The Lord Reigns

Like to introduce several people that are here and and then I'll introduce Brent Corbin.
Some of you may know Jason and Angie and their daughter Ellie Crider.
Jason was an elder at this church before we took the Bartlesville community group and blessed them and launched them to plant Hope Presbyterian Church and Bartlesville And so, Angie, Ellie, we miss you.
Love you guys.
It's so good to see you back and worship together.
It's like the old days.
A different place, but the old days.
Good to see you.
The Reverend Brent Corbin is going to preach for us this morning and Brent is a dear friend to this church.
When Brent graduated from OU, he lived in a Washo with one of our deacons for a season when he was in oil and gas lending and then he went off to you go to you went to Nashville first, didn't you?
Yeah, then he went to work with RUF at Vanderbilt in Nashville and then went to seminary at RTS in Charlotte and he and Sarah were married.
They have four beautiful daughters, Nora Klein, Catherine, Mary and Margaret.
And Brent is now after being a TU RUF campus minister for a number of years.
When I first came, Brent was at TU and he was part of the group of guys we had lunch with every Monday and uh together and We miss Brent.
We really miss Brent in town.
Brent later became the area coordinator of RUF and then he was hired as executive director of of Reform Youth Ministries, which is the umbrella ministry that we send our kids off to summer conference for.
It's not just for the PCA but for other Reform denominations and so Brent is a real blessing to the PCA and to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and to other Presbyterian churches throughout the country.
So, would you please join me in welcoming the Reverend Brick Corbin as he preaches?
Good morning.
Uh sincerely, a joy to be with you all this morning.
I was I didn't know I was supposed to go mingle during the greeting.
Otherwise, it might have actually been overwhelming.
So, I stayed up here away because I see so many friends and familiar faces out there but I'd love to talk to you guys after.
Um, thank you to Trinity.
Uh, whether or not you know as you support the work and worship of this church and your times and offerings.
Um, Trinity is a member church, a supporting church for RYM and for our family.
So, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Blake asked me a couple weeks ago uh if I would jump in here and preach and I said, "Sure, no big deal.
We'll be coming in from Colorado about 30 minutes before." So, uh what could go wrong?
Um, no, but really uh my next thought he said, "Hey, it's Psalm 97." And my next thought was, "It better not be a hard one.
It better not be an imprecatory Psalm or something like that." So, he assured me as we kind of looked through it quickly, he said, "Oh, no, no, no." He's like, "This is a great one." He said, "This is actually the RYM Psalm." And what he meant by that on the spot was uh this Psalm references the coast lands and mountains and and we do conferences across the country literally from coast to coast.
We have one in California all the way up into the Chesapeake Bay.
We do one at the end of the summer.
Uh we have them in the mountains as the students just came from Colorado.
What Blake missed in that call is that it actually the song mentions the fire consuming people and that is a subtle reference to our conference in Texas at the at the beginning of August because it just swallows people up wholesale.
But no, it's a wonderful song.
This song is itself situated amongst a collection of 17 other Psalms known as book four of the Salter from Psalm 90 to Psalm 106.
And what is known and what's the hallmark of this collection is that these are a joyful group of Psalms.
They are incredibly upbeat upbeat and celebratory as they consider the wonders of the Lord and his salvation across time and history.
Now, if you are familiar with the Psalms at all, you may know and be very familiar with the fact that not all Psalms are like this, right?
Not all Psalms are upbeat and joyful and celebratory and even as we this morning contemplate this one and look at it together, I want to give quick word to and acknowledge the fact that some of you may be coming in this morning and you may not be all that upbeat or joy joy may not be the first thing on your lips or on the tip of your heart this morning.
And that's okay.
The Psalms give plenty of coverage for those emotions and experiences as well.
And so, find comfort in that even as we find comfort in these words this morning.
Psalm 97 speaks to us about the reality of the Lord's reign.
