Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
And here this morning, we're going to go ahead and look at a sermon
entitled the Perfect Father.
The Perfect Father.
Now, today is a day where we're honoring fathers within our
church and we're honoring father figures within the church.
And it is so important that we have godly leaders, men that are
willing to stand up for the truth of God in their homes and their
workplaces, within the church, in our communities.
But we know that even though that we're honoring people this morning,
honoring fathers, honoring men, there really shouldn't be any
man, father, husband that we are supposed to worship, right?
There's one father that we are to worship, and that is the Heavenly
Father, right?
The one who knew no sin, the one who gave us the gift of life,
the one who extends forgiveness.
And so this morning, you know what?
I could be a good dad.
I even got a tumbler, a coffee cup that says world's greatest dad.
But.
And to my children, I hope that's true.
But at the end of the day, I don't deserve worship.
Why is that?
Why do I not want my children to worship me?
Why do I want other people to not worship me?
Because I am not worthy of worship.
And the reason being is because I'm flawed, I'm sinful, I'm
limited.
I'm not able to love completely.
But the Bible says that there is one that is worthy of our worship.
There is one who is perfect.
There is one who loves completely, and that is our Heavenly
Father.
First John, chapter three, verse one, tells us something amazing
here.
And, and, and it's easy in our Christian culture to glaze over,
to look over this amazing truth that we're about to see here
in First John, chapter three.
And I want to set a stage for your fort you here this morning because
as fathers that are here today, grandfathers that are here
today, men that are called to be Christian leaders, we can look
at Jesus, we can look at our Heavenly Father as an example for
the way that we are to live our lives.
So I want us to learn from that here this morning.
But I also want to understand here that as a man, I am flawed.
And, and.
And I need someone to help me in Every aspect of my life.
So, yes, I want to strive to be like the Lord.
I want to strive with every possible fiber in my body and in
the power of the Spirit to obey Christ the best that I can.
But when I fall short, I have an advocate.
I have someone that's going to help me.
I have someone who's going to lift me up and push me forward in
my life.
But for some of you that are in the room, you might say, I didn't
get an example of a good dad in my home.
The truth is, the Bible says that God the Father is a loving Father
who loves the fatherless.
And so everyone here today can experience the love of a father in
the love of the Lord here today.
And we sing that song, how deep the Father's love for us.
How vast beyond all measure.
And so I want you to see what that type of love looks like.
In First John, chapter three, verse one, it says, behold.
That word behold means take attention to look at.
Take notice of.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us.
Take note of what kind of love God has given us.
That we.
Now who's we?
That.
That's us.
That's.
That's a person who is a sinner.
That's a person who has fallen short, but a person who has trusted
in God in faith that we should become be called the sons of God.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that
we should be called the sons of God.
What he's saying here is this.
Take note of the fact of how amazing it is that God would love
us, that God would extend grace to us, and that we can be called
children of God.
It's a blessing.
It's an honor.
It's an amazing thing to know that we no longer are so stuck in
our sin.
We are no longer given over to the things of this world.
We are no longer children of the enemy.
We are now children of God.
And the Bible says that is a type of love that is indescribable.
That is a type of love that is infinite.
We can go on to look at other passages talking about God's love,
but one that most of you know is John 3:16.
For God so loved the world.
Now we can insert our name into that blank.
Right?
Right.
For God so loved Josh that he gave his only begotten Son.
That's the way that God demonstrated his love.
That he gave his only begotten Son, Jesus, that whosoever believeth
in him.
Right.
Whoever trusts in Jesus.
Whoever trusts in the way the truth and the life.
They no longer have to know death.
They no longer have to perish in their sin.
But the Bible says that they can know everlasting life.
That is what it means to be a child of God.
Not just that we get earthly benefits.
Not that just we go to church.
Not.
Not that we can come to God and have him answer our prayers.
But it's the fact that we can know him and have a personal relationship
with him and that we can be children of God and have the benefits
of being children of God and knowing that we have eternal life
extended to us something that we did not deserve.
That's grace.
That's mercy.
And so we know that God loved us.
Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God.
But then what is that love?
That love is the fact that he sacrificed for us.
Romans 5:8 says that God commended or demonstrated his love
towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us.
That is the picture of God's love.
That is the demonstration of God's love.
And so here this morning, I want to take you to a passage of
Scripture that explains to us more about the character of God,
more about who he is and, and what he has done for us.
And that is Psalm 103.
If you have your Bibles this morning, turn to Psalm 103.
This is going to be our main text.
I wanted to paint the picture of God's love.
I wanted to paint a picture of why we as believers should be worshiping
him with everything that we have because of the love that he
has demonstrated to us.
He is the only one that is worthy of worship here this morning.
The only way that I can be the person that I'm called to be is because
of his love, because of his grace, because of his forgiveness.
And here in Psalm 103, we see the psalmist David giving us a challenge
to worship God.
And then he gives us all of these reasons why we should worship
God.
And ultimately here this morning, we as believers have many
reasons to worship God.
And we're going to look at them here this morning.
