Welcome! It's great to see everybody in church this morning. I have missed you guys. We found ourselves, my brothers and I, in Ohio, and yet while I was with my family, I just couldn't wait to get back with my church family. You guys didn't even know I was gone. I was gone for a few days, but I missed you guys that much.
I want to encourage you, if you can, take a look at our website for all the events that are coming up. Again, I know we're going into the next month, but there is a lot going on, whether it's our fellowship dinners or our Bible studies. There's a lot of life going on at Covenant Church. Please, if you can, go ahead and check our website for those details.
Next month, we will have the updated bulletin for those things. Just remember, the first Wednesday of the month is our fellowship dinner, so that would be the next first thing coming up. But that will also be, if I'm not mistaken, the last one because when summer happens, our schedule changes during the summertime.
So that week, I really just want to encourage you, please come out to that. It's a wonderful opportunity just to fellowship as a family. There's no sermon, there's no lesson, there's just a warm meal and family-style dining where we can sit together and talk to each other and love on one another.
But amidst all of those wonderful big things that we have happening at the church, whether it's our kids' ministries or youth ministries or events or any of those things, can we just stop for a second and reflect upon what God has done for us?
This passage that we're in today is all about the faithfulness of God, and David goes into detail on how God has been overwhelmingly faithful to the people of Israel. But we here in Covenant Church, in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2024, I know that we as individuals and we corporately as a church have so many things that we can praise God for, that we've seen Him do in our lives, not only in our church but also just in our salvation and reconciliation with God.
So as we open up in prayer and as we join together in worship and as we dive into the Word of God, let's just stop for a second and thank God for all of the amazing, beautiful, and wonderful things that He has done for us.
Lord, thank You. Thank You for loving us. Thank You for saving us and thank You for bringing us into a place where we can just together as Your people praise You for Your great faithfulness, care, and love that You have shown us.
So Lord, please just get rid of any distraction, any future plan, any stress or anxiety, or even excitement over things that might not be You, and let us just together praise You and give You the glory that You deserve. But that's only going to happen, God, if You do it. So please do it, and we will glorify You. We ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Go ahead and stand with us as we worship. You could turn in your Bibles to Psalm chapter 105. Psalm chapter 105. Children's Church, you are now dismissed.
I think I said that out of order. As they are dismissed, let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning.
Lord God, we come before You just humbled. God, thank You for just the immeasurable blessings that You've given us. Lord, thank You for my family. Lord, thank You for my church family. Lord, thank You for just the grace that You have given to me and to many others in this church.
God, as we talk about Your faithfulness today, let it encourage our hearts and let it just propel us to follow You even more. But God, that's not going to happen unless You do it, so please do it. And we will give You the glory that You deserve.
So again, today we find ourselves in Psalm chapter 105. Now, Psalm chapter 105 and 106 kind of act like two sides to the same coin. You see, Psalm 105, what we're going to see is the faithfulness of God. And then next week in Psalm 106, spoiler alert, we're going to be talking about man's response to God.
Now, let's go ahead and start reading in Psalm 105, verse 1.
"Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him. Sing praises to Him. Tell of all His wondrous works. Glory in His holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His presence continually. Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles, and the judgments that He uttered. Oh, offspring of Abraham, His servant, children of Jacob, His chosen ones."
Now, this passage is most probably written by King David, but it is definitely written to God's people. And this is ultimately, like we said before, a psalm of God's faithfulness.
Now, why is it that we need to ponder on God's faithfulness? Well, the beautiful thing about Psalm chapter 105 is at the beginning, before getting into the examples of how God has been faithful, David actually gives us how we should respond to God's faithfulness.
He says this: "Remember the wondrous works that He has done" and "sing praises." He says this: "You know, this sounds like what we covered just a couple of weeks ago in Psalm 103, doesn't it?" In Psalm 103, verse 2, what is he saying there? Well, we said what he means is that we should praise God from the depths of our being. And we should do that because of all the blessings that He has given us.