The very use of that proper name there, the Lord, it's the one that shows up in all caps in scripture is evidencing the fact that this Psalm and the thrust of it is given and is meant to connote familial, familial family thoughts and invitation and warmth.
Which is to say that the Lord's reign will most fully be realized and appreciated in this life by those who are his.
One day it will be known by everyone.
And so even if you're not in him yet this morning, I hope that as you hear this, you consider an invitation to the joy of the Lord's reign.
Let's look at Psalm 97 together.
I don't know what your normal custom is, but if you'd be willing and able to stand as we read God's word together.
Psalm 97 The Lord reigns.
Let the earth rejoice.
Let the many coastlands be glad.
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before before him and burns up all his adversaries all around.
His lightnings light up the world, the earth sees and trembles, the mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness and all the people see his glory.
All worshipers of images are put to shame who make their boast in worthless idols.
Worship him, oh you gods.
Zion hears and is glad the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, oh Lord.
For you, oh Lord, are most high over all the earth.
You are exalted high above all gods.
Oh you, who love the Lord, hate evil.
He preserves the life of his saints.
He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright and heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, oh you righteous and give thanks to his holy name.
Please join me as we pray.
Father and Heaven, I do pray that having now read your read your word that you would now attend to the preaching of it.
Fill our hearts with the beauties of who you are and the glory of your son, Jesus Christ, in whom we find our hope, our life, our salvation, and our joy.
And it's in his name we pray.
Amen.
You may be seated.
In the days leading up to the RYM conference, which was last week up in Estes Park, Colorado, my family and I we began our our our voyage, you could call it, from Louisiana where we now live uh up to Estes Park and it's it's just not right around the corner.
And so we break it up in stages.
We stay with my folks in Duncan, Oklahoma uh after about a halfway shot and then we get got up and went the rest of the way.
Uh and for the few days leading up to that, uh we stayed in Southern Colorado.
Actually, Estes Park is more central Colorado.
We stayed in Southern Colorado uh in a little cabin for a few days.
And um it's just kind of a little bit of catch your breath moment and uh to be honest, I was also writing this sermon.
So um we were there for a few days and my wife and our daughters, uh one of the things they did over those uh that that small number of days is uh Sarah was teaching our kids how to use a real camera.
Um, we have a very simple SLR uh Canon camera that she was trying to uh get them acquainted with.
And uh she with the help of some videos they were watching it and then they would head out and take pictures and you know look at it on the screen right there.
And uh if you know anything about photography, whether or not you know it in a precise sense or if you're just a novice, you know that uh oftentimes when you're photographing landscapes mountains, things outside.
It's it's always a disappointing experience because you end up with something, you know, this big or on that little SLR camera even smaller, but what you're trying to capture is this big.
And so the picture, the photo, as good as it may be, it just fails to actually get get and grasp the fullness of what you were after.
And so as you're maybe looking at the photos with people, you say, "Gosh, I mean, yes, but it it really doesn't capture." You have to see it for yourself.
You had to see how big that mountain was or how the sun broke through the trees at that angle.
Or you had to just see these hummingbirds as if we could actually capture them because they're so fast.
It just was amazing.
But you have to see it for yourself.
Psalm 97 works this way.
It gives these glimpses and these pictures some in in clear form of of who the Lord is.
It talks about his attributes which we'll talk about.
It talks about the nature of his salvation which we'll talk about.
It talks about the joy that he brings and we'll talk about that.
But in a very real sense, it's it's just a small picture of who the Lord is in his his grandeur and his bigness and his vastness, his immensity.
And so what I want you to hear me say is let's look at this and also you just have to know him for yourself.
Because in as much as this is his word to us as so that we can know him and know his way of salvation, there's no substitute for knowing him and for seeing him as he is personally.
So, let's look at this passage together.
First thing I want us to see is that this passage shows forth the glory of the Lord's reign.
The glory of the Lord's reign.
This is in verses 1 through 5.
These uh first five verses, they give us aspects of God, the Lord God's presence in our world.