But ultimately it's wrapped up in his love for us.
And his love is demonstrated in many different ways.
And that's what I want us to look at here this morning.
That word worship really just means giving praise to, giving honor
to completely giving over to someone else, humbling ourselves
before someone else.
And so the Bible says that he is worthy of our worship.
Psalm 103 he says this Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that
is within me.
Bless his holy name.
Right here we see the psalmist explaining the depth of worship that
God deserves.
That that phrase there, bless the Lord.
It's not about giving something to someone that's below
us.
That that Hebrew word there, bless, means to worship.
And, and what David is saying here is he says, worship the Lord,
O my soul.
He.
He's looking into his own life.
He's going into his deepest part of who he is.
And he says, I want that part to worship the Lord.
I don't want to just go through the motions.
I.
I want to be real in my worship to my Father.
In Hebrew literature, we see repetition, and when we see repetition,
we see emphasis.
Anytime you see something repeated in Scripture, it's talking
about emphasis.
And so he says, bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within
me.
Bless his holy name.
And so what David is essentially doing here is he's calling
to his soul to worship God.
It was.
It was like David was looking into his life and he understood that
he was not where he needed to be.
He.
And he needed to give God more.
Now, the truth of the matter is, is this morning, none of us can
give God enough, right?
If you look at what he has done for us and you look at who we
are, we could spend 247 for all of our lives worshiping him.
And that would still not equate the type of love and sacrifice
that he gave to us.
But all of us need to understand that there is something
more that we need to give Him.
It's not just about Sunday morning.
It's not just about doing my daily devotions.
It's about my soul, my heart, my everything being given over to
Him.
And that's what he says there in verse one.
And all that is within me.
Romans chapter 12 says for us to give our bodies as a living sacrifice,
wholly acceptable unto the Lord, which is our reasonable service.
God wants everything.
He doesn't just want you when it's convenient.
He doesn't just want you when it makes sense.
He wants all of our worship.
The Bible says that whether therefore ye eat or drink or.
Or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
What does that mean?
That means this worship is not confined to an hour or an hour and
a half on Sunday morning.
Worship is our life.
Our lives should be worshiping the Lord.
Everything that we do should be honoring God.
And so the truth of the matter is, is that there's things in our
life that we do that, that we find people to say in our lives,
hey, that's a good job.
Instead of saying, you know what you, yeah, that was all about
me.
I'm a good person, I'm pretty skilled.
No, it's Lord.
The Lord gave me this, the Lord gave me this opportunity.
And so what David is recognizing is this.
He owes God everything.
This is all of my worship to you.
David understood that true worship was something deep.
It was, it was inward, it wasn't something external.
Sometimes we go to church services and we see people and you
know, the, the, the more I externally show my worship, the more
I'm worshiping.
And sometimes internal worship does manifest itself with external
worship.
That's wonderful, that's beautiful.
And that's something that is completely acceptable with worshiping
the Lord.
But what I will say is that sometimes we can inwardly be shut
off and outwardly trying to show emotions and therefore say,
hey, I worship.
Today I sang the song.
Didn't I sing?
I sang.
Well, we all know that singing the words, whether they're in tune
or not, that doesn't mean that we're worshiping because worship
comes from the heart.
Go back to the very beginning when, when there was this young guy
that comes to Jesus and tries to tempt him.
He says, hey, what's the greatest commandment?
And Jesus says, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
soul, mind and strength, everything.
And to love your neighbor as yourself.
So God wants our heart.
And so what David is saying here as, as he is contemplating the
character of God, the holiness of God, the, the love of God, he
says, I have to worship him with everything that I am, with my
heart, with my soul.
David understood that worship was more than just the superficial.
It had to be offered completely and as often as possible.
He says, everything within me, Praise God.
And so it's setting our heart to the truth of God, it's setting
our heart to the love of God, it's setting our heart to the word
of God.
And so many times we praise God in a half hearted manner.
Maybe we even are praising God through the midst of a difficulty
and instead of looking to him, we're looking to our difficulty.
And what the Bible says is that no, it's total focus on giving
honor and praise and humbling ourselves before the Lord.
And so I think that this is a beautiful thing to see that he says,
bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me.
Bless his holy name.
Verse 2, repetition.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
And so there's that repetition.
What is that Repetition, that's emphasis.
He says, lord, I worship you and forget not all of his benefits.
Meaning the reason why he can go back to that spirit of worship
is he goes back to understand all the things that God has given
him.
And so if you could summarize the psalmist mind here in Psalm 103,
it's this.
He's contemplating about who God is in his character and what
he has done for him.
If there's times in your life where you're tempted not to worship,
if you're tempted not to have that heart of worship, go back to
think about all those things that God has blessed you with in
your life.
Go back to those blessings that you can.
And you could talk about that happened years and years ago, or
that it's happening right now in your life.
But the greatest benefit that he has given all of us is our salvation.
Folks, we have a reason to worship here this morning.
If we're singing Behold Our God and we can't find anything in
us to worship him about, folks, that's.
That's a problem.
