WEBVTT 00:01.111 --> 00:02.032 [SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, guys. 00:02.954 --> 00:03.414 [SPEAKER_00]: How you doing? 00:04.556 --> 00:05.037 [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? 00:05.638 --> 00:06.439 [SPEAKER_00]: Lovely to see you. 00:06.559 --> 00:06.940 [SPEAKER_00]: Are you well? 00:08.983 --> 00:11.687 [SPEAKER_00]: Does it usually rain this much in November? 00:12.889 --> 00:17.616 [SPEAKER_00]: It feels like I feel like it's excessively cold and rainy for this time of year. 00:17.636 --> 00:22.644 [SPEAKER_00]: We had this moment, a disclaimer of hope, 30 degrees, a couple of weeks ago, and then it just disappeared. 00:23.124 --> 00:25.027 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, how are you today? 00:25.087 --> 00:28.232 [SPEAKER_00]: You've started for a new series. 00:28.347 --> 00:35.727 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, series on the Psalms, you know the commentators often refer to the Psalms as the prayer book of the people of God. 00:36.589 --> 00:40.399 [SPEAKER_00]: Because it is a collection, there's 150 of them in there. 00:40.497 --> 00:49.427 [SPEAKER_00]: A collection of songs and prayers that have actually shaped our worship and our spirituality as God's people for thousands of years. 00:49.467 --> 00:53.452 [SPEAKER_00]: And they're a real gift, the Psalms, and do you know what I love about the Psalms? 00:54.253 --> 00:59.899 [SPEAKER_00]: They give voice to the full range of the human experience and human emotions. 01:00.400 --> 01:08.749 [SPEAKER_00]: So no matter what is going on in your life, no matter what kind of season you're in, no matter what you're walking through or wrestling through there is a Psalm for it. 01:08.729 --> 01:13.516 [SPEAKER_00]: if you are in a season of longing, there is a Psalm that speaks to that. 01:13.576 --> 01:18.644 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're in a season of expectation and waiting, there's a Psalm that speaks to that. 01:18.704 --> 01:22.189 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're in a season of joy, there's a Psalm that speaks to that. 01:22.409 --> 01:27.457 [SPEAKER_00]: If you're in a season where maybe you're wrestling with some deep anger, there's a Psalm that speaks to that. 01:27.817 --> 01:29.860 [SPEAKER_00]: No matter what you can think of, 01:29.840 --> 01:36.632 [SPEAKER_00]: whether it be a season of great delight or a season of great challenge, there is a Psalm that meets us. 01:37.192 --> 01:37.733 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know what? 01:37.773 --> 01:40.859 [SPEAKER_00]: The Psalms actually teach us how to pray our lives. 01:42.622 --> 01:49.834 [SPEAKER_00]: Not just the polished and presentable parts, but they teach us how to bring our whole selves into the presence of God. 01:50.675 --> 01:51.897 [SPEAKER_00]: The good, the bad and the ugly. 01:51.918 --> 01:54.582 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know what? 01:55.220 --> 02:05.556 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it might be that you're journeying through it the moment, whether you've got questions, whether you've got doubts, you've gratitude, our losses, our victories, it's all in there. 02:06.357 --> 02:09.983 [SPEAKER_00]: And the Psalms truly become like a mirror for the soul and a map for the heart. 02:10.604 --> 02:14.089 [SPEAKER_00]: And they lead us and they guide us towards honesty. 02:14.305 --> 02:21.652 [SPEAKER_00]: The sands are real in their roar, and you won't find more honest scripture than in the sands, just honest roar, human emotion. 02:21.712 --> 02:26.757 [SPEAKER_00]: They lead us towards honesty, they lead us towards healing and they lead us towards hope. 02:27.718 --> 02:40.330 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, that's why we've called this series Deep Calls to Deep, and you would have seen it in the opening clip this morning, but that comes from Psalm 42, that says Deep Calls to Deep in the roar of your waterfalls. 02:40.495 --> 02:48.320 [SPEAKER_00]: all your waives and your breakers of swept over me by day, the Lord directs his love and all night at night, his song is with me. 02:49.002 --> 02:51.450 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, as Beck said, you know, 02:52.088 --> 02:54.452 [SPEAKER_00]: At this point in the year, things only speed up. 02:54.633 --> 02:55.454 [SPEAKER_00]: How many people know that? 02:56.216 --> 02:57.819 [SPEAKER_00]: It's already getting faster. 02:57.939 --> 02:58.560 [SPEAKER_00]: It's November. 02:58.580 --> 03:00.864 [SPEAKER_00]: They're not slowing down until January, friends. 03:01.505 --> 03:15.852 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we wanted to create just a pause of breaking the traffic for us, just to slow down, and to be reminded that in the sands, actually God meets us not on the surface of our lives, but in the deep places. 03:16.810 --> 03:25.916 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to encourage you, we've only got four weeks in the Psalms before we head into Advent, and we're going to be looking at Psalms of rest, Psalms of lament, Psalms of reflection. 03:25.976 --> 03:32.153 [SPEAKER_00]: Today is about Psalms of celebration, and that's the best place to start because actually celebration opens. 