And as you think about some of the different ways that this poet here in the Psalm is trying to describe this great God, one of the most appropriate, if not the most appropriate way in the right word that we could use to describe his reign is the word glory.
It's the word glory.
It's uh it's a very Bibley word.
It's not a word that we use a lot that we occasionally uh bring it in to highlight something that is amazing, maybe an athlete or an artist or someone who's leading uh wonderfully.
But the word glory, may or may not know, is the same word same Hebrew word as the word weight or weightiness, caboodle.
In itself carries the connotation of something that brings with it force and gravitas.
It has presence and being you you just can't ignore it.
You can't ignore something that has glory and weight.
It's a thick word with dimension.
It cannot be reduced or boiled down.
It's less one or the other and more or all of the above.
So let's look at this God who matters and has weight.
There's five subpoints here.
Hang on, there won't be five subpoints everywhere, but there are five here and we'll try to get through them quickly.
First subpoint, this Lord who is glorious, he is everywhere.
He's everywhere, verse one.
Says, "Let the earth rejoice, let the coastlands be glad.
This is the author's way of saying from coast to coast." Elsewhere in the song, it says, "From the east to the west.
From the sea, it talks about mountains.
This God, this Lord reigns everywhere.
He's like Victor Wimbanyana playing the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He was just everywhere.
All 7 ft 5 of him before they finally put us away.
You couldn't contain him.
Those limbs just covered the paint every time.
How much more the Lord God of heaven and earth, whose glory and wonder is from coast to coast, that the whole earth rejoice, the coastlands be glad.
He is immense.
Secondly, under this, the Lord is a guide and provider.
The first part of verse two says, "The clouds in thick darkness are all around him." Now, we might hear that or if you're young in here or uh maybe unfamiliar with some of the longer arc of scripture in its story.
Clouds and thick darkness might feel scary, it might feel intimidating.
There was some pretty big storms that rolled through last night.
Had we seen them?
It might have been scary, but hopefully you were asleep like I was.
Clouds and thick darkness though are meant to and it certainly would have in the minds of these original hearers.
It's meant to connote and bring us back to the deliverance to the Exodus from Egypt as God was leading and protecting his people in the will as he was bringing them eventually to the promised land.
There would be fire by night to guide them and clouds by day to shield them.
And often these would be things that would keep him keep them free and um unencumbered by their enemies.
So the Lord is a guide and a provider.
Thirdly here, the Lord is a good judge.
That's the second part of verse two.
Righteousness and judgment, it says, are the foundation of his throne.
If we were to say this very simply, we would say, "The Lord can be trusted to do what is right." He can be trusted to do what is right.
The one who sees all, the one who knows all, the one who is everywhere will do right and will fully and finally one day someday make all the rights, all the wrongs that have been happening in this world.
He will make all the wrongs right.
Genesis 18:25 says it this way, rhetorically, "Will not the judge of all the earth do right?" In Psalm 97:2 is emphatically saying, "Yes.
Yes, he will.
He will do what is right." Fourthly, under this, the Lord is a protector, verse 3.
Fire goes before him and burns up all his adversaries all around around.
This is the Texas conference reference.
This may be the point though where I realize you if you're maybe out outside of Christianity or certainly maybe you have friends who might not consider themselves believers.
This may be one of those statements and it's there's some like it elsewhere in scripture where you say okay, okay, hands off here because what what's up with this God just capriciously burning people up?
What's up for that.
I like Jesus, right?
Especially flowing hair, pale skin, lamb holding Jesus.
He seems nice, but this Old Testament God, whoa, what are we doing?
What I would say to you is that it's the same God, Old to New Testament, the same Lord who's always been from beginning to end, who has no end.
But his judgment is shown differently through time and through through his unfolding revelation.
It's the same God.
But we get aspects of his character in different ways along the way.
He is the protector.
This God, this protecting God, and his protective the protective aspects of his character, they cannot be separated from the fact that he is a good judge.
He's a good judge.
Think with me for a second.
