness and You I've heard this and I'm in fact
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I'm guilty of doing this In the past and sometimes even now if I'm not watchful, it'll creep back to me
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I have a hard day's work. I come back home and I I need to chill unwind and I'm going to worship the 45 -inch screen that's on my wall and And of course now it gets a lot more sophisticated.
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You don't have to have the big ones you have like iPads and iPhones and every other ways in which pleasure is
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Ported to to us today. And in fact, I I do I kid you not I think 10 years ago
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It was a lot easier to manage the pleasures that were competing for my time. And now there is Just too many
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I want to lock myself up because it is such a huge challenge to say no to the many things that would compete for the time that you would spend with your
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God and The mindset that would place God first in the midst of all these things that are surrounding you
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Let me just go one more verse and we'll stop so in verse 8 we see Sobering thought and I think this ought to be on the back of our minds as we are
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Tempted by the by the idols of the world The psalmist says those who make them make these idols become like them and so do all who trust in them those who trust in power power
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Tends to rule over you those who trust in money money becomes that one underlying thought that rules over your thinking those who trust in worthless
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Idols become worthless like the idols themselves And you and I can be tempted to trust in those things that the world trusts some of which
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I just mentioned But you must be able to see the end of such folly
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The world cannot see the foolishness of believing of trusting in money or power But you and I should be able to see going along with first John 2 15 through 17 that the world will be destroyed and all that it's going after and We ought not to follow in the destructive path of the world as we see these idols that are encroaching the lives of unbelievers
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Instead we as the people of God we have a glorious alternative and this is where it takes courage
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It is to take your eyes off the temporal because it is so much easier to go along with the flow and to question yourself as you read the word about some aspect of your life that is coming into as the
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Spirit of God brings it into your into your Focus to say is this what I'm doing with my unbelieving friends.
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Is this the right thing to do? Where is this going that we are doing these activities that we are involved in and instead to fix our eyes upon Christ because he is the one who has given you the faith and he is the one who will finish your
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Life and present it without a spot so whatever it is that the false gods that Challenge you you want to make sure you see it in the light of eternity see it in the light of how
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God has defined it see it and recognize the danger that is behind all of these and to And to let them go and I'm going to just give you one last illustration as we finish up Here this evening and that comes from Daniel chapter 4 and in the middle of general chapter 4
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Daniel has a vision of a tree that is cut down and Daniel Gives the interpretation of the dream to King Nebuchadnezzar and he warns him
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King Nebuchadnezzar your life is wicked and you are to repent and change and Here is what the dream means and King Nebuchadnezzar doesn't take
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Daniel's warning too seriously, and then we read in verse 28 The prophecy that God had given in a vision to Nebuchadnezzar comes true at the end of 12 months
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He that is Nebuchadnezzar Was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon And the king answered and said is not this
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Great Babylon Which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty
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While the words were still in the king's mouth There fell a voice from heaven. Oh King Nebuchadnezzar to you it is spoken
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The kingdom has departed from you and you shall be driven from among men and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field
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You shall be made to eat grass like an ox and seven periods of time shall pass over you
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Until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and you have an amazing act of judgment in the life of this great king where a man becomes like a beast and suffers for the pride and the arrogance that he had
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Before God and sometimes you you think you know, would it be that God act in such a way today and Wake up the eyes of those who are around us and I think the better question to ask is
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My lord, I thank you for the grace and mercy in staying your hand of judgment. There is a day of judgment coming
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But we want to repent And we want to follow after our
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God in keeping with his revelation to us and acting out of love
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The love and faithfulness that God has first shown to us in this
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Psalm we have seen that you have a choice your choice is to Bring glory to God or to live life for yourself and it takes courage to say my god
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It is in you. I trust when the nations around me mock me It is your rule that I have confidence in when my life is crumbling apart and I want to see this life the way you see it to see the worthlessness of the very things that surround me because I can see the destruction that surrounds the world and We want to pray to God for strength to follow after him in a way that would bring glory among The people that we live in let us pray dear
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God our heavenly father We thank you for your love that you've demonstrated to us through the person of Jesus Christ Help us