Churches in Buffalo Grove

“You know, Psalm one seventeen, this is one of 10 Psalms that begin with the statement and the call. Praise the lord. One of 10 of psalms that begin with that, and this psalm doesn't just begin, but it also ends with this call to praise the lord. It is kind of the bookend of this whole psalm, which really, as we said, Craig prayed and as we said earlier in the service, really, is this not the bookend of the Christian life? Isn't all of the life of the Christian a call to praise the lord and say he is great and he is mighty and he is worthy of our adoration. Isn't that a call of every every church? It certainly is. And so we think as Christians, well, of course, like, god's gonna call his covenant people to praise him. And certainly in the old testament, the old covenant people, the church under a under a different dispensation, Old Testament Israel was, of course, as the covenant people called to praise him. And so you have that call being issued out a lot of times in many different Psalms, and you have that here. And we think, well, this is just all par for the course, absolutely, except there is a twist here.”

“But part of it is being open to come and see, to be seen, and then to invite others to come and see. Because here's the deal, friend, sometimes you may be the only person that will invite somebody into a relationship with Jesus. You might be the only person that invites somebody to worship or to an event or something off-site or anything. You might be the very person, the only person, the essential person that someone's looking for to be able to begin a relationship in God's love and grace. Right? Did you ever think about that? Hello? Right? Have you? You may be the only person, and if you're reluctant to ask, if you're reluctant to say, come and see, you don't have to have a perfect invitation. If you don't offer come and see, that might be the missed opportunity for that person who's in sadness or depression or looking for a place to serve or is longing for sacred community. We spent all week this week in this regional meeting. Do you know we talked so much about isolation and loneliness? Do you know it's an epidemic? And so the reality is people across our communities are lonely and and they're longing for somebody to say, come and see.”

“``When we think about Psalm one seventeen, the message is just it's pretty simple. You and I, as the covenant people of God, are called to sing praise to the Lord to extol him, and not just us, but all nations everywhere called to praise the Lord to say that he is great. And when we come to this chapter, we're midway through the bible. There's a lot of sadness. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of unsurety. What is gonna become of god's story? Will he bring it to completion? Will the Abrahamic covenant be fulfilled? Will Israel be the people he declared them to be? A light to the nations, a kingdom of priests. And as we see in the New Testament, they become that, but it took Jesus to make that happen. And here we are much downstream in story. The story is not finished, and yet we know where it's going. You and I should take great heart”

“And you get this descriptor of great before it. This means mighty. It means strong. And, you know, you see this word for great and the flood narrative where it talks about the flood as it took over the world. It rose, and it it was not it could prevailed over the land. Meaning, there was no stopping it. This is the word that god uses to describe his love for his own. God floods his children with love. They don't merit it. They never could merit it. He just lavishes on him because he decides to and wants to. And when you know that he loves you, despite your demerits, despite all your sin, knowing everything about you. When you know he still gives covenantal love towards you, it does something to you, and it should.”

“In other words, when god calls us to praise the lord in Psalm one seventeen, he's not just calling upon those who belong to him and part of Israel as some kind of tribal deity that belongs to one ethnicity. No. He's saying, all the nations are called to bless and to say, I'm coming to bless them, to save them, and to receive worship from everybody, all languages and tribes and peoples and nations, including those who you think are your enemies. Now when you come to the end, isn't this what we see in Revelation seven nine where John gives us this vision and he says, I saw a great multitude, a number I could not number. I could not count. And he says, they're from all tribes and peoples and tongues. And John says, yeah. The diversity in heaven is great because God has fulfilled his plan.”

“Because here's the deal, friend, sometimes you may be the only person that will invite somebody into a relationship with Jesus. You might be the only person that invites somebody to worship or to an event or something off-site or anything. You might be the very person, the only person, the essential person that someone's looking for to be able to begin a relationship in God's love and grace. Right? Did you ever think about that? Hello? Right? Have you? You may be the only person, and if you're reluctant to ask, if you're reluctant to say, come and see, you don't have to have a perfect invitation. If you don't offer come and see, that might be the missed opportunity for that person who's in sadness or depression or looking for a place to serve or is longing for sacred community. We spent all week this week in this regional meeting. Do you know we talked so much about isolation and loneliness? Do you know it's an epidemic? And so the reality is people across our communities are lonely and and they're longing for somebody to say, come and see.”

“John was willing to step back to get out of the way so that Jesus' ministry could begin. When Jesus turned and saw these two following, he said to them, what are you looking for? And I I didn't pay much attention to this in the past, but I want to say that I think it's an important question, not only for those two disciples who've chosen to follow Jesus, but it's a good question for us, and it's a good question for the people around us. Right? This week, the staff spent some time talking about, what are you looking for? And we got a little deep unexpectedly, where people began to say, I'm looking for a stronger spiritual life. I'm looking for some healing. In all the chaos of the day, I'm looking for peace. Right? And so I would ask you that question. What are you looking for? What are you longing for? What are you missing? Why are you here today? What are you seeking?”

“And then, as you know, Jesus says, do you believe because I've seen you? Very truly, I tell you, you'll see far greater things. You'll see angels going up and down. You'll see the glimpses of heaven, and you'll see the power of the son of man, all because I've invited you to come and see. So friends, I invite you as we talk about measuring up to our faith in Jesus, that part of it is, just experiencing God's grace as a pure gift. Amen? Part of it is paying attention to those beatitudes, being pure in heart, seeking God's righteousness, working for justice, being the salt and light of the earth, which we talked about last week. But part of it is being open to come and see, to be seen, and then to invite others to come and see.”

“Again, he meets God in a fire, a burning hot coal, and it doesn't burn him up. Instead, God says, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And his response is simple. He simply says, here I am, send me. Now, did Isaiah have questions? Yeah. I think he would have had a few questions. Right? Was Isaiah prepared? I don't think so. How could you be prepared for what he doesn't know or we don't know that the next step is in front of him? Right? Isaiah doesn't know what's going to be next, but he knows that he's made whole through this encounter, through this presence of God with him. And that God who is love and grace for the world is calling him simply to go, just to say yes.”

“He he can't speak for God. He can't call the people to repentance, to wholeness, to turn away from earthly kings, to turn back to God. Why? Because he's not good enough or smart enough or he isn't ready. And as he's trying to rattle off all these lists of why, telling God why this is a bad idea, I can't do this, I have unclean lips. This seraph, this word that's known as glowing or burning, takes from the altar where God was sitting in this vision a hot coal and touches it to Isaiah's lips and says, this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed, and your sin is removed.”