This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] I am sad to report that summer is coming to an end. It just makes me sad when I say that I'm sorry, I apologize, but it's the truth. It is coming to an end.

[00:00:17] If you go outside after eight o'clock these days, start to get dark outside. What is up with that? And I know that for some of our college students, school is starting back up. Many of our elementary high school junior high students, we've just got a couple more weeks until we are back in classes interacting with things called syllabi and doing homework and things like that. All right. And that's let me just say that while you have it, the academic calendar is a joy, right, to have a actual summer where you get an extended amount of time off. I mean, don't you remember those days? Some of us some of us are still there, but some of us, it's a distant memory. We get like two months off and it just felt like. Yes. So exciting. Is it so free?

[00:01:09] And then you get bored eventually. But but I mean, it's such a great time. And some of us have had to say goodbye to summerlike. That's like a week that we get off. But we want to keep the summer of joy going here at CompassHB HP. Right. We never intended when we label that, that to have joy be a seasonal thing here at our church. Right. And so today what we're gonna do is, is we're gonna find out how can we keep the joy going, not just during the summertime, but all the time. And so I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 32. And we'll be examining this psalm and hopefully through what we've heard this summer from God's word and what we'll hear today, that the joy is just going to get stirred up. It's going to get so stoked up that we're just going to keep rolling down the joy tracks for the rest of our lives. Even so, I'd invite you to termed as Psalm 32. It's on page 462. And let's actually stand and we're going to read this entire psalm together. Let's stand in honor of God's word and read Psalm 32 together.

[00:02:15] Heather. It says this is a Maskell of David.

[00:02:21] It says, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven. Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. And in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night. Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly. Offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found. Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding which must be curbed with Bitan bridle, or it will not stay near you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Big lad in the Lord and rejoice so righteous and shout for joy all you upright in heart.

[00:03:49] That ends the reading of God's word. You may have a seat.

[00:03:55] Well, you can notice by that last verse why I selected this song for today. Shout for for joy. We want to experience that joy that is offered in Christ. And we want to express that joy. And so let's actually examine how we get to this response in verse 11. Let's go all the way back to the beginning. And you can see the good these first two verses blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven. Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. And in whose spirit there is no deceit. We start off David starts off with just this statement of truth that blessed is the person that is forgiven, whose sin is cover. Not a word. Blessed is not really one that we use in our culture without a hashtag before it. Right. But really, we could even probably better translate that word happy. Right. You understand with happy means you could write that down. Happy is the one whose transgression. This kind of happiness, this kind of joy. Where does it come from? If you were to ask people around here in North Orange County, where does happiness come from? Where is it found? Or some people might say in the summertime. So I've got a couple more weeks of happiness before I go back to school. My life is over. Right. And there's no more happiness to be found in my English composition class or something like that. Or happiness is found when things are going well in my life that, hey, everything's going the way I hoped it would. And that's that's making me happy. Happiness is found in other people. When I'm when I'm really having other people treat me the way I would like to have them treat me when I really feel loved and appreciated, then I'm happy or happiness is found in all those plans that I've got, all those things that I've been working towards really succeeding come into fruition. Those projects I've been hammering on. I want to see those things really work out. Or maybe happiness is found when other people know who I am, when they really respect and appreciate my skills and abilities and my contributions. Or maybe happiness is found in things that I have a house possessions. Car technology or pleasures that I can find in this life.

[00:06:10] David, is some saying something so profoundly different than the way we naturally think in America today. You want to know where he is saying happiness comes from? It comes from forgiveness.

[00:06:21] Happiness comes from forgiveness. And look at the words that he uses here for what we're forgiven for. It says in verse one whose transgression is forgiving. That means passing over a boundary or doing what is prohibited. We might think of it as almost like trespassing today where we would go on to some kind of property like Area 51 or something like that, where entrance is prohibited, not really recommended to do that. Or and they says whose skin is covered? Skin is really oh, a word that means missing the mark or not doing something that is commanded, it says in verse two, blesses the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. Now, I mean, these are all kind of words describing sin. But this word iniquity, it really has the connotation of something being morally distorted or perverted.

[00:07:15] And that's what sin is. It's so twisted, it's so I mean, we've got such a thought to minimize sin. We just kind of think of it as a mistake in our culture. But really, it's gross. It's grossly perverting the goodness of God for us to sin when he's been so good for us to disobey his commands, when his commands are only there for our good and for our joy. That's so twisted. That's so, so sick. And then it says at the end of verse two, in a new spirit, there is no deceit.

[00:07:46] I mean, is it just sins so despicable in the way it lies to us that it promises happiness and maybe it might deliver for a brief moment or for a short period of time.

[00:07:59] But in the end, it just brings guilt. It just brings shame. It just brings sorrow. And that's what we need to be forgiven for. And that's what we all have. So let's get this down for point number one.

[00:08:13] If you're taking notes that you need to find happiness in your sin being covered. If you really want to have joy continue in your life, if you really want it to not be a seasonal thing or a momentary thing in your life, you need to be absolutely sure. Here this morning that your skin has been covered by the Lord. That's the only way we can try to pursue our plans. We can try to find happiness in all of these different things. It's never going to happen without forgiveness in our lives. Now, David. He really gets into some real talk with us here this morning. He says that. But then he's like, let me tell you how that went down in my own life. Look at verse three. He says, For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night. Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. So David was saying that there was a time in his life. And if you know the life of David, you might think of maybe one or two different times where this could have been the case, where there was sin that was happening in David's life. And rather than dealing with it, rather than being honest about it and going to the Lord says he kept silent.

[00:09:32] He wasn't talking about it. He wasn't talking about it with other people. He wasn't talking about it with the Lord. And how did that go? For David, he says, my bones wasted away. I mean, some serious osteoporosis happening in David's life.

