God's Neibourhood — Jim Cymbala

God Inhabits the Praises of His People

Amen. Let's open our Bibles and let's turn to 1st Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Psalm 22 starting in verse 3. But you are holy, who inhabit the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you, they trusted and you delivered them.

They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. Look at verse 3. But you are holy, who inhabit the praises of Israel. Now go forward in the Bible, past Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

Solomon, go to Isaiah. Isaiah and go to the 57th chapter of Isaiah. And I want you to keep your Bibles open after we read. Keep them open because we'll refer back to this one verse. It's a long verse.

Isn't it funny how the people who put the verses in the Bible, some verses are so long and then other verses for some reason they just quit after just a few words, right? There are no verses in the original Bible.

You know that, right? There are no verses. Verses are a more modern thing that really happened after the Reformation where the Bible to be able to find where we were reading, etc. and reference things like that.

Verses came in in chapter headings but they were not obviously in the original Bible when it was written. Verse 15, chapter 57. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and broken spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Let's read it again. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

The name of my message, let me tell you what made me think of it. When I was raising my children, I used to always sit and watch with them Sesame Street. Even though you're an adult, admit it, how many have ever watched Sesame Street?

Come on, Bert, Ernie, his paper clip collection and all that. And I didn't mind watching that and when my children were young, there was another program on, it's not on anymore, but it was called Electric Company.

Remember, how many remember the Electric Company? Remember that? That was good. That was funny. They had funny things in that. But the program I couldn't take was Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. How many share my sentiments a little bit?

I know a lot of you love Mr. Rogers and that's great and it's a great program, I'm sure, but just that sweater and that song just got to me. I didn't want to be anywhere near Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

The name of this message is God's Neighborhood. You can get it in a tape as you want at the end of the service. God's Neighborhood because how many want this year to stay all year long, all 12 months of the year?

You want to stay in God's Neighborhood, close to God. How many want to stay close to God? Don't say, I'm a Christian, you know, I'm always close to God. That's not true. Why would the Bible say draw near to me and I'll draw near to you if everybody was already living near God?

So this is about where God lives because you want to be in His neighborhood. We're going to a different neighborhood, even though it's a matter of just 20 blocks to downtown Brooklyn, you know, where we're going further downtown.

Fulton and Smith and Livingston is a whole different thing than Farbush Avenue. There's a lot of action down there. A lot of stuff going down. A lot of stuff happening. And sometimes people like to brag when I go around the country and I hear, you know, go out to eat with the minister afterward or the minister will tell me where his church is located.

You know, we're near houses that cost a million plus. Or someone says, I say, where do you live? And, oh, I live right outside LA. Oh, yeah, what place? Oh, it's called such and such. Yeah, I haven't heard that.

Oh, you know who lives there? This one lives there. That one lives there. And they name drop because they want to tell me that they live next to somebody that's, you know, important. You know, some of the people live down in Tribeca.

You know, they drop names, you know. I live in Tribeca. Yeah, you know who's in the next building and this, you know, famous person. Well, I would say the best neighborhood to live in spiritually, and if you ever want to boast and brag, is say, I live near God.

I mean, that's better than living near some movie star or athlete who, you know, nobody remember that. But where does God live? I want to just tell you four short things that you can remember this year, all year long.

Setting the Mind on Eternal Things

Let God renew your mind. Let God give you the grace. We can pray about these things this year. God, keep me close to you. Keep me in your neighborhood. Because just because Jeremy plays the organ doesn't mean that he's always going to stay in God's neighborhood.

Playing the organ in a church doesn't guarantee anything. Being a pastor doesn't guarantee anything. We have to daily abide in Christ. And I'm going to phrase it this way today, staying in God's neighborhood.

Well, the first thing we find from Isaiah is that God says, I, let's look at it, verse 15, look down again at your Bible. I, thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits, where does God inhabit? Eternity.

Look back up at me, please. The first thing I want you to remember is that God inhabits and dwells in eternity. Well, Pastor Simba, what does that mean to us today? It means this. If you want to live near to God this year, nearer than ever before, if you want the blessing of God, if you want to have open communion with God, you have to be setting your mind on things that involve eternity.