03:32.133 --> 03:57.438 [SPEAKER_00]: the door for the movement through all of those other places and so I'm excited to be sharing with you today but I want to pray for us and I want to encourage you for the next four weeks to do your very best just to slow down and resist that urge to get swept away in the busyness of Christmas coming out as like a bullet train and just let the Lord refresh you and encourage you and meet you in a deep way. 03:57.458 --> 03:58.579 [SPEAKER_00]: Is that okay? 03:58.694 --> 03:59.695 [SPEAKER_00]: Great, let me pray for you. 03:59.716 --> 04:05.003 [SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, I pray this morning, would you just breathe refreshment over this room? 04:06.145 --> 04:18.464 [SPEAKER_00]: God, would you help us just to pause in your presence to open our eyes to you here with us this morning, to open our ears to the sound of your voice, speaking directly to our hearts and souls this morning. 04:19.044 --> 04:20.547 [SPEAKER_00]: And I pray, would you refresh us? 04:20.607 --> 04:21.448 [SPEAKER_00]: Would you renew us? 04:22.349 --> 04:25.875 [SPEAKER_00]: Would you encourage us in our hearts today as we open the scriptures together? 04:26.696 --> 04:28.178 [SPEAKER_00]: Come Holy Spirit, I pray. 04:28.985 --> 04:30.428 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen, amen. 04:31.290 --> 04:34.596 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, who knows the utter frustration of forgetting your password? 04:37.622 --> 04:41.249 [SPEAKER_00]: How many people like me is this a daily experience for you? 04:41.269 --> 04:42.552 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 04:42.752 --> 04:50.588 [SPEAKER_00]: Ah, you know, you are trying, how many people know it always happens at the most inconvenient time? 04:51.310 --> 05:07.834 [SPEAKER_00]: when you're trying to buy concert tickets and you've been in that line and then all of a sudden it times out and you have to log back in and you're frantically trying to remember the password that you had to update because you had to add numbers and symbols to it and you can't remember if it's exclamation mark before the two or whatever. 05:07.814 --> 05:13.985 [SPEAKER_00]: Vic Rose, always logs me out so many times, prolific, logger out of our website. 05:14.746 --> 05:19.514 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it is for you, your bank accounts, but you know that frustration and you know how inconvenient it can be. 05:19.915 --> 05:24.924 [SPEAKER_00]: When you're at the checkout in the moment where you need it and you cannot for the life of you remember said password. 05:25.485 --> 05:30.413 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've started, and then you have to go through that process of quickly resetting the password. 05:30.595 --> 05:32.720 [SPEAKER_00]: quickly, quickly resetting the password. 05:33.041 --> 05:43.545 [SPEAKER_00]: That takes about 60 different steps to do, because then you have to triple check it, get the code, and then the second code, and then the third code to confirm that you had the code that is actually you that you're not a robot. 05:44.287 --> 05:46.191 [SPEAKER_00]: We know that feeling, right? 05:46.171 --> 05:57.753 [SPEAKER_00]: What I want to say this morning, I just want you to hold that feeling of utter frustration because sometimes that experience of being locked out of your account can be the same experience that we have in our journey of faith. 05:58.495 --> 06:05.408 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes we find ourselves in seasons where for no lack of trying we feel locked out of relationship with the Lordle. 06:05.428 --> 06:06.710 [SPEAKER_00]: We just feel disconnected. 06:07.332 --> 06:09.175 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you feel dry. 06:09.155 --> 06:12.259 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's like that said this morning, you just are distracted. 06:12.660 --> 06:27.900 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you are here this morning and you know that feeling all too well of a really busy season of so many competing demands and life is moving very quickly that it's very hard to slow down and deeply connect with yourself, let alone with the Lord. 06:28.761 --> 06:32.346 [SPEAKER_00]: And so sometimes we can arrive at that place where we just feel logged out. 06:33.728 --> 06:37.693 [SPEAKER_00]: And the encouragement of the Psalms to us today, 06:38.095 --> 06:39.904 [SPEAKER_00]: is that there is a way back in. 06:41.191 --> 06:44.427 [SPEAKER_00]: How many people have ever been at the beach and you've been caught in a rip? 06:46.583 --> 06:47.484 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 06:47.504 --> 06:55.734 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know that feeling where you left your towel and you're back on the sand and you're like, I'm just going to duck in for a quick swim, you're out there having a great time. 06:56.075 --> 07:02.042 [SPEAKER_00]: And then you turn around just to disable where your towel is and it's not there anymore. 07:02.402 --> 07:05.807 [SPEAKER_00]: And you realize you're like a kilometer down the beach, probably at the next beach. 07:06.307 --> 07:09.711 [SPEAKER_00]: And you're thinking, oh man, where have I drifted to? 07:09.791 --> 07:12.675 [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't even realize it's happening, do. 07:12.655 --> 07:29.365 [SPEAKER_00]: At the time, like most of the time, when you're caught in a rip, they're subtle, and they're quite sneaky, and often this can happen to us in our faith journey, where before we've even realized it, there's been a subtle drift that's happened, and we've ended up halfway down the beach, looking for our tower, wondering where we are. 07:30.256 --> 07:37.407 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to just say that with no judgment this morning, but just an invitation to pause and to re-center. 