The truth of the matter is, is that God has given us that idea of
love and of grace.
And he said, you know what?
You're now in my family.
Romans chapter 8 says that he has given us something called the
spirit of adoption.
And the beauty of that picture in Romans chapter eight is that when
he adopts us into his family, he adopts us with full benefits.
Back at that time frame when a child was adopted, they did not get
to receive all the benefits of being that child of that father until
they became an adult.
And what the Bible says in this case is that when we're accepted
into the family of God, when we're adopted into the family of
God, we are given at that very moment all the benefits of being
his child.
And so what does David do here?
He says, forget not all of his benefits.
Forget not all the things that he has blessed us with in our life.
And I think that's a challenge for all of us to go back and understand
the goodness of God in our life ultimately found in salvation.
And so those benefits are given by God to His people.
And we cannot.
We cannot forget about them.
We cannot get our mind set on the things of this world and thinking
that those are better than what he has blessed us with.
The truth is that many times in our life we worship other things.
Our heart is pulled to other areas.
Our heart is pulled to things that bring us pleasure.
Our heart is pulled to things that bring us security.
Our heart is pulled to things that bring us entertainment.
And what happens is our worship that is supposed to be as
we are designed to be, completely to him is stolen away.
God has designed us to be worshipful creatures.
He has designed us to be people of faith.
He has designed us to have a need to praise people.
You know what the truth is, is that our world has turned.
Why do you think superhero movies are so popular?
Because we are designed to root for the hero.
We're designed to worship something.
Why do people follow sports teams as if it is religion?
Because they're designed to have some type of identity.
They're designed to want to worship someone and lift somebody
up.
And that's the way that God has designed us.
But in our flesh, we take it away and we steal that love that
should be directed to the Father and give it to something else.
Romans chapter one says that that's worshiping the creation instead
of the Creator.
There's nothing wrong with sports.
There's nothing wrong with.
With watching superhero movies.
But the truth is, is that when we attribute the love and honor to
those people or those things instead of to God, we are stealing
away worship.
It's similar to within a marriage.
God has designed me as a husband to love my wife completely,
100%.
But when a husband leaves the love of that marriage and goes to
something else, whether it be in action or in thought, he is stealing
the love away from the wife that deserves that love.
It's the same thing with God.
God deserves our love and our worship, but we turn other directions.
So now he's going to go through verse three.
He's going to go through verse three, and he's going to start explaining
all these beautiful things that God has done for us.
Look at verse three.
He says, who forgiveth all thine iniquities?
He's a forgiver.
Part of God's character is that he is willing to forgive.
And he is a forgiving father.
Folks, we don't deserve his forgiveness.
We don't deserve what he has given us in his grace in everlasting
life.
We deserve.
As the Bible says, the wages of sin is death.
So it says here that he has forgiven all thine iniquities.
Not just part of it, not, not just a segment, but the whole thing.
He has forgiven all thine iniquities.
He's a forgiver.
As.
As a.
As a father, as earthly father.
I need to learn how to forgive.
I.
I need to learn how to properly deal with sins that are
committed against me.
And the perfect example is how the Lord forgives Us, Verse three,
it says here, who healeth all thy diseases, He's a healer.
He.
He is the great physician.
And we're not just talking about physical healing, we're also
talking about spiritual healing here.
He is the one who comes into our life and heals us from all of
our ailments.
He is the one who is the protector.
He is the one who provides for us.
And we're going to see that there in verse four, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction, He's a rescuer.
That word redeem essentially means to rescue, to pull away from
something else.
And so he's redeeming us, he's buying us back from the destruction
that we have chosen.
We chose that path.
We chose the life of sin, we chose the life of destruction.
But because of our trust in him and because of his love for us,
he rescues us.
I don't know if any of you had an experience in your life when you
were going in a very dangerous place, and maybe your father physically
rescued you or, or rescued you in the sense of getting your mind
right on the things of God.
I know there's plenty of times in my life my dad saved my life in
more ways than one.
And the truth of the matter is, is that God, our heavenly Father,
rescues us from that life of destruction.
And so He's a redeemer, He's a restorer.
Going on there in verse four, it says, who crown of thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies.
That idea of loving kindness is just truthfully the type of love
that is unconditional, that type of love that is sacrificial,
it's type of love that we're supposed to have for other believers,
that sacrificial love that he's willing to do things even when
we don't deserve it.
He extends his tender mercies to us, so he's merciful.
These are all reasons why we must worship Him.
He redeems us, he restores us, he extends love to us.
And part of God's greatness extends beyond.
I would say it's beyond just sparing us from destruction, right?
He doesn't just save us and say, okay, now you're on your own,
now you're living the life you want to live.
No, what does he say here?
It says that not only does he save us from sin, save us from disease,
save us from destruction, but now he is giving us blessing on top
of that and giving us things that we don't deserve.
And so he crowns us with grace, he crowns us with mercy.
He Crowns us with love.
And he says, okay, you're my child, now go represent me.
We study this in Second Corinthians.
The idea of being an ambassador for Christ, as.
