WEBVTT 00:00:00.980 --> 00:00:08.420 2015, I don't I don't know about you, but every time the year changes, the first thing I desire to do when I gather with a group of people is find the group that wants to gather together 00:00:08.420 --> 00:00:12.060 and just be sad that we're a year older, right? 00:00:12.060 --> 00:00:12.440 So. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:19.640 So if you're looking forward to that when the service is over, I can't believe it's 2015, but it is 2015 and I can't believe I'm 00:00:19.640 --> 00:00:20.710 getting older, but I am. 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:22.370 I don't have to call myself old yet. 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:23.640 I don't think you're as old as you feel. 00:00:23.940 --> 00:00:24.040 Right. 00:00:24.520 --> 00:00:25.360 And today it's not that bad. 00:00:26.060 --> 00:00:28.940 But 2015 is, um. 00:00:30.580 --> 00:00:32.299 I just really be honest with you? 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:39.360 I want one goal this morning to start the new year off right, and 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:47.740 my desires for us just to simply begin our year by finding rest and security in Christ as a church. 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:54.620 we're in a series through the month of, January, and we're going to call it Soul Detox. 00:00:54.700 --> 00:01:02.280 And really, what we're going to do is go through the book of Psalms, some thoughts from the Book of Psalms, and look at some particular passages from Psalms, and 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.800 allowing our soul to refresh in the Lord. 00:01:06.740 --> 00:01:07.340 And let me tell you why. 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:10.040 New Year's resolutions come around. 00:01:11.460 --> 00:01:19.220 And a lot of times we like to think of ourselves as people who like to make these resolutions, 00:01:19.940 --> 00:01:23.280 to get back to the way that we used to look in our early 20s. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:23.730 Right. 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:29.360 Or financially recovering from Christmas or whatever, whatever it might be. 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:31.380 We set these goals for our lives. 00:01:31.380 --> 00:01:31.560 Okay. 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:32.610 This year will be the year. 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:33.980 No chocolate. 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:34.700 Don't do that to yourselves. 00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:35.320 Don't do that to yourselves. 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:36.280 But whatever. 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:40.360 No sugar, no sugar or whatever, whatever goal you're thinking of. 00:01:40.360 --> 00:01:41.960 And we have these thoughts in mind. 00:01:41.960 --> 00:01:42.870 You might have made some resolutions. 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:44.470 Maybe you're not even big on resolution. 00:01:45.020 --> 00:01:46.290 So let me just give you one this morning. 00:01:47.660 --> 00:01:48.400 What about your life spiritually? 00:01:51.320 --> 00:01:53.110 Sometimes we like to think of ourselves physically. 00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:58.040 I put a picture of myself on the screen this morning right there for you to think, right. 00:01:58.580 --> 00:01:59.580 You're right. 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:00.640 That's how I am. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:04.760 When I flex in the morning, I get up and I strut around the house until Stacy wears. 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:08.100 You know, that's not it. 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:10.100 In my dreams, right? 00:02:10.100 --> 00:02:11.940 You husbands, you husbands know what I'm talking about. 00:02:14.940 --> 00:02:17.210 We have these plans for ourselves physically. 00:02:19.260 --> 00:02:20.510 But what about our lives spiritually? 00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:29.860 The Bible tells us that man looks on the outward appearance, but what God looks on and in is the heart. 00:02:29.880 --> 00:02:32.980 He's interested in you, where you are in him. 00:02:34.260 --> 00:02:41.600 It's a good place for us to start off our new year, just resting where we were created to rest, to find ourselves 00:02:41.600 --> 00:02:47.800 being identified not and not in some picture that I would like of myself physically. 00:02:48.200 --> 00:02:50.130 But really what Jesus would like of me spiritually. 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:59.220 And I wonder if sometimes in life you ever get to the place where if we were just to pull back the curtain on the outward appearance, to look on the inside, 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:00.960 what it is we might discover. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:07.040 Maybe rather than this, maybe it's this. 00:03:07.100 --> 00:03:12.920 Right now I know nerd is the new cool, but dad, lock your doors. 00:03:12.920 --> 00:03:15.260 That's what I think when I see this picture, right? 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:16.980 You don't really have anything to worry about. 00:03:16.980 --> 00:03:18.110 You just blow and he falls over. 00:03:18.260 --> 00:03:18.480 But. 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:23.290 What about your spiritual life? 00:03:25.700 --> 00:03:27.060 In relationship to the Lord. 00:03:27.160 --> 00:03:30.220 When Jesus sees you, when he looks at you as a being, what? 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:32.730 What does he think of? 00:03:34.060 --> 00:03:39.600 Your relationship with God is the fuel to your walk with the Lord and the way that you serve him in life. 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:48.100 The power behind what you do for the Lord in this world is discovered through the time that you have to settle your soul before him, 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:50.340 and to find strength in God. 00:03:51.920 --> 00:03:59.040 In fact, the book of Proverbs in verse chapter four and verse 23 says this watch over your heart with all diligence, for from 00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:01.540 it flows the wellsprings of life. 00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:10.500 Meaning the way you choose to live your life impacts your soul, and the way we live life demonstrates what 00:04:10.500 --> 00:04:14.660 has impacted our soul. 00:04:15.980 --> 00:04:17.300 God sees it as precious. 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:26.300 That its strength and its purpose finds the reason for its existence and its sustaining power, and in who 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:27.040 God is. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:34.040 And so my goal in this morning, and very simplistically for us as we look at this new year, is simply for 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:39.580 us to find a place to discover in God what he has for us in 2015. 00:04:41.940 --> 00:04:48.500 The Bible indicates to us as people that we tend to live life as restless souls. 00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:57.260 In Genesis chapter four, after Cain kills Abel, it says that he's going to wander the earth as a restless soul. 00:04:57.340 --> 00:05:00.260 And in chapter four, verses 11 and 12 for the rest of his life. 00:05:02.380 --> 00:05:09.440 And in fact in the book of Ecclesiastes and just referencing man and his daily living, it says, for 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:16.580 what does a man get in all his labor, and his striving, with which he labors under the sun, because all his days his 00:05:16.700 --> 00:05:21.500 task is painful and grievous, even at night his mind does not rest. 00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:24.570 This, too, is vanity. 00:05:25.640 --> 00:05:28.720 It's kind of one of those Eeyore chapters of the Bible. 00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:38.300 But the point of the passage is that there is this struggle within our lives, that we seek to find satisfaction in it, and only 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:43.760 the only thing that it's sustained for is to find our rest in Christ. 00:05:43.840 --> 00:05:46.020 Nothing else ultimately satisfies. 00:05:46.080 --> 00:05:50.820 And so this Ecclesiastes passage says this individual, he's anxious, he's tense, he's worried. 00:05:50.820 --> 00:05:51.340 He's stressed. 00:05:51.340 --> 00:05:52.160 He never shuts off. 00:05:52.300 --> 00:05:53.410 And he never rests. 00:05:53.820 --> 00:05:56.080 He's got this anxiety just building up within him. 00:05:56.080 --> 00:05:59.400 And he's trying to labor in his own strength and in all of this. 00:06:01.080 --> 00:06:04.000 His soul was created to find rest in God. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:07.300 Matthew 1128 and 29. 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:13.820 Jesus comes along and he says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you what. 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:17.120 Rest. 00:06:18.220 --> 00:06:25.460 To start any day, any year, any time of doing anything in this world to 00:06:25.520 --> 00:06:26.080 start it off right. 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:35.140 It's important for us to understand that God has created us to first find purpose and meaning in him, and in that rest through him we 00:06:35.300 --> 00:06:38.970 find the strength to live and sustain in this world. 00:06:42.380 --> 00:06:44.340 What I think about our human soul is. 00:06:46.940 --> 00:06:51.480 Restlessness is one of the most dangerous places that we can be. 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:56.580 I think we as believers get dangerous when we get restless. 00:06:56.880 --> 00:07:04.100 And let me just give you an example why I don't think any of us go to bed at night contemplating how we can just live 00:07:04.100 --> 00:07:06.680 the worst life possible the next day, right? 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:11.540 We don't dream dreams of just contemplating horrific sin, that we can do. 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:18.680 What typically happens in the life of us as people is we get so busy with busyness that we forget to 00:07:18.820 --> 00:07:25.450 reorient our life around what matters, and so we find our souls rest restlessly, looking for rest. 00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:29.580 And saying to God, God, I was created for you. 00:07:29.580 --> 00:07:31.420 But, I got all this happening. 00:07:32.340 --> 00:07:35.680 And so, God, I, I'm not I can't really find rest in you right now. 00:07:35.760 --> 00:07:36.960 I'm just going to go and do what I do. 00:07:36.980 --> 00:07:39.820 And so we'll look at ourselves and we'll say, I'm living a good life. 00:07:39.820 --> 00:07:40.860 I'm living a moral life. 00:07:40.940 --> 00:07:48.840 But do you know, it's possible to live a good life and to live that life completely devoid of your relationship to God. 00:07:49.020 --> 00:07:50.500 Good as mankind would call it. 00:07:50.500 --> 00:07:51.660 Good. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:59.540 I mean, it's possible to come to church on Sunday to do your church, your church thing, to leave on Monday throughout the rest of the week and do good. 00:08:01.020 --> 00:08:04.500 But never rest in God. 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:10.000 And I believe one of the primary things God created you and me for is to find his rest in him. 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:13.680 And so we're going to start this series together, going through the Book of Psalms. 00:08:13.700 --> 00:08:14.850 And let me let me just tell you why. 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:21.920 It's because what God desires for us in our soul is expressed beautifully in the poetic books of 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:22.280 the Bible. 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:27.320 I don't know if you've ever taken time to really study and research the poetic books. 00:08:27.320 --> 00:08:28.940 I'm going to show you why that's important for us. 00:08:28.940 --> 00:08:29.600 This morning. 00:08:29.900 --> 00:08:36.919 We're going to look at just a few portions of some of the poetic books, and we'll dive further into some of these poetry books in 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:37.679 the weeks ahead. 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:40.620 But the poetry books are unique in the Bible. 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:47.720 If you read the Old Testament, the first 17 books or historical books, and then after that you've got the first five books, which are the 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:52.120 poetry books job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. 00:08:53.420 --> 00:08:58.840 These five books are different and unique than, say, a typical historical book or a theological book. 00:08:59.160 --> 00:09:02.360 Most of those books deal with God's response to man. 00:09:03.820 --> 00:09:07.580 But what the poetic books reveal to us is man's response to God. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:16.440 How do we take our heart, our soul that may be struggling, and offer it back up to the Lord to find the strength of which he has created us 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:16.760 for? 00:09:16.780 --> 00:09:19.420 That is the poetic books of the Bible. 00:09:19.420 --> 00:09:22.820 And I would also include in those five books the Book of Lamentations. 