Summer in the Psalms - Week 3: “When I Need God's Voice”

``Yahweh is not a limited God. Yahweh God is Lord That mountain is his. That river is his. The sea is his. Everywhere you go in all of creation, the Lord It reminds me of of back in the day when you used to see these explorers. They would go to, to a new land. And when they did, they would always grab a flag and they would plant that flag and they would claim it in the name of their king or queen. But what Psalm 95 reminds us of is that there is no place you can go in all creation where the Lord's flag is not already planted. [00:42:00] (41 seconds)  #YahwehIsLordEverywhere

You may ask like, Chad, how can I know if I have a heart that is hardened to the Lord? What if there's different areas of my life? I'm kinda curious. How do I know if I have a hard heart to the Lord in those areas? I would just encourage you with this. Look at your life and look at the areas where you don't have peace. A lack of peace is an indicator of a hardened heart. Think about where you have no rest. A lack of rest is an indicator of a hardened heart. [01:00:19] (27 seconds)  #SignsOfAHardenedHeart

But the people hardened their hearts against God. Even though they had seen him perform miracle after miracle after miracle, they hardened their hearts and they rebel against And this goes further than just a simple having a question. This is this is a hard hearted rebellion to a faithful covenant God. And what is the result of that hardened heart? Well, it says here, swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. If you have a hard heart, you will never know rest. [00:57:33] (33 seconds)  #HardenedHeartsLoseRest

And what strikes me so much is that this warning is not directed at people who don't know the Lord. It's directed at God's covenant people. The ones who already know him. These folks who have experienced him, who have worshiped him, who have seen his faithfulness again and again and again and again, and yet have the capacity to have a hardened heart. And it's interesting because the warning is not only make sure you hear God's voice, the warning is don't stop responding to God's voice. [00:55:06] (33 seconds)  #CovenantPeopleCanHarden

And this I love this because this is where Psalm 95 helps point us straight to Jesus. See, because of their disobedience, the Israelites, they spent forty years with hardened hearts wandering in the desert because of their sin, because of their disobedience, and they were not allowed to enter into the rest of the promised land. But Jesus. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness perfectly obeying the will of God. He stayed obedient to God throughout his entire life even to death on a cross on our behalf. Where Israel rebelled, Jesus obeyed. And where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. And when we bend the knee to Jesus Christ, when we call him our lord and our savior, when we open our hearts to him, he removes that hardened heart of stone and he gives us a heart of flesh. It's what Ezekiel thirty six twenty six says, That he breaks down that hard heart of stone, and he gives us a heart of flesh. So how do you undo the hardened heart? Because maybe you're in a place that you say, Chad, I know I've got that hardened heart. How can I undo it? [01:01:27] (81 seconds)  #JesusUndoHardenedHearts

Why is that? Well, because throughout scripture, hearing from God has always been connected to the posture of your heart. Hearing from the Lord has always been connected to where your heart's posture is. God isn't just looking for people with open ears. He is looking for folks who have a responsive heart, and that starts with worship. As your worship goes, so goes your heart. And notice here in verses one and two, are invited to come and sing to the Lord and to come into his presence. [00:36:20] (34 seconds)  #HeartPostureDeterminesHearing

And I think if we're being honest, this is where most of us start to have trouble. Because we say we wanna hear from God. We say we want God's direction in our life. We say we want clarity and for God to tell us what to do. And most of the time, we're fine with that until it's something that we don't wanna hear. We say, God, take me down the path you want me to go down. Well, no. No. No. Not that one. Why is that? Because we want control. [00:47:19] (24 seconds)  #WeResistGodsPathForControl

One of the first things that should really grab our attention when we read the psalm, you know, is how the psalmist chooses to begin. You know, if the goal is to help people respond to the Lord, if the goal is to help people hear from God, you would think that the psalmist would start with something very practical. Right? Like, hey. Make sure you're reading your bible every day, or, hey. Make sure that you're praying every single morning. And, like, those are good things. You should do those things. But look instead where the psalmist starts. He starts with worship. [00:35:43] (29 seconds)  #PsalmStartsWithWorship

And it can be so hard for us to let go of that control, but when we do, we can have confidence that our good shepherd is looking out for us. Our job is to respond to him and surrender. When the phone rings, to use our illustration from the beginning, answer the call and respond to the Lord. As a matter of fact, that's gonna be our weekly vacation practice for this week. Every week, have a vacation practice that we're using during the Psalms. And our vacation with God practice for this week is each morning when you wake up, just take a quick moment, bow before God by taking a knee right out of bed and thank him for being our good shepherd. [00:50:39] (40 seconds)  #MorningKneePrayerPractice