As a child of the King, we are representing him.
And sometimes we see that as a.
A difficulty, but really, it's an honor to be able to represent
the Savior, to be able to say, I'm on the team of the Lord.
I am on his side.
I am representing Him.
And so he talks here about his love and his tender mercies.
We could sit and talk about his love all day, but I want to see
verse number five, because I think that this is very, very important
for us to understand.
Says, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things?
Now, this isn't just talking about food, even though it would
fall under that category.
This speaks of the sufficiency of God being the provider for us.
The Lord is enough.
He gives us everything that we need.
And again, going back to worship, what do we do?
We think that we need more.
We go elsewhere to get our substance.
We go elsewhere to find sufficiency.
And what we can see here is that this loving Father, our Heavenly
Father, he gives us everything that we need.
He satisfies our mouths with good things.
That's talking about knowing that he is enough.
The Bible says even in the New Testament, that there is sufficiency
in Christ, There is sufficiency in His Word.
We don't need other things.
We don't need to worship other things.
But so often we think that, hey, you know what?
I like the things that God gives me, but I want to add to that.
I want to have more somewhere else.
And for me, it was fear of missing out.
Growing up.
I grew up in a Christian home, though our home wasn't perfect, though.
The truth of the matter is, is that we did go to church.
But there was times in my life that I felt like, hey, you know what?
I'm missing out because my friends get to do this, my friends
get to go here, and they look like they're having a great time.
And so one of the reasons that.
That I believe that I pulled away from some of the things of God
earlier on in my life was because I felt like I was missing
something and that I needed that and that was going to give me
some kind of substantial fulfilling.
But at the end of the day, when there were times where I did
turn to those things, the realization that I had, and maybe
some of you have had the same realization that none of that satisfies
you cannot get enough There will never be something from this
world that completely satisfies us the way that the things
of God satisfies us.
I can tell you there's times in my life that I can look around
and if I'm looking through the world's lens, I can say, well, you
know what?
I could have that.
I want this, I want to have this better car, I want to have this
better house.
I want to have this better salary.
And at the end of the day, those things can pull us away.
But then when we look at, through the lens of the Gospel, when
we look through the lens of Scripture and we see that everything
that God ever has for us is going to be enough, it's going to
be substantial.
In verse 5 there, it talks about the satisfaction of God being
the provider.
He is a provider for us.
A good, a good father is a provider.
We know that.
I know that in my life I will do anything that I possibly can to
provide for my family.
I don't care what that is.
I'm willing to do whatever within, within reason.
Okay, within, within, within the grounds of being a believer and
following the word of God.
Right.
Well, what I mean by that is that sometimes we as Christians can
forget about the fact that God has called us to be so committed
to Him.
Why?
Because he's completely committed to us.
I, I, I'm, I'm an earthly father that has many flaws, but I
will do anything that I possibly can to keep my children
satisfied in, in the concept of the things that they need.
Food, clothing, shelter, all of that.
And if I as an earthly father have that same desire, think about
how much more a heavenly father who is perfect in every way,
wants to provide for his children not in the things that we
want, but in the things that we need.
There's a lot of things that my kids want, but I know that they
don't need it.
So me being a loving father actually holds them back from having
those things.
And so the truth is, is that God doesn't provide our wants.
He provides our needs.
Some, some commentators say it this way.
He provides our, our needs, not our greeds.
And I think that's important to understand as well, because sometimes
people feel like, you know what, if I become a Christian, God's
going to give me everything that I've ever wanted in my life.
And there's actually people that preach that if you have enough
faith and if you pray just right, God will say yes to everything
that you ask.
But we also know that there are times in Scripture very clearly
where there's examples of godly people hearing, no, that's
not what you need right now.
I have a better plan.
And so it's ultimately submitting ourselves under the will
of God and saying, lord, I know that you have what's best for
me.
Then he says at the end of verse 5, so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagles.
It would be easy to just gloss over that, but what does that mean?
It means this.
As God satisfies us with good things, with, with his will, with
his way, with his love, we are renewed.
And the example here is we are renewed like eagles.
And the idea that I.
I take from this is that as we are filled with what God has given
us in our life, when we're taking of the bread of life, when
we're experiencing the living water, when we're in the Word of
God, we're able to be renewed and revived in our spirit to worship
him and serve him even more.
There's gonna be times in our life where we are tempted to drift.
There's gonna be times in our life where we're tempted to take
a step back, we're tempted to take a break.
And the Bible says that when we understand the satisfaction and
the sufficiency of Christ, we're able to be renewed in our spirit,
we're able to be revived in our heart.
And sometimes we feel like revival can only happen through an
external source.
Like we need to have someone come in and yell at us for a week,
and then now we can have revival.
Okay.
The truth is, is that sometimes that does stir the hearts
of people, but it's the heart of man that comes to a place of revival.
I could sit here all day and try to explain to you how wonderful
it is to follow Christ.
But it's until you as an individual come to the place in your
life where you realize how important it is to follow Christ.
And it's a heart change, it's an internal change that is manifested
on the external.
