By Rev. Brian Wilkie
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| Rev. Brian Wilkie |
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, January 7th, 2018:
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Broadcast Notes:
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who support us financially. And now, here is today’s presentation.
Good Morning! I'm your host
today, Brian Wilkie of St. Andrew's Christian Church in Rockland. As we begin today, my prayer is that The Good
News of the Lord Jesus Christ would encourage and strengthen you today!
If you're listening to this on the radio
you're listening to the first broadcast of the new year for Good News Christian
Ministries and I want to wish all our listeners, wherever you may be, a happy
New Year.
In fact New Years is a time many people
try to make a new start in their life. This program is here for people who
would anytime want to make a truly new start their lives through the grace of
Jesus Christ.
I am going to read to you, today, a
scripture. It’s a Psalm and the psalmist is making a prayer to God: he's
looking for a renewal and a new start with God. Let me read it to you now.
Psalm 85 reads:
Psalm 85:1–13 You showed favor to your land, O Lord; you
restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of
your people and covered all their sins. Selah
3 You set aside all your wrath
and turned from your fierce anger.
4 Restore us again, O God our
Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.
5 Will you be angry with us
forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your unfailing love, O
Lord, and grant us your salvation.
8 I will listen to what God the
Lord will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints—
but let them not return to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near
those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each
other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down
from heaven.
12The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its
harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.
That wonderful prayer and praise of God
is found at Psalm 85. We will take a look at what that means in a few minutes,
but first I'd like you to hear a song that is also a simple declaration: ‘I
Love You Lord’ sung by Marantha Praise Band. Would you listen to it with me?
As we look at today's scripture from
Psalm 85 we see that the Psalmist is making a very simple plea to God. He says
to God, “Restore us, O God our savior!” He's making a plea not only for
himself but for his people, for the nation and the community that he lives in.
Restore us again is a is a great plea.
I think it's something that is expressed in many hearts. It may be that as you
enter into the new year 2018 you're looking for renewal in your life. Maybe
you're looking to recover some of the joy that you had in the past.
The idea of restoration implies that
there was something in the past that can be restored, a good High Point, a
pleasant situation, a better life. The Psalmist describes what he sees as what
‘used to be’ when he begins the Psalm. He talks about a time when God showed
favor to his land, he speaks about a time when God restored the fortunes of
Jacob.
“Fortune” of course for us often means
purely fortune as in wealth: that if somebody has a fortune then we think
they're very, very rich. But of course the fortunes of a person are the the
turns of events in their lives - the situations and circumstances in which they
live- of which wealth is only one thing. So that the psalmist becomes a
little bit more specific in his description of what the fortunes of Jacob were,
the good situation that they enjoyed before was that God was forgiving the
iniquity of the people and he covered their sins. He set aside his wrath and
turned from his fierce anger. He’s recalling the throughout the history of
God's dealing with the people of Israel, God was willing to forgive when Israel
turned from its sins. They would cry out to him even after turning to other
gods he would listen, he would see their repentance, he would forgive their
sins.
So when he recalls this past situation
of God forgiving the people, probably he has in mind that in the current
situation of his people there's some sin that needs to be forgiven. There is
some reason that God is against him and his people. We don't know exactly what
the circumstances were but when he looks to the future he gives us some
description of that.
Are you looking for restoration in your
life? Was there some point in the past when you enjoyed his favor and now you
wonder or even if, in fact, you know there's some barrier between you and God.
Are you crying out to God for restoration and recalling how you used to have a
closeness with him. It's wonderful actually to have that evidence of his grace
to look back on; to remember his faithfulness and be able to recall that he has
shown his love to you in so many ways.
Often we have had experiences when
we've been living the Christian Life for a number of years we've had times when
we just knew we were in a good place with God. We knew that we are walking
close to him, that we had confessed our sins and that he had gladly forgiven
us. So we can recall those things. But what if we don't have those memories?
What if we don't recall any time in our lives when God has been close to us?
What if we are just beginning to search for the truth of Christ. Well, we
have to look back into other people's experience. Just as with so many other
things we find the evidence of the things that are true through the testimonies
of others, through people telling us what they’ve heard and seen and
experienced. The Bible is full of these Recollections and so in this Psalm we
have a psalmist reminding us that he himself was able to look back - maybe even
not into his own living experience - but look back and see that in the past God
has shown favor to his people. If you were a Jewish person of those days you
would look back to the stories of the deliverance from Egypt and slavery in
Egypt. You might even look at the whole history of Israel since its deliverance
from Egypt, when different enemies were turned aside by the power of God and by
his grace. You might even be able to look to the what we might call the natural
Grace of seeing good harvests and times when everybody was in good health, when
there was peace in the land.
You might be able to look back into
those things in your life too. You may be able to begin to credit God with the
blessings that he provided through the natural workings of the world. You might
be able to say, “Lord, even then, even though I didn't know you, your hand was
guiding and providing and preparing the way for us!” You may be able to
recognize God in the past even if you hadn't at the time that these things were
happening. And so you may cry out to God, “Restore Us! Restore me! Restore
my family!”
These days as we consider the past year
and look ahead to the new year, we may have some trepidation wondering if the
patterns of bad news that have crossed the world, violence and unrest and less
and less patience with others. We've seen so much bad news over the course of a
year. We kind of hope that we won't see that bad news, but, that we will go to
a place of more peace and Grace.
What's your prayer for restoration? Is
it a personal prayer, is it prayer for your family? Is it a prayer for your
church? Is it a prayer for the nation or a prayer for the whole earth as you
pray for restoration from God?