Or a parent who knows their child needs to go to school in order to grow up to be successful in this life. And that child goes, no. I don't wanna go to school. Or even scarier, a child who runs out in the street and a parent sees a car coming. And they shout for that child, and the child hears him, but he doesn't respond. He doesn't obey with disastrous results. See, the language in this verse is harsh because hardening your heart to God is a dangerous place to be. [00:59:08] (33 seconds)  #IgnoredCallsHaveConsequences

So if you saw a mountain over here, it might be, okay. There's a little g god that rules over that mountain. Or, hey. This river belongs to this little g god. Or or, hey, maybe this sea belongs to a little g god, or or this particular patch of land, or this particular nation is ruled over by a little g god. But I love what Psalm 95. Psalm 95 says that Yahweh is not a regional god. [00:41:34] (24 seconds)  #NotARegionalGod

Now I know for some folks, being able to take a knee or bowing that may be physically limiting, that may be tough. Here's the thing. This is not about legalism. This is about the posture of your heart. So if you can't take a knee, maybe bow your head, maybe put your hand over your heart, but just take that moment when you first wake up every single day this week to thank God, to submit to him, and to say, Jesus, you are my good shepherd. [00:51:19] (26 seconds)  #AlternatePosturesCount

to stop its celebration. Worship is meant to lead us to surrender. When we worship, we start with celebration, but then it leads us to surrender. Bible commentator Warren Wiersbe says this, that praise means looking up, but worship means bowing down. We praise God, we look up, and when we worship, we bow down. And that's exactly what you see happening here in Psalm 95 where joyful praise has now become humble submission. [00:46:36] (33 seconds)  #PraiseToHumbleSubmission

One of the things that I love about Psalm 95 is how naturally it moves from God's greatness to God's nearness. You know, in verses one through five, the the psalmist has been painting on this massive canvas talking about how great God is, and he rules over everything. But then in verse six, the picture all of a sudden becomes so much personal. Take a look at what the psalmist writes. He says, oh, come. Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker [00:44:27] (33 seconds)  #FromGodsGreatnessToNearness

The psalmist is repeating this invitation to come and experience God, come into his presence. Come on. Let's go. Let's go and worship. Why is he doing that? Well, it's because the psalmist knows that what you experience changes you. The things that you experience in this life, they change you, and they reorient you. And to give you an example of this from my life, I will never forget. There was a time way back in the before where I had never heard of Buc ee's. [00:36:54] (29 seconds)  #ComeExperienceGod

Back in 2018, I was out in Texas and a buddy, with a buddy of mine. He said, hey, man. I'm gonna take you to Buc ee's. I'm like, what's that? He goes, I'm gonna surprise you. Don't look it up. So, immediately, I googled what is a Buc ee's. And I'm like, why is he taking me to a gas station? Why in the world would we go there? But I trusted my friend, and so we went and y'all then I arrived, and I experienced it. [00:37:23] (23 seconds)  #BucceesSurpriseStory

It happens again and again and again. It kinda reminds me of a parent and a child. And again, this is harsh language, but it reminds me of a parent and a child. A parent who makes a good meal for their child, a healthy meal. And what does the child do? The child goes, no. I don't want it. Or a parent who knows that it's cold outside and their child needs to put on an extra jacket and the child goes, no. I don't wanna wear that. [00:58:45] (24 seconds)  #ChildLikeRebellionExample

If you have a hard heart to the Lord, you will never know peace. A hard heart cannot know rest and peace. Now before we're too hard on the ancient Israelites, we should probably acknowledge just for a moment that we can be really guilty of this ourselves. How many times in our lives has God proven himself faithful? How many times has God answered our prayers? How many times has God provided everything that we need? And yet a new challenge comes up and all of a sudden, we harden our hearts and we forget everything that the Lord has done this for. [00:58:06] (39 seconds)  #HardenedHeartsForgetFaithfulness

The posture says something. Getting down on one knee says, I honor you. I value you. I'm offering myself to you. And this is the language that Psalm 95 is using in this passage. Notice the dramatic change of posture from the beginning of Psalm 95. At the beginning, the people are shouting for joy and they're moving together altogether into one place into the temple to praise God. And then beginning in verse six, they are kneeling. They are bowing before God. Why is that? Well, it's because worship was never intended [00:45:56] (40 seconds)  #KneelingSpeaksPosture

what I love is that this is not just true for geographical areas. This is also true for our lives. That means that the places of blessing in our lives, those belong to Lord. But he's also Lord of the places of suffering when the times are tough. And friends, some of you came in here today and you are walking through circumstances that you do not understand. Maybe it's a health issue. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's a situation [00:42:50] (32 seconds)  #LordOfBlessingsAndSuffering