And so here he says there's renewal.
There's renewal in understanding the benefits of God,
so this satisfaction becomes the source of strength and energy
for God's people.
I want you to understand that if there's times in your life when
you're feeling worn out, when you're feeling like as as Galatians
chapter 6 says, getting weary and well doing, I would encourage
you to go back to the source of who God is and what he has done
for you.
Go back to what you know.
This is the type of satisfaction that sources our strength
and our empowerment in the truth.
And so, you know, the matter that I think that many of us fall
into in our lives is that we feel like there's something else
better.
But what David is telling us here is that there's nothing more
satisfying than walking in the will of the Lord.
Look at verse number six with me.
The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all
that are oppressed.
This speaks to the Lord's righteousness and his holiness and
the fact that he can judge because he is holy.
We talked about this last week.
The truth is, is that man's judgment many times is flawed.
And therefore, when we judge, when we enact our indignation upon
people, it's done in an egotistical, prideful way.
But when God enacts justice upon people, it's always in righteousness.
Therefore, he's free to do what he is called to do, and that
is to judge those that are wicked.
And so God brings righteousness and justice to this
world, and we should be thankful for that.
We're thankful for his holiness.
I believe that God's holiness is his defining attributes because
his holiness ties together every other element.
Now, now we could say his love is his defining attribute.
But if he's loving without holiness, he's like everybody else.
All of us to some degree, love someone or something.
But the holiness of God makes that love perfect in every way.
It's never a selfish love.
It's never a love that is looking for return.
It's that holy love.
And so when we look at God's righteousness, we're looking at that
defining attribute of him who ties everything else in together.
His forgiveness would not be just unless he was completely righteous.
His judgment would not be just unless it was completely righteous.
And so here in this case, we see that David recognizes God's judgment.
God.
God and his righteous holiness is able to enact that justice.
And so we should be thankful for that.
And we see in verse number seven, he made known his ways unto
Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
Another aspect, I believe, of God's greatness is his revelation
to his people.
God could.
He could have every right to be content with just keeping Himself
separated from us.
He could sit above us, watch us, direct us.
But the truth is, is that in God's character, He wants to have
a real relationship with his children.
And therefore he reveals Himself to us.
Now we know how he revealed himself to Moses.
We know how he revealed Himself to the children of Israel.
But how does he reveal Himself to us today?
Well, there.
There's a few different ways.
But ultimately the revelation of God to His people is His Word.
And we know that this is the way that God speaks to us.
This is the way that God wants us to understand Him.
And so therefore we don't define who God is by what we feel
or what we're told.
We understand who God is through His Word.
Now he also speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.
Conviction, comfort, circumstances.
He speaks to us in that regard as well.
And the Holy Spirit never contradicts His Word.
And so therefore, as the Holy Spirit guides, we check with the
Word and we're able to move forward in understanding that we
are understanding God and His goodness and his greatness, and ultimately
how we are a child of the King.
And so another aspect of I believe God's goodness to us is that
he reveals Himself to us.
He wants to make known his ways, his acts to to us.
Moving forward here going on to verse number eight, the Lord is
merciful and gracious.
Elements of who God is is that he's willing and ready to forgive.
And in that forgiveness we find his grace and we find his mercy.
And therefore then we turn and look at other people and we give
them mercy and grace as well.
But there's other aspects to the Lord here.
Slow to anger.
He's patient.
How many of us, as dads, struggle with that one?
Slow to anger.
Truth is, is that if we're trying to follow the example of the
Lord, we are slow to anger.
We don't come to a place in our life, we're immediately going
to bring down the hammer.
God is gracious and he's patient and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide, he will not always, in this case, judge
and condemn.
Neither will he keep his anger forever.
This is continuously talking about God's love for us and his patience
with us.
God's long suffering.
It's a really interesting word to think about long suffering, because
when sometimes we think of the word patience, we think of someone
who's just sitting there, maybe twiddling their thumbs or sticking
their fingers in the ear, and they're just like, okay, I gotta
get patient and I just gotta get through this.
But that's not ultimately what biblical patience really is.
Biblical patience is tied to endurance.
Biblical patience is tied to actually, believe it or not, the
Bible says to run the race with patience.
Now if I'm using the world's definition of patience, I'm going
to sit at the starting line and just go, well, I'm just going
to be patient and this race will be over.
Soon, no patience in the context of Scripture is endurance,
moving forward with what God has called us to do, and standing
fast in the truth that he has called us to live in.
So the Lord is patient.
And as.
As fathers were called to be patient, as Christians, we're called
to be patient.
Verse number 10.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins, meaning this.
He.
He hasn't really given us what we deserve in our sins, nor rewarded
us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his
mercy toward them that fear him.
Again, there's this repetition, but he's essentially
saying, as high as heaven is.
And again, we don't know how far that is, but let's just say it's
infinite.
So great is his mercy toward them that fear him, those that come
to him in humility and respect and faith.
God is infinite in his mercy.
And of course, the famous verse Here is verse 12.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us.