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:27.380 The Book of Lamentations is written in poetic form. 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:28.180 It's an acrostic. 00:09:28.660 --> 00:09:29.560 There's five chapters. 00:09:30.100 --> 00:09:37.100 Every chapter starts with the first letter of the Hebrew, Hebrew alphabet, and ends with the last letter of the Hebrew 00:09:37.100 --> 00:09:40.680 alphabet for five chapters in a in a beautiful acrostic form. 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:47.310 All of these books are man's response with the soul God has given us and respond. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:51.790 And in giving it back to him and discovering what God has created us for. 00:09:52.920 --> 00:09:56.840 If you particularly just were to study the Book of Psalms. 00:09:56.840 --> 00:10:03.940 These books are not necessarily historically written, but what they do for us is they show how the human soul interacts 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:06.800 during historical periods of Israel's life. 00:10:08.160 --> 00:10:13.020 As they encountered trials as they encountered victorious moments in the history of the nation. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:14.020 How was it there? 00:10:14.140 --> 00:10:15.740 Their soul responded to God. 00:10:17.800 --> 00:10:20.240 Psalm 90 is likely the oldest psalm. 00:10:20.260 --> 00:10:22.280 It's written by Moses. 00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:28.220 Psalm 137 is probably the newest psalm written during the Babylonian captivity. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:34.860 Just the Book of Psalms almost spans a thousand years of history of how man has interacted with God. 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:39.940 In 2015 for us. 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:46.200 Desire to be no different than what you find in the contents of the Book of Psalms. 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:53.720 One where we recognize as people what we are created for finds its definition and meaning in God. 00:10:55.280 --> 00:10:57.690 And that we would find rest in him. 00:10:59.700 --> 00:11:06.860 Rather than being a restless soul and starting the year off with but we come to God and say, God, I understand out of everything, the most 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:11.610 important thing that I could seek after is what you desire to do in me and through me. 00:11:13.460 --> 00:11:18.230 And so as we look at these Psalms together, I'm just going to point out just a couple of them to us. 00:11:18.260 --> 00:11:25.380 We're going to particularly look at the way the kings of Israel interacted before the nation of Israel on behalf 00:11:25.380 --> 00:11:27.560 of their relationship to God. 00:11:29.380 --> 00:11:36.380 If you think of all the people that had any excuse to be stressed out and worried about circumstances that they were facing in life, it has got to be people in 00:11:36.380 --> 00:11:38.500 a high power authority positions, right? 00:11:39.540 --> 00:11:42.190 I would never in a million years want to be the president of the United States. 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:46.880 As soon as you're elected, 50% of the websites have something negative to say to you. 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:49.550 And out of those, half of those call you the anti-Christ. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.520 I'm, I don't I don't I don't want to do that. 00:11:54.060 --> 00:11:56.380 But to be in those positions is a is a place of stress. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:03.920 And if there's anyone who understands how important it is just to allow your soul to have opportunity to find rest in God. 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.150 It's got to be those who knew him and sought him in their leadership positions. 00:12:10.560 --> 00:12:17.700 When David writes Psalm 62, in verse one, he writes for the sole purpose of 00:12:17.780 --> 00:12:19.860 finding rest in God. 00:12:19.860 --> 00:12:21.080 In Psalm 62, the. 00:12:21.340 --> 00:12:25.700 The historical background of these Psalms adds beauty to what the text is about. 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:32.860 And so when you pick up a Psalm, it's nice to read the thoughts that God expresses through his people in these Psalms, but it becomes so much 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:35.880 more beautiful and adds so much more life to the text of the psalm. 00:12:36.220 --> 00:12:39.300 When you take just a little bit of time and you answer the question, why was this Psalm written? 00:12:41.280 --> 00:12:44.120 In Psalm 62 was written by King David. 00:12:44.160 --> 00:12:51.280 Now I'll tell you, the scholars who study the psalm historically aren't sure the exact reason David writes this psalm, but 00:12:51.340 --> 00:12:53.560 they know it's one of two things happening in his life. 00:12:53.560 --> 00:12:55.720 Either David's being attacked by Saul. 00:12:57.080 --> 00:12:58.500 Or is being attacked by his son Absalom. 00:13:00.540 --> 00:13:04.070 David being anointed by as king a couple of times in his life. 00:13:04.420 --> 00:13:09.920 His kingdom comes under attack by people within Israel who desire to take away from him. 00:13:10.040 --> 00:13:12.640 One was King Saul, the other was his son Absalom. 00:13:14.740 --> 00:13:18.660 And David's at a place where he is struggling relationally. 00:13:20.820 --> 00:13:24.500 He's at a place where it has him tense over what's taking place. 00:13:24.680 --> 00:13:32.020 And so David resolves within this psalm what he desires to do in order to see the footsteps of what God wants 00:13:32.020 --> 00:13:35.120 in his life being accomplished in these moments. 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:40.320 And so David says this in Psalm 62 and verse one, truly my soul finds rest in God. 00:13:42.420 --> 00:13:43.160 My salvation. 00:13:45.140 --> 00:13:45.800 Comes from him. 00:13:49.040 --> 00:13:51.200 You know, I like the life lessons that's being taught here. 00:13:53.680 --> 00:14:01.460 You think when David's writing this Psalm, this is not just something private he's expressing within his journal, but he's really opening up his heart to 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:02.740 the rest of the nation of Israel. 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:03.940 Who's going to read this Psalm? 00:14:04.060 --> 00:14:09.660 And he's really opening up his heart to everyone who's going to touch the Bible, right? 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:10.590 And read through the Psalms. 00:14:12.540 --> 00:14:17.000 You know, one of the beautiful things I love about the Book of Psalms is it gives us an opportunity within our hearts just to be raw. 00:14:19.280 --> 00:14:20.580 And I think we need that as people. 