[00:09:49] I mean. I mean, just using that to describe this this thing that he just felt like, man, I don't have any structure and it's coming through my groaning all day long.

[00:10:01] Ever been in so much pain that like you've been groaning.

[00:10:05] Ever had a stomach ache so bad that you just like, oh, right. Like, you can't help but express the pain that you are feeling. David was saying that was happening in his life. And why was that happening?

[00:10:17] He says in verse four for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. I want you to know that God is actively against sin in our lives.

[00:10:32] Here, here, it was just like God was was kind of placing his hand on David and David was feeling the weight of it.

[00:10:41] David was feeling the weight of his sin that God was not going to be disengaged with this and David's life. He loved David. And so he was going to press on David a little bit. He was going to keep him from experiencing happiness and joy until he got to the point where he was really going to deal with his sin. And he describes, my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

[00:11:05] Now, I mean, praise the Lord. We have enjoyed a relatively mild summer here in the coastal regions. I mean, am I right? Is that been enjoyable anywhere else? Fewer days of wishing you had air conditioning and things like that. And it still cools down at night here in the coastal regions. So we live in pretty good. We can understand why we pay so much money to live here. But some of us, we've ventured out beyond the coastal regions of California. We've gone to places like Palm Springs. We've also just ventured all the way to Lake Havasu in Arizona. Now, I mean, in Lake Havasu, was it hot out there? Was it really hot? And they were talking like temperatures that should not exist on this on this planet. And I mean, we were we were enjoying the pool or the lake and air conditioning while we were out there.

[00:11:54] But if you spend any amount of extended time out in the heat of those places, you start to understand what David is talking about here. It feels like your strength is literally sapped, like you have no strength in Israel where David was. It gets hot there. I got to go to Israel and I realized, like, this is more like Palm Springs and Lake Havasu. Pendent is like Huntington Beach. It got hot there in the summertime or maybe even a way that you could translate. This is my strength was dried up as by the fever heat of summer. You ever had a fever that's been so high, your temperature. You've been really sick. And all you can do is just lie there like you really have no strength to do anything else. Like there's maybe even a cup of water that you could reach. But you've got to think about that for a few minutes before you can even really, really go for it. You got to really make a plan for that because you're strength. It's like there's nothing there. Like that's what David was experiencing, that rather than sin, giving him happiness, giving him joy, giving him life. Sin was sucking the life out of him. And God's hand was heavy upon him. And maybe some of us who are here this morning have been deceived or deceiving ourselves into thinking that sins can not be that big of a deal in our life, that that we can just continue without dealing with it in our life. And and maybe we've felt kind of that heavy hand of the Lord. Maybe we felt like life is kind of squishing us down, like our strength is sapped, that there we can't find that joy and happiness. And David wants to provide an example to you here this morning. Look at what he says he did in verse five. He says, I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Now, it's really important that we we really take note of what David did. He didn't just pray a quick prayer. I prayed prayers. Now it's. It's done with. Right. Look at what it says. He did something positive. Any any stop doing something negative. On the positive side, he says, I acknowledged my sin to you. I acknowledged it now. I mean, this is really saying that I agreed with God about my son. I agreed with God that as much as he hates it, I have agreed with how hateful and wicked my sin really is, that I've been doing things that have been prohibited. I've been not doing things that I should have been doing. And it's ugly, this iniquity that I've had. It's perverse. It is gross. I mean, in America, we have such a casual relationship with sin. We want to treat it like it's no big deal. We shouldn't try to take it seriously on the negative side. He says, I did not cover my iniquity.

[00:14:50] I didn't hide it. I didn't try to make it go away. Oh, there are so many ways, friends that people are trying to cover their sin today. I mean, I know some people who are trying to cover their sin with more sin.

[00:15:07] And when they said they feel convicted, they feel guilt based on that. And to basically take away that feeling of guilt, they run to more sin to try to escape from the guilt that they're experiencing. This is a lot of people are trying to escape into substances, into alcohol that the hey, even if even if I can get my mind, if I can distract myself through this substance even for a short period of time, I'm going to do that. It's going to be able to take away the sting of that guilt that I'm experiencing for even just a moment. Some people are are throwing themselves into sexual pleasure, sinful sexual pleasure, where it's like, okay, I, I have sinned and I'm just going to go back and do more sin. I'm just going to try to cover this up by doing it again to get my mind off of it and other ways. People are just distracting themselves with things that aren't necessarily sinful. I'm just going to throw myself into my work, into my career. I'm just going to throw myself into Netflix. I'm going to start bingeing and just try to distract myself from the guilt that I'm experiencing because of my sin. I'm gonna throw myself into my hobby, into something that I enjoy. I'm going to do whatever I can to get away from acknowledging myself.

[00:16:21] So many people are doing that. So many people are trying to cover their sin by trying to shift the blame to someone else.

[00:16:28] They really. That's not my problem. That's my parents problem. That was the way I was raised or something that happened to me that was wrong in the past. So it's really not my fault that I'm sitting it's someone else's fault. Or if my circumstances were different, I wouldn't be sending if things were going better for me and my life, I wouldn't be sitting. Maybe things aren't going better for you and your life because you're sinning.

[00:16:54] We've ever had this like this other person really made me so angry, I had to I had to respond this way. I mean, we could see that pretty clearly that it's not the case when we've got kids. Right. Any of you had your kids kind of pull that one on you? Like, my brother made me do this. Oh, he forced you to punch him in the face. Really? Hmm. Let's see. But now, somehow we've deceived ourselves into thinking that works when we're adults. And my boss really made me do this. That my extended family really made me do this. Or my spouse made me do this or my kids made me do this.