Now, again, we don't know how much David understood the concept
of the globe and distances and things of that nature, but we understand
what this concept really is all about.
We don't know how to measure as far as the east is from the West.
Therefore, we can't define and describe the type of forgiveness
that God has.
He removes it from our life.
It's no longer on our account.
The Bible talks about how our transgressions are blotted out.
And the idea is, is that they're basically wiped off of our
record.
And that's the beauty of God's grace.
That's the beauty of his forgiveness.
That's the beauty of the salvation that we find in Him.
Let's look at verse number 13 says, like a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.
Now, that word pity sometimes in our culture can kind of be used
as the concept of kind of like looking at someone and feeling sorry
for them.
And that's exactly what this is.
Sometimes it has a negative connotation in our society today.
But really you could see it this way.
It's the Lord giving us compassion.
It's the Lord understanding that we are broken, but yet having
concern for us in the midst of our failures.
And just as I look at my children and see their limitations,
so God looks at us and understands our limitations.
Look at the next verse.
It says, for he knoweth our frame.
He knows how we're made.
He remembereth that we are dust.
And so the idea here is that God understands our limitations.
Now this is not so.
This is a very easy place that we could drift on and we could say,
well, God knows that you're a sinner, so just keep on sinning.
That's not what he's saying here.
It's not condoning the fact that we are just mere humans and
therefore all we can do is sin.
No, the Bible clearly tells us that we are called to live a righteous
and holy life.
We are not excused for our sin.
But what we do see here is that God knows us and he loves us.
And he takes in mind, as the Bible says very clearly here, who
we are and how we were made.
And therefore that's why he has grace.
That's why he's extended compassion.
You want to see this pictured in Jesus?
Look at Matthew, chapter 9.
Jesus looks out into the masses and he sees all of these people
and he sees their brokenness and he sees their lostness.
And it says not that he's angry at them, that he wants to condemn
them.
Jesus's heart there when he sees these people without a shepherd,
is that the Bible says that he is moved with compassion.
It literally means that, that his stomach was aching for these
people.
And the idea here is this.
God is first and foremost compassionate and gracious.
Though he is just and holy, he has a desire for us to know him and
therefore extending his grace to us.
And so as a father pitieth his children, as a father has compassion
on his children, so the Lord has compassion on them that fear
him, for them that come to him in faith.
The Lord Lord has compassion on us.
And I hope that we can understand that compassion and we're
able to demonstrate that compassion to those around us.
Folks, if God has compassion with me in all of my failures, in
all of my inadequacies, I should be able to have compassion
for those around me and their failures and their inadequacies.
And I want to take you to a passage of scripture.
Most of you know this passage of scripture, but I want to quote
it here because I think that it is perfectly aligned with the
understanding of having compassion.
That's in Ephesians, chapter 4, the very last verse in Ephesians
chapter 4.
It speaks of how we can be kind to others.
And the way that the Lord enacts His love towards us is that
he extends, as the Bible says, tender mercies, his loving kindness.
And I believe that as God is the example for us, so we are to
understand and.
And we are to apply in our lives.
And so Ephesians 4:32.
When I start to read this, most of you will be able to quote
it and be kind one to another.
Tenderhearted, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.
Why, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.
It's the same principle of understanding God's love.
I show God's love.
I understand God's forgiveness.
I show God's forgiveness.
When you understand God's patience, I show God's patience.
The truth of the matter is that there are people in this world
that don't deserve our patience, our love, our grace, our
forgiveness.
But neither do we in the concept of God enacting those things
to us.
So what I would say is this.
Anytime you are tempted in your life, whether it be within the
context of the family, the context of the church, the context
of this world, anytime we're tempted to give something what we
think they deserve, go back to understand what Christ has done for
us.
Understand his grace, Understand that he didn't get even
with us.
Understand that he's patient.
Understand that he loves us.
Understand that he has compassion.
Compassion is having empathy for somebody.
It's hurting with people that are hurting.
It's weeping with people that are weeping.
It's seeing that their problem is real to them and coming to them
and trying to show them that Jesus is.
Is the answer to that problem.
You know, I've used this example before.
I've looked at people's lives, and I know I'm probably the only
one that's ever done this, but I've looked at other people's lives,
and I looked at their problems and I said, wow, their problems are
nothing compared to my problems.
So it's hard for me to have compassion upon someone who doesn't
have the same.
What I would consider the same struggle.
I remember going back when I was teaching, we had teachers appreciation
last week, and it made me reflect a little bit on my.
My teaching years.
And I remember being there with middle schoolers and high schoolers.
And some of you will understand this, back when these
kids would date, they would date for like, two months, okay?
They would never really go out on a date.
They would just sit at school and they would talk to each other
and smile at each other.
And then he broke up with me.
And there's this girl crying in class.
And we were going to get married, and they're like ninth grade,
and they've only been dating for like, two weeks.
And I would sit there and, you know, my.
My flesh or whatever you Want to call?
It was like, get over it.
Come on.
This means nothing.
But at the end of the day, for them, in that moment, that was a
hurt, that was a deep cut.