But he says, but he doesn't only say that we should praise God for His wondrous works. We should seek the Lord and His strength, seek His presence continually, and let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice in the Lord. Why? So that we can make known His deeds among the peoples to tell of all His wondrous works.
You know, we are all the way in Psalm 105, but doesn't this sound like David in every one of his Psalms? Doesn't David just desperately want to be in the presence of God and to tell of His wondrous works?
Psalm 73, verse 23 said this: "Nevertheless, I am continually with You. You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel. And afterward, You will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from You shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to You. But for me, it is good to be near to God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I might tell of all of Your works."
You know what I love about that passage? David is not giving us a checklist to accomplish there, right? He doesn't start by saying, "Tell people of all the things that God has done." No, what does he say in that passage and in this passage? God has shown Himself wonderful in all of these ways. What does David say here? "I just want to be in the presence of God." He says that over and over again. "I just want to dwell in His presence. I want Him to be a refuge that I hide in."
And from that desperate desire, he wants to tell everybody and all the people he comes in contact with of what God has done.
Now, I want to say this real quick. Even though this is specifically for the people of Israel, we should also desire to do the same. Think about this. We should remember all that God has done for us. We should endeavor to praise God. We should seek to be in the presence of the Lord. We should proclaim Jesus to the world around us. And that proclamation should come from something that He has done with us. And it's something that God has done for us to do.
So what we are going to see in these next verses is just example after example of how God has shown Himself to be faithful.
Verse 7: "He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers His covenant forever, the word that He commanded for a thousand generations. The covenant that He made with Abraham, His sworn promise to Isaac, which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying to you, 'I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.' When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, He allowed no one to oppress them. He rebuked the kings on their account, saying, 'Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm.'"
Well, what's the first thing that we see in this passage? The first thing we see is God in control over all the earth. And we're going to see that later in these examples. What does he say in that verse? "He is the Lord. His judgments are in all the earth."
You know, this reminds me of what the Apostle Paul says in Colossians about Christ. Colossians chapter one, verse 16 says this: "For by Him," talking about Christ, "all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
It's important that we get this before we dive into the rest of this because there's going to be moments in David's recollection of God's faithfulness that we're going to pause for. For a second. But what we need to know before anything else is that God is in control.
He says God is over the earth, not just over the Israelites, but over all of the kingdoms, all of the dominions, all of the rulers, all of the authorities. All things. It means all were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him, everything holds together.
We need to know that for what comes next. So not only is it God control, but then we see this big thing. It might sound simple, but it is big. God remembers His promises.
Can I tell you something? This might not come as a shock to a lot of you. I oftentimes forget my promises. Have you ever had one of those "Oh, shoot" moments in your life? I have them regularly, right? Like I have been sitting at home thinking to myself, "Wow, today is going great," right? Like everything seems to be happening well. And then I get a phone call. "Hey, I'm at the restaurant. Are you on your way?" "Oh, shoot. I forgot something," right?
Or I will look through and I'll get a call from the doctor's office. "Hey, you know, you have an appointment like an hour ago." "Oh, shoot." Or mainly it happens with my son where I will make a promise to my child, and he remembers everything, right? Like I tell him months before that we are going to go camping together. And then he is ready to go camp in the yard, and I am in pain or laying on the couch or tired.
There are many moments in my life where I have forgotten or I have misplanned or I am just unable to fulfill a promise that I have made. Which makes this statement here by David so unbelievably big that God keeps all of His promises.
What does it say there? "He remembers His covenant forever." He even goes into detail. "The word that God had commanded for a thousand generations. A covenant that He made with Abraham. His sworn promise to Isaac, which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant."
Do you see the weight of this promise? This isn't passing. This isn't "it may happen." This isn't even conditional. This will happen if the people of Israel follow God. No, this is a promise from God.
What was this promise? Well, this promise we see all the way back in Genesis chapter 12, verse 2. What does he say to Abraham? "And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you all of the families of the earth shall be blessed."
What do we see happening here? Well, this Abrahamic covenant is an unconditional promise of God that He would give to Abraham an heir who would become a great nation, who would become a blessing to all the earth.