07:38.389 --> 07:42.736 [SPEAKER_00]: Just to take a look back at the beach and figure out where your towel is and get back there. 07:42.776 --> 07:45.300 [SPEAKER_00]: And the Psalms help us to do that. 07:45.861 --> 07:49.026 [SPEAKER_00]: The Psalms are a brilliant locating book of the Bible. 07:49.106 --> 07:51.690 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to read you from Psalm 100 this morning. 07:52.244 --> 07:56.852 [SPEAKER_00]: because Psalm 100 is acts like a spiritual password into the presence of God for us. 07:57.393 --> 08:00.118 [SPEAKER_00]: It says, this, shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. 08:00.880 --> 08:04.446 [SPEAKER_00]: Worship the Lord with gladness and come before Him with joyful songs. 08:05.228 --> 08:06.510 [SPEAKER_00]: We've been doing that this morning. 08:06.610 --> 08:14.725 [SPEAKER_00]: Know that the Lord is God, that it's here who made us and we are here, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 08:14.705 --> 08:18.050 [SPEAKER_00]: and to his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. 08:18.731 --> 08:27.404 [SPEAKER_00]: Give thanks to him and praise his name for the Lord is good and his love and joy as forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations. 08:28.625 --> 08:31.049 [SPEAKER_00]: What I love about this Psalm is this is a login Psalm. 08:31.610 --> 08:39.261 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you ever feeling disconnected, if you're ever struggling to find that connection with the Lord, Psalm 100 is your go to Psalm. 08:39.241 --> 08:40.845 [SPEAKER_00]: Come back to Psalm 100. 08:41.606 --> 08:49.283 [SPEAKER_00]: It reminds us that the way into God's presence is actually through praise, through Thanksgiving and gratitude and celebration. 08:49.303 --> 08:56.659 [SPEAKER_00]: And it's through the celebration of who God is and what he has done for us. 08:56.909 --> 09:00.953 [SPEAKER_00]: But what happens to us is many of us start trying to log in with other passwords. 09:01.794 --> 09:03.977 [SPEAKER_00]: We try and log in with things like performance. 09:04.598 --> 09:10.644 [SPEAKER_00]: And we think if I just do all the right things, then perhaps I'll find that connection with the Lord and he'll notice me and he'll speak to me. 09:11.585 --> 09:14.288 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we try to log in with things like perfection. 09:15.129 --> 09:20.335 [SPEAKER_00]: I need to get my life right and I need to make sure everything's in order and good before I can come to the Lord. 09:21.395 --> 09:24.942 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we get caught trying to just log in with panic. 09:24.962 --> 09:29.831 [SPEAKER_00]: When everything we only come to God, when everything's falling apart and going badly, and then we're like, God, I need you. 09:30.231 --> 09:31.093 [SPEAKER_00]: Please show up for me. 09:32.656 --> 09:38.166 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we can fall into the trap of trying to log in to God's presence with bargaining. 09:39.048 --> 09:45.259 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, Lloyd, if you will do this for me, then I will spend some time with you, or I will do this for you. 09:46.319 --> 09:56.514 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's with impatience, we're like, Lord, do you not realize that it's like on a time limit here, I really need you to come through for me and answer me like right now today. 09:56.954 --> 10:01.701 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we only come to the Lord with impatience when we need him to answer something right now. 10:03.303 --> 10:14.419 [SPEAKER_00]: But some 100 is a beautiful invitation to us to come, we thankgiving, but I wonder, they're just a few, I wonder what passwords you tend to default to to log into the Lord's presence with. 10:14.990 --> 10:16.431 [SPEAKER_00]: and how's that going for you? 10:16.451 --> 10:24.478 [SPEAKER_00]: How many people know that it's easy to praise God and give him thanks when things are going really well? 10:25.939 --> 10:34.106 [SPEAKER_00]: When life's good and it's pumping and everything's going well for you and you feel like you're winning, it's really easy to praise God. 10:34.486 --> 10:40.912 [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to celebrate, it's easy to come to church and lift your hands and be like all hail King Jesus, right? 10:40.932 --> 10:44.575 [SPEAKER_00]: But how many know that when things fall apart, 10:45.230 --> 10:53.685 [SPEAKER_00]: And when you're in a season of great challenge and maybe there's grief and there's loss and there's despair or confusion there, it's hard to praise God sometimes. 10:56.289 --> 10:59.695 [SPEAKER_00]: And I wonder, what do we do when our hearts don't feel grateful? 11:01.666 --> 11:30.390 [SPEAKER_00]: When we're in seasons where things feel like they're falling apart, or we feel overwhelmed, when we're struggling to find something to be thankful for, it's curious to me and I think it's a real gift and maybe just a gentle encouragement to us this morning that the Psalm says, enter his gates with thanksgiving, not enter his gates when you feel thankful. 11:30.691 --> 11:33.695 [SPEAKER_00]: not enter his gates when I feel thankful. 11:37.120 --> 11:39.844 [SPEAKER_00]: But I want to say the acelibration doesn't deny pain. 11:40.685 --> 11:43.549 [SPEAKER_00]: It actually declares God's goodness in the middle of it. 11:44.611 --> 11:47.395 [SPEAKER_00]: And when we get that revelation, that's so powerful. 11:48.056 --> 11:52.362 [SPEAKER_00]: That's such a powerful truth to be able to celebrate in the midst of challenge. 