Earlier in scripture, and in here the psalmist is talking about uh the Lord consuming his people's enemies.
Consuming his adversaries and that again it unfolds in different ways.
Sometimes it's through war and conquest, which is not those aren't fun thoughts.
They're never pleasant.
But when you consider the flip side of that that the Lord is so so protective of, and so favorable toward his people.
He is saying, "I will take out everything that might keep you from making it.
I am that for you." Maybe some of you are in here this morning and you are a degree of separation from someone who has had really awful things happen to them.
Maybe some of you have had really awful things happen to you.
And the person or the persons or the group whoever the the aggressor might have been, they might have gotten away with it in this life.
And they've yet to receive the justice that you might rightly say is due to them.
I want you to look at this passage and to see this Lord who's a who is a fierce just protector and say, though they may have gotten away with it in this life, it will not be so forever.
That this just judge who protects his people will fully and finally do what is right one day someday and let that be a comfort to you.
And if you have done things but you're unseemly and unkind toward others, here this is an invitation and also a warning.
This Lord knows all, he is a just judge and you either come under Jesus or he's coming for you.
So take rest in Jesus.
Fifthly, finally under this quickly verse 4 and 5, the Lord is powerful.
And that may sound obvious and may make explicit what's been implicit thus far, but all of creation, even the highest mountains, man, around park It is a play Rocky Mountain National Park.
It's surrounded by these huge protruding granite boulders that just impose their will onto you.
And this psalmist is saying that even the biggest mountains, the most mighty forceful structures in the world seemingly, they're like wax.
They're like a candle in your car on a June, July, or August day in Awasa.
I mean, they're only staying a chance.
You got to get new carpet.
The mountains are but wax in his hand.
This Lord is powerful.
One of my favorite shows has a wonderful scene where um the camera zooms out and often takes these vignettes and interviews of different characters and it zooms out interviewing the world's greatest boss, Michael Scott.
And has this very memorable question to Michael Scott and says Would you rather be feared or loved?
And he says, "I rather be feared or loved." Easy, both.
I want people to fear how much they love me.
At the risk of being a reverend, I hope I'm not.
It If there were a camera man zooming in on the Lord and saying, "So which are you?" Of all these things and there's so many more things we could say about the Lord through scripture, which are you?
He wouldn't hesitate.
He would say easy.
All, all of them at the same time.
The Lord's attributes are commingled with each other as they flow in and out and through his character.
This God is all.
The Lord's reign.
So, verse 6, as a summary, the heavens blame his righteousness and all the people see his glory.
And we might think, well, gosh, I mean, if it's so obvious, if God is this great and his reign is that manifest around the world, doesn't everyone just love it?
Don't they love and when they uh love him when they see his glory?
And the answer is, well, it's trickier than that.
Because there are challenges to his glory.
And we see those challenges in verses 7 through 9.
So, let's look there.
Challenges to the Lord.
So, even though 7 through 9 actually picture a triumphant Lord over these challenges, we would do well and we're going to spend just a moment talking about the different challenges because they are real.
They show up in our world, they show up in our hearts and lives.
So, let's give attention to him.
Look back at verse 7.
It says, "All worshipers of images, that's our first challenger, are to be are put to shame." Second one, who make their boast in worthless idols, that's our second.
And then down in verse verse 9, it says, that you, Lord, are exalted above all gods.
That is the third one.
So, three challenges to the Lord's reign, images, idols, gods.
Let's look at them together because you might and in fact, if I were just kind of casually reading this Psalm, I would have blown right past that and just assumed as the Psalms and other poetry often does, it just it uses different words to kind of get at the same thing.
This actually though, there are certainly different words, but each one of these words used for images, idols, gods, they are all different words that have a slightly different meaning and implication to them.
If they were good things, I would say they were like different facets of a diamond, but these are not good things.
They're like different facets of a rock.
An ugly rock.
So, let's look at it.
First, images.
It's the Hebrew word pestil, that doesn't matter other than just to say it's a different word than the others.
