sermon-archive – Page 42

the gospel of GO

“When James, Cephas, and John—those recognized as pillars—acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised” (Galatians 2:9 CSB).

the gospel of grace is the flag of our unity in Christ

We all come to Christ on the same basis. When I learned that Jesus is God’s only Son and our only sacrifice for sin, I decided to accept him as my Savior. I knew then and there that everyone who accepted the same gospel and made the same choice would be my brother or sister in Christ. They might not look like me, talk like me, or even act like me, but they would be part of my family. We may not have anything in common except the gospel of grace, but that is enough.

We enjoy fellowship with all true believers everywhere on the same basis.

That meeting that Paul had with the church leaders in Jerusalem was crucial because it would decide whether there would be two Christianities – the Jewish version and the Gentile version. Would the leaders in Jerusalem accept a church of Jesus Christ without their Jewish traditions? Their acceptance of Paul, as demonstrated by their giving him the right hand of fellowship represented their understanding of the basis of everyone’s standing with God.

We don’t have to conform to the traditions of others in order to be a part of the body of Christ. But sadly, that was a lesson we had to learn over and over again in Christian history. The Protestant Reformation was necessary because human traditions took control and led the Christian church into bondage for a thousand years.

God sends missionaries out – not to enslave people, but to set them free. That lesson has been very hard for us to learn as well. We have created churches all over the world that look and act just like the missionaries. But when we did that, we ensured that those churches would not be able to reach the unbelievers in their own culture. Thankfully, God’s Holy Spirit has empowered many of those churches to remold themselves into churches that can reach their own people. All around the world today, people are being won to Christ by these transformed churches.

the false gospel seeks to destroy that gospel of grace

Paul knew what was going on in Galatia because the very same thing had been attempted in Antioch when he was there. Proponents of the false gospel were trying to influence the people in the churches to deny the gospel of grace. Paul had opposed that movement in Antioch. He said…

“But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would be preserved for you” (5).

What was at stake was the truth of the gospel.

That false gospel replaces freedom with slavery. Paul had said..

“This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us” (4).

That false gospel replaces integrity with hypocrisy. Paul had related his experience with Peter, also called Cephas:

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy” (11-13).

A Hypocrite is an actor. When someone is acting like he’s better than you, you can bet that behind that hypocrisy is a false gospel, because the true gospel admits that all of us need Jesus equally.

That false gospel replaces the cross with human works. If anybody could have claimed to deserve special treatment because of his works, it would be Paul, but he said…

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing” (20-21).

the true gospel is the only one which will reach the nations for Christ

The same gospel was for the Jew as well as the Gentile.

“… they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised, since the one at work in Peter for an apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in me for the Gentiles” (7-8).

It is not that there are two gospels – one for Jews and another one for Gentiles. No, there is only one gospel, and God has sent missionaries to every corner of the globe to proclaim it.

Paul would later write to the Romans that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God to save the Jew first (because it came to them first) but also to the Greeks and everyone else (Romans 1:16).

What these leaders in Jerusalem realized is that in order for the Gentile world to hear the gospel, someone had to go, and they recognized that Paul had been called to do so.

The gospel always comes with a mandate to missions work.

Remember those words “…we should go” (9). The Christian gospel is the gospel of GO. None of us have been called to stay. Some of us are called to go overseas, others have been called to go next door. But all of us have a mission.

Remember the great commission, where Jesus told us “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

Remember also that the purpose of the Holy Spirit was to empower us for this mission. Jesus told us…

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

the false gospel is the gospel of STAY

Now, here’s the problem. All of us are born into communities, and families and each of us will know the temptation to stay. It’s not just the temptation to stay in one place. It can also be the temptation to stay like we are. Stay isolated. Stay conforming to past norms.

But the gospel of stay is a false gospel. If we are committed to staying like we are, we will never have an opportunity to reach others with the gospel of Christ. The most we can ever accomplish is reaching people like us, who are where we are, doing what we do.

There are nations that are in bondage, who need the message of freedom in Christ.

There are also neighbors who need the gospel, and those neighbors are not exactly like us, either. The gospel of GO for us means that we need to show our neighbors that Jesus can set them free too, and they do not have to become like us for that to happen.