11:52.645 --> 12:01.378 [SPEAKER_00]: and to give praise to God in the midst of trials and in the midst of grief, because gratitude is a discipline and a choice before it's a feeling. 12:04.202 --> 12:07.967 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's just an invitation for us as we head into the end of the year. 12:08.067 --> 12:12.814 [SPEAKER_00]: What would it be like for gratitude and thanksgiving to be our posture? 12:13.891 --> 12:15.513 [SPEAKER_00]: between now and the end of the year. 12:15.613 --> 12:26.044 [SPEAKER_00]: And even just right now in the room, as you think about everything that you're navigating right now in your life, and your family, and your workplace, and your studies, there are a few hundred people in this room. 12:26.084 --> 12:29.528 [SPEAKER_00]: And that means there's a few hundred stories and about a few thousand problems. 12:31.390 --> 12:34.734 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes, all we see are the problems before us. 12:35.515 --> 12:42.042 [SPEAKER_00]: But today is an invitation to see the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God, and to actually 12:42.410 --> 12:48.139 [SPEAKER_00]: all of the challenge and the problems, find themselves inside of that frame in God's presence. 12:49.962 --> 12:58.435 [SPEAKER_00]: And so if you're ever finding it hard to find something to be thankful for, the Psalms actually teach us that celebration begins with remembrance. 13:00.718 --> 13:06.207 [SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 100 reminds us that God is our creator and our shepherd and that he's in control. 13:06.558 --> 13:08.562 [SPEAKER_00]: It reminds us that he cares for us. 13:09.143 --> 13:12.810 [SPEAKER_00]: It reminds us that he is God, that he made us. 13:12.951 --> 13:20.005 [SPEAKER_00]: It reminds us that he's good, that he's loving Jews forever, and that his faithfulness continues through all generations. 13:20.987 --> 13:27.199 [SPEAKER_00]: But how many of us know that we have terrible memories and excellent forgetteries? 13:30.537 --> 13:43.301 [SPEAKER_00]: Look, I'm so quick to, when something's going wrong and things feel like they're falling apart in my life, I forget so quickly all of the good things that are also happening at the very same time that I have to be thankful for. 13:43.341 --> 13:49.373 [SPEAKER_00]: And all I can see is the problem right in front of me and how awful it feels to be in a time of challenge. 13:56.187 --> 14:08.004 [SPEAKER_00]: And it reminds me of the story in Exodus 16 of the people of God, you know, you'll remember this story that God appointed Moses to lead them out of 400 years in slavery. 14:08.024 --> 14:11.209 [SPEAKER_00]: 400 years, they were under Pharaoh's rule. 14:11.389 --> 14:13.132 [SPEAKER_00]: A pressed, it was awful. 14:13.252 --> 14:15.535 [SPEAKER_00]: The Egyptians were slave drivers, they were brutal. 14:15.596 --> 14:17.418 [SPEAKER_00]: It was just horrible. 14:17.518 --> 14:20.302 [SPEAKER_00]: You can't even, we could just be on being able to imagine. 14:20.803 --> 14:21.985 [SPEAKER_00]: What that would have been like. 14:22.946 --> 14:23.427 [SPEAKER_00]: And God, 14:24.183 --> 14:25.898 [SPEAKER_00]: because he's so incredible. 14:25.938 --> 14:29.367 [SPEAKER_00]: Delives the paper out of 400 years of slavery. 14:30.663 --> 14:43.899 [SPEAKER_00]: not a few moments later than they've made it through the Red Sea, they're free, they're not under the oppression of Pharaoh anymore, they're together, every single one of them made it through on dry land. 14:44.040 --> 14:45.361 [SPEAKER_00]: So much to be thankful for. 14:45.421 --> 14:50.708 [SPEAKER_00]: They sing a great big song about it, giving thanks to God as they come into the desert into the wilderness. 14:51.088 --> 14:57.396 [SPEAKER_00]: They sing praises to God and then like not a minute later, we find them grumbling and winging because they're hungry. 14:57.899 --> 14:59.402 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen to this in Exodus 16. 14:59.522 --> 15:03.229 [SPEAKER_00]: It says in the desert, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 15:03.609 --> 15:10.943 [SPEAKER_00]: The Israelites said to them, if only we died by the Lord's hand in Egypt, there we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. 15:11.824 --> 15:15.451 [SPEAKER_00]: But you've brought us out into the desert to starve the entire assembly to death. 15:16.833 --> 15:19.418 [SPEAKER_00]: How many people know you get real angry when you're hungry? 15:21.743 --> 15:26.277 [SPEAKER_00]: The people of God, they've just been freed from 400 years of slavery. 15:26.297 --> 15:30.469 [SPEAKER_00]: And just for a moment, they're hungry, like their stomachs are rumbling. 15:30.891 --> 15:35.685 [SPEAKER_00]: And they just forget everything that the Lord has done to them and just winch and complain. 15:36.593 --> 15:38.957 [SPEAKER_00]: and all they can think about is their rumbling stomachs. 15:39.658 --> 15:40.199 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know what? 15:40.600 --> 15:43.425 [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like this happens to us a lot too in our lives. 15:44.306 --> 15:51.338 [SPEAKER_00]: We often forget the goodness of God to us because we get overshadowed by the problem that's right in front of us and it blinds us. 15:52.220 --> 15:56.006 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's such an invitation to remember. 15:56.968 --> 16:00.694 [SPEAKER_00]: So this morning, I just want you right now to think of one thing. 