[00:17:32] I mean, maybe even some of us, we've got someone who's trying to help us turn away from sin in our life. Someone in our fellowship group, someone else here at the church that's lovingly coming alongside us. And they're they're calling us out. They're helping us to see our sin and urging us to turn away from it rather than actually like allowing that to help us deal with our sin. We're trying to nit pick something about how they're doing it and our sin is left undealt with. Maybe even there's some of us that we've experienced the conviction based on our sin and we're just trying to cover it up with good works.

[00:18:05] We're thinking, hey, OK, well, I'll go to church, I'll go to church. And that don't make me feel better about how I'm living my life for a moment or all or all serve in some way at the church. I'll do something. I'll I'll also on it for the parking ministry. I could do that. And then that makes me feel like, OK, even though I'm still living in this city, even though I'm not dealing with it. I've got the parking ministry. I can really I can really put my confidence in that. I'm doing something good by God, that somehow my good things are going to overweigh and cover up my bad things that I've done. And David says, I stopped doing that.

[00:18:37] My friends have failure to deal with your sin in your life will keep you from joy.

[00:18:43] I guarantee you there's no happiness to be found in having sin in our life. It will be impossible for you to find it as hard as you try. As long as you look, you will never find happiness in. David's example is is here. I acknowledge my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. And look at what he says next. I will confess my transgressions.

[00:19:06] Do you see how that's plural there?

[00:19:09] I mean, oftentimes we want to go to the Lord and we just want to deal with maybe the one sin that's making us feel the worst when really there's a whole host of other transgressions that we're not dealing with.

[00:19:20] So David E's like, Ramina, I'm going to be real with God about this. I mean, I agree with him about it. I'm going to stop trying to cover it up and I'm going to go to the Lord and I'm gonna bring it all to him. Got to confess my transgressions, all of them to the Lord. I'm going to really deal with it all right here before the Lord. And look at what happened. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Isn't that amazing? I mean, no. No penalty box time.

[00:19:48] No, no waiting period, no lag. OK, David, let's have some graveling here. Let's really a little bit more, please. Right. All right. Let's see if you're really serious about this. No, I mean, like he he comes to the Lord.

[00:20:00] Honestly, both his sin is forgiven.

[00:20:05] We have a forgiving God, a man. Praise the Lord. We have a God who is willing to give us a full and complete pardon for our sin of some of us. We read in First John this week. I invite you to turn to first John, just for him just for a minute. Page 1021 first John, Chapter one. And we can see this, the same truth so clearly articulated by the apostle John here in chapter.

[00:20:36] Chapter one, it says in verse eight of Chapter One.

[00:20:43] If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. So if we're trying to cover up our sin, if we're trying to act like it didn't happen or it's not that big a deal, really, we're just deceiving ourselves. That's not actually the way it is. But if we confess our sins, plural. Right. Like, we're we're bringing it all to the Lord. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Praise the Lord. He's willing to forgive us our sins. Like, I like the fact that we have since should not keep us from going to the Lord. It should make us run to the Lord because he is willing to forgive us of our sins. That's the kind of God that we have. And if you go back to Psalm 32 for just a moment and we'll see here this this beautiful thing that in verse five, David says, I did not cover my iniquity, but that's not the first time in this song that this word cover has been used. If you go back up to verse one, it says, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgive in whose sin is covered.

[00:22:01] So that's so interesting that what God is wanting us to know, what he's wanting us to understand, is that when God forgives our sin, he covers it.

[00:22:13] It's not like this fate covering that we try to do where we try to act like it's not real. This is like a real covering, like our scene is really covered. I mean, even go over to solve one or three, turn over there to the right. Later on in the Book of Psalms.

[00:22:29] SOB, one hundred and three. And look at verse 10, this is another song that David wrote.

[00:22:38] An inverse 10.

[00:22:40] Look at how David writes about the way it is when our scene is covered, when our iniquity is forgiven, he says in verse 10, he does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to Amen equities.

[00:22:55] God is going to choose to treat us as if those sins had not really happened, like in a real way. Those sins are covered, he says, for his high as the heavens are above the earth, so great as his steadfast love towards those who fear him. That's not really from us. That's from him. And then a verse 12, he says, As far as the east is from the west so far, does he remove our transgressions from us?

[00:23:22] And if you go to God with your transgressions, the full some of them and you're acknowledging them to him and you're confessing them to him, your sin is going to be forgiven. And it's going to be covered. It's going to be wiped away. I mean, if you start Guttmann East, you will never start going west. I don't even know which direction east.

[00:23:41] It's right. But that that's the truth of it. Right.

[00:23:44] It's it's as far away as is physically possible that God is going to do a real work to declare you righteous in a real way, not in a way that we try to make our think ourselves, think of ourselves as righteous.

[00:24:00] So really, the truth here today is either you're trying to cover your sins or Jesus Christ is covering them with his blood.

[00:24:09] I mean, that's the way it works today, and I encourage you to write down Second Corinthians seven, nine to eleven, that's a passage I'm going to ask you to read this week with the follow up questions on the back. And the Corinthians were such a good example of what it looks like to really deal with sin, to really be honest about it, to not be trying to hide it and to do whatever it takes to deal with sin in their life. Now, I mean, we've been seeing if you're in some 32 go back there. We've been seeing David's example, how he acknowledged his sin. And then basically he stops kind of sharing his own story and he says, hey, because this is the way that this happened in my life. Therefore, in verse verse six, therefore, what I know to be true. What I found, the forgiveness that I've found in the Lord, in his forgiveness.

[00:24:58] He says, therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found, at a time when you may be found. What is that talking about? Are we saying that God's got like office hours?

[00:25:13] Right. Like, forgiveness is a seasonal thing, like forgiveness for the summertime fault. No forgiveness. Pain and sorrow in your classes. Right. Like, no. What. What are we talking about? And then he uses this next phrase. He says, Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

[00:25:31] I don't know what you think when you think of a rush of great waters, but I think that David is actually referring back to Genesis Chapter seven and the flood.