LORD, give us the courage to renounce the false gospel of STAY, and to reach out to those who are different from us, so that they can also know freedom and forgiveness in Christ.

she fights

Judges 4-5

“When the leaders took the lead in Israel, When the people answered the call to war– Praise the LORD! (Judges 5:2 NET)

In honor of Women’s Sunday, I decided to call our attention today to a couple of amazing chapters in the Bible. Judges 4-5 tell us of the courage and determination of two very special people who answered the call to war for the Israelite nation. These two very special people happened to be women.

setting the stage

It is important to understand that we are thinking about the period of the Judges. That was a period in which the Israelites as a people rarely showed much courage and spiritual discipline. The people as a whole were constantly falling away from their faith, and as a result were often oppressed and controlled by other nations. There were brief periods of revival, and these corresponded to the Judges. The judges were people with special skills and strength from God who rescued their people and challenged them to trust God. As a result of the Judges, there were periods of time in which the people of Israel were able to be victorious over their enemies and see peace in their land.

In this particular period, the Israelites had been oppressed and controlled by king Jabin of Canaan. This had gone on for twenty years (4:3). Now, if you fast-forward to the end of this story, you discover that as a result of the courage and strength of these two women “the land had rest forty years (5:31). That means that by following God’s call to do something extraordinary, these women ensured that their nation would have peace for an entire generation. That is pretty significant an achievement, no matter who you are.

the cast of characters

The main characters in this little drama we are looking at today are as follows, in the order in which they appear in the text:

Sisera, the enemy captain.

Sisera, was the captain of the army of king Jabin. He had the latest of warfare technology – nine hundred iron chariots – and he used them against Israel.

Deborah, the prophetess and judge.

Deborah, was one of the leaders who emerged during this difficult time to rescue God’s people from the results of their own sin. God had called her as a prophetess, and it was from that ministry that she had made a name for herself as a wise woman. She was already judging Israel internally because people came to her to help settle disputes they were having within Israel. But God put another task on her heart as well – one that related to the next character on the list.

Barak, he Israelite army commander.

Barak, son of Abinoam was God’s choice to lead the Israelite armies. But he had not done anything. Deborah summoned Barak to herself and told him that he was going to go into battle against Sisera. It was at this point that Barak makes a crucial statement.

• Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go. But if you do not go with me, I will not go.” (Judges 4:8 NET).

Lots of people criticize Barak for making such a statement. They think he is being a coward to hide behind this woman. I don’t think Barak was acting cowardly at all. I think he was making the wisest of decisions. He knew God was with Deborah. He knew he needed God’s power and wisdom to defeat Sisera. So, Barak asked her to come along and help.

Deborah said yes. She did point out to Barak that if she assisted him, then a woman would get the credit. She was a prophet, after all, so she was actually prophesying that a woman would be a crucial player in the coming Israelite victory.

Barak said that he could live with that. It was a wise decision because getting victory with someone else’s help is way better that being defeated all by your own lonesome. Barak had the wisdom to look beyond appearances and trust God for victory, even if God wants to use a woman to achieve that victory.

• Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the Lord has handed Sisera over to you. Hasn’t the Lord gone before you?” So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him. The Lord threw Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army into a panic before Barak’s assault. Sisera left his chariot and fled on foot (Judges 4:14-15 NET).

His army defeated, himself on the run, Sisera is just looking for a safe place to rest and stay out of the way. He chose the wrong place.

Jael, the nobody housewife.

Jael was a housewife. Her family was not at war with Jabin. She had every right to stay within the confines of cultural expectation and do nothing that day. But God chose her to defeat the mighty war captain Sisera that day.

• Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between King Jabin of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite. Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Don’t be afraid.” So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.” She opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again. Then he said to her, “Stand at the entrance to the tent. If a man comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No.’” While he was sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife, Jael, took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She hammered the peg into his temple and drove it into the ground, and he died. (judges 4:17-21 NET).

When Barak and his armies arrived on the scene of the crime, they discovered that God had accomplished a mighty victory that would last for a generation. And the architects of that victory were not kings or generals or elders or priests. They were two women who dared to step outside the boundaries of what society expected of them, and follow God with courage.