16:00.944 --> 16:02.767 [SPEAKER_00]: that you are thankful to God for today. 16:03.528 --> 16:06.133 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to just let it come to your mind. 16:07.155 --> 16:13.966 [SPEAKER_00]: It might be a gift that the Lord has given you, a provision, it might be the person sitting next to you. 16:14.026 --> 16:18.053 [SPEAKER_00]: Think of that thing, give me a nod when you've got that thing in your mind. 16:18.574 --> 16:21.940 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to imagine it, see it, give it a name, 16:22.038 --> 16:22.518 [SPEAKER_00]: You got it? 16:23.399 --> 16:24.761 [SPEAKER_00]: OK, we're going to do something together. 16:24.781 --> 16:28.224 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to count to three, and we're all going to say our thing out loud at the same time. 16:28.724 --> 16:31.627 [SPEAKER_00]: We're the nice big enthusiastic voice, not like a quiet whisper. 16:32.007 --> 16:34.169 [SPEAKER_00]: Because we want everybody to hear what you're thankful for. 16:34.630 --> 16:41.536 [SPEAKER_00]: Because in a moment, 300 guests of Thanksgiving are going to rise in the room, which is quite incredible. 16:41.756 --> 16:42.437 [SPEAKER_00]: So you got your thing? 16:43.718 --> 16:44.339 [SPEAKER_00]: Have you got your thing? 16:45.079 --> 16:45.440 [SPEAKER_00]: OK, good. 16:45.500 --> 16:46.020 [SPEAKER_00]: You are here. 16:46.200 --> 16:46.500 [SPEAKER_00]: All right. 16:47.001 --> 16:49.243 [SPEAKER_00]: One, two, three. 16:51.890 --> 16:52.411 [SPEAKER_00]: So good. 16:53.472 --> 16:55.355 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, that thing is in your mind, isn't it? 16:55.375 --> 17:07.533 [SPEAKER_00]: And what happens when you remember and you have something good in your mind that the Lord has done for you is that all of the challenges and the problems that you are navigating just for a moment fade into the background. 17:08.174 --> 17:11.198 [SPEAKER_00]: And we're reminded that the Lord is good to us. 17:11.178 --> 17:21.076 [SPEAKER_00]: that the Lord is faithful to us, and that even in the midst of challenge, all those challenges haven't gone away, but in the midst of it, the Lord is good and He is faithful and He is with you. 17:21.096 --> 17:22.098 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 17:22.519 --> 17:30.694 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there's such a gift in the discipline of celebration, the discipline of gratitude, and it starts with remembering. 17:32.036 --> 17:34.080 [SPEAKER_00]: Anyone in the room talk to themselves? 17:35.005 --> 17:35.586 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, good. 17:36.227 --> 17:36.587 [SPEAKER_00]: Me too. 17:36.928 --> 17:38.150 [SPEAKER_00]: I talked to myself all the time. 17:38.510 --> 17:41.795 [SPEAKER_00]: Poor Beck is long suffering, because she has to share an office with me. 17:41.835 --> 17:48.024 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm really annoying, because I sort of narrate my life to myself all day. 17:48.064 --> 17:56.036 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, sometimes you don't realize this about yourself and till people reflect back to you and say, or they ask you all day, sorry, what was that? 17:56.116 --> 17:57.638 [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, oh, no, I'm not talking to you. 17:58.900 --> 18:00.382 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk to myself all day long. 18:00.742 --> 18:04.668 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know what I do it because I need to tell myself what I'm doing and then what I'm doing next. 18:05.529 --> 18:07.111 [SPEAKER_00]: And I tell myself this all day. 18:07.171 --> 18:12.738 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'll be sitting in the office and I'll be saying I'm just gonna send that email to so and so and then I'm gonna do that and be like, oh, sorry what? 18:13.279 --> 18:14.881 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be like, oh, no, no, I'm not talking to you. 18:14.941 --> 18:19.187 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just telling myself because I need to remind myself all day of the things I need to do. 18:23.392 --> 18:27.878 [SPEAKER_00]: The good news is, if you do talk to yourself, you're not crazy, well, maybe of it. 18:29.461 --> 18:42.660 [SPEAKER_00]: We're not the only ones who talk to ourselves, we're in good company because King David talked to himself, a lot, mighty King David who we love to celebrate, sometimes even he struggled to be thankful for things. 18:42.877 --> 18:49.789 [SPEAKER_00]: And so he used the practice of self-talk to remind himself constantly of the Lord's goodness, listen to this in Psalm 103. 18:50.210 --> 18:51.973 [SPEAKER_00]: This is David talking to himself. 18:52.794 --> 18:55.098 [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine it has David at the beginning of every phrase. 18:55.539 --> 18:58.323 [SPEAKER_00]: David, bless the Lord, all my soul. 18:58.384 --> 19:02.270 [SPEAKER_00]: And all that is within me, bless his holy name. 19:02.991 --> 19:07.399 [SPEAKER_00]: Bless the Lord, all my soul, and David forget not all his benefits. 19:08.864 --> 19:13.632 [SPEAKER_00]: Forget not who forgives all your iniquity David and who heals all your diseases David. 19:14.053 --> 19:23.970 [SPEAKER_00]: Who redeems your life from the pit David and who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with goods so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. 19:24.018 --> 19:25.981 [SPEAKER_00]: This is David, he's preaching to himself. 19:26.742 --> 19:28.465 [SPEAKER_00]: David does this a lot in the Psalms. 