[00:25:41] There was a time where God judged the world that everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Everyone was just living in sin and rebellion besides one person in his family that were doing what was right. Noah. And so God decided to judge the world through a world wide flood where it rained for 40 days and 40 nights and the floods came and they rushed in.

[00:26:05] Everyone on the earth who is not in the ark perished. Now, I don't know if you've ever really considered how serious that is, how intense it is. I mean, many people would say that possibly drowning is one of the worst ways to die. I don't know how they come to that information that they're not really surveying dead people.

[00:26:31] But that's what they would say. They would say the drowning is one of the worst ways to die because it's really like your lungs are filling up with water and you are suffocated.

[00:26:40] And if you've gone down to the deep end of the pool and tried to hang out there for a minute. Pretty soon it starts getting pretty intense as your lungs are screaming for air. And imagine if you weren't able to have the strength to keep your head above the water. I mean, that would be a terrible way to die. And that's the way it went for everyone. And David is saying, hey, hey, when the ark when the door of the ark was closed, I mean, the ark was being constructed for a long time. It took them a long time to build a boat that big to get all the animals on the ark. But once the door to the ark was shut and the rains came and the floods rose, there was no chance for the people outside the ark. There's no salvation. There's no mercy. There is no forgiveness. And David is saying, hey, because I know that forgiveness is available now. You should go to him now. You should go to him at a time where he can be found. Get this down for point number two. Get forgiven before it's too late.

[00:27:43] Get forgiven before it's too late now, I mean, we could look back to the time of the flood, but as we read this last week in second Peter three, Peter, saying that there's going to be a similar time coming in the future where he's not going to flood the earth with water again, it's going to come through fire.

[00:28:03] And I guarantee you there's going to be a time where people are going to wish that they could get right with the Lord and they will not be able to. And I know for you I know for you that that day is going to come at a day that you die if you have not been forgiven from the Lord before you die. It's game over for you. There'll be no chance to get right with the Lord. There will be no forgiveness after death comes the judgment. That's what you can expect. And I know so many people that that seemed to get close. They come to the church and they learn the truth. They feel conviction about their sin. And rather than really deal with it, bringing it to the Lord and getting it forgiving and trusting in him, they try to do something themselves. They try to try harder. They try to to do better. They they start to feel like, well, at least getting me church, get going to church, gets me close enough where I'll be. All right. And right now, God is being patient, right now God is being patient. He is delaying the judgment because he wants people to be saved. That's what Peter told us, that we should count the patients of our Lord as salvation. That's the point, isn't it? Now is the time where salvation is still available, now is the time where it can still be found. But there's going to come a time where that's over. And what a fearful thing that would be to fall into the hands of the living God. As your judge, not as someone who's covering your scent, but as someone who is uncovering your scent, someone who is putting it all on display and righteously judging you for all of it. I get so scared when I hear people acting like they have time. David is saying the time is now. You don't know that you're going to be live in next week. This week could be the week of your death where then you're going to face the judgment. And then there will be no chance to get right with God if you're not already right with him now. So why would you wait? Why would you delay when this kind of forgiveness is on the table? I mean, look at what David says in verse seven. Says it, OK? Not only did I get forgiven, but now you are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. And is not such a precious picture that David is painting here for us. That you are a hiding place for me, like you are a place where I am like rather than having to fear you and fear your judgment. You're a place where I'm safe. Like, I found safety in the law that you preserve me from trouble.

[00:30:51] Now, we might think again. Preserving me from trouble. OK, I like that. No traffic on the four oh five. My kids always doing what I'd like them to do. I'd like some preservation from that kind of trouble. But I think we're misinterpreting that word because often this word trouble is talking about trouble from an enemy or trouble from an adversary. That's the kind of trouble we're talking about. Now, we can definitely understand that there are times that God definitely protected David from his physical adversaries, from his physical enemies here on this earth. But don't we all have an enemy of our souls? Isn't there one enemy that rises above all of the rest? Aren't we talking about Satan himself? Is the enemy? I invite you to turn to the Book of Revelation. With me, the last book in the Bible, so just turn all the way to the end to the last large book that we have to really get into, and it's going to be fascinating to read this book together in a few weeks. Revelation Chapter twelve. Turn there with me.

[00:32:01] Revelation, Chapter 12. This is one of the things that God told John to write down that will take place in the future. And it says in verse 10 and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives, even unto death.

[00:32:40] Do you see the way it describes what had been happening before Satan was thrown down, before he was expelled from the presence of the Lord? Do you see what he was doing there?

[00:32:49] Who accuses them day and night before our God?

[00:32:54] That a little bit unsettling to have the thought that Satan himself might be accusing you, might have accused you in this last year, may be Satan himself has accused you before the Lord that he knows some of the sins that you've engaged in. And he is bringing them up in the presence of God.

[00:33:13] Is that it? Is that a sobering, frightening fact to know that that's taking place right now? That's the way that Satan is currently operating. That's going to come to an end in the future. But right now, he is accusing them and not just seasonally, day and night, constantly, repeatedly. I mean, we have. Trouble. We have an adversary who is out to get us.

[00:33:38] And if we think about, you know, some of the sense that we've committed, he's he's got actually ammo. He's got real things. We have really said that he could really bring up before the law, but go back to some 32. It says that you preserve me from trouble and look at what it says next.

[00:33:58] That you surround me with shouts of deliverance. You want to know what's going on right now and haven't. Maybe even if Satan were there to accuse you, if you have really gone to the Lord and acknowledged your sin, confessed your transgressions to him, and he has forgiven you. That the blood of Jesus Christ has covered your sin. You want to know who's shouting down Satan every time he brings an accusation against you? It's Jesus Christ himself. You're surrounded by his shouts of deliverance.