To the women of this congregation, I challenge you to be warrior women like Deborah and Jael were. Expect great things from God and attempt great things for him. Don’t allow your gender or your social status or financial standing or anything about you to keep you from doing that.

To the men of this congregation, I challenge you to see with God’s eyes, and stop being limited by your own. Be a Barak. Recognize God’s imprint on people’s lives, and let those people lead you into his will. You might have to look hard to find a leader like that, but you may be lucky enough to be a Lappidoth or a Heber. Oh, you say you don’t recognize those men? They are the husbands of Deborah and Jael. What a blessing it was to them to have wives like that.

Lord, thank you for the women you have blessed us with as a congregation.

from victim to victor

Psalm 57 (CSB)

Psalm 57:1 [For the choir director: “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David. When he fled before Saul into the cave.] Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, for I take refuge in you. I will seek refuge in the shadow of your wings until danger passes.

Psalm 57:2 I call to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

Psalm 57:3 He reaches down from heaven and saves me, challenging the one who tramples me. Selah

God sends his faithful love and truth.

Psalm 57:4 I am surrounded by lions; I lie down among devouring lions– people whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

Psalm 57:5 God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.

Psalm 57:6 They prepared a net for my steps; I was despondent. They dug a pit ahead of me, but they fell into it! Selah

Psalm 57:7 My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident. I will sing; I will sing praises.

Psalm 57:8 Wake up, my soul! Wake up, harp and lyre! I will wake up the dawn.

Psalm 57:9 I will praise you, Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.

Psalm 57:10 For your faithful love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

Psalm 57:11 God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.

We have been spending some time with the Psalms – particularly those psalms that emphasize God’s mission for us to reach the nations for him.

Today’s passage qualifies. Notice the chorus in the psalm – verses five and eleven. “God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.”

It’s not immediately clear to every reader why an individual lament like this turns into a missions psalm. I pray the Lord gives me the ability to explain that.

David wrote this psalm about a time when he was a victim. That’s where we want to start when we examine the words.

How does it feel to be a victim?

If I stopped right now and asked some of you that question, I imagine some of your answers would scare me. All of us at some point in our lives feel this way.

Here’s how David described it. He talked about danger passing by, and needing to take refuge (1). I can remember being on top of a mountain and a storm coming, and having to rush down the mountain to take refuge in a shelter.

He talked about being trampled (3). I came close to being trampled by a panicking crowd on a ferry boat. When you are in the middle of a crisis, you feel your own fear and everybody else’s fear.

He talked about being surrounded (4). He mentioned being surrounded by lions. In his experience, the lions were not literal lions. But another Israelite was thrown into a lion’s den centuries later. I imagine Daniel sang this psalm a lot when he was down in that den.

He felt despondent (6). The word in Hebrew means to bow down. You know what it feels like to be brought down. Somebody says something and your heart deflates.

When you feel like a victim, it is okay to admit it. But God wants us to respond appropriately. David responded appropriately.

What can you do about being a victim?

David took refuge in the shadow of God’s wings (1). Psalm 46 says “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” Isaiah told the Israelites that they had forgotten the God of their salvation and have not remembered the rock of their refuge (17:10). We have a God who is stable enough to deal with our times of instability.

David remembered God’s deliverance in his past (6). Some scholars treat this as a transition in the psalm where David now begins to celebrate his victory. I don’t think so. I think what David is doing is remembering a former event where he was a victim, and God gave him victory.

When we face periods of depression and challenges to our faith, we can gain strength by remembering former times when God brought us through.

David decided to praise God (7-9). Notice the words “I will.”

I will sing
I will sing praises
I will wake up the dawn
I will praise you, Lord, among the peoples
I will sing praises to you among the nations

Praise is not just a means of celebrating victory. Praise is a means of shifting from victim to victor.

A nation of former slaves getting ready for battle at Jericho. What do they do? They praise God by blowing trumpets, and he shows up there with them and knocks down the city walls.

Paul and Silas in prison, shackled and beaten. What do they do? They sing some praise songs to God, and he comes and sets them free.