Even though God created the earth, God does not exist. His main home is not on earth. He doesn't dwell here like he dwells in eternity. God doesn't dwell in time. This is why many verses in the Bible are hard to understand because God condescends to explain himself in our terms.

Time. Today is Sunday. What's tomorrow? Monday. What was yesterday? But there is no yesterday to God. There is no today. There's no tomorrow. God doesn't know a Monday because God inhabits eternity. Time has nothing to do with God.

Time is something that's adapted to our existence. We have a beginning. We have an end. He was born in 1914. He died in 1988. But God doesn't dwell in time. He dwells eternity. And everything that has to do with time and earth is really foreign to God.

Material things. All the things on the earth. Like a gold watch that somebody really values. That has nothing to do with God. No value to God. Because one day it will be destroyed. See, everything that's on the earth will one day be destroyed.

Everything having to do with time and earth will one day be just wiped out. But for us, we'll never be like God in terms of, you know, being eternal that way. We have eternal life through him. But this year, we have to set our mind on things that have eternal significance.

That means something to God. Do you get it? Something. Set your mind, set your hearts on things above. Not on things below, the Bible tells us in Colossians. What is God saying there to us? Saying, don't live for things that only last for this long.

Your life is like a breath. It's gone. Now imagine one day in your life. God is saying, set your mind and your heart and your affections on things that have no end. Where I dwell in eternity. In other words, things have value on earth.

They don't have value in heaven. The things that have value in heaven don't have value on earth. So the question is, what are you going to do this year? How are you going to live? Are you going to live by what the world says is important?

Eternal Significance in Everyday Service

Is there an usher in the back or a security person? Is there an usher or a security person? Willie, come up here. That's okay, I'll use Willie. That's okay, sister. Come on, Willie. This is our main security person.

Everyone know who Willie is? Let's give our hand for brother Willie. Now, Willie gets here sometimes six, seven in the morning to turn on the heat for you. Stays with me. Watches my back all the time.

A few months ago, remember we were getting out of the car? And there was a guy who wasn't too right, I don't think, in his head. He was waiting outside my car as it was pulled up. And Willie was helping me out of the car and my stuff for the day on a Sunday.

And this guy made a sudden move toward me and got right by us, right? He was just right in my face. And he reached into his jacket and he was pulling something out. And I just saw his hand and I thought, oh, too late.

Whatever this is. You know what he pulled out? A piece of cornbread. Am I right? And it looked good, right? It looked good, this cornbread. I want to take a bite of that thing so bad. He wanted to talk to me about something and he started chewing on this piece of cornbread.

Takes all kinds, doesn't it? How many love a good piece of cornbread, by the way, right? Well, anyway, where was I? I'm going off here. Willie and I see a lot of things. So Willie gets here and serves, or some usher who works all week long and comes here early to pray.

And right now they're counting money and they're doing all that. To the world. You know what we pay them to do that? Nothing. Pay them nothing. He's here thinking about you, trying to protect everything.

To the world that would be like, that's nothing. What are you doing? You're wasting your time. Now, if somebody goes and if the market makes a hundred thousand this week, does the world think that's something or half a million, right?

The world says, to heaven, it's nothing. It's nothing. This is something. That's nothing. Thank you, brother. Watch out for that cornbread. So what do you want to set your mind on and your heart on? Do you want to live near where God lives?

What are you doing that has eternity stamped on it? Is there anything? Don't tell me you're making a living. Don't tell me you're getting an education. People don't even know God do that. But what do you have that has eternal significance?

It can be something small. Even if we give a glass of water in Jesus' name to someone, we're going to have a reward, right? In other words, there's things, brothers and sisters, that have significance, that have eternity stamped on it.

And remember, God inhabits eternity. To live close to God, you have to be in sync with God this year. I have to be in sync with God. I have to be thinking eternal thoughts, not temporary thoughts. Think of how Christians are losing out with God because they think just like the world thinks.