[00:34:34] Every time Satan wants to bring that up, Jesus is like I paid for that. I covered that with my blood. I paid it in full. Their transgression has been paid for and their sin has been covered.

[00:34:50] That's the kind of shout I got is surrounding us with. Maintains it is not saying like, yeah.

[00:34:56] I mean, when you've got space in your calendar, you should get around to experiencing this kind of forgiveness. I mean, God, he's got space in his calendar at the current moment. We don't know when that space is running now. But like, you know, if you get around to it, take your time. Really, really. You know, just if you if you want to wait, that's OK. No, David, it's like this is so good. This is so tremendously awesome. How could you wait to experience this kind of forgiveness, this kind of relationship with the Lord where he is? He's making us safe. He's protecting us. He's preserving us from our adversary. And he's surrounded us. There's no, like, left flank that's uncovered. We are completely surrounded and secure.

[00:35:37] In Jesus Christ. I mean, why would you wait? Why would you delay one more day to do that? I want to encourage you, if you know God's been working on your life and you've got sin that you have not dealt with, you have not confessed, you have not agreed with God about your sin. Don't wait another minute. Do it now. Because we don't know that we have another minute. And it's so good. Why would you delay? Why would you keep messing around with a with a weak sauce? Things of this life when you could have Jesus Christ defending you forever.

[00:36:12] Does not makes sense. Now we've got another transition, you know, Sir David was sharing his own experience and then he's really, you know, exhorting us for what we should do. And then the tone kind of shifts to where it almost seems like the the speaker who's doing the talking changes between verse seven and verse eight, where it says I and it really seems like God himself is kind of taken up the mike, you know, taking a hold of the pen here for a minute and and is really speaking himself is is I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

[00:36:46] I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Meaning now God is saying to David, like, OK, we've got your sin forgiven. And it's covered now. But now what I really want to do is I want to teach you I want to instruct you in the right way to go.

[00:37:03] We don't want it to be this constant, like, again, sin. And then I get forgiven and I go right back to sin. And now I've got I like be pressed down again by the Lord and forgiven.

[00:37:13] I want to I want to get taught. I want to actually, you know, know what God wants me to do and follow it. I mean, you could write down tightest chapter two versus eleven to twelve. Write that down on your notes. I'd be a great passage to read this week. But then that passage says, The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people. But that same grace is also training us to renounce son godliness and to live self-control. Upright and godly lives in this present. H. David, God saying to David, all right, we've we've got forgiveness. Now let's get to instruction. Now let's actually teach you the right way to go and and look at what it says there. I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

[00:37:59] I mean, doesn't that just sound like personal, I guess. It's not just like, hey, I'm just gonna throw out some general things for you there. But no, Elmina, I'm going to really make it personal for you, David.

[00:38:09] I mean, I just think for us, I mean, we're really hearing the instruction of the Lord every day as we get into the word. And we've got kind of a, you know, one chapter a day plan that we're doing a lot of us in scripture of the day. And so it's like, you know, the next day we're just reading the next chapter.

[00:38:25] But doesn't it seem so often that, like, when I read the Bible, it feels like that was the exact thing I needed to hear today, was the exact thing I needed to be thinking through to prepare me for what God had for me today. I mean, that's how personal God is. And that's what he's saying to us, that he wants to instruct you and he cares about you. Like, he actually wants to lead you day by day through his instruction, through his word. But then there's a warning that comes after that B not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. A horse analogy. We're getting into the world of equestrian things here.

[00:39:12] OK? What does this mean? We're in Southern California. We don't know a lot about horses here. I mean, maybe we see some like some people riding horses, but that's like too expensive for most of us. Right. So we just drive around in our horseless carriages. That's what we we do. But if you've lived in a place like the land of Texas, you've actually maybe had a little bit more experience with horses. I mean, not everybody wears cowboy boots and rides a horse in Texas. Some something that was surprising to me when I moved there in junior high. I thought everybody was you know, we would still have the posts outside of the stores where people could tie up their horses and and things like that. But I actually had the got to have a few experiences with horses. And and what it says there is that which must be curbed with beer and bridle. I don't know. You know what? You know what those terms refer to. But the beer is actually something that you put in the mouth of the horse. Right. And the bridle would be what we would think of as the reins to the horse. So really, like, when you get on a horse, you are moving that horse in the direction that you wanted to go by something in its mouth, like you're yanking it by something in its mouth. It's it actually seems kind of intense when you think about it. But it's like that's actually what's required to get the horse to do what you want it to do. I mean, if you're on horseback, you can say, go left all you want. The horse is not going to follow your instructions. Right. And maybe even we might think even worse than that would be a mule. Now, there was this one time when I was in Texas, in high school, are kind of high school group, took a trip where there was this place. There was this little town maybe a half mile away, and there was this opportunity for you to rent a horse or as they called it over there, a burro. A mule. Right. And it was three dollars for the burro and five dollars for the horse. And I'm glad I paid the upgrade fee to the horse because one of my friends, he said, no, I'm going to go with the borough and not a wise choice, not a wise choice at all. And so he he gets on the burro and, you know, we're there on our horses. And, you know, we're we're riding off into the sunset, as it were. It feels it feels like. And then pretty soon my my friend, he he he starts to slip and the saddle of it he was sitting on actually like falls off of the burrow. Right. And and he loses hold of the reins to this bro. And this burro is off and running. Right. Like this bro is not staying near my friend. And so Amy, it was one of the great joys of my life to watch my friends run through the countryside after this borough, because the truth of what it says right here, that without that bitten bridle in place, they got right.

[00:42:02] Like they are not going to stay near you.