When God hears our praises, he hurries our deliverance.

Why does God allow us to be victims?

By being a victim David learned that God can provide refuge (1). This is a lesson we can learn as well, but it won’t happen if we never face the ordeal of being a victim.

By being a victim, David fulfilled God’s purpose for his life (2). God wanted him to defeat Goliath. But God wanted him to lean on him to defeat this challenge. When he leaded on God for refuge, God got the glory.

By being a victim, David gave God the opportunity to reach down and save him (3). Sometimes God allows us to get in deep, because he wants to manifest his power over the stormy sea. He may appear to be sleeping in the boat, but he’s just waiting for us to cry out to him for rescue.

By being a victim, David glorified God (5,11). Let’s go back to that chorus:

God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.

God allowed David to go through his period of being a victim because he knew that David would seek refuge in him. That negative experience was turned into positive praise, and resulted in his global glory. That is what God is doing in our lives as well. He’s turning our problems into praise. And he is using our bad experiences to reach the nations for him.

You see, everyone everywhere goes through tough times. We are all victims of something. But when we seek refuge in God, and trust him through the tough times, the world takes notice. They are looking for a God who can rescue them. They want a God who can reach down and pull them out of their depression and fear. Our God is the only God who can do that.

One day we are going to get together – a great multitude which no one can count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in our hands; and we will cry out with a loud voice, saying, deliverance has come from our God who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb (Revelation 7:9-11).

You and I have the opportunity to do that now. We can look around for victims – there are plenty of them – and we can share our stories with them of how God restored us. We can share how he saved us from sin, how he healed our bodies, and rescued our marriages and helped us to clean up our communities.

God has a purpose for every bad thing that happens, and he causes all things to ultimately work together for good. He is for us, and even the things that we think are against us have to give way to his will.

You and I are going to be victims, but we can also be victors. That is what God wants.

Lord, by your grace, we choose to see all the bad things that we experience as opportunities to display your power to the nations.

are you ready?

Psalm 96 (CSB)

Psalm 96:1 Sing a new song to the LORD; let the whole earth sing to the Lord.
Psalm 96:13 … for he is coming– for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his faithfulness.

This is another one of those missions psalms. It challenges all the nations of the earth to turn toward God and get themselves ready, because God is coming to judge the world.

Nowadays, we know a lot more about how God is coming to judge the world than the ancient Hebrews did. We know that God sent his only Son to die on Calvary’s cross so that we could be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to him before he comes to rule the earth. We now know that God’s Son is going to return to the earth and set up his eternal kingdom here. We know he is going to restore the earth to the glory that has been marred by the presence of sin. We know that God is going to destroy sinners in hell, and reign in righteousness among the saved forever.

But with all our new knowledge about God’s plan, the world is still not ready for what God is going to do at the second coming of Christ. Getting the world ready for what God is going to do is what this psalm is all about. It is a challenge for God’s people to get the nations ready for the coming of God as a righteous judge.

I want us to look at each section of this psalm, because each section highlights a way we can get the world ready for what God is going to do.

The first section encourages us to get the world ready by acknowledging the uniqueness of God.

Psalm 96:1 Sing a new song to the LORD; let the whole earth sing to the LORD.
Psalm 96:2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; proclaim his salvation from day to day.
Psalm 96:3 Declare his glory among the nations, his wondrous works among all peoples.
Psalm 96:4 For the LORD is great and is highly praised; he is feared above all gods.
Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
Psalm 96:6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

One of the first things that any Jewish believer would ever learn is the Shema — It sounds like this: “Shema Israel, Adonay Elohenu, Adonay Echad. It is found in Deuteronomy 6:4 — Listen, Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

What was so amazing about that? Well, all of the nations around them had their gods as well. Many of them, like Egypt — had a whole host of gods. How could God be one if there are all of these gods?

The answer is found in today’s psalm. Verse five says “all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.” Our God is different. He is not an idol, a fabricated god designed and manufactured by a human being, and incapable of creation. Our God made the sky, and the birds in the sky, the sea, and the fish in the sea, the land, and the people on the land.

Because our God is real, and permanent, and powerful, we do not just sing about him, we can sing to him.

Our God is unique among all those deities of the nations. Compared to him, all the gods of the nations are impostors. They have a time coming when they all will be gathered together and thrown into the lake of fire. The Bible says that they will all die like men, but our God will live forever.

The world is not yet convinced that our God is unique. It is our mission to teach them that.

The second section encourages us to get the world ready by teaching them how to worship God.

Psalm 96:7 Ascribe to the LORD, you families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Psalm 96:8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name; bring an offering and enter his courts.
Psalm 96:9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him.

Worship involves two things: adoration and respect. Adoration is the recognition of beauty and wisdom. Respect is the recognition of power and authority. We worship our God because his glory and holiness in unsurpassed. We worship our God because he deserves our respect.

There is something wrong with sacrificing to a stone. God wants the whole earth to tremble before him. He wants every nation to acknowledge his power, and adore his glory. The world is not yet ready to do that, and it is our mission to teach the world to worship God.

The third section encourages us to get the world ready by submitting to the reign of God.

Psalm 96:10 Say among the nations: “The LORD reigns. The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken. He judges the peoples fairly.”
Psalm 96:11 Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound.
Psalm 96:12 Let the fields and everything in them celebrate. Then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy
Psalm 96:13 before the LORD, for he is coming– for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his faithfulness.

This text requires a bit of explanation. The psalm was originally written in Hebrew, and Hebrew only has two tenses. They don’t have past, present, and future. They just have perfect and imperfect. The imperfect tense can be translated as either present or future.

All the verbs in verse 10 are imperfect. So, verse ten could be translated like this:

Psalm 96:10 Say among the nations: “The LORD will reign. The world will be firmly established; it will not be shaken. He will judge the peoples fairly.”

The psalmist was calling on his nation (Israel) to get the other nations of the world ready for God because he is going to come and judge.

I will also have to explain the meaning of that word ‘judge.” We are used to judges presiding in court. But that is not the kind of judging that God will be doing. The judges in the book of Judges were military leaders who rescued Israel from oppression.

Now, what the psalmist is saying is that God is going to come to the world on a cosmic scale as a judge for all the nations. He will not just rescue the Israelites, but he will rescue people from all the nations.

So the psalm calls on everything and everyone to get ready for God – who is coming to rescue the universe.

It sounds like that song they used to sing back in the 70’s

“Joy to the world
All the boys and girls
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me.”

The psalmist’s point is that everyone and everything can start rejoicing now because our rescuer is coming. But he is coming to reign. We can only share in the joy of his rescue then if we submit to his reign now.

Jesus Christ is God’s rescuer-judge. Isaiah prophesied about him “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations” (42:1).

So, God’s people knew that the Messiah would come to rescue not only Israel, but people in the other nations as well. It was their mission to get the nations ready for when the Messiah was going to come.

That is our mission as well. Since Jesus is coming to reign, we have to convince all the people in all the nations to submit to his reign. We do that by submitting to his reign in our hearts today.

So, I ask you, brother — sister — are you ready? You cannot get the world ready for Jesus, if you are not living for him yourself.

We have a mission. Let’s teach people how to worship God. Let’s show them how to obey God. Let’s get them ready for the coming of Christ!

salvation from a smile

20200830

salvation from a smile

Psalm 67:1-7 CSB

Psalm 67:1 [For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.] May God be gracious to us and bless us; may he make his face shine upon us Selah
Psalm 67:2 so that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
Psalm 67:3 Let the peoples praise you, God; let all the peoples praise you.
Psalm 67:4 Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for you judge the peoples with fairness and lead the nations on earth. Selah
Psalm 67:5 Let the peoples praise you, God, let all the peoples praise you.
Psalm 67:6 The earth has produced its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
Psalm 67:7 God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

This psalm begins with an adaptation of the famous Aaronic Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26:

“The LORD bless you, and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.”

It is a prayer for God to smile upon a people.

I want to reflect upon the psalm today, and I want to do so by asking three questions:

The first question is “What does it mean to pray for God to smile on us?”