This is the word that is uh often in in scripture used for those things which are physical in nature.
Physical gods, statures, uh statues, figurines.
Uh, these would have been things that um were certainly present in biblical times.
Archaeological digs have uncovered these things for centuries now.
Uh, In Genesis chapter 31, this word is used when Jacob's wife Rachel steals her father Laban's household gods and hides them in the camel saddle bags.
You might remember that story.
Pesel is what's being talked about there.
They were things that were put up on the mantel or some elevated place in the home and people would worship them.
People would worship them.
Now, we might be thinking to our self, why I don't do that?
Well, that may be true, but at least let's say these things show up in our world, sometimes in different religions, shrines of Buddha.
In Hinduism, you have the Murti, which can be any one of their pantheon of gods.
There are sometimes in Christian circles, various traditions get accused of worshiping icons and in literal representations of Jesus.
But so they're around even if they may not be the most available uh temptation for us or for our own hearts.
But as uh the recently retired college football analyst Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend." Because these next two are coming for you.
So let's look at the second one.
It's the word idols.
Uh that is something that if you've been around Christianity for a little while, around scripture.
This is maybe something you've heard talked about, preached about more.
It's the Hebrew word ilel, ilel.
And it's it's related to what was just above, the idea of images, kind of in an obvious way, but this is less so talking about the physical structures or the physical objects that people might be tempted to worship.
And ilel or idols, this is definitely talking about those things which could have physical manifestation and presence.
Those things which our heart looks to and otherwise might be great things, good things.
Our heart looks at these things and elevates them in stature.
And we functionally give our lives to them, though we would never say it that way.
We functionally worship these things.
We functionally look to these things to fill us and to give us meaning and to bring us joy and satisfaction to make life work.
We look to idols all around us every day.
It's why some of us find so much of our identity in our homes.
In our homes looking just right.
And maybe that's so that you can have some sort of existential joy in your home.
Again, the thing about idols is they exist on a razor's edge between being okay and good and being celebrated and looked to for life and joy.
So some of you may have homes that you spend meticulous uh efforts and hours trying to make it just right.
So that when people come over, they think you're awesome.
And they think you are so put together.
And gosh, if their house looks like this, could could you imagine how great they are in on the inside and their hearts and they must just be full of life and joy all the time.
They probably never yell at their kids or they probably never get in fight with her husband.
It's why some of you maybe younger people at some point cars just become a a means to transport people and things but I remember when I was young my first car it wasn't particularly nice but I I took good care of it you might say that would be the positive.
My dad would say that I had a worship service with my car every Saturday morning.
I would wax it I would put the gloss on the tires the whole thing.
Cuz I wanted the appearance.
I wanted people look at me and say, "Man, look at him.
Look at his car." Sounds silly now, it didn't at 16.
Some of you, it's how stylish you are and the kind of clothes you wear.
Again, I I would say maybe just the ladies, but I've seen some of you guys dress up before.
Uh, you take a lot of pride in your appearance and how it is that you look.
That can be a great thing.
Call to take care of our bodies, but you know what it's like to get ready and be thinking, "Ma'am, and I'm going to wear this certain thing or I'm going to do this certain thing with my hair and makeup or this set of clothes over here so that somebody can think better of me and I like the way that makes me feel when they think better of me.
It can be okay.
But it can be idolatrous.
For many if not most of us, it's our net worth.
Money is the perennial favorite on this front.
It's so available as an idol, whether you have very little of it or whether you have a lot of it.
It is one of these things.
It's evergreen.
It always offers to bring us identity and meaning and hope and fulfillment.
And though it can be great, and though it can bless scripture is called a blessing and a means of blessing in many ways.
As well as a means by which we can bless others, it so often is a is a temptation.
It is a hole that we fall into as we ask it to give us something and to make us feel a certain way that we were never meant to feel by it.
It might be your relationship status, how socially connected you are, whether you're married or have a family, obedient kids, whatever it might be that you functionally look to for life and joy.