They get excited about what the world gets excited, and the angels in heaven are getting excited about a whole different kind of thing. What do you get excited about? This year, if we want to live near God, in God's neighborhood, we have to have eternity stamped on our mind so that when we say words and we make a phone call, Lord, what can I say or do or pray or be used or invest or whatever that has eternity?

Because now you're in sync with God's way of thinking. Think of the foolishness of everything is going to disappear with all due respect. I mean, when you move in this new building, Carol and I were there this week, and our decorator friend is here who's helping us in so many ways.

It's going to be so nice for the children. When you see this dome that they painted, this ceiling, they just happened to put the lights on while we were there, and two people just gasped on the platform.

We were watching to see something, that they're hanging a chandelier. And it's just, I'm so happy for you. It's going to be, God would give you people, you're so precious, the prettiest church I've ever seen.

Imagine that, in the hood of all places. But you know what? It's all going to burn up. That building is going to burn up just like this one. It's what goes on in the building that has eternity. So, what do you do if you want to live in God's neighborhood?

Look at me, everyone. Do you do anything? Do you pray anything? Do you give anything that has eternity on it? Because God inhabits eternity. God doesn't dwell in time and with material things unless they're used for an eternal significance, giving to someone, helping someone.

Don't go by the world and how they measure things, because they measure things backwards, and they laugh at things that God says are great. So, if you want to live near God today, you've got to stay in the Bible and renew your mind and say, God, teach me what really matters.

Otherwise, you're going to live your life and at the end of it, find out it was all for zero. Is that a bummer or what? Notice where else God lives. I dwell in the high and holy place. To live in God's neighborhood, we can't have unconfessed sin in our life, because God is holy.

Pursuing Holiness and Peace

If we're going to live in God's neighborhood, we have to be sent. I didn't expect this to get a lot of amens, but it's still good preaching, wouldn't you say? We can't have unconfessed sin. We can't have bitterness toward people.

We can't have some secret thing going on somewhere with someone. We can't be cheating on the job. Am I right, Pastor Ware? How are you going to dwell with God who lives in the high and holy place if we have unconfessed sin?

Do we all make mistakes? Yes. But there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and we can run and get that cleansed and keep a very short account with sin, but you can't live in God's neighborhood if you're not aspiring to live holy.

The Bible says in Hebrews, Pursue peace with all men, listen, and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Pursue peace with all men. Don't be fighting with anyone this year, or you'll move out of God's neighborhood.

God is a God of peace. If you have a fight going on and yelling at everyone, and have big vendettas against people, and you're explosive, or worse, got racial prejudice, just stereotype people, and you have it in for the black person or the white person or a different person from another country, I'm finding out it's not even colors anymore.

People don't like other people because they're from the wrong island. Is that nasty or what? Get a life. Wherever you were born, don't you get it? It's by accident. Why do you make a big thing about where you were born?

You didn't ask to be born there. You just woke up there. In the hospital, and you were crying. Now you're making a big thing about it? If you were born in another place, you'd be making a big thing about that country.

It's not about the country. It's about you. You're trying to make it like you're special because you were born then. We don't buy that. Everybody's the same. How many say amen? Amen. Let's put our hands together and thank God that He's no respecter of persons.

That goes for America too. Thank God for the blessings of America, but America won't save you. America's full of sins and problems and made mistakes and have a history of all kinds of nasty things our country has done.

Just take slavery. That'd be enough to shame any country. So live at peace with all men and pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. If you and I want to live in God's neighborhood, Pastor Ware and I, we have to pursue being like Jesus this year.

That has to be a daily consciousness. I want to be like Jesus. And if we say and think or do something wrong, we've got to run to Jesus and say, God, forgive me. The minute the Holy Spirit convicts you, just get to God quick.

Come on. How many say amen? Otherwise, sin will just mess up your engine, your spiritual engine, and you'll be drifting away from God's neighborhood. You can't dwell with God in His neighborhood because He, if you have unconfessed sin, because He dwells in the high and the holy place.

So number one, He inhabits eternity. Set our mind on eternal things, Edgar, Pastor Hammond. Let's think, let's think spiritual thoughts, not just material thoughts. Number two, holiness, purity. Let's stay away from dirt.

Do I get a witness here? Dirt. Dirty thoughts, dirty words, dirty acts. God is pure. Notice the angels in heaven, they don't just say it once. What do they say around the throne constantly? Holy, holy what?

Holy. Three times holy. That's the overwhelming consciousness that they have close to God. So whenever you meet someone who deals lightly with sin, you know they're not living in God's neighborhood. No matter what they tell you.

They can be doing their talk and their rap about, oh God, the good Lord, the man upstairs and all of that. But when they live comfortable with sin, you know they're just deceived. It's God's holy. That doesn't mean we're perfect, but it means we're sensitive about these things.

God Dwells with the Contrite and Humble

Which brings me to my third and next to last point. That's where God dwells. He inhabits eternity and he lives in the high and holy place. And when we get there one day, we'll be with those angels singing, holy, holy, holy.

The purity of God. Not a little shadow or any taint of anything in him. Totally pure. But God has two places on earth that he dwells. Now this gets closer to Mr. Rogers' neighborhood than what I even said before.

Did you know there's only two places the Bible says that God inhabits on earth? Number one is in our text. Let's look at it again. The second part of the verse and then I'll close. Making this and one more point.

I dwell in the high and holy place and with him who has a contrite and a humble spirit. Why? To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. Now look up here. That means that this high and holy God who inhabits eternity says that's where I dwell in my heavenly glory but there are two places on earth that I'm drawn to where I can sit down and dwell.

The word that I want to point out to you today is, as we finish this, is the word inhabit or dwell which speaks of sitting down and resting for more than a moment. It means some pattern of permanence where God can rest.

Wouldn't you like to know where God rests and be that place and be near that place? Because wherever God is there's blessing, there's reviving, there's supply. Wherever God is, I mean it just goes out from him whatever we need, everything.

But see, people live far from God and then wonder why they don't sense his presence, don't experience much of his blessing and they go, well, you got to get where the action is, you got to get in God's neighborhood.

So this word inhabit or dwell means to sit with permanence and rest. And this high and holy one who dwells in eternity says there's two places on earth that I find a place to settle. Imagine the Spirit of God if you picture it like this, the Spirit of God just hovering and the Bible says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro over the whole earth looking on whose behalf he can show himself strong.

Where can he rest? What church can he rest in? Imagine he goes to some churches and they have a steeple and a cross and a Bible and all of that. But it's a black church, it doesn't want white people so he goes moving on from there.

There are white churches that want black people. Well, moving on from there because how could God dwell and settle when people don't want some of his creation? Some of his own children? How could I be comfortable at your home if you didn't want my brother or my mother or my sister in your house?

No way I would ever be comfortable. Because that's my family. That's how God feels. So God says this, I dwell with a person who has a contrite and a humble heart. Not Trump Tower. The White House totally leaves God unimpressed.

The plushest mansion in Beverly Hills is a dump to God. He dwells in heaven. What's some two-bit house to him? Made of wood. Wood beams, imagine. God getting excited about something made of wood beams.

He says, but what I'm looking for is somebody with a contrite heart. That's where I dwell. You know what the word contrite means? It means pierced and stabbed with a consciousness of our sin and our need of God.

In other words, God's looking for someone who's very tender before him and says, Oh God, I'm so sorry I said that. I want to be like you, Lord. I want to live a life pleasing to you. Oh God, I need you.

Pass me not, oh gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling, don't pass me by. God, I need you. I need you. Wherever God sees that kind of humility and contriteness and tenderness, God says, that's where I settled down.

Look in the Bible. Did God use great people when the Christmas story was worked out? Who were the high and haughty and famous people God used? Zechariah and Elizabeth? Nobodies. But contrite and humble.

Listen to how they lived and prayed. Who was the mother of Jesus? A nobody. But Mary found favor and when you hear her pray, I rejoice in God, my Savior. Oh, how great you are, God. It reveals her contriteness and her humility.