[00:42:06] And, you know, this is God himself talking to David, talking to us. And he's like, don't be that way. I mean, how many times are we so lazy and actually paying attention to the instruction of the Lord? Many of us, we're not even looking at it consistently in our lives. We're trying to help everybody. We're trying to get this to be a united group effort here at our church that we're gonna read the Bible. We're gonna pay attention to what he says. We're trying to pay close attention to what he says because we want to do it. And some of us, we're still being very reticent, very lazy at that. So let's get this down for point number three. Let's just say it real simply. Don't be the mule. Don't be the mule. Some of you right now are coming in today and God thinks of you like a mule that he has to force to do what is right. If he's not going to actually bring some kind of pain into your life, you won't follow what he has for you to do. You will reject it. You will make it something that you will not do in your life.

[00:43:08] He says don't don't let it be that way.

[00:43:10] Don't be like that if you're like that today. That might be a transgression that you got to really confess to the Lord that maybe even right now, because you have such a lax attitude toward his work that he's been pressing you down. You've actually felt his hand upon you.

[00:43:25] Don't be that way.

[00:43:27] Don't make it to where he's got to force you to do what's right. Put yourself in the spot where I want to do what's right. Every day I want to know what God wants me to do. I want to know him better. I want to follow in his ways, because I know that's the way of joy.

[00:43:39] I want to avoid all of this fever, heat of summer, sapping my strength. I want to avoid my bones being wasting away and groaning all the time. I want to have joy all the time and the joy that we can have.

[00:43:52] It's going to be found in obedience to what God has for us. If you're living a life even beyond this summer where you're really paying attention to the instruction of the Lord and following him, you're going to have happiness, my friends. You're going to have joy. He is his commands are so good. He knows how to keep us from trouble. He knows how to guide us in the way that we should go. And he wants to help us. He wants to make it personal for you.

[00:44:17] Why would you why would you neglect something that would that would be so good for you and look at what it says here in verse 10. It even seems like he's wrapping it all up here where he makes these these last statements. He says Many are the sorrows of the wicked.

[00:44:35] Many are the sorrows of the wicked. But steadfast love surrounds the one who trust in the Lord. Now, I hope you noticed there that there's only two categories. David saying that either you're really trusting in the Lord, you've really come to him for forgiveness and you're trusting in his forgiveness and your life, you're trusting that he's covering your sin or your wicked. That's not the way we like to think about it here in America. We'd like to find some kind of space in the middle. Even the book that we're reading in Scripture of the day right now, first, John, it's going to help us to see that there is no middle. You're either in the light or you're in the darkness. There's no middle ground. It's either one or the other. And I just think for some of us who are even here in this sermon to hear about the forgiveness that we could have and then to keep living in our sin. I mean, how wicked would that be? How wicked would it be to reject such grace, such mercy, such forgiveness and love from the Lord? And it guarantees you it guarantees you that if you are going to keep living in rebellion to the Lord, if you're not going to deal with your sin, many will be your sorrows. You have many sorrows in this life. And then all you will know is sorrow for ever. After this, life is over. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, and I just think for some of us, we've experienced that hand of the Lord kind of squishiness down a little bit, helping us to feel the weight of our sin, helping us to feel conviction. You want to know the scariest thing that could happen for someone who is here today is for God to remove his hand. I mean, right now, God is being so loving to some of us that he's pressing us down. He's not allowing us to find joy in our sin, in the things of this world, because he wants us to come to him to confess our transgressions to him. He wants to give us that forgiveness. That's what the Bible tells us. But the Bible also tells us that there's gonna be times where if people keep living in their rebellion, even though he's trying to press them down, to get them to come to him for forgiveness, that he's going to give them over to a. He's going to allow him to go in a direction that they want to go. And that is the scariest thing in the world that could happen to you. That would be the multiplication of your sorrows. That is only going to be getting exponentially worse as you head into eternity. Friends, I just want to plead with you if you're here today. Don't wait. Don't wait. God stands ready to forgive you. He's not gonna make you have to clean up your life. All you've got to do is come to him and then he'll take it from there.

[00:47:13] Come day and find that forgiveness, but then, oh, look at the look of the next race. Many are the stars of the wicked but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

[00:47:26] Now, this word in the Hebrew that we translate steadfast love is this word said.

[00:47:34] Now, Hebrew is kind of an interesting language, right? It's got some of the gutturals that we shy away from here in the in the English language. It's almost like you have to have a little bit of, you know, phlegm in your throat to really speak Hebrew properly. Right. I mean, did you hear that acid?

[00:47:52] Can you say that with me? I mean, didn't that just. Feel awkward to do that with your with your voice. I mean, that is a word that maybe sounds like narrowly. Like that sounds like automatic poetically. It doesn't sound good. Right. But but what it means is his steadfast love.

[00:48:11] Is faithfulness his never ending? Goodness, like for if we trust in the Lord, if we've gotten forgiveness through him. It's like that is what is now surrounding us.

[00:48:25] Not only are his shouts of deliverance surrounding us, but his goodness, his steadfast love is surrounding us all the way around. Like there is no direction that you can go in in your life where you are not going to experience the goodness of the Lord.

[00:48:43] Even in trials, as we've been learning about.

[00:48:47] Doesn't seem like being in prison really put a damper on Paul's joy as he's right into the Philippians doesn't really seem like the fiery trials that the people that Peter was writing to that we looked at last week had really affected them. They still had joy, even though they'd been grieved by various trials.

[00:49:07] That could be the case for us. We can experience God's never ending goodness. I mean, this is even something that we see David saying that I believe I will look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living says that in Psalm twenty, twenty seven. That's the attitude that you and I should be expecting. If you've gone to the Lord and you've gotten forgiveness in him and he's covering you. He's surrounding you with his shouts of deliverance. All you're going to experience is his goodness all the time, every day for the rest of your life.

[00:49:41] And then when we go to heaven and we get to see him and we get to have the inheritance that he has been preserving for us. It's only going to get better and better for the rest of eternity. France. Does that stoke you up? Does that fill you with joy? OK, a couple of us were there. All right.