Follow with me. This is how we should look at this promise: that God immediately fulfilled this promise. It didn't seem immediate to them in the birth of Isaac in their old age. It was continually fulfilled in the protection of the people of Israel throughout history.
But this would ultimately be fulfilled in the coming and the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, right? That yes, Isaac was the direct heir to Abraham. And yes, what we are going to see in these examples is how God protected the people of Israel. But in them being a blessing to all the earth, that would be fulfilled through Jesus.
Pause for a second. Disclaimer. We are all here because of this promise, because God had fulfilled what He said He would do.
Now follow with me. In this passage coming up, David is going to use examples of God's faithfulness in their, what we would say, wandering or in their travels. Look what it said there in that verse. "When they, the people of Israel, were few in number, of little account, and sojourners wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, He allowed no one to oppress them."
Now follow with me. This right here is the big picture where David is going to draw some specificity from. Now follow with me. This doesn't mean that the people of Israel have never struggled. No, that wouldn't be true. But this is promising that God would always be a blessing to them. And God would always deliver them when they were in need.
So these examples that we see are going to be His fulfilled faithfulness.
Verse 16: "Talking about God here, when He summoned a famine on the land and broke all the supply of bread, He had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters. His neck was put in a collar of iron. Until what He had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him. The ruler of the peoples set him free. He made him a lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom."
Then Israel came to Egypt. Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And the Lord made His people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes.
So the first example that David uses of God's faithfulness is the story of Joseph in Genesis. Now many of you might know this story. But just as a recap, Joseph is the younger brother. I'm not going to go into detail about how I feel about Joseph as a younger brother myself. That's a different story for a different time.
But Joseph is the younger brother. His older brothers hate him, right? They plot to kill him. And then the level-headed ones of the group just decided the smarter decision would be to sell him into slavery. He gets put into slavery. For he gets sent into Potiphar's house. It looks like he's going to be successful. But after he ran from Potiphar's wife, what happens? He is not only a slave, but he is thrown into prison.
There in prison, he interprets dreams. And those prisoners forget about him until a time comes when the Pharaoh has this disturbing dream. And then one of those prisoners remembers Joseph. Joseph interprets the dream. Joseph gets put over all of the resources of Egypt during an upcoming famine. And then Joseph's brothers journey to Egypt. And after Joseph plays a joke on his brothers, he brings his people into Egypt where they will be blessed and cared for amid a famine that is affecting everybody else.
That is the story of Joseph summarized. We would see David summarize this a little bit more. What does he say here? This is tough. So follow with me. God summoned a famine, and God sent Joseph ahead.
Why is that important for us to get this? Follow with me here. When He, talking about God, summoned a famine on the land and broke all the supply of bread, He sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
It's important that we get this. What doesn't David say here? David doesn't say the devil here is blamed for the famine, right? He doesn't say that Satan was just really wanting to be mean to the people of Israel, so he sent the famine. It's not what it says. It doesn't say here that his brothers are blamed for his being sold into slavery. No. David is saying something very particular: that God summoned a famine in all the land.
And before that, God sent ahead a servant, being Joseph. And He sent him ahead as a slave. I just want to pause for a second in that. This is something that we don't like to talk about.
You know, we would love to talk about the blessings of God, right? How God delivers us from the pain that we might find ourselves in. But we really don't have a context for suffering. We really don't like verses like this where it says, "God sent the famine." And God sent Joseph along this terrible path, right?
Like it doesn't say here that God, knowing that there was a famine coming, sent Joseph ahead in a very comfortable way to get to the king so that he could save the people of Israel. What this is saying is the path that God sent him along was slavery, leading to being imprisoned, leading to save his people.
Understand, I think it's important that we get this. If we take God-ordained suffering out of Scripture, it doesn't make Scripture better. It just leaves us with less hope.