So what does that tell us? That if we walk in pride and self-sufficiency this year, we will never dwell in God's neighborhood. Pride and self-sufficiency and insensitivity to sin and justifying everything we do and when someone points out our failures, which we're all prone to do, when somebody points out our failures, quickly defend ourselves.

No ability to say, I was wrong, I'm sorry. But wherever there's someone who will say, yeah, I'm wrong, correct me, I really need that. I want to be better. I want to be more like Christ. Wherever God sees that, He goes, come on, I'm settling down over here.

Oh, how many want to have that kind of heart? And imagine, wherever God comes, listen to what He says. When I come there, it's to revive the heart of the contrite and to revive the heart of the humble one.

In other words, when God sees people who sense their need of Him and who are tender, He says, I will fight for you and I will be your strength and I will take care of you. And anyone becomes your enemy, they become my enemy and I'll be with you.

That's how Moses was. The Bible says he was the meekest man on the face of the earth. Did you know that he became so meek? He became such a house. He so dwelled in God's neighborhood, spiritually speaking.

Did you know that when you picked on Moses, you automatically provoke God? How many would like to have a relationship this year that anybody touches you, God gets upset? Remember when Moses married that Ethiopian woman?

Which it was nobody's business who he married. Just like it's nobody's business who someone else marries, so you don't have to give your opinion. You notice how people do that? I've been around that since I was a kid.

Everyone has an opinion of when two people get married. I don't see what she sees in him. I don't know why he married her. That'll never last. This is from church people. And some people like to make it sound spiritual, like, you know, the Lord showed me.

Ah, you're just critical. The Lord didn't show you anything. Well, he married a black woman and that must have set off his brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam. So they had a remark. And you know when they accosted Moses and started going at him?

And he was the one who got the Ten Commandments. He was the one who had to fix up the mess Aaron made with the golden calf. Remember that? Remember how Aaron excused himself? He said, I don't know, they handed me all their earrings, I put it in the fire and out came this calf.

I don't know. I just work here. I didn't do anything. I mean, that's a joke, right? Aaron had messed up like that, right, Pastor Ware? Moses had been up with God for 40 days, 40 nights, fasting with God, came down to that mess.

And here Aaron is in his face now about who he married. If I was Moses, I'll tell you what I would have said to Aaron in a second, and Miriam. You know what Moses did? He dropped on his knees. He wouldn't even answer them.

But when he did, the cloud of God's glory moved right over where they were. And God spoke out and said to Aaron and Miriam, Who are you to talk to my servant Moses? How many want that kind of umbrella of protection?

Listen, let's lift up our hands right now and just praise God. Can you do it right now? Come on, just lift up your hands and say, God, humble me this year and let me have a contrite spirit. God, let Jim Simbala have a humble and contrite spirit, Lord, so that you can dwell with me and I can dwell with you, Lord.

Praise and Adoration in God's Eternal Neighborhood

As the musicians play, one last point. All right, let's review our class. God inhabits eternity. Say eternity. He also lives in the high and holy place. Say that, high and... But he also dwells with the person who is of a contrite and humble heart.

Say that, contrite and... So that's three points. One last place. Boy, imagine that. If you kept your mind... We put our minds on eternity. We pursued holiness and kept no unconfessed sin in our heart by God's grace.

Number three. We lived humble, esteeming others better than ourselves, open to correction, trusting God to protect us, not full of ourselves. You know, it's... When someone's full of a devil or a demon, that's so easy to deal with because Jesus sets the captives free.

But when you're full of yourself, it takes sometimes decades for God to deal with that. You know, it's very hard to get self out of self. The last place. David says, God, I've learned another thing about you.

You are the God who inhabits the praises of your people. But doesn't that mingle the three together? Listen. In eternity, the Bible says, when we get into eternity, in the book of Revelation, when John is lifted up into eternity, into heaven, the four and twenty elders, the four living creatures, the seraphim and the cherubim, what's the only thing going on up in that eternal setting that we see is praise and adoration.