And so as Christians, what we are called to do is when we see someone
that maybe in our mind doesn't have as deep of a struggle as we
have, it's still find them in that moment and come to them and
encourage them and give them that compassion.
Because that's what the Lord does, right?
Think about when the Lord looks at our problems.
So, oh, you.
You know, and God, as for man, his days are as grass.
For man, his days are as grass, limited, short.
As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
There might be a time of growth, for the wind passeth over
it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more.
So the Bible tells us here that though we feel like our lives
are long and our lives are substantial, really in the grand
scheme of eternity, our lives are, Are, are short.
But then we see the contrast between man and the Lord.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children.
And so the idea here is this.
In.
In our lives that we're living and the things that we worship and
the things that we spend time on, our.
Our lives are short, our lives are limited.
But in the context of our relationship with God, we know that
his mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
He is eternal.
His love is eternal.
His forgiveness is eternal.
All the more reason why we need to invest now into the things
of eternity and not into the things of this earth.
Why would I worship something that's going to pass away in 70,
80, 90 years?
So some of us will worship things that don't mean anything next
year.
And, and the concept of worship comes to this idea of who
really is worthy of our worship, what object is truly worthy
of our worship?
And it really comes down to this.
The only object that is worthy of worship, the only thing that we
should put our faith in is the Lord.
That's the only thing.
Because the Bible says that all of us are created to have faith
in something.
But when we put our faith in things that fail, when we put our
faith in things that will waste away, the Bible says that we
are putting our treasures in things that will rust away.
And the Bible speaks of that in the Book of Matthew.
We put our treasures in things that moth and rust, corrupt and that
will pass away, that could be stolen away.
But the things of God can never be stolen away.
They cannot be eroded away.
They cannot be taken from us.
Ultimately, the relationship that we have with God is forever.
The forgiveness that we have in God is forever.
And therefore, what we do is we worship him for that.
Some of us worship him for the gifts that he gives us only.
So, for example, well, I'll worship God today if I get what I
want.
I will worship God today if I feel like everything's going my way.
But at the end of the day, that's superficial worship.
That's worship based in who I am, based in what I get.
But true depth in worship is, Lord, whatever happens to me, I worship
you for who you are and what you have done.
And what has happened in our society today because we are such
a humanistic society and it's been this way for a very, very long
time, is that worship becomes all about us.
And just forgive me this morning if I step a little bit too
far into your comfort zone.
But many songs that are considered to be worship speak specifically
just about the person who is the one singing.
And my worship is not worshiping me.
My worship is about worshiping Him.
Now, there's things that I can say that God has done through me
and changed in my life.
But if the focus in my worship is me, if the spotlight is me only,
that's not true worship.
Well, it is worship, but it's not worshiping the one who should
be worshiped.
And so we have to really dig deep into the concept of what is
meaningful worship.
I worship only on Sunday mornings when I come in.
No, I worship in the car.
I worship.
You know, any.
Any of us can worship in any place.
Doesn't have to be in this building.
This is where we corporately worship.
This is where we come once, twice, sometimes three times a week.
And we worship together.
But that doesn't mean that this is the only place that we are
supposed to worship.
We are supposed to worship in everything that we do.
You ever heard that?
You ever think about that verse?
Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all
the glory of God means that the way that I eat, the way that
I drink, the way that I interact with people, the way that
I work, the way that I love, the way that I parent, the way everything
can be worshipful to the Lord.
And so I say all that to say this.
Let's really inspect our lives in the way that we worship.
Some people worship through music.
That is a fantastic way to worship.
But again, what's the focus?
Is it me or is it Him?
Some people worship through what they do in service.
But is the service for me or for Him?
Some people worship through their giving.
All really important ways of worship.
What is the giving for me or for Him?
And the list goes on and on.
And we can worship God in every way, or we can worship ourselves.
And so what David is saying here is, he is the heavenly Father
who is perfect, the only Father worthy of worship.
And so the true question here this morning is this, who are we
going to serve?
Who are we going to worship?
Who are we going to lift up?
Who are we going to take to a place in our life to say, you know
what?
He is the one that I am committed to.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me.
Bless his holy name.
And I think that's something that we all have to come to in our
lives to understand when it comes to this idea of love and of
worship and of sacrifice.
Ultimately, we can lay up our treasures for the here and now, or
we can lay up our treasures in heaven.
I'm going to leave it with this.
In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 19, it says, Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
What's your treasure this morning?
I love my dad, my earthly father, with all of my heart.
He wasn't my best friend growing up.
He was my dad.
When I grew up and became a dad myself, he eventually became
my best friend.
And I love my dad with everything.
I understand.
He's.
He's flawed.
There was a time in my life where I thought he was completely
perfect.
I thought he was the strongest guy in the world.
I thought my dad could fix anything.
And I went through that weird stage where, like, there was a time
in my life where I thought my dad was perfect.
There was a time in my life where I thought my dad knew nothing.
And then there was a time in my life where I thought my dad knew
pretty much everything.
And he's taught me a lot as a father.