19:28.505 --> 19:32.370 [SPEAKER_00]: He preachers to himself reminding his heart of what's true. 19:32.390 --> 19:38.960 [SPEAKER_00]: And let me say this sometimes, our soul needs to hear the truth from our own mouth. 19:39.541 --> 19:46.311 [SPEAKER_00]: And we have to preach it to ourselves when we don't feel it because it's still true, even when we don't feel it. 19:46.391 --> 19:51.038 [SPEAKER_00]: And when we say it to ourselves, we get up in the morning and we say, 19:51.018 --> 19:59.111 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord has been good to me, so I'm thankful for my family, so I'm thankful for my health, whatever it is. 19:59.932 --> 20:05.081 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to preach the goodness of God to ourselves and this is David's gratitude inventory. 20:05.101 --> 20:08.366 [SPEAKER_00]: He starts listing things off, everything that he's thankful for. 20:08.406 --> 20:10.349 [SPEAKER_00]: He's thankful that the Lord forgives his sins. 20:10.770 --> 20:12.132 [SPEAKER_00]: He's thankful that 20:12.112 --> 20:22.863 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord heals his diseases that he's been redeemed from the pit, that he's been crowned with loving compassion, and that the Lord has given him good things and renewed his youth like the eagles. 20:23.244 --> 20:25.466 [SPEAKER_00]: This is David, he goes on listing these things. 20:26.407 --> 20:28.069 [SPEAKER_00]: And I love what Walter Brugamann says. 20:28.169 --> 20:30.611 [SPEAKER_00]: He says the Psalmist, this is David. 20:30.631 --> 20:37.358 [SPEAKER_00]: The Psalmist's self-exortation to bless the Lord suggests that gratitude is not always spontaneous. 20:37.459 --> 20:40.802 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we must command our souls to remember. 20:42.335 --> 20:46.002 [SPEAKER_00]: And so let me just let that be an encouragement to you this morning. 20:46.142 --> 20:50.110 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we have to command our souls to remember the goodness of God to us. 20:50.611 --> 20:53.016 [SPEAKER_00]: And we have to put those truths in front of us. 20:53.757 --> 20:55.601 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to just be reminded of them. 20:56.382 --> 20:59.027 [SPEAKER_00]: So I wonder what does your soul need to remember today? 20:59.067 --> 21:04.157 [SPEAKER_00]: Because this Psalm, Psalm 103, and I'm going to read the rest of it to you. 21:05.268 --> 21:08.472 [SPEAKER_00]: Something shifts when we start remembering God's goodness. 21:09.253 --> 21:15.202 [SPEAKER_00]: Something in the atmosphere starts to shift, something in our heart starts to shift, something in our faith starts to shift. 21:15.582 --> 21:21.991 [SPEAKER_00]: David goes on after he said, by Salotto and my soul, a thousand times, he said, He starts listing the truths of God. 21:22.031 --> 21:24.454 [SPEAKER_00]: These are the things that are true about God's nature. 21:24.474 --> 21:28.660 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. 21:28.640 --> 21:32.164 [SPEAKER_00]: He made known his way to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. 21:32.645 --> 21:34.247 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord is merciful and gracious. 21:34.327 --> 21:36.930 [SPEAKER_00]: He's slow to anger and abounding and said fast love. 21:37.391 --> 21:40.554 [SPEAKER_00]: He will not always child nor will he keep his anger forever. 21:41.135 --> 21:45.681 [SPEAKER_00]: He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repair us according to our inequities. 21:46.421 --> 21:51.728 [SPEAKER_00]: For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. 21:52.389 --> 21:57.735 [SPEAKER_00]: As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 21:57.715 --> 22:04.063 [SPEAKER_00]: as a father shows compassion to his children so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 22:04.330 --> 22:07.896 [SPEAKER_00]: for he knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust. 22:08.697 --> 22:10.640 [SPEAKER_00]: As for man, his days are like grass. 22:11.001 --> 22:15.347 [SPEAKER_00]: He flourishes like a flower of the field for the wind passes over it and it's gone. 22:16.109 --> 22:30.912 [SPEAKER_00]: And its place knows it no more, but the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 22:30.892 --> 22:32.875 [SPEAKER_00]: Now listen to this tone, keep shifting. 22:32.915 --> 22:37.662 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. 22:37.762 --> 22:43.951 [SPEAKER_00]: Bless the Lord, O you, His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. 22:44.011 --> 22:55.347 [SPEAKER_00]: Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will, bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion, bless the Lord, O my soul. 22:56.710 --> 23:06.640 [SPEAKER_00]: So David starts out talking to his own soul, talking to himself, but somewhere between the beginning and the end, the tone shifts and what started out in self-talk ends with rejoicing. 23:07.281 --> 23:10.884 [SPEAKER_00]: And by the end, David's there declaring, bless the Lord, oh, you, his angels. 23:11.445 --> 23:16.129 [SPEAKER_00]: Bless the Lord, all you hosts and all you ministers, bless the Lord, all his works. 23:16.770 --> 23:21.655 [SPEAKER_00]: And it ends in this amazing sense of rejoicing because that's what happens when we remember. 23:22.073 --> 23:29.843 [SPEAKER_00]: When we remind ourselves of God's goodness and faithfulness, our remembering shifts to rejoicing, and celebration rises. 23:31.244 --> 23:37.212 [SPEAKER_00]: Gratitude opens the door, remembrance fills the room, and then joy rises in our hearts. 