Follow with me. Without God-ordained suffering, we would not have the book of Job. And without the book of Job, we would not have this confidence that though God slay me, I will still serve Him. The Lord gives and He takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
We wouldn't have the story of the remnant of Israel in captivity being protected in Babylon and Persia. Without God-ordained suffering of the people of Israel, we wouldn't have moments like the book of Esther where Mordecai says, "Though you all together do nothing, God will raise up deliverance for His people from somewhere else. But you and your family or you and your people will just perish. But what if God has called you into the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Follow with me. We wouldn't have the Apostle Paul talking about in 2 Corinthians 12, 7 that this thorn in the flesh is a messenger of Satan to buffet me. And I asked the Lord to take it away three times, and God said, "No, my grace is enough for you. My strength is perfected in your weakness."
So then I would rather glory in my infirmities that the power of God would rest upon me.
Can we just be honest together? Without God-ordained suffering, we would not have the story of Christ. If we were to jump back to Isaiah chapter 53, verse 7, it says this: "He," talking about Jesus, "was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter. And like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made His grave with the wicked and with the rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush Him. He has put Him to grief. When His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring. He shall prolong His days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."
Follow with me. In this prophecy, what do we see happening? We see the description of this Messiah that we would see earlier in that passage that He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
But what is it saying here? That this piercing and this crushing did not come from the hands of men. It came from the will of God. How is that encouraging to us?
Follow with me. Had that not happened, we would not be here today.
Let's talk with someone in the back. We in this room without Christ may not have a lot in common, right? Like I sometimes think, had I met you at Walmart without Jesus as a common denominator, maybe we would not be best friends like I think that we are. No. Christ is the common denominator. His sacrifice, His taking upon Himself God's wrath, has gifted me and you reconciliation with God in the righteousness of Christ.
If we were to rip out the suffering that God ordained in Scripture, follow with me, we would have no hope. Instead, like the Apostle Paul would say, we would just be lost and dead in our sin, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Understand this isn't a part of the sermon today. We need to have a better theology surrounding suffering than what we're getting in our churches today.
Back on the passage though, what is happening here? God had ordained this thing, but He set a servant ahead to what? God provided an opportunity for His promise to be fulfilled, right? Joseph was not sent ahead just to protect himself. No. Joseph was sent ahead to protect his family, the heirs of this promise.
And what did God do through this? God blessed His people. But not only do we get that story, He moves ahead a little bit. God delivered them from Egypt.
Verse 25: "He turned their hearts," talking about the Egyptians, "so God turned their hearts to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants. He sent Moses, His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen. And they performed His signs among them and miracles in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made the land dark. They did not rebel against His words. He turned their waters into blood and caused their fish to die. Their land swarmed with frogs even in the chambers of their kings. He spoke and there came swarms of flies and gnats throughout their country. He gave them hail for rain and firing lightning bolts throughout their land. He struck down their vines and their fig trees and shattered the trees of their country. He spoke and the locusts came, young locusts without number which devoured all of the vegetation in their land and ate up the fruit of their ground. He struck down all their firstborn in the land, the first fruits of all their strength. He brought out Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among His tribes who stumbled. Egypt was glad when they departed, for the dread of them had fallen upon it."
So what do we see here about God's faithfulness? Well, very much the same kind of structure as that first story. God turned the Egyptians' hearts to hate the Israelites and to take advantage of them. God sent a famine. God hardened these people's hearts.
But not only did God harden those people's hearts, but who did God send? God sent His servant, like He did with Joseph, but this time with Moses to deliver His people.
And through the showing of God's might, God blessed His people. Think about this. At the beginning of this passage, what happened? He had turned their hearts, and they sought to take advantage of the people of Israel and put them into slavery.
And what does it say at the end of this passage? Egypt was glad when they departed. Not only did they leave with their wealth, they left with their blessing. They wanted them gone.
God, just like in the story of Joseph, provided and fulfilled His promise in the people of Israel who left Egypt.
Now pause for a second. The next example that we get is not going to say anything negative about the Israelites. And yet let's remember, when we talk about the wilderness wandering, we're talking about a time where God was punishing them for their disobedience, right?
So God is dealing with these people with their disobedience. We're going to talk about that next week. But follow with me. Even in this punishment that they found themselves in, in the wilderness, God was still faithful to His promise.