[00:50:03] Apparently, I need to preach the sermon a little bit better here. Well, I mean, if you think about it, let's go to the next verse here. Because he says, be glad in the Lord and rejoice so righteous and shout for joy all you upright in heart. So he's talking to people that are now. He describes them as righteous. He describes them as upright in heart. No, that's not something that we would be able to do ourselves. But that's something that we can actually be made by the forgiveness that we found. Finding cracks that like when we come to Christ for forgiveness, he declares us righteous, not based on how good we've been in our life, but based on the righteousness of Jesus Christ that he's given to us. And if we're walking with the Lord, we're upright in heart, like we're really, really want to do what pleases. The Lord really wanted to follow his commandments here. And there's this verse of of response to everything that we've talked about in the sermon before. Look at these things. It says, one, be glad in the Lord it you know, like we would think about David when he says some thirty seven delight yourself in the Lord. And I just find so much happiness in the Lord, such rich delight based on thinking about all that he's done for me. And I'm now surrounded by his goodness there.

[00:51:25] He's declared me righteous. This is even a you know, this. This next phase. Rejoice. So righteousness seems like like a leap for joy. Like let it well up within you. And then there's this last command shout for joy.

[00:51:39] You know, we're getting into the Hebrew. What I've really found that shout means shout. Mean, we're talking about a loud ringing cry going out, and this is the response that I don't know if you've you've noticed this here, but these are commands. These are not optional things. This is not something that will if you care to do this or if not, it's all right. No, we're actually commanded based on all that God has done for us to be glad in the Lord and rejoice and shout for joy.

[00:52:15] Let's get that down for point number four on your notes. Shout for joy. And feel free to put as many exclamation points as you would like after that. That's the way it should be. And if you think about it, that is the only rational response to what we've been talking about here today.

[00:52:33] I mean, let's just say that it means summer's coming to an end and we got classes and syllabi. But we've also got like pumpkin spice and, you know, sweaters and. And football. Right. For. For some of us. Right. I mean, every season has its own unique joys and troubles. Right. But let's just say that you're a football fan and. Let's just say, I mean, we've got some world class football teams here in here in Southern California. Even some World-Class College football teams. Right. Two of them that come to mind are like, you know, the University of Southern California Trojans. And then there's the other other school, UCLA, the Bruins. Right. I feel like I have to say that to honor my father because he went to USC. I feel like I have to do that. But let's just say that you're a Bruins fan, right? And and you've been a Bruins fan for a long time. You went to university there and, you know, the eight clap and everything like that. And let's just say that, you know, both the Bruins and USC do really well this year. And in some odd way, it works out that the two of them are playing in the national championship game at the end of the year.

[00:53:43] And it's a hard fought game. It's like a really intense contest and it's coming all the way down to the end. And let's also say that you're there at the game like you score tickets and you and your crew have gone and you are there and you are just like so intense and waiting to see what's going to happen. Let's just say hypothetically. That UCLA scores the final touchdown. Right at the end. And they win the national championship, defeating their rivals, USC. I mean, how would you respond? See? Do you see?

[00:54:18] Do you see if the people who are UCLA fans, how they cannot help but respond with joy as a result of that? I mean, if you were there in the stadium.

[00:54:28] And your response to that was a great game. Yes. I mean, wouldn't your friends feel that was strange? Wouldn't your friends feel like that kind of response doesn't really fit with what we just witnessed?

[00:54:45] I mean, they'd be like, come on, how can you how can you react so nonchalantly? We just won. We beat USC national champions.

[00:54:55] I mean, guys, we've got something more than football that we're talking about here. We've got the eternal salvation of our souls. And I just want to say, does our response to that really fit? I mean, this phrase shout for joy. I don't know that if it would surprise you to learn that very often in the songs we are commanded this same command to shout for joy. I mean, just turn over to the next Psalm, Psalm 33, where the first word is.

[00:55:26] Shout, shout for joy. There it is again. Right. OK, shout for joy. Oh, you. Doesn't it? It seems very, very similar here. Praise befits the upright. Like when God has made us upright, it makes sense that we would praise him, give thanks to the Lord with the liar, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. Let's get the instruments out here. Let's get Ryan playing on the guitar. And it's a sing to him with new song. Play Skillfully on the strings with. OK. One person said it right. Loud shouts Do you see the emphasis on the volume?

[00:56:09] They're like, if you were at that UCLA game and you were a UCLA fan, you would be screaming at the top of your lungs. But when we think about being a righteous, we think about God making us upright. We screaming at the top of our lungs for that. I mean, you're with me over to Psalm 35. Some 35 towards the end.

[00:56:31] Verse 27, it says, Let those who delight in my righteousness, who delight that they've been made rather righteous. What should they do?

[00:56:41] Now we're talking. Shout for joy and be glad and say ever more great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant.

[00:56:49] Now turn with me all the way over to Psalm 71, Psalm 71. And we could we could give many more references where it says shout for joy within the within the Psalms. But look with me at Psalm 71, verse 23.

[00:57:09] It says, my lips will at his among us. We'll shout for joy when.

[00:57:18] I sing praises to. That's interesting. When is the time that we come together to sing praises to the Lord?

[00:57:30] Here we are, right? This is a time where we gather together specifically with a purpose. I don't know if you've been here for a while. We do it every weekend. When we gather together, we sing praises to the Lord.

[00:57:44] And we should be thinking that we should be not just singing, but shouting.

[00:57:50] You know, sometimes I get to stand in the back of the worship service and I get to kind of take it in from the rear and there's there's many, many times I'm really encouraged because it feels like people are singing out with Praise the Lord and they're singing loud. But there's been times in the history of our church that the word that comes to my mind when I kind of just take in our worship as a church. You want to know what that word is?