23:38.313 --> 23:40.276 [SPEAKER_00]: And celebration releases renewal. 23:41.197 --> 23:46.123 [SPEAKER_00]: It releases renewal in our lives, and it actually releases renewal on the earth. 23:46.643 --> 23:54.380 [SPEAKER_00]: Praise is the starting point of renewal when we lift our eyes in praise and gratitude rises from our hearts, something shifts. 23:55.222 --> 24:00.012 [SPEAKER_00]: Something shifts in us, something shifts around us and something shifts through us. 24:01.983 --> 24:04.126 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen to David again, this is Psalm 40. 24:04.206 --> 24:06.910 [SPEAKER_00]: David says this, I waited patiently for the Lord. 24:07.631 --> 24:08.972 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of you will know this Psalm well. 24:09.032 --> 24:10.514 [SPEAKER_00]: I waited patiently for the Lord. 24:10.855 --> 24:12.677 [SPEAKER_00]: He turned to me and heard my cry. 24:12.697 --> 24:16.943 [SPEAKER_00]: He lifted me out of the slimy pit and out of the mud in my eye. 24:16.963 --> 24:21.069 [SPEAKER_00]: He set my feet on a rock and he gave me a firm place to stand. 24:21.749 --> 24:26.235 [SPEAKER_00]: He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. 24:26.316 --> 24:27.417 [SPEAKER_00]: Why? 24:27.481 --> 24:32.146 [SPEAKER_00]: so that many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. 24:33.027 --> 24:35.610 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you notice that renewal starts in David's heart first? 24:35.770 --> 24:37.512 [SPEAKER_00]: He starts talking about what the Lord has done. 24:37.572 --> 24:39.414 [SPEAKER_00]: He put a new song in my heart. 24:40.816 --> 24:44.480 [SPEAKER_00]: Why so that many would see and fear the Lord? 24:44.881 --> 24:48.104 [SPEAKER_00]: And so David's personal song becomes a public testimony. 24:48.845 --> 24:51.548 [SPEAKER_00]: So powerful, celebration is contagious. 24:52.473 --> 25:06.434 [SPEAKER_00]: And it tells the world that God still saves, that God still rescues, that God still heals, that God still restores, that God is still present, that God still speaks, that God hasn't forgotten us. 25:07.796 --> 25:12.743 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, sometimes for us, celebration as Christians is our greatest testimony. 25:13.010 --> 25:19.498 [SPEAKER_00]: We need to be the person in our workplace that is celebrating all the time, the goodness of God to us and testifying. 25:20.419 --> 25:26.186 [SPEAKER_00]: That when people encounter us, they encounter people who are filled with gratitude at the life that they have. 25:27.408 --> 25:28.168 [SPEAKER_00]: It's so powerful. 25:28.309 --> 25:32.494 [SPEAKER_00]: David, this is David again, in Psalm 30, you turned my wailing into dancing. 25:32.994 --> 25:35.898 [SPEAKER_00]: You removed my sackcloth and you clove me with joy. 25:35.978 --> 25:36.519 [SPEAKER_00]: What a gift. 25:36.979 --> 25:40.924 [SPEAKER_00]: Why that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent? 25:41.377 --> 25:43.781 [SPEAKER_00]: Lord, my God, I will praise you forever. 25:45.524 --> 25:52.877 [SPEAKER_00]: So there is always renewal happening in our hearts, but there's always other people that God has in mind when he's doing something new in your life. 25:53.238 --> 25:56.844 [SPEAKER_00]: When he gives you a new song, it's so that you sing it so that someone else can hear it. 25:57.906 --> 26:03.335 [SPEAKER_00]: When he's doing a healing work in your life, it's so you can testify and share that healing with those around you. 26:05.118 --> 26:06.000 [SPEAKER_00]: The reins are here. 26:07.297 --> 26:14.449 [SPEAKER_00]: David's joy is not private, it's missional, and his praise gives others permission to hope again as well. 26:15.531 --> 26:29.254 [SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to know this this morning, guys, because every time we choose praise over despair, every time we choose Thanksgiving over bitterness, and you know what, there are so many things that happen in our lives that could cause us to despair and that could cause us to be bitter. 26:30.770 --> 26:39.312 [SPEAKER_00]: that could cause us to be fearful, but when we choose joy over fear, when we choose Thanksgiving over bitterness, we actually make space for God's kingdom to break through. 26:39.764 --> 26:41.306 [SPEAKER_00]: to break through in our lives. 26:41.506 --> 26:47.933 [SPEAKER_00]: And so you know, Becca was talking this morning about, you know, have we come in with some challenges this morning, things that feel like they're not shifting. 26:48.493 --> 26:49.635 [SPEAKER_00]: It starts in praise. 26:49.995 --> 27:03.129 [SPEAKER_00]: Can I encourage you, go to the Lord this week and write your own gratitude inventory and list all of the things you think for four and say them out loud to yourself every day and you watch and see that thing begin to shift in your life. 27:04.791 --> 27:06.953 [SPEAKER_00]: Celebration shifts the atmosphere. 27:08.992 --> 27:12.396 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, this is why Psalm so often link praise and renewal together. 27:12.436 --> 27:18.324 [SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 150, the very last Psalm in the book says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 27:18.944 --> 27:23.310 [SPEAKER_00]: Because wherever there's breath and wherever there's life, renewal is waiting to happen. 