00:14:23.060 --> 00:14:23.400 And there's a guy. 00:14:23.560 --> 00:14:26.910 I don't know if this is a guy trait or not, but we'll just call it a guy trait and blame it on men. 00:14:29.220 --> 00:14:31.780 I'm very I'm task oriented. 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:39.500 Like when Stacy, she tells a story, she likes to tell the details of the story, and then I'm left with the question, 00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:40.500 now, what am I supposed to do? 00:14:40.780 --> 00:14:41.340 You know what? 00:14:42.160 --> 00:14:46.800 Let's get task A, task b and so when I read the Bible, I kind of approach the Bible like that. 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:53.660 I want to just get to point A to point B to understand, a plus B equals C in my head. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:15:02.340 And one of the things that's often neglected or can be neglected, I think if that's your nature and mind, is just the opportunity and reading God's Word, not to 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:07.320 just read it, to read it, but to just simply stop and allow your soul to reflect in it. 00:15:08.500 --> 00:15:09.080 And to be raw. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:14.760 I'll tell you the secret as a pastor and writing messages on Sunday morning for people. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:17.940 I'll tell you, here's my secret I don't know how other people do it. 00:15:17.980 --> 00:15:18.580 I'll tell you how I do it. 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:24.660 On Monday, I come into my office and I read the text and I know I'm going to be sharing on Sunday. 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:31.940 And I'll read some commentaries on the text, and then I'll read the text repeatedly until it's embedded in my heart. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.220 That way, when I walk out, I can think through it verse by verse. 00:15:35.900 --> 00:15:37.540 Because my desire is throughout the week. 00:15:37.540 --> 00:15:38.480 I want to wrestle with it. 00:15:38.540 --> 00:15:39.210 I want it to become personal. 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:40.170 I want to meditate. 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:43.300 I want it to rub me raw and expose me. 00:15:43.300 --> 00:15:49.790 For I am so that when I get up and I communicate about it, I've been through this text and I know where it impacts my heart. 00:15:50.040 --> 00:15:52.100 And so that way it's personal to me. 00:15:54.340 --> 00:15:57.260 And I think that's what the Psalms does for us. 00:15:57.320 --> 00:16:04.450 And I think that's what David's communicating to his people, is that there is this place in our lives where we just need to be raw, and we need to be personal, 00:16:04.920 --> 00:16:06.400 and we need to come before the Lord. 00:16:06.660 --> 00:16:11.380 And this is what David's teaching his people in Psalm 62 verse one, truly my soul finds rest in God. 00:16:11.380 --> 00:16:12.880 My salvation comes from him. 00:16:12.920 --> 00:16:19.180 What David is saying is the same God who ordains the end is also the God who ordains the means. 00:16:21.160 --> 00:16:25.820 I mean, sometimes we like to take control of things, but in reality, God is always in control. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:35.300 Matthew six and verse 27, Jesus says this, and who of you, by being worried, can add a single hour to 00:16:35.300 --> 00:16:35.840 his life? 00:16:37.760 --> 00:16:44.180 And so David's coming to Sam and saying, the same God that's in charge of the results is the same God that's in charge moment by moment. 00:16:44.280 --> 00:16:46.600 And God has created me to trust in him in it. 00:16:46.740 --> 00:16:48.920 I may not exactly understand what's happening. 00:16:48.920 --> 00:16:53.440 I may not understand the result, but God created my soul to rest in him. 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:57.800 And God is the same God that ordains the means that ordains the end. 00:16:59.880 --> 00:17:00.720 And I. 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:02.780 I trust him in the journey. 00:17:04.339 --> 00:17:06.930 that's not easy to do. 00:17:07.950 --> 00:17:09.030 Trusting God in the journey. 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:09.980 Is it? 00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:11.829 And I can say, God, you're in control. 00:17:13.660 --> 00:17:15.140 Until something happens that I don't like. 00:17:16.300 --> 00:17:17.220 Especially if you make me mad. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:20.060 I'm in control then. 00:17:20.800 --> 00:17:21.599 I bring the wrath. 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:23.960 And then I give it back over to the Lord. 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:25.700 And I say, Now God. 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:26.829 You're in control. 00:17:28.820 --> 00:17:29.530 But I didn't like that. 00:17:29.600 --> 00:17:29.740 God. 00:17:29.780 --> 00:17:30.500 So I'm going to take that. 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:31.650 I'm going to take that. 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:32.520 That's mine. 00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:33.880 And now God. 00:17:35.260 --> 00:17:37.070 You're in control. 00:17:38.280 --> 00:17:42.870 And what David is teaching us in this passage is not just about the end, but about the circumstance. 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:49.450 When I was in college, I had this bright idea to go into journalism. 00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:57.520 And then when I went for my, uh, theology degree, it turns out I found out in both of those areas of training, 00:17:58.800 --> 00:18:01.700 there's a lot of speech classes involved in that. 00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:05.170 I think in my theology degree I had like 6 or 8 speech classes. 00:18:05.360 --> 00:18:07.850 I had to get up and orate in front of people about different things. 00:18:08.660 --> 00:18:15.260 And if you knew me when I was 18 or younger, I was not a public speaking person at all. 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:17.000 Whatever that phrase is. 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:17.100 Right? 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:20.190 I didn't like the I didn't like to get in front of people and talk. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:27.740 In a matter of fact, throughout grade school, if there was a book we had to read to give an oral report, I would read the book and I would try to psych myself up and I'd 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:31.320 get to school, and then I'd just look at the teacher and be like, yeah, just give me an F. 00:18:31.360 --> 00:18:33.180 There's no way, there's no way I'm doing this. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:41.560 And so in Bible college, I'm taking these speech classes, and the only thing in my head is, okay, let's just get up there, get it done. 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:42.620 No one's going to remember it. 00:18:42.700 --> 00:18:43.520 I'll get the grade. 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:44.620 And that class will be over. 00:18:45.020 --> 00:18:49.340 And I'll make up for it if I get a bad grade anywhere else in the education I've got to get right. 00:18:49.780 --> 00:18:50.180 And, um. 00:18:50.600 --> 00:18:52.540 And I was all about the end result. 00:18:53.820 --> 00:18:55.220 Just get out of there. 00:18:56.650 --> 00:18:59.730 But a God had in mind was the journey. 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:05.560 First day in speech class, they assigned to us a speech they wanted us to give. 00:19:06.840 --> 00:19:09.330 They wanted us, believe it or not, to take a children's book. 00:19:10.540 --> 00:19:16.160 Everyone in the class was assigned a children's book, and you had to get up in front of the class and give a speech related to the this children's book. 00:19:16.180 --> 00:19:16.940 And what do they give me? 00:19:17.340 --> 00:19:19.200 A country kid from West Virginia. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:20.700 They give me a book. 00:19:21.100 --> 00:19:24.200 A children's book on Italian guys who rode Harleys. 00:19:24.780 --> 00:19:26.100 I don't know if you've ever tried. 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:31.020 We had we had to use voice inflection and impersonate this, these individuals. 00:19:31.040 --> 00:19:36.200 So here I am saying jabroni and whatever else in an Italian voice with a southern twang. 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:38.700 It did not come out pretty, but at the after it was all said and done. 00:19:38.700 --> 00:19:39.940 You won't believe what our teacher did. 00:19:40.860 --> 00:19:43.280 She records all of the speeches. 00:19:44.780 --> 00:19:49.680 And then you had to go to a private room and relive the horror of a speech. 00:19:51.680 --> 00:20:00.100 And after that got finished, then you received a stack of papers from all your classmates that critiqued your speech for 00:20:00.320 --> 00:20:02.700 eight classes or something like that. 00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:04.620 I had to do that. 00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:05.820 All I wanted was to get through it. 00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:11.000 And all they wanted to use it for was to train me in the journey. 00:20:13.540 --> 00:20:17.080 The whole point of reliving that speech was that I could open up my eyes in those moments. 00:20:18.980 --> 00:20:20.050 To learn how to better communicate. 00:20:22.300 --> 00:20:23.360 It's not just about the end. 00:20:25.760 --> 00:20:26.800 It's also about the journey. 00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:31.200 And I think what God wants to do in your journey. 00:20:32.260 --> 00:20:34.440 It's just as important, if not more, than the end. 00:20:37.340 --> 00:20:44.420 What God wants to do in you and through you, in your life, and communicating and finding rest and soul as a believer in him is so 00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:45.120 important. 00:20:47.280 --> 00:20:52.160 Because our soul is designed to find rest in God, and so we're created to listen to him. 00:20:53.980 --> 00:21:01.250 And so David comes here and says, in all the turmoil, Israel that you're seeing me going through, whether it be from my son Absalom, who's coming against me, 00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:04.000 or Saul, who's trying to attack me, I just want you to know this. 00:21:04.520 --> 00:21:12.260 Not only am I trusting God for the result, I'm trusting God in the journey and truly my soul finds rest in God. 00:21:12.760 --> 00:21:15.460 I mean, we all need a place in our lives where we can just expose ourselves. 00:21:18.220 --> 00:21:25.520 And, to be honest, when we get like that, when we get raw and we just want to expose ourselves to God, this is what tends to happen when you train your 00:21:25.520 --> 00:21:32.720 life to do this, that rather than just be about complaining, you're raw, upset feelings crying out to God really 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:33.600 becomes about worship. 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:37.620 Even in the pain. 00:21:39.840 --> 00:21:43.770 Matter of fact, the Bible tells us that God loves a broken spirit. 00:21:44.560 --> 00:21:46.380 So I would say in the pain. 00:21:49.300 --> 00:21:50.740 Just rest. 00:21:53.660 --> 00:21:54.160 What is 2015? 00:21:56.460 --> 00:21:58.300 Maybe that'd be the phrase we tack on it. 00:21:59.540 --> 00:22:01.500 Rest. 00:22:02.580 --> 00:22:03.460 God gave you a soul. 00:22:05.340 --> 00:22:07.000 Not to look like a nerd, right? 00:22:09.420 --> 00:22:10.560 Let's be strong in him. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.960 The trust what he has for you. 00:22:17.780 --> 00:22:19.100 Probably one of the most famous somse. 00:22:19.980 --> 00:22:23.300 If I said quote me a psalm, you would probably start with the Lord is my shepherd. 00:22:23.360 --> 00:22:24.780 I shall not want Psalm 23. 00:22:25.540 --> 00:22:31.380 But then somewhere at some point, I know out of our group here, there's going to be a few people that would say, and Psalm 4610, right. 00:22:31.380 --> 00:22:37.660 There's a few times this is said in the Psalms, but here it says, and God says, be still and know that I am God. 00:22:37.840 --> 00:22:39.460 We all know that, right? 00:22:39.460 --> 00:22:40.660 You can say that we don't need to listen to this. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:41.160 We all know that. 00:22:41.520 --> 00:22:48.840 But I can just tell you when it comes to the Psalms, again, the history behind the psalm is really what creates the beauty to the text. 00:22:50.420 --> 00:22:56.590 When this Psalm is being written, Psalm 46 4748 is all written by what they believe is to be King Hezekiah. 00:22:58.660 --> 00:22:58.980 King. 00:22:58.980 --> 00:23:06.060 Hezekiah was king during the time the Assyrians come to conquer in Israel, and he surrounds the city of 00:23:06.060 --> 00:23:06.760 Jerusalem. 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:10.510 The Assyrians do, and they're going to take down Jerusalem. 00:23:11.060 --> 00:23:18.340 And the tendency of the nation of Israel, when things were going stressful, was to look everywhere they could possibly consider to find a solution other than God. 00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:22.700 A matter of fact in Isaiah 30. 00:23:22.760 --> 00:23:29.740 In verses one and two, it tells us that Israel would often look to the land of Egypt for strength in order to fight against surrounding nations. 00:23:31.500 --> 00:23:32.380 And stop and think. 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:36.320 As I considered before saying this Psalm, how many times in my life have done that? 00:23:38.540 --> 00:23:40.010 Or I'm stressed out worried. 00:23:40.140 --> 00:23:44.420 I feel like the need to be tense and just think about all the possibilities in my in my head. 00:23:44.420 --> 00:23:47.360 And I want to struggle and fight and get get through some circumstance. 00:23:47.360 --> 00:23:48.960 And all of a sudden it just hits me like a ton of bricks. 00:23:49.560 --> 00:23:51.900 Why didn't you just stop and take it before the Lord? 00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:57.200 Psalm 4610. 00:23:57.660 --> 00:24:00.660 Chapter 46 is Israel. 00:24:00.700 --> 00:24:03.940 In those moments before the Assyrians threw King Hezekiah. 00:24:05.300 --> 00:24:06.040 Coming before God. 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:09.800 In Second Kings 1919. 00:24:09.800 --> 00:24:14.360 It lists for us Hezekiah's prayer to the Lord, and then God responds in Psalm 46 and ten. 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:19.840 If you read this whole psalm, you'll see what it communicates is the nations just warring around you. 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:26.780 And all this reasons to be tense and stressed out about what's happening politically, because you can't turn the news off because it's happening in your back door. 00:24:29.020 --> 00:24:29.840 And then God says this. 00:24:31.600 --> 00:24:35.360 Be still and know that I am God. 00:24:35.500 --> 00:24:37.950 If I were Israel in this fortress, I know what I would be busy doing. 00:24:38.140 --> 00:24:39.480 If it wasn't sharpening my weapon. 00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:45.990 It would be training with my weapon for whatever battle we had coming, knowing there was a nation around us periodically asking, we've got a couple thousand. 00:24:46.140 --> 00:24:47.360 They've got, 100,000. 00:24:47.660 --> 00:24:48.260 Could we surrender? 00:24:48.460 --> 00:24:49.250 Is there a possibility here? 00:24:49.860 --> 00:24:55.620 You know, but stressing out about all the things we could do as a nation, and then God comes in the middle of all this and says, be still. 00:24:58.480 --> 00:24:59.800 Notice God doesn't say, be busy. 00:25:00.500 --> 00:25:01.080 I know that I'm God. 00:25:04.060 --> 00:25:05.420 Let me give excuses to him. 00:25:05.440 --> 00:25:05.540 Right? 00:25:07.860 --> 00:25:11.700 This verse exists because God already knows you. 00:25:11.800 --> 00:25:13.980 You're busy. 00:25:14.740 --> 00:25:21.980 And this verse existed to Israel because they've they exhausted every resource they had and tried to find a solution to the problem they're facing with this nation 00:25:21.980 --> 00:25:23.700 that's invading them as they surrounded Jerusalem. 00:25:25.340 --> 00:25:26.430 God says be still. 00:25:28.560 --> 00:25:33.160 The Hebrew text in this passage literally means take your hands off. 00:25:36.040 --> 00:25:42.650 Can you think about that as a warrior fighting for battle and you got your weapon in your hand, and all of a sudden God shows up and he says, and put it down. 00:25:44.040 --> 00:25:44.380 Put it down. 00:25:46.800 --> 00:25:48.120 Just find rest in me. 00:25:49.580 --> 00:25:51.760 Trust me. 00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:55.320 The same God who ordains the end, ordains the means. 00:25:55.320 --> 00:25:57.200 Just rest in me. 00:25:58.820 --> 00:26:00.420 You who are anxious in your spirit. 00:26:00.420 --> 00:26:04.560 What anxiety do you have that adds just a single hour of life to your day? 00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:10.160 Be still. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:11.000 Hezekiah. 00:26:12.440 --> 00:26:15.110 Saying to these people, take your hands off. 00:26:17.160 --> 00:26:24.200 Martin Luther, a famous man who led the Protestant Reformation, not Martin Luther King 00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:28.340 Jr, but the white Martin Luther from Europe. 00:26:30.260 --> 00:26:34.260 He used this psalm to write the hymn a mighty Fortress is our God. 00:26:36.200 --> 00:26:41.320 History tells us that one of the practices of Martin Luther, as he led the Reformation, his life got busy. 00:26:42.660 --> 00:26:46.400 But no matter how busy Martin Luther's life got, he always found time for God. 00:26:47.980 --> 00:26:55.420 Matter of fact, history tells us that if he knew his schedule the following day was full, he would wake up even earlier just to rest in 00:26:55.420 --> 00:26:55.620 the Lord. 00:26:57.620 --> 00:26:57.840 Be still. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:00.720 Be raw. 00:27:03.300 --> 00:27:07.050 Take your complaining before the Lord and the things that's upset your heart. 00:27:07.080 --> 00:27:14.100 Know that God desires to hear from you and rather, rather than just complain, turn it over to him and worship in 00:27:14.100 --> 00:27:17.720 the depths of the raw experience of your life. 00:27:20.340 --> 00:27:22.120 Rather than be still. 00:27:22.120 --> 00:27:22.680 What about this? 00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:26.960 If I if I just put it a different way in Psalm 37, David is. 00:27:28.280 --> 00:27:28.500 Whoa! 00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:30.940 Psalm 37. 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:31.220 Sorry. 00:27:31.280 --> 00:27:31.640 That's scary. 00:27:32.340 --> 00:27:37.240 37 seven David writes this Psalm later in his life. 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:40.720 And so Psalm 46 he writes early on Psalm 37. 00:27:40.740 --> 00:27:42.550 He's writing later in his life. 00:27:42.740 --> 00:27:49.840 And this is a psalm where David's in his older age, his mature age, his wise age is sharing 00:27:49.840 --> 00:27:52.480 something with us that he discovered very early on. 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:53.800 He says, rest in the Lord. 00:27:55.260 --> 00:27:56.630 And wait patiently for him. 00:27:57.400 --> 00:27:58.420 Rather than be still. 00:27:58.420 --> 00:27:58.910 What about this? 00:27:59.380 --> 00:27:59.540 Wait. 00:28:01.860 --> 00:28:02.490 Have you ever done that? 00:28:05.600 --> 00:28:11.840 Sometimes I think when we like to encounter God in our lives, we do so by putting God on our timetable, right? 00:28:13.460 --> 00:28:16.720 We show up and tell God he's got to fit in this story at this particular time. 00:28:17.220 --> 00:28:17.920 God, I gave you. 00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:19.080 You got two minutes, man. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:19.950 Make it, make it happen. 00:28:21.760 --> 00:28:29.080 You know, when you read biblical accounts of the life of people who've done great things for the Lord, no 00:28:29.080 --> 00:28:32.400 one has done a great thing for the Lord historically without first encountering him. 00:28:34.100 --> 00:28:41.280 When you read the life of Moses, you'll see in Moses's life as it writes within history, before Moses does great things for God, there are 40 year gaps 00:28:41.280 --> 00:28:41.880 in that man's life. 00:28:44.280 --> 00:28:45.400 Abraham's 100. 00:28:47.320 --> 00:28:53.060 Paul takes over ten years as he travels from Damascus and goes back to his hometown before the Lord calls him anywhere. 00:28:56.140 --> 00:29:01.540 I mean, there are gaps in the in these lives of these great saints that we look at and these things they've done for the Lord. 00:29:01.580 --> 00:29:02.200 And here's why. 00:29:02.280 --> 00:29:10.080 Why I think God did that is that they learned just to wait on him. 00:29:10.080 --> 00:29:12.380 To let God move in his timetable rather than our own. 00:29:15.400 --> 00:29:17.420 Following Jesus is not done in a microwave. 00:29:19.540 --> 00:29:25.030 What I mean is, when you come to know the Lord, the next step may not be perfect. 00:29:26.140 --> 00:29:28.980 Nor that following one or any after that. 00:29:31.360 --> 00:29:33.160 God matures you in him. 00:29:35.020 --> 00:29:39.610 It's a life that grows and sustains as you rest and wait on him. 00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:43.840 This word wait literally means be quiet. 00:29:46.700 --> 00:29:52.540 You know, one of the best lessons for a disciple, for anyone who wants to learn, is to stop talking. 00:29:55.040 --> 00:29:59.040 A teacher can't teach when his students or her students won't listen. 00:30:00.980 --> 00:30:05.680 We all need a place in our lives where we have the opportunity within our soul to listen to what God desires. 00:30:07.260 --> 00:30:11.360 In Proverbs one seven it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. 00:30:13.520 --> 00:30:20.540 To put God in his proper place to understand my soul was created for him, to give him that place in my life where I just pause in silence and 00:30:20.540 --> 00:30:21.470 just listen. 00:30:23.460 --> 00:30:29.670 A place where I can just be raw before the Lord and open and all that I'm experiencing to allow God to build into my life. 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:39.490 If you're interested in this in order to start the new year off right, we printed out a Bible plan. 00:30:39.540 --> 00:30:46.600 Now we I wrestled with this because I wanted to do a read the Bible in a year plan, but instead what I did was read the New Testament in a year plan. 00:30:47.080 --> 00:30:51.740 Some people maybe look at a bigger plan and find it overwhelming, but at least get through the New Testament in the year. 00:30:52.580 --> 00:30:54.460 This is called the five by five by five plan. 00:30:54.460 --> 00:30:59.260 What it is five minutes a day, five days a week, and it gives you five ways to dig deeper into God's Word. 00:30:59.480 --> 00:31:06.700 And it lists for you just passages of the Bible so you can work through the New Testament just to give God the time to work 00:31:06.700 --> 00:31:09.410 within your soul. 00:31:10.760 --> 00:31:12.920 To wait patiently for him. 00:31:14.040 --> 00:31:21.480 Can I tell you that the best events opportunity thing, whatever you want to call it, that happened in 00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:28.640 my life when I was a young guy going into college, I was looking for a degree that I thought 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:31.080 would satisfy my future. 00:31:31.080 --> 00:31:38.360 And so I started as I was considering what I might do, I was thinking about the fact that I was designed 00:31:38.360 --> 00:31:40.300 by a higher being. 00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:46.640 There had to be a creator somewhere in my mind, and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with my life. 00:31:46.680 --> 00:31:53.490 And so I thought to myself, if I could just figure out what this God thing's about, maybe why he created me, then it would give me some direction that I want to pursue in life. 00:31:53.980 --> 00:32:00.440 And so if I follow, if I follow that, then I'll find a career that at least satisfy me for a little bit. 00:32:01.420 --> 00:32:04.740 And I remember when I was in high school, there was this guy who would come visit our high school. 00:32:04.740 --> 00:32:08.960 He was a youth pastor at a local church, and he's actually come out here for mission trips a few times. 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:16.100 But he would come and visit the school and he would ask, the kids there to come be a part of his youth group or just talk to him about the 00:32:16.100 --> 00:32:16.500 Lord. 00:32:16.740 --> 00:32:20.960 And he always come up to me, and I was probably the most offensive person he would encounter all day. 00:32:21.420 --> 00:32:21.820 I didn't want him. 00:32:22.280 --> 00:32:25.590 I didn't want anything to do with his God, and I certainly didn't want him taking up my space in the hallway. 00:32:26.100 --> 00:32:27.260 And so I would let him know that. 00:32:27.820 --> 00:32:29.950 And then the next week he would be back and he would invite me. 00:32:30.620 --> 00:32:32.880 And I got to the place where I started questioning God in my life. 00:32:33.240 --> 00:32:34.840 And the first person I thought of was this guy. 00:32:35.140 --> 00:32:36.320 I've been mean to my whole life. 00:32:36.380 --> 00:32:43.760 And so I went to him and I said, hey, I explained to him what I was thinking, and I just said, hey, if you can show 00:32:43.760 --> 00:32:50.520 me truth and it's resting in God, I'll follow you and what you're saying and I'll and I'll, I'll believe in what this God that you're telling me about. 00:32:50.800 --> 00:32:57.900 But if I can disprove it, I want to continue in the same selfish path that I'm living for me and just find satisfaction in what I want to 00:32:57.900 --> 00:32:58.000 do. 00:32:59.240 --> 00:33:06.300 And so I went to him and I shared this, and I asked him the question, why in the world he'd always come and share with me that maybe this is an encouragement to you. 00:33:07.180 --> 00:33:08.970 He told me I was the only one that was ever honest with him. 00:33:09.520 --> 00:33:11.320 Everyone else would tell him they'd come to church and not show up. 00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:15.400 That was the only person that was ever just blatantly honest what I thought. 00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:17.460 And so he loved the honesty. 00:33:17.560 --> 00:33:19.740 So he as a refreshment, he would come back to me. 00:33:19.940 --> 00:33:27.440 And so sure enough, we sat down and we started studying the Bible, and we looked at historical reasons of why you should believe in Jesus and why the Bible can be trusted, 00:33:27.580 --> 00:33:31.180 and what Jesus did for me and paying for my sins. 00:33:31.620 --> 00:33:38.860 And I started looking at other religions and I was easily disproving other religious belief systems, but I couldn't shake what he was saying about 00:33:38.860 --> 00:33:39.460 Jesus. 00:33:40.140 --> 00:33:41.660 And so finally one night I realized. 00:33:43.080 --> 00:33:43.180 She. 00:33:43.500 --> 00:33:43.960 She's just made me. 00:33:46.820 --> 00:33:48.280 Jesus made me and I belong to him. 00:33:50.260 --> 00:33:52.760 And everything I've been looking for was him, is in him. 00:33:55.320 --> 00:34:03.180 And to be honest, one night I went up into the woods after this youth event that we were having and, um. 00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:05.180 To be really raw and honest. 00:34:05.600 --> 00:34:06.560 I didn't want my life. 00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:09.940 I wasn't happy. 00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:14.340 Yeah, everything in my life was cared for from a physical perspective. 00:34:14.960 --> 00:34:15.960 My family didn't have. 00:34:16.460 --> 00:34:19.760 Once we if you looked at it from the outside, thought, that's good. 00:34:22.460 --> 00:34:22.920 But I didn't want it. 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:26.179 I didn't know anything that I had. 00:34:26.739 --> 00:34:28.550 I didn't want to pursue the direction I was in. 00:34:28.620 --> 00:34:34.080 I was empty, I was I was lost for what even doing to do in the following day. 00:34:34.080 --> 00:34:35.040 I didn't want any of it. 00:34:37.179 --> 00:34:43.659 And then I came to learn about Jesus, and I went up on this hill and I just said, God, I don't want this life. 00:34:43.659 --> 00:34:45.080 I don't I don't want what I'm doing. 00:34:45.080 --> 00:34:46.719 I don't want what I have, I don't want it. 00:34:46.760 --> 00:34:48.580 And so you made my life. 00:34:48.659 --> 00:34:51.320 It's yours and I'm giving it to you. 00:34:53.060 --> 00:34:54.739 God, I know what you've done for me. 00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:57.200 I know that you've created me for you. 00:34:57.480 --> 00:34:58.600 And so, God, whatever. 00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:01.780 Whatever you want, this is yours. 00:35:04.360 --> 00:35:06.920 For me, I'd say that turned out to be the best moment of my life. 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.860 And I know you're thinking that guy is married and he has got kids. 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.700 Don't let his kids hear that, you know? 00:35:12.900 --> 00:35:16.420 But the truthfulness is, had that moment not happened in my life. 00:35:17.780 --> 00:35:22.280 I would have never met the lady that I've married, and I would have never had the children that I have. 00:35:24.020 --> 00:35:27.060 I would have never been in Utah, and I certainly would have never had a speech class. 00:35:30.560 --> 00:35:31.400 But a moment of rest. 00:35:33.880 --> 00:35:37.820 For the first time in my life, I could just lay it down raw before God. 00:35:40.040 --> 00:35:44.860 Not having to carry the anxiety and stress of the world and trying to figure things out. 00:35:45.380 --> 00:35:46.500 I just let God do it for me. 00:35:49.040 --> 00:35:50.360 God, this is your life. 00:35:52.860 --> 00:35:56.580 And Psalm 116 and seven it says this return to your rest, O my soul. 00:35:57.900 --> 00:36:00.970 For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 00:36:03.460 --> 00:36:06.180 Maybe I'll just stop with that and say this for us. 00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:09.840 If we can't find reason. 00:36:11.180 --> 00:36:13.460 To reflect on the goodness of God. 00:36:15.160 --> 00:36:19.060 It's communicating something to us about our walk with him. 00:36:20.080 --> 00:36:22.540 Because God has given us plenty of reason to praise him. 00:36:24.840 --> 00:36:30.500 If I say to you this morning, rejoice in the Lord and think about what God has bountifully blessed you with. 00:36:30.500 --> 00:36:34.560 If it if it takes some time for something to come in mind, that's an indicator to us. 00:36:34.860 --> 00:36:37.320 I really need to get back and resting in him. 00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:42.000 Because God has given us reasons to praise his name. 00:36:42.020 --> 00:36:47.680 I mean, today is a gift of his grace, Christ giving his life to you as a gift of his mercy and grace. 00:36:48.020 --> 00:36:51.820 The fact that he's giving you a future and a hope is a gift to you. 00:36:51.880 --> 00:36:58.080 The reason that you're still breathing says to you, God has a plan for your life he wants you to get on board with in him. 00:37:00.460 --> 00:37:03.280 There's reason to praise. 00:37:04.940 --> 00:37:07.100 So let me ask you this morning. 00:37:08.620 --> 00:37:12.940 What does your soul feel like? 00:37:13.580 --> 00:37:17.080 Let me tell you if it's needing to hit the weight room. 00:37:19.060 --> 00:37:20.200 Book of Psalms. 00:37:21.640 --> 00:37:22.060 It's a beautiful place. 00:37:24.300 --> 00:37:31.320 To be raw and who you are, and just lifting up before the God before God that rather than complain in your hurt and brokenness, 00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:32.600 you turn it to praise. 00:37:34.600 --> 00:37:39.040 And knowing how to find rest in him and knowing how to be silent before him. 00:37:39.140 --> 00:37:46.060 Just giving God the opportunity to communicate to him so that you can take New Years and make it look like a party, right? 00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:52.640 Let me give you what I would call the big prophetic prediction, okay? 00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:55.240 It's the only prediction I've ever given in church. 00:37:55.400 --> 00:37:56.220 Let me tell you what it is. 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:00.860 As long as you trust in Christ in 2015. 00:38:02.700 --> 00:38:03.100 Everything. 00:38:04.340 --> 00:38:05.690 It's going to work out just fine. 00:38:08.720 --> 00:38:11.480 God has created your soul for him. 00:38:13.060 --> 00:38:14.460 To find rest in what he is. 00:38:16.280 --> 00:38:16.800 It doesn't matter. 00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:23.760 The problem you face, or the situation you have in comparison to what God has for you. 00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:28.340 And for us, that isn't to undermine what we're going through. 00:38:29.640 --> 00:38:34.540 Or whatever we're thinking about, or whatever's heavy on our lives or whatever reason doesn't get us to calm down. 00:38:35.940 --> 00:38:41.660 it's not to undermine that, but it's just to simply say, whatever it is, God cares. 00:38:41.940 --> 00:38:42.740 And he's bigger. 00:38:46.360 --> 00:38:47.880 And so it's important for us. 00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:50.280 Wherever we are. 00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:53.860 Maybe, maybe in our lives we don't know what the next step is. 00:38:56.040 --> 00:38:56.580 But God does. 00:38:58.740 --> 00:39:00.060 And the place that he's called you to. 00:39:01.540 --> 00:39:02.420 Has to rest in him.