[00:58:15] Unbiblical.

[00:58:17] And like I mean, I have such a high appreciation for the guys up here, right, with Ryan and Ron and every week there meet with Pastor Bobby. They're serving us so well, so excellently. I mean, the content of the songs, I mean, there's really a lot of thought. A lot of prayer that is put into choosing the songs every week because we want songs that are going to put the truth about what God has done and his goodness in front of us so that we can really rejoice in response to what God has done there. I mean, there are music team is working hard to play skillfully on their instruments so they can not distract us, but actually serve us, like even encouraging us to well up with joy. And a lot of times as I look around, I see many people singing. I see some who aren't. And I see some were even singing loud. But I see relatively few people who are actually shouting.

[00:59:11] I mean, this is a command from the Lord. We don't have the option to sing in a mild mannered way when we're thinking about what God has done. I mean, let's just examine some of the content of the songs we sang this morning. This is Amazing Grace that you would take my place. When we say worthy is the lamb who was slain thinking he was slain for me so that his blood would cover my sins so that I could be righteous. Can I respond by just being where the U.S. Was I mean by just going through the motions of that song? Do you see how that doesn't fit with what I'm actually singing about?

[00:59:57] Praise to the Lord, for he is they help and salvation. Shelters the under his wings. He's a hiding place for me, surely his goodness and mercy will daily attend thee that I'm surrounded by his loving kindness. Coronation, that sin is vanquished when Christ is king. That nothing can compare to the glory. We will share when Christ reigns on the Earth. We're singing for Thine Is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever a man.

[01:00:34] Meat is the way you sang that song, really fit that truth. We sing Jesus paid it all. When before the throne. I stand in him complete Jesus died my soul to save my lips will still Rippey.

[01:00:52] I mean, how can you not shout that, oh, praise the one who paid my debt and raise this life up from the dead. How can we not shout that together?

[01:01:02] Now, some of you are like, okay, pastoral. I I'm picking up what you're saying, but I'm no singer. And we know. Right. I mean, it's it's no secret to some of us, right? Here's the deal, guys. Not everyone can say. Everyone can shout. Right. You don't have to be a great singer to shout for joy. Based on what God has done for you. I remember when I was in college, I went to a Christian college and we had worship times every week there at our school. And it was really encouraging to see a group of people that were really excited to praise the Lord. And I remember one day I sat next to my my friend Tim that went to college there with me. And Tim is not a singer, Tim. I mean, maybe not tone deaf as a post, but close. Right.

[01:01:53] Like this guy. Just real low monotone, like the whole like melody where it goes up and down kind of thing. Totally lost on my friend Tim. Right. And I sat with him that first time and I learned very quickly his level of musical skill and and his ability to sing.

[01:02:11] But that didn't matter to him. Because what mattered to him was what he was singing about. He didn't care what other people thought about him. He cared about the joy that he had in the Lord. And so he was going for. He was going for and and over time, he actually became one of my favorite people to sit next to and to worship alongside. And it really gave me a lot of encouragement, like I should just be going for it as well. I have to care what people think about how I sound or how good of a singer I am. That's not what I'm here to do. I'm not here to impress other people. I'm here to shout for joy at what God has done in my life. He doesn't. It seem like at the end of this is time and God's word together that that's what fits as we close, that we should we should shout for joy together. And I'm going to do something unusual.

[01:03:03] I'm going to lead us in a song so that we can really focus not on the music, but on the truth that we're going to sing. So I'd invite Sheila to stand up with me.

[01:03:19] And we're gonna sing a song. Called it is well with my soul.

[01:03:27] And some of us who know that song, what's familiar to us. And I think what should hopefully excite you is not the music of the song, but the truth that we're gonna be singing about, that we're gonna be singing about God's goodness. We're gonna be singing about the pardon that we have received in Jesus Christ. As you sing this song, focus on the lyrics and let's really respond with a shout of joy here together.

[01:03:57] When he like the. Way when?

[01:04:11] Rose likes to fill those.

[01:04:26] Thou hast.

[01:04:30] Me to say he is well, he's well with my soul.

[01:04:42] Shout it out, guys. It is well with my soul. Is days went when my.

[01:05:07] Think about our adversary.

[01:05:09] Those say.

[01:05:20] That last.

[01:05:35] Got end.

[01:05:41] This is day.

[01:05:48] Don.

[01:05:55] He is.

[01:06:08] Is. No way. Think about his forgiveness.

[01:06:19] Nice to no. This is my day.

[01:06:40] Down to the drug de da di.

[01:06:54] Ray. Oh. A.

[01:07:12] I.

[01:07:18] Is glad to be glad they stopped.

[01:07:29] And a. Jesus go.

[01:07:56] Shout, shout, shout down together. He is.

[01:08:20] We had my. He is where it is.

[01:08:35] So. I mean, let's pray.

[01:08:42] By the way, give you great brazen glory then through the work of Christ, that it could be well with our soul. God that you would forgive.

[01:08:50] Not a part of our sin, but the whole that you would give us a hope in a relationship with you. Now we would be safe and protected. God experiencing your goodness every single day of our lives. Even in the midst of great trials and great difficulty. And then you will return to bring us to be home with you where we could be with you forever.

[01:09:12] God, we praise your name because we also ask that in your mercy that you would grant forgiveness to people right here, right now. We know that there are people that came into this service, God, and they're still trying to cover their sin. They're not willing to deal with it, they're not willing to acknowledge it. Before you got in, they asked I plead with you or that you would not allow them to do that any longer and that they would do what David did, that they would confess their transgressions to the Lord and that they could join us in the shout of joy for your forgiveness.

[01:09:48] We're so thankful for you, God. We want the shout to ring out from this place. God, we want everyone to know the joy that we have based on your forgiveness for your glory and in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray and everyone said a man.