And if.
If I can understand that relationship and I can understand
my love for him and my.
And the sacrifice that I have for him, I treasure that relationship,
and I invest into that relationship the way I invest into
that.
I'm going to be honest with you guys this morning.
The way I invest in the relationship with my Father is.
I call him.
I don't get to see Him.
Some of you that have your fathers living and they're here around
you, take advantage of that.
The truth is, is the way I communicate with my dad, the way
I invest in my relationship with my dad, for the most part, is
I call him and I talk to him and I read his texts and I send him
pictures and we talk about things in life and we spend time
together.
And the reason why we do that is because we treasure that relationship.
It's the same thing with our Heavenly Father.
If we treasure that relationship with him, we will do
the things that he has called us to do.
The Bible says if we love him, we will keep his commandments, we
will obey him, we will spend time with him, we will read his word,
we will talk to him in prayer.
We will spend time with those that he loves.
That's the church, right?
Jesus died for the church.
He loves the church.
And so therefore we love the church.
And so all in all, what we can see here in this passage is that
the heart is set on the things that we treasure.
Our life will be set on the things that we treasure.
The worship that we have will be set on the things that we treasure.
And so do we treasure who God is in his character and what he has
done for us.
If we do, that worship will be different.
And so here this morning, if you are seeking that love of a Father,
if you're seeking that love that never fails, come to Him.
Either come to him in salvation or come to him in repentance
and turn your life over to Him.
The truth is, is that there might be some people in this room
that have not trusted in Jesus as a personal savior.
Today is the day the Bible says you cannot find the Father unless
you come through the Son.
Jesus says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
So if you want to know that love of a father, come to Jesus here
this morning and trust in him as your personal savior.
But for some of us that have trusted in Jesus as our personal
savior, we might not be experiencing that love.
We might not be understanding that love.
We might not be mirroring that love to other people around us.
What do we need to do?
We need to set our hearts on the things above.
We need to set our affections on the things above, not on the things
of this earth.
Sometimes it just takes a wake up call.
Sometimes it's like, hey, you know what?
This thing that I'm struggling with Right now doesn't matter in
the grand scheme of eternity.
I can tell you the time and the place that I realized that certain
things don't matter.
And for the sake of time, I won't go there.
But it had to do with Silas and his birth and some of the struggles
that happened there.
And the reality for me in that moment was I am worrying about a
lot of things in my life that don't matter in the grand scheme
of eternity.
And so for us, sometimes it takes a wake up call.
Hopefully it doesn't.
Hopefully it just takes the word of God to show us that some
of the things that we're spending so much time on, so much
worship in, that that in and of itself means nothing in the grand
scheme of everything.
And so the greatest thing that we can do is love the Lord with everything
and then to pass on to the next generation how to do that as
well.
If there's anything I can leave to my children, it's the beauty
of knowing God and loving him and walking with him and walking
in the will of God.
There's a lot of lessons I want to teach my kids.
Some of you dads, have you ever said this?
This is why we can't have nice things?
My kids, probably in my funeral, that's they're going to
say, dad always said, this is why we can't have nice things.
Okay, I'm working on that.
I want to be remembered by.
Hey, his love for Christ.
He showed us what it meant to have a real relationship with him.
And so what do our.
This goes directly to dads out there, grandfathers.
What do our kids know us by?
Do they know us by the things that mean nothing for eternity, or
do they know us by the things that matter for eternity in a relationship
with Christ?
And that's extended to all of us, not just dads, moms, ladies,
men that are just not biological fathers, but spiritual
fathers.
What do people know us by?
What's our testimony?
I hope that our testimony is that we're pointing people to Christ
here this morning.
Let's worship him with all that we are.
I'm going to ask if you're able to.
To stand with me.
Every head bowed, every eye closed.
We're going to have a time of reflection here this morning in this
invitation.
All I want to do is just kind of point out the obvious.
We have a loving heavenly Father who has done everything for
us.
Dads, have I been the type of father that's talked about there
in Psalm 103?
Am I patient?
Am I loving Am I, am I pay?
Providing all those lists of things that.
That God has done for us.
But Christian out there, maybe, maybe it's this.
Maybe, maybe you're struggling with this concept of worship.
What is worship?
Am I worshiping?
It's not something that can be fabricated or manifested just by
our outward actions, but it's an inward thing.
Why?
Why, why don't I want to worship?
Why can't I understand these things and understand the love of
Christ, get deeper into it, understand the greatness of who he
is.
But if you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior this morning,
come forward and we can show you in the word of God what it means
to know him and understand his love and understand his forgiveness.
Lord, I pray that you be in this time of invitation, working
hearts and lives.
We ask that you be with us here this morning as fathers, specifically
to lead our families in the truth of God.
To lead our families and the love of Christ.
To love our spouses as God has called us.
To love, to be the example to the best of our ability for the cause
of the kingdom.
So we thank you.
We love you.
In Jesus name, amen.
As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here this morning.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been.
A blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.
Com.
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Thank you so much.
God bless.
Have a wonderful day.