It means God’s grace. If something comes from grace, then we cannot get it any other way. We cannot work our way into God’s smile. Lot’s of people think that they can, but it does not happen that way. The psalmist didn’t say, “Hold on, Lord, wait till we obey your commandments, and then we can expect your smile.” No, the smile comes first, then the obedience. That is why a lot of people will never come to faith. They want to work their way there.

So, a prayer for God’s smile is a prayer of repentance. It sees God’s frown on our sin, and it asks for forgiveness, so that we can experience his smile instead.

Praying for God’s smile means praying for God’s blessing: his empowerment. This is the opposite of a curse. A curse is the loss of protection, resulting in something terrible happening. A blessing is empowerment, resulting in something wonderful happening.

The Israelites knew all about blessings and curses because they included both in their visual aid on Mount Gerazim and Mout Ebal. They were holding themselves accountable to keep their covenant with God by pronouncing blessings on those who obeyed, and curses on those who disobeyed.

Or to put it another way, God would smile on those who followed his way, and he would frown on those who rejected and abandoned his way.

Praying for God’s smile means praying for the ability to please God. It is not a pompous prayer that says “God, look at how good we are.” No, it is the desparate prayer of a people who know they are not good enough. They are not fortunate enough to always walk in God’s way, so they do not always please him. But they want to.

Brothers and sisters, we should want to please God. If we have not because we ask not, then we cannot afford to avoid asking for the ability to please God. But what does it mean to please God?

We please God when we walk in his way. When Penny and I hiked the big hike in 2018, we were constantly reminded to stay on the trail, not to wander off. Wandering off could be dangerous for us, and it might cause confusion for others, because they might be tempted to follow our path instead of the actual trail.

We please God when we trust in his Son. 1 John 5:11 says that “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” There is no way to please God if you do not trust in Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Him.

The second question is “Why should we pray for God to smile on us?”

We should pray this because we need his deliverance. Deliverance and salvation are the same thing. It is odd that so many people are willing to ask God to save them, but then are reluctant to let God change them. That is like asking someone to rescue you from drowning, but insisting on staying in the water. God wants to be more than our fire insurance for eternity. He wants to deliver us from the mess we are in, and we need him to do that.

We should pray for God to smile on us because we need his power. Like the apostle Paul in Romans 7, we often find ourselves wanting to do the right thing, but doing the wrong thing. We should pray for God to smile on us because with his smile, comes his power. With his smile, comes his miracles. With his smile, comes his godliness

We should pray for God to smile on us because the nations need our witness.

I chose this psalm for today’s message because it reflects the mission of the people of God. The people of Israel were not just saved so that God could love them and bless them alone. They were intended to draw the other nations to him. Note verse 2: “so that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.”

We believers in Jesus Christ have the very same mission. Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations. He told the apostles that the Holy Spirit would come upon them, and they would be his witnesses “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The third question is “Why should we expect God to smile on us?”

We should expect God to smile on us because he promises to answer our prayers.

Jesus said “what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:9-11).

Our prayers are not answered on the basis of our worthiness, but on God’s willingness. If we pray for God to smile on us in order for us to reach the nations with the gospel, God will move heaven and earth to answer that prayer.

We should expect God to smile on us because God wants the praise of all nations. Note verse 3: “Let the peoples praise you, God; let all the peoples praise you.” Human beings were created to reflect God’s goodness back to him, and one of the ways we can do this is by praise.

You and I can come together and praise God because of his goodness to us. But we can also spread that praise like a contagious virus. We can infect others because in each heart there is a God-shaped void, an empty place that can only be filled by a relationship with our creator.

But unfortunately we have been treating praise like the COVID-19 virus. We isolate ourselves from others when we do it, and we muffle our praise. It’s hard to sing in these masks!

We should expect God to smile on us because God wants to make his way known. God’s plan of salvation is his way, and he wants that plan known all over the earth (note verse 2). His smile empowers us to be different, and that difference is supposed to draw others to us, so that we can explain why we are different.

We should expect God to smile on us because God wants to produce a harvest. The result that God is looking for is mentioned in verse 7: “all the ends of the earth will fear him.” That ties back into Acts 1:8. The Holy Spirit is given to us as a blessing — a smile from God, so that God can produce a harvest of new believers through us.

Lord, smile on us, and bring the nations to you.