27:24.171 --> 27:37.227 [SPEAKER_00]: So when there's breath in your lungs, and we can lift it in the sound of praise, renewal comes, reminds us that, and it reminds the world that darkness doesn't get the last word. 27:37.510 --> 27:44.287 [SPEAKER_00]: We're declaring the victory that Jesus has already won, that darkness doesn't have the final word that sin doesn't have the last say. 27:44.347 --> 27:46.713 [SPEAKER_00]: When we lift our praise, heaven leans in. 27:48.136 --> 27:52.988 [SPEAKER_00]: But you know what, before renewal is seen in the world, it's sung in the hearts of God's people. 27:54.706 --> 27:57.369 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're seeing renewal breakout all over the world right now. 27:57.590 --> 28:02.676 [SPEAKER_00]: We're seeing it breakout here in our church and hearing stories, right around our nation, right around the world. 28:03.377 --> 28:05.159 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's not something that's external. 28:05.479 --> 28:14.491 [SPEAKER_00]: It's breaking out because of the hearts of the people of God, a lifting praise, and lifting worship, and praying, and laboring, and interseeding. 28:14.831 --> 28:19.617 [SPEAKER_00]: And that is what releases renewal right across the world. 28:22.178 --> 28:27.751 [SPEAKER_00]: Walter Brugaman says this about praise as well, he says praise is not a naive denial of reality. 28:27.771 --> 28:31.419 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the assertion of a deeper reality that God reigns. 28:32.522 --> 28:33.043 [SPEAKER_00]: I love that. 28:33.665 --> 28:35.108 [SPEAKER_00]: Team, you can come and join me. 28:36.404 --> 28:45.014 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, our praise always leads us back to the table, and on your way in, hopefully you will have been given a little communion cup if you don't have one. 28:45.114 --> 28:48.798 [SPEAKER_00]: Just pop your hand up and one of our team will find you and get one to you. 28:48.838 --> 28:51.501 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a couple of people down the front here and right up the back. 28:51.741 --> 28:52.382 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, Jane. 28:54.865 --> 28:59.610 [SPEAKER_00]: Just keep your hand up so we can see you right up the back over here too, Lucy. 29:03.218 --> 29:11.131 [SPEAKER_00]: While you're just, while we're just getting those to people, just grab your little cup and do the ripping now, get the ripping out of the way. 29:11.171 --> 29:19.664 [SPEAKER_00]: But celebration and praise always leads us back to the table because communion is actually the heartbeat of celebration. 29:21.788 --> 29:24.552 [SPEAKER_00]: It reminds us that deliverance has already come. 29:25.072 --> 29:31.660 [SPEAKER_00]: When we come to the table, when we come to do communion, we're being reminded that Jesus has won the victory. 29:31.740 --> 29:32.742 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me read this to you. 29:32.822 --> 29:34.123 [SPEAKER_00]: This is from Luke 22. 29:35.265 --> 29:38.509 [SPEAKER_00]: When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 29:39.310 --> 29:44.776 [SPEAKER_00]: And he said to them, I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before our suffer. 29:44.816 --> 29:50.083 [SPEAKER_00]: For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. 29:51.160 --> 30:00.450 [SPEAKER_00]: After taking the cup, he gave thanks, and he said, take this and divide it among you, for I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. 30:01.471 --> 30:04.134 [SPEAKER_00]: And he took bread and he gave thanks, and he broke it. 30:05.135 --> 30:07.897 [SPEAKER_00]: And he gave it to them saying, this is my body given for you. 30:07.917 --> 30:10.260 [SPEAKER_00]: Do this in remembrance of me. 30:10.300 --> 30:18.028 [SPEAKER_00]: In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 30:19.342 --> 30:24.340 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, communion is often called the Eucharist, and that word actually means Thanksgiving. 30:25.012 --> 30:31.081 [SPEAKER_00]: And so when we come to the table, we come, we thankgiving, we come with remembrance. 30:32.062 --> 30:43.739 [SPEAKER_00]: And we come with celebration, because just as God rescued his people from 400 years of slavery in Egypt, Jesus, who is our Passover Lamb, has rescued us from the slavery of sin. 30:44.380 --> 30:50.409 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's worth shouting and worshiping and holaring about, because we have been saved. 30:51.350 --> 30:53.854 [SPEAKER_00]: His body was broken so that we could be made whole, 30:55.184 --> 30:57.948 [SPEAKER_00]: His blood was poured out so that our hearts could be renewed. 30:58.849 --> 31:01.813 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I want us to come to the table today with celebration. 31:01.873 --> 31:04.737 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to take communion with a smile on your face today. 31:04.797 --> 31:09.204 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a reverent moment, but it's also a time of celebration. 31:09.264 --> 31:15.252 [SPEAKER_00]: So can you smile with your mouth and smile with your heart as you just celebrate what the Lord has done for you? 31:16.615 --> 31:27.954 [SPEAKER_00]: You celebrate his goodness and faithfulness, and maybe if you've come in this morning under the weight of challenge, just for a moment, let the Lord remind you and meet you, remind you that he's faithful and good. 31:27.974 --> 31:37.149 [SPEAKER_00]: And yep, it won't mean that every problem goes away when you walk out the door, but it will remind you that the Lord goes with you and that he is victorious. 31:37.730 --> 31:39.653 [SPEAKER_00]: And so let's eat and drink together church.