There's purity. There's holy, holy, holy. There's the glory of God. And everybody keeps falling at the throne and praising God. So what does that mean for us this year? If we want to dwell in God's neighborhood, we've got to praise God at all times.

We've got to give thanks in every kind of season, in the good times and in the bad times. We've got to give Him thanks. What does this mean on the negative side? When you study the Bible, ask what the opposite is and see if it gives you any teaching.

It means we are never going to dwell in God's neighborhood. We're never going to enjoy the fullness of His blessing if we're walking around moping and negative and complaining and bitter and, man, nothing works out and, what'd she do that?

And I'll never forget. I know what happened when I was in the eighth grade, but I'll never forget what that friend did. I don't know where she is now, but that Rosemarie, I hope she paid for what she did to me in the eighth grade.

You think you're going to dwell in God's neighborhood with that kind of nonsense? Why don't you let it go and just praise Him. How many here today have more blessings than problems by far? Come on, come on.

Wave your hand at me if you have way more blessings than your problems. Then why are you dwelling on the problems? Why do I dwell on the problems? God's given me ten thousand blessings. I have nine problems and why do I dwell on the nine rather than the ten thousand?

No. God sits down as a king ready to bless His subjects. That's the word used in the praises of His people. There's something about praising the Lord and waiting on the Lord and adoring the Lord. It draws God's presence because most people on the earth curse Him.

Osama Bin Laden curses the name of Jesus. Hindus have no use for the name of Jesus. People in crack houses are selling crack and using His name in vain. For Christ's sake, give me the money. Think of all the places in the world where Jesus' name is mangled and butchered.

So when people start to give Him praise and offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving and take time to do it, not just for a second, but take time to worship and praise the Lord, it's just like God goes, oops, there's a place I can live.

There's a place I can settle. There's a contrite, humble heart. You know, proud people can never worship. You never see a proud spirit worship. Oh, they might say hallelujah if you yell at them and say, say hallelujah.

But a real worship of God, you have to humble yourself, don't you? You have to be aware, oh, He's everything. Can you imagine where you would be today if it wasn't for Jesus? Have you ever thought about that?

How many shudder at the thought of where you and I might be today if it wasn't for Jesus Christ? I'll say for myself, I have no idea, but it would be horrible. But imagine how blessed I am today. My mother's sitting not a couple hundred feet from me in another part of the building listening to me on a screen.

She's 87. She's closer to God now than she's ever been in her whole life. My wife is sitting in the auditorium. God's hand is upon her. He's blessing her. She loves the Lord. She's reading through the Bible this year in one of her through the Bible in a year thing.

She wants to get closer to God. My three children are serving God. All are involved in the work of the Lord. I have five grandchildren. They all love Jesus. I have so much to thank God for. How about you?

Do you have a lot to thank God for? Don't we have a lot to praise Him for? Oh, let's just lift up our hands now and open our mouths and just give Him praise. Now, come on, not for 10 seconds or 20 seconds, but can you just tell God from your heart, we bless you today, Lord.

You, oh God, who inhabit the praises of your people, we magnify, we praise, we glorify your name. Oh God, how great you are. We bless you, Lord. We magnify you, Lord. We praise your name. We bless you.

We praise you. We exalt you. We extol you, Lord. God, our words, there's not enough words to say how we feel about you today, Lord. We praise you today, Lord, because we're going to live in your neighborhood today and we're going to live this year in your neighborhood, Lord.

We're going to live with eternity on our mind, Lord, and we're going to live pursuing holiness, Lord, by your grace, and you're going to give us a contrite and a humble heart, Lord, so that all year long we're going to walk lowly in your sight so that you can dwell with us.

You are going to defend us and you're going to take care of us when we're in our hour of need and trouble, Lord. Yes, you will, because according to your word, you revive the heart of the contrite. You revive the heart of the humble, Lord.

You, in who inhabit the praises of Israel, we bless you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We magnify your name. We glorify your name. We glorify your name. We bless you today, Lord. Get rid of the junk out of our lives.

Clean us up, Lord Jesus. Let your blood cleanse us from all unrighteousness, Lord. We bless you and we praise you today.