We will take another look at this and
look at it in more depth shortly. First I want to to listen to a song
that speaks about the new beginning we can make every day. In the context of
the New Year, here’s Carolyn Arends singing a song recorded few
years ago called New Year's Day and it's from her album Feel Free. Would you
listen to it with me?
Every day can be New Year’s Day. Every
day is an opportunity for God to work in us to restore us and renew us.
That's a very good news for all of us, news that we’ve learned through Jesus
Christ, through his death on the cross and his resurrection. God is literally
able to overcome death and if he's able to overcome death and sin through Jesus
Christ then what can be against us?
In this Psalm that we're looking at we
have a psalmist who is praying and he is sensing God's anger against his
people. He repeats the question in different words, “Will you be angry with us
forever, will you prolong your anger through all generations?” He asks God,
“Put away your displeasure towards us and and revive us again!” What makes the
psalmist worry that God’s anger is against his people? Does he know from the
word of the law that that the wages of sin is death? That the people have been
rebelling against God and going their own way? That people have not only been
disobeying God, they've been that neglecting him?
Sometimes we think God is angry at us:
we see something go wrong in our life and we wonder if that's a sign of God's
displeasure. It's certain that the sin has negative consequences that come with
it. But the wrath of God, as it’s described in Scripture, is always against the
sin, not against the person. He urges us and calls us to let go of the sin that
is corrupting our lives, to lay it down at the cross and let Jesus destroy the
power and guilt of that sin. His anger is against that which is destroying his
people. And so he calls to each of us to put away our sin, to confess it
before him and to let it go. The beginning of restoration is to recognize that
there is a problem, and the problem, in terms of our relationship with
God, the problem is our Disobedience and Rebellion against him.
But then we come into the problem,
sometimes, of continuing to feel guilty, continuing to think God is angry after
we confessed. We want some sign from God to show us that he has restored us and
we hope for some change of feeling. It’s wonderful when such things happen, but
I want to proclaim today that the sign which we have from God of his
everlasting forgiveness, of his promise to restore us is in the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead.
You may be someone who really lives in
emotional feelings or you may be a person who doesn’t feel a lot of things, who
doesn’t recognize the difference of mood in a room or circumstance. You
may not experience a feeling because of God’s restoration. But those who have
put their hope in Jesus Christ do not home in feelings, but in the power
of God which raised Jesus Christ from the dead. I urge you if you are praying
for restoration in your life to listen to what the Lord has said, and look at
what the Lord has done. Feelings can deceive us , but the work of God and the
wonder he has shown in the love of his Son is something you can bank on,
something you can count on, for he does restore our fortunes.
It is wonderful, when you read over this
Psalm, and see that the psalmist desires the same sort of things that we look
for. When asks for this restoration he describes his vision of what life will
be like when God’s restoration and peace comes to his people.
He sees people who are listening again
to what God says, who are listening to God’s command to love the Lord God with
all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbour as
themselves. He sees a world that is changed, a world where the people of God
don’t return to their previous folly, but stay close to God and the result of
this he describes in beautiful terms, saying, “love and faithfulness meet
together, righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
“Love and faithfulness” Love is the
goal of each of our lives. We want to love and be loved. We want a love which
is a full and lasting love, not a love that comes and goes or fades away, so
love and faithfulness meeting together is a beautiful image for the people of
God knowing that they’re secure in a love that will not fade.
“Righteousness and peace kiss each
other.” He describes a pairing of goodness, righteousness is doing the right
thing, and peace we know is not just the absence of violence but a sense of
security and goodwill towards one another. Too often righteousness becomes
harsh in the hands of people. People become ‘righteous judges,’ become very
condemning other people. When God is at work in restoring us the righteousness
we have is a gentle and graceful righteousness that brings peace into our
relationships, that causes us to be merciful and compassionate to others so
that righteousness and peace also meet together.
God indeed will give what is good this.
This is the hope and the promise of this Psalmist. He hopes it as he writes it,
and in the Word of God it becomes a promise to us. The Lord will indeed give
what is good and our land will yield its harvest. The harvest that we think
about these days most often is metaphorical. We have been blessed in our land
of Canada with plentiful food for Harvest, but the Harvest that we long for is
a harvest of righteousness, a harvest of goodness, a harvest of salvation for
all the people. We long for the Word of God to transform lives, restoring us
and others, and maybe even going beyond restoration to a place we've never been
before, to new level of maturity in Christ.
This psalm is a prayer for you and for
me it's a psalm for our nation and for our world. Let's come together with God
and pray.
Almighty God, thank you for the good news of your promised restoration.
Help us to turn away from all things that have kept us from you. We count on
you to remember the grace you've shown us in Jesus Christ, and to destroy sin,
but stand us up in your presence. Almighty God we pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen!
As we close today I want you to hear
hymn sung by Steve Bell, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” I hope that his year
you will find that Jesus comes and lives in your heart.
Thank you for tuning in. If you have been
blessed and encouraged, do tell your friends about this program. Feel free to
send in questions and comments via the web site, and be sure to share your good
news if you have come to faith through listening. But the program on its own is
not enough. Don’t forget to join other Christians in worship in a church where
the Gospel is soundly proclaimed, and where it is lived out with compassion,
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May you come to know Jesus Christ
personally and profoundly. May the Holy Spirit reside deeply within your heart,
and may you feel our heavenly Father surrounding you with his constant, abiding
and accompanying love.
Good News In The Morning is produced in
the Studios of News Talk Radio 580 CFRA.
Rev.
Brian Wilkie
St. Andrew's Christian Community,
Rockland, Ontario
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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:
