Sing for joy to God our strength. Shout aloud to the God of Jacob. I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt Open wide your mouth and I will fill it up But my people would not listen to me Israel would not submit to me So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices If my people would only listen to me if Israel would only follow my ways How quickly I would stop subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes those who hate the Lord would cringe before him and Their punishment would last forever, but you would be fed with the finest week with honey from the rock. I would satisfy you So Jason asked me while I go.
He's like where is your iPad and I said is at home I hate holding that thing because I feel like I have to keep looking at it and I'd rather engage with y'all So hopefully my eyes won't mess up and I won't have to have a Bible just close in a minute So we're gonna try this and see how it works But this morning I'm excited because we are going to talk about Psalm 81 and it's back in the lecture I was a missionary reading I've reverted back to that after having some of our hard truth sermons But I was super stoked because when you read through Psalm 81 you start to to hear God is Still dealing with us I believe that in certain aspects because it's spot on you'll see as the scripture goes on It's spot on with where we are in this new season and just looking forward to different things But Psalm 81 when it starts out It's a feast of the tabernacles and it's a call to obedience And so the Psalm is he is writing this is most likely ASAP and he's writing this song and they're he's remembering How God had delivered the people out of Egypt and and he's saying saying sing for the joy to God our strength And whether they're they're saying let's remember come to the feast come to remember Let's sing and shout and and let's make all of this heavenly noise And what the people understood that this was this is kind of like the law I remember there were certain things that were very legalistic But they were remembering that the law the feast the priests to the tabernacle these were all special privileges They were reminders of being God's people his chosen people And so this was a time when they were coming they would celebrate and Israel would remember who they were to God and the Covenant that God had made with these his chosen people they would remember the deliverance out of Egypt and the promise he made To meet their needs and so it was a time of blowing the what's all the show for it's like a ram's horn It's a time of celebration It's much like we did this morning when we come and and Mallory leads us into worship and we're feeling the spirit and God's presence is among us And that's a lot like that moment The feast of the tabernacles is gonna come after the feast of unleavened bread and all these feasts were set apart different times of the year Different seasons for people to come and just acknowledge God and his goodness And so that's what we have But if we go through and there were some scripture verses that are left out in the reading but I'm gonna come back to them We have to understand that there's gonna be a shift we're gonna go from a place where God is saying I want you to praise. I want you to sing loudly I want you to be jubilant and then as the scripture goes on there's gonna be a shift And this shift is all of a sudden gonna tell us now. I need you to shut up and listen Don't know what I like to be blunt. I saw the mobrails go up.
It is God is gonna tell the people I want your praise. I want your worship But there's gonna be a time where you need to hush and listen now as parents how many times have we used that phrase I need you to stop. I need you to listen Gosh, I'm only weirdo parent. Okay.
Thank you Maggie. We're in the same but thank you back there. I know I count on Lindsey I think I'm always a mile of some But sometimes you just have to get people to teach and you got to stop Listen to what I want to tell you and that was the struggle there That's all these people who were ready to celebrate those whom he had delivered But then all of a sudden and it goes back to those mountain top experiences They would get so excited and they would remember and then real life would hit them and then go back down and they'd easily forget And they began to to worship other gods and their priorities began to be skewed and God was in my words disappointed I've done these things from you. I've given you manna when there was nothing I've brought you up out of bondage out of slavery and yet you can't fully remember and grasp that You cling to it and then you let it go and you cling to it and you let it go And so God is basically saying he wants he wants our worship.
He wants our praise But he also wants us to listen to just be still and listen and allow him to speak into our lives into our hearts into our Situations and I believe that's where we are right now We are in a season of celebrating in a season of joy because it's newness and it's exciting But there are gonna be times where God's gonna say okay, Foundry shut up and listen Let me lead you through this I don't want to bring you out of bondage out of the desert I want to bring you to the promise land. I want to bring you to the goodness that I've promised you But you need to do it my way You see the funny thing is with the people They knew in their hearts who God was but they would just fall back into old patterns and into old ways And the reality of their lives is that God was the one who had delivered them not the world God was the deliverer. He was a sustainer. He was the one doing all the things but they just would easily forget And so the scripture changes And he reminds them I have brought you out of bondage.
I relieved This his shoulder from the burden his hands were free from carrying the basket He is the one that takes us out of the bondage that we're in whether it's financial whether it's spiritual whether it's relational Whatever it is he's the one that delivers us from the things that hold us captive And the next verse says you called out in distress and I rescued you He's reminding the people even though ASAP is writing the Psalm. He's reminding them of what God has done for them You celebrate your excited but you're forgetting this right here God delivered you out of bondage He heard you when you cried out to him We cannot forget in the joy and excitement in the newness to keep calling out to him God Please keep delivering us God keep bringing us to a better place God keep guiding our steps God keeps stowing in our hearts and convicting us to be better I preached a tough sermon last week About we need to give and we need to step up and we need to live into our callings into our future as a church and as individuals I looked again last night And y'all people are doubling pledges people are giving for the first time People are giving a little more than what they did before you can't tell me that that is it is not what I'm telling you Let me say that it is not what I'm telling you it is not because of me But it is by the grace of God and the convicting of the Holy Spirit that your hearts are being stirred and moved And we can't just take that as a one-time deal in a mountaintop experience and a oogly-googly feeling but we've got to say yes, Lord keep moving Yes, Lord keep working Because he's the one that when we call out when we ask for help he rescues us But he says listen Listen, that's where the hangup was is it listen my people. I love the intimacy my people that still applies to us today We are his people listen my people and I will admonish you what that means I will fight for you. I will help you I will be near you and beside you and for you and all of this excitement this Jubilee all of a sudden It's taking a turn into a lament and God is saying if only If only my people would have listened you're my people I said I would do these things for you I will remove you from bondage.
I am there when you ask for help. I will listen But you won't listen and so there's a lament if only you would listen to me But you got these other gods and they're taking the place of me our gods often look like pride Doubt fear. I can't give I'm too afraid. How am I gonna make ends meet I?
I told you I said and I were talking about what we look like for us to double our pledge and I mean I'm just being honest. We got four kids. I got one in college mom Ritz do we got this? We got I mean we're no different from y'all and we're talking about what will it look like if we double our pledge What will it look like for us to get more and let me tell you there is something real called the adversary the devil Satan Whatever you want calling I won't ever ever not preach that I know some people are like But I believe just as there is God.
There's also One that roams you know what happened after I preach a sermon about giving and step out of my comfort zone and beg God please Why do I have to do this? The roof leaked on Monday and we watched as it dripped through Okay Then the other day and nobody better comment on this because we already know is Jim York here I don't see mr. Jim the other day. He wanted to move his car because I said I was backing out Yeah, but I mean I destroyed one of my Rams other day hurt my heart.
I was just ill I said Lord Holly don't worry. I got my magic marker out. It's better now. I hurt my heart.
I was like really and then I guess I went to get something out of my closet. I was like What is that? What is that? And AC had backed up and went under the wall flooding my closet and I said Lord Lord Ali and it was just one little thing after another sometimes obedience is difficult But we don't stop instead we look at the ways that the Lord is gonna work through all of these things And we listen because he's saying I am the Lord your God.
I'm gonna deliver you. I'm gonna help you He's made his claim on us by calling us his people So when we get uncomfortable and even if we give and and things start taking a spiral Yo, that is life But it doesn't mean we give up and we give them we keep going because there's someone willing to fight for us And the thing about it is I love this. I'm gonna show you this little picture of these little birds God is it tell us if you would just open your mouth I will feel it and I love that little bird in the middle because sometimes that's that's nope Feel them other birds. I'm not participating.
I don't want to be field. I don't know what you're gonna expect enemy I don't know what you're gonna put in my mouth. Sometimes it's it's spiritual sometimes it's physical those birds are waiting to be fed so that they can live They don't want to die. Oh, but wait, I'm gonna be fed so that I can live and I don't die That's what happens to our spirit.
We begin to die into dwindle when we're not fed and we're not allowing the Lord to feel us But sometimes we're so close my house next time you can feel me Lord I'll be ready next time But instead he says open your mouth because I want to feel you I want you to trust me I brought you up at the land of Egypt open your mouth wide and I will feel it what that tells us is that God will do it big Well, we're going through the transitions that we're making the hard things God say and just let me feel you Open your mouth Allowings of fill us with his word so that when we open hours we spew the truth of who he is Open your mouths wide. It's bigger simply and it's literally let me feed you physically Let me feed you spiritually. Let me feed you emotionally You see whatever we open up to God he will feel if it's our broken hearts It's it's our empty pockets if it's our spiritual heartache if it's marriage problems If it's if it's children gonna stray whatever it is He says open it up to me and let me feel it because I'm the God who rescues I Love the promises he makes Even in his lament. He said if only That's parents we know that if only you would have listened if only you would have done what I asked you the first time We wouldn't be in this predicament, but he said if only my people would listen to me and Israel would follow my ways I would subdue their enemies.
I would turn my hand against their foes. I would be for them Nothing would come against them. No, we know that life happens But what it's saying that it's not saying everything is gonna be rosy and peachy But instead he's saying I will be with you. I will fight for you even in the hardest of times But I love that he says I would feed Israel with the best wheat the best week when you look at that I had to look and I said What's the best week we eat right?
Do you know who the largest wheat producer in the world is anybody take a guess You crying? Blew my mind Get case until right God is trying to Loom my mind. I just want to share that but the best week what makes it so good why is he referring to wheat? Well, you know the weeds whenever you do whatever you do to purify I guess that's the word but when we become flour you use that flour and you make bread the bread is symbolic of the bread of life the Bread of life is symbolic of Jesus Christ.
It's a foretelling of I'm going to give you the best of the week Jesus is going to be the best This is what I'm gonna give you and then he says and yet I will satisfy your soul with honey from the rock now Look at this for a minute. Do you see the honeycomb up in the rock there? That is the most fascinating thing I was looking at that and I'm so thankful for for Mallory and Patrick and also because they can y'all please sing honey in the rock I love that song But when I read the scripture and I was thinking about the song I'm like is there really honey in the rock is this is this bigger To visit literal what is this? Well, it's actually literal There are places where the honeycomb is deep in there and you have to climb up and you have to work hard to get it But it's some of the best honey because it's just so raw and natural and honey's used from additional purposes It's healing it's good, but you know what else honey sweet and it's satisfying and it's great on top of that bread that bread of life So he's saying I'm not just gonna give you bread But I'm gonna give you something sweet to go with it.
I'm gonna go into those crevices I'm gonna reach into the deep places and I'm gonna give you the best Man may not be able to go there, but I'm gonna go there. I'm gonna give you my best and it's not maybe it's definitely This is what I'm going to promise you if you would just listen to me if you were trusting me if you're just remember the best bread With the honey on top So this morning I want us to remember as we go through this new stage of growth as we look at foundry forward in the future Of who we are and who God is calling us to be I want us to remember that we are coming out of a season of bondage We're bound by a lot of things collectively and individually. There's no lying in that because we're human We all have something Something that binds us and threatens to unravel us and undo us But if we continue to be those who seek the Lord first and ask him for help Lord guide us in this season Open the floodgates and rain down upon us Lord show us your mercy Lord show us your favor and then if we listen we can't be too busy doing and not listening if we pause and we listen For God to lead and to direct us But let's open our mouths big Let's open our hearts big. Let's open our spirits big because I have already told you that God is going to do big things Look at this little bird here.
This is how I want us to be like that I don't want us to be that little bird bless his heart He was trying to that bird that's closed mouth I want us to be that bird because you know what that bird bless his little heart God created him to be so strange But also he can feel that bird up. I Want to be like that I want to be open wide say Lord fill me to the brim Fill me with your grace and your mercy and your goodness Lord fill me on the days when I can't put one foot in front of the other This is the kind of God that we serve the one that says I will meet all your needs I Will give you the best. I will bring honey from the rock. I am who I say I am And that's one of the big promises here.
He says I am the Lord your God Not I will be not I was but I am I am the Lord your God and I will do it big You know those little birds they open their mouth because they expect the mother to come and feed them They open their mouths and expectation mama bird is the one to come and she's gonna feed me all I have to do is open up God will feed us when we open up God would do so much more than we could ever imagine if we just allow it because a beautiful thing is he won't force us Even when the people were disobeying even when they were off track. He never forced their hands God would not force his way into our hearts into our lives. He wants us instead to say here I am so foundry as we move forward as I see God stirring in your hearts Spurring you to give spurring you to serve spurring your under comfort zone to go on retreats Keep opening up Because God will not just feel you but I believe he's gonna overflow overflow in his work in you and us and boundary