It's taken up center stage in your heart.
And this psalmist is saying, "It's in vain." Because there is one who is meant to bring you life and who does rule and reign over everything.
And whose love and whose worship of him does not exist on a razor's edge, it is always an only good.
It's what you were created for and meant for.
So, the third word Elohim.
Quickly.
The word gods.
Sorry, the word gods, which is the Hebrew word Elohim.
This is in scripture really any person or being or power, somebody an entity that has the ability to sit over others in power and in judgment.
This could refer refer to angels, which it does in scripture at times or to a great spiritual being or even kings and rulers.
These These are all referred to by this word gods.
Notice it's a lowercase g gods, it's kind of a generic term.
And um and look, I recognize that it sounds ridiculous that uh talking to a church on a Sunday morning that I might say that from time to time people in history have given their allegiance to other people, right?
And have looked to other rulers to functionally make their life work.
That sounds ridiculous, right?
And we would never do that.
We don't ever do that.
Right?
Never in November every four years do we look to somebody and say, "Can you make life work for me?" Can you enact policies or wield your power in such a way that that I will finally get the things that I want.
And my people will finally get the the coverage and the protection so that we can do the things that we want to do.
Will you do that for me?
Will you make Make life good.
Now again, hypothetical situation, right?
Why we get so despondent or so elated on the first Wednesday in November every four years?
This God, this Lord is looking at us saying, it's empty.
Ultimately, it's empty.
That person, that being, that political party, that CEO that leader cannot fully and finally deliver on the promises.
You will be disappointed.
Only one is meant to fulfill you and to bring you joy at the deepest level.
That's our third point this morning.
Joy from the Lord's reign.
Joy from the Lord's reign.
So, we've seen the glory, the challenges, and now the joy.
Six times in this song, the author calls the earth and its inhabitants to rejoice and be glad.
But that exhortation finds its climax for sure here in these last three verses.
I'm going to reread them together verses 10 through 12.
Oh, you who love the Lord, hate evil.
He preserves the life of his saints, be uh he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright and heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, oh you righteous and give thanks to his holy name.
It is a beautiful climatic section.
It's comforting, it's hopeful.
It makes us say, "Man, I wish that were true of me.
I want that.
I want that to be the refrain of my life.
I want light and joy and thankfulness and hope to characterize me." So, how do we get it?
How do we get that?
How do How do these things become true of us?
We get joy from the Lord through having the righteousness of the Lord.
Through having the righteousness of the Lord, it's through our being or becoming in verse 10 right there, one of his saints.
Through being counted righteous or upright in heart verse 11.
Friends, it is if the psalmist were to play out and were to be speaking from on the other side of Jesus, he would be pointing all of his fingers and his arrows at Jesus saying, "It's through him." He is the means by which we become a saint, not a a saint that can be envisioned and put into statues or forms and worship.
Saints in scripture are just It's another word for those who have been been made and declared righteous by God.
And in and through Jesus that righteousness is available.
It's in his person.
In his active obedience on earth and his fully finally submitting himself to the Father in every single way and doing it all fulfilling the law for us.
It's in his life, it's in his death, his substitutionary atoning death on the cross.
He obeyed everything and we look and say we did not.
He says, "I got you.
I will give you my righteousness.
I will take your sin.
I will be punished for it.
You will be exalted for it and what I give you.
You become one of his saints through faith in him.
Through trusting in him however great great or feeble your faith is.
I've been thinking about joy a lot lately actually, which is a fun thing to think about.
Sometimes my mind is full of other things.
Uh, I've been thinking about joy as I've been thinking about humor a lot.
I have a friend who has just completed and written a book was released at beginning of June.
His name is Matt Howell.
The book's name is In on the Joke.
And this book is essentially Matt's the culmination of decades of him becoming a Christian and he would have lots of fun with his friends in college at OU and I know this is true because I was one of his friends and we had a lot of fun.
Most of it was legal.
