Gladness of Heart
Pastor Ed Riddick - Sunday, November 14th, 2004Download MP3
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Psalm 67:3-4; 47:6-7 ” Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy…Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!” ESV
Every moment looks two ways:
Every moment is the end of the past. And
Every moment is the beginning of the future.
And in both looking back and toward the future
we are to be governed by gladness.
I. Gladness to heart toward the past is called giving thanks.
Thanksgiving is the result of looking at our circumstances through the lens of God’s providence
Gratitude is the memory of the heart. —Jean Baptiste Massieu, Letter to Abbé Sicard
A grateful mind By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg’d. —John Milton, Paradise Lost
Gratitude is embracing the people God has brought into our lives with affection for their past and present goodwill aimed at helping us.
Proverbs 16:9 ” The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps. ” NASB95
Psalm 23:6 ” Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.“
Recognize what God has done and rejoice in that.
We need to take ourselves in hand..
“Bless the Lord Oh my soul” This is self-talk by the Psalmist.
Story: 20 couples who’d lost a child. All had come through the difficulty. None of them knew why!
Ill: bulbs eye view of life – the parable of the bulb
Dig a hole and thrown in. Firmly pushed down. Covered over with dirt. Flood waters rise over it. And left alone. But I did not mention that in order for the bulb to poke up through the ground the top of the bulb must be planted pointing up. It is “spring loaded” to lift its arms toward heaven and give praise. But it’s orientation but be pointed up.
Viewing our circumstances through God’s providence is a choice.
Overwhelmed by clouds. Can’t see beyond your immediate
situation. If you keeping trying to look into the clouds to get your
bearings and make sense out of things you will lose your
orientation, go into a spin and crash and burn.
The secret of stability and peace in the midst of the clouds of life
is to keep your eyes focused on the instruments of God’s loving
care and His faithfulness.
Matthew 10:29 ” “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ” NASB95
Hebrews 13:5-6 “God Himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”” ESV
Romans 8:31-32 ” What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” ESV
Think of the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving. Half their number dead, men without a country, with no quick fix in sight, but still there was thanksgiving to God. Their gratitude was for something in the mist of something.
Lamentations 3:19-24 ” Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” ” NASB95
Perhaps in your own life, right now, there is hardship. You are experiencing your own personal Great Depression. Why should you be thankful this day? Colson suggests three things?
1. We must learn to be thankful or we become bitter.
2. We must learn to be thankful or we will become discouraged.
3. We must learn to be thankful or we shall surly grow arrogant and
self-satisfied.
4. And we must learn to be thankful or we will lose perspective, develop a critical spirit and miss opportunities to bless those around…
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. —Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar”
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 ” We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.“
1 Peter 5:5 ” Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”” NIV
ILL: The Masai tribe in West Africa have an unusual way of saying thank you. Translators tell us that when the Masai express thanks, they bow, put their forehead on the ground, and say “My head is in the dirt.”
When members of another African tribe want to express gratitude, they sit for a long time in front of the hut of the person who did the favor and literally say, “I sit on the ground before you.”
These Africans understand well what thanksgiving is and why it’s difficult for us: at its core, thanksgiving is an act of humility.
There is good even in those with whom we disagree. And there is good in those who’ve let us down. Your past and present are only the chapters that have been written. All the chapters have not been written. And the story is not finished.
TS: Just as a bulb has to go through the winter buried so there is the winter of our soul. The spring will come. And the flowers will bloom once again.
II. Gladness of heart toward the future is called faith.
Faith Embraces Circumstances With Confidence Based on God’s Faith Embraces a person with glad affection based on God’s
faithfulness in spite our unfaithfulness.
Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. —Saint Augustine, Sermons
Jude 17-23 “But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
Friday night “Farcal” – Risk. “No that was faith being rewarded”
“No. that was just risk.” Difference: Faith always rests on the promises of God.
Romans 8:28 ” And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ”
Philippians 1:6 ” For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19-20 ” And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. “
Hebrews 13:5-6 “He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” “
Exercise your faith! This is a time when you must actively trust God.
“Lord, this time I’m going to trust you. Help me.”
Make a choice this very moment as you turn your face toward the future that you are going to trust God no matter what!
Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears…. —Jean de La Fontaine, Fables Why not believe what you desire but do not see?
You’re not free until you’ve been made captive by supreme belief.
—Marianne Moore, “Spenser’s Ireland”
For those who love God every good thing and every bad thing that God turns for good was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the cross there is only condemnation. But in Christ we know that God is working to turn bad things in to our good.
Do you think that when the day started Jonah would have thought he’d give thanks for a whale? But when he was swallowed by the whale its provision was the promise of a rescue to come.
Feed your faith!
Story: Recently heard the story of a family’s first time in WI.
Two boys, 8 and 10 going to Door County. Lake frozen over – dead of winter. Timidly creeping out onto the solid lake.
Only to look up and see cars and trucks driving on the lake.
The gladness of faith toward the future does not come naturally by the confidence we have in ourselves. It comes by placing our faith in the solidness of God’s promises.
Christ is the rock. And His promises bring us reassurance.
And so I say, “feed your faith” How?…
Feed your faith with the promises of God!
Take a warm bubble bath in the promises of God’s Word!
Romans 15:13 ” Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ” NASB95
By praying in the Holy Spirit
1 Peter 5:6-7 ” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. ”
What does it mean to “pray in the Holy Spirit”? It means to pray according to the leading of the Spirit. It has well been said, “Prayer is not getting our will done in heaven—it is getting God’s will done on earth.”
Story: “A medical doctor suffered a serious heart attack while still in his thirties. He described the pain of that event as different from any other pain he had ever felt. He had always experienced every prior injury or hurt, whether a broken arm or a sore knee, as a hurt to a part of his body. In some measure he could separate himself from the pain. “But during my heart attack,” he said, “I was in the pain. There is no other way to describe it.” In the Holy Spirit
Romans 8:26-28 ” In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Psalm 30:4-5 ” Sing to the Lord, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.“
By keeping yourselves in God’s love =
You are nurtured with you are captivated by God’s love for you.
Suffering pushes us closer to God and into a deeper understanding of His sustaining love. Giving a sacrifice of praise in the midst of trouble draws you deeper into your experience of God’s love.
Romans 8:35-39 ” Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” NIV
Benediction - Jude 24-25 “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” NIV