Verse 39: "Talking about God again, He spread a cloud for a covering and a fire to give them light by night. They asked, and He brought quail and gave them bread from heaven in abundance. He opened the rock and water gushed out. It flowed through the desert like a river. For He remembered His holy promise and Abraham His servant. So He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with singing. He gave them lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the people's toil."
What does it say here? That they went into a land that already had stuff for them. Joshua 24, verse 13, he's talking about what God is saying to the people: "I gave you a land on which you had not labored, in cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. And you eat the fruit of the vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant."
Or how about what the people of Israel in their prayer of repentance in Nehemiah, chapter 9, verse 25? What does he say about God's providence for him? "And they captured," talking about the Israelites, "fortified cities and a rich land and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in Your great goodness."
Follow with me real quick. At no point in the last verses have we ever seen God's people being the hero of the story. No. In all of these verses, who is the hero? It's God and His faithfulness to His people.
Can I just pause for a second? It would be a shame if we in this room just looked at how God was faithful to the Israelites and we forget how God has been faithful to us.
Think about just the immense side blessings that we have received. We eat food that we did not need to grow, but we went to the store to buy. We have jobs that provide for our families. But those are only side benefits to the true blessings that we have received.
We who were dead in the trespasses of our sins, who were following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, who we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind, God sent His Son to die on a cross to take upon Himself the punishment and the consequences for our disobedience, for our recklessness, for our blasphemy.
And instead of giving us God's wrath, we rejoice for the reconciliation that we have received. Understand something. We are examples, and we have seen the fruit of the blessings of God's faithfulness.
How should they and how should we respond to this truth? Look what He says at the end. Why did God do all of these things? "That they might keep His statutes and observe His laws and that they might praise the Lord."
How are we to respond to the faithfulness of God? Follow with me. Two things today. The first is this: that we should have a desire to be obedient to God. And secondly, that desire for obedience should flow from just a desperate desire to praise Him and to give Him the glory that He is.
We say that that's our goal today. And if it's not, can we just commit to that being our goal today?
Every head bowed, every eye closed, looking around. What about to have is just a time of invitation. Not necessarily an invitation to come forward. If God is leading you to make a decision today, please come see me. I would love to talk to you about that more than you will ever know.
But follow with me, just asking you in the quiet of this moment, are you willing to do what God is calling you to do today? Maybe today you are in this room and you don't have a relationship with this God that we've been talking about.
Now what I'm saying is that you haven't grown up in church. My testimony is that I was working at a church and 23 years old when I realized I didn't know Christ. That can be me. That can be any of us.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 10, verse 9: "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame."
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. You don't know Jesus? This promise is for you.
Maybe today you've been following Christ somewhere along the way. You trusted Jesus for your eternity, but you kind of slumped.
Will you, in the quiet of this moment, give Him back the control and the attention that He deserves? Maybe today you are sitting in this place, you are trying to follow the Lord, but you are just exhausted, just tired. We've been there.
Follow with me. If that is you, maybe you're trying to work out this Christian life in isolation. You know, we don't just come to church to read the Word or to sing songs. We come to church to live in community with other believers.
My encouragement is if that is you, there is somebody sitting beside you or behind you or in front of you that would love to live this life out with you. Are you willing to do the same?
Whatever it is that God is calling you to do today, here's the invitation: do it, and we will give Him the glory.
For God, we come before You just thankful for Your great faithfulness. Thank You for loving us and caring for us. What we just ask, God, is that You remind us daily of how good You are to us and push us to give You the glory that You ultimately deserve.
We ask all of this in the name of Jesus.
Well, before we go, and I know we have another song before we leave, is that correct? Before we do that, I just want to say this: I am so thankful to be able to see y'all today. You know, whenever I'm away, even if it's for a couple of days, it just reminds me of how much I love y'all.
So I hope that you know that we love you. I hope we see you back next week. And as we worship together, let's give Him the glory of His name. Amen.
Give God the praise and the glory that He's due.
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on Apr 30, 2024