I'm just kidding.
It was all legal boys and girls.
And Uh, but we had a lot of fun together.
Um, but Matt, as he tells the story, he would go be around church people on Sundays and otherwise and uh on different occasions, if not most the occasions, he would kind of walk in and he would realize that there was something missing from this group of Christians and often he says it was joy.
And they would find themselves arguing about theological minutia and splitting hairs about what we might otherwise call secondary issues and he said it was just bizarre because you know on one hand I had all these Christian friends who I was having all this fun with and then when I would step into that kind of the official gathering it just seemed joyless and lifeless.
And I get it.
Look y'all, a Friday night with college friends is a different it's a different setting than a Sunday morning perhaps.
But there should be some similarities, right?
The joy thing should transcend boundaries of gatherings.
So as we bring us in for a close this morning, I want to do what is maybe not normal for the closing part of a sermon.
I want to pick a little fight with you guys.
I got a little beef with you.
Some of us some of our traditions, the PCA, my own tradition.
Um, it times we can be myopic.
We could be overly focused, you might say, on theology, on getting things right.
And look, I'm throwing myself into the ring with you because I've just preached a sermon with five sub-points on the first passage or on the first point, three on the second.
I love theology.
I'm ordained as a minister.
But I might ask us a question or I might set up something and ask us a question.
I would suggest that theology in all of its importance, in all of its precision and what it's seeking to do and trying to do, I would say that at its best, theology done well should function like a skeleton in our bodies.
It's meant to support and give structure to.
It's meant to hold up.
It gives space and cavities for various systems, organ systems.
I looked it up, there's 11 of those in our bodies that work in tandem and intricacy is the way God has made us.
They work together to keep us alive, which they when enjoined by the spirit of God make us human.
So, think about the skeleton is super important.
But it's not the main point.
It's not the main point.
A vision of the Christian life that has theology as the telos or the main point, the end point is actually not getting the point.
A life lived under the Lord's reign, a life that is animated, yes, by the things we believed.
As the spirit joins and brings life through those things, as we know, realize, celebrate what the Lord Jesus has done for us.
A life lived in joy unto him is the point.
And so I might ask, as real important as your theology is, is the joy just as real and important in you?
What is the end that you consider and live toward?
CS Lewis famously wrote that joy is the serious business of heaven.
And I could just simply reflexively ask, is it the serious business of your life?
And if it's not, I'm not here to beat you up on that.
I realized I said earlier, some of you're in seasons where joy feels elusive.
Sadness is real, pain is real, yes, all of the above.
But is there an ultimate joy in knowing that if not in this life, one day, someday, all the wrongs will be made right.
All the sadness will come untrue and you will fully finally be with Jesus and does that future reality come like an ink dropper into a cup of water and just drop in there and begin to begin to color it even in the slightest way now.
If you're in Christ, you have every reason to rejoice in the Lord and give thanks to his holy name.
If our friend Rocky from Project Hell Mary were to show up right now and be with us, he would say yes, yes, yes, amaze, amaze, amaze.
Joy, joy, joy.
This is available to you in the Lord Jesus who reigns over all, please pray with me.
Father in heaven, I pray that you would fill our hearts with your forever joy and happiness.
I pray that your rule and reign would be known, would be felt, would be realized, seen, and that you would be seen for who you are, the great and good God who loves to bless.
Who loves to bring joy through sadness.
And who is so committed to that that you went to the cross for us so that we might know something of your blessing and joy even though it costs Jesus everything.
So would you do this in us?
Would you give us faith?
Father, would you move us to be a people who act in joy and generosity toward others even as we now bring our tithes and offerings to you.
Our our money vise for our hearts, Lord.
And so would you pry our fingers open this morning?
Would we give it and joy?
You tell us you love a joyful giver.
So, let us be that this morning.
Let us be the people who give to you and your work in the world with joy.
We love you.
We praise you.
We worship you.
Jesus name we pray.

Sermon transcript is computer generated.