Well, I have AI have a confession to make this morning.
I enjoy watching people from other countries eat American
food on YouTube. Does anyone?
Do you know what I'm talking about here?
Raise your hand if you also enjoy this.
No, nobody, nobody, nobody watches this.
OK, if you are unaware, maybe people are just too embarrassed
to admit it. I don't know, but but there are
people, I there's all, you know, Josh and Ollie, Mr. H and his
family. There's a European couple in
America, There's two sisters from North Korea.
There's a whole list of people who they'll either take out an
American recipe and cook it in their own country and then taste
it themselves, or they'll actually travel 5 / 5000 miles
to come to the US and taste some of this American food for
themselves. And just some.
And some of the food that they're that they're fascinated
by, we eat every day or several times during the week perhaps
we've been eating these foods our whole lives and they are
just amazed. They're amazed they're Tex Mex
BBQ biscuits and gravy of all things is what they're sampling.
And I watched their reactions as they're eating, and they're just
amazed by how good it tastes. And I'm just kind of like, oh,
yeah, yeah, it's good, right? It's good, right?
And that's what I'm thinking to myself.
And. And somewhere, somehow, somebody
told them American food is amazing.
You've got to try this for yourself.
And they do. The sad thing is, I was thinking
about this. The sad thing is, is that I
would say that most people are more interested in seeking out
good food and new flavors than they are in seeking the
spiritual blessings of God. Psalm 34, eight says taste and
see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes
refuge in him. Last week, Pastor Ben introduced
us to a group of people in the early church known as the Desert
Fathers and Mothers who weren't content to know, just know about
God. They wanted to know God and they
went to great lengths in their spiritual hunger to experience
more of God. Their devotion continues to to
inspire generations today. The Bible has many examples of
this hunger for God. So if you have your Bibles or
phones electronic devices this morning, turn with me, if you
will, to Psalm 84. Psalm 84 is we study a hunger
for holiness. But first let's pray, Lord God,
I pray that you would speak through me and to me God, I pray
that I would decrease, that you would increase.
I pray Lord, that as we lift you up, that you would draw all of
us to yourself in Jesus name. And everybody said Amen, Amen.
Psalm 84. The first thing we see in this
passage is a passionate pursuit, A passionate pursuit.
The author sought the presence of the Lord with an uncommon
intensity. Look with, look with me at
verses one through 4. How lovely is your dwelling
place, O Lord Almighty? My soul yearns, even faints for
the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God. Even the Sparrow has found a
home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may have her
young. A place near your altar.
O Lord Almighty, my King and my God, blessed are those who dwell
in your house. They are ever praising you.
Salah, look at the language used here.
Yearns, faints, My heart and flesh cry out.
Verse three goes on to say even the Sparrow, which is a bird of
little value, and the swallow, which is a bird that's always
restless, we're able to live in the courts of the Lord and find
refuge and peace. The author is desperate to be
closer to God and even seems to envy the birds who perched in
the Tabernacle courts. But the devil doesn't want us to
want God, and he does his best to Tempest away from pursuing a
close relationship with God. How many of you ever heard of
the seven deadly sins? Are you familiar with that?
OK, well before before Gregory the Great famously named the
Seven deadly sins, there was a man named John Cashin and he was
one of the Desert Fathers. And he spoke about the eight
thoughts, the eight thoughts, the deep rooted patterns of the
heart that tend to pull us away from God.
And we're going to look at this list with practical suggestions
from our study for how to overcome these temptations.
I just want you to think about them.
Weigh these in your own heart. See if you have fallen into
these temptations. The first is gluttony.
Gluttony. And the suggestion is to fast
one meal in the next week and replace that time with prayer.
Lust. And the suggestion is become
mindful of the shows you are watching and time spent on your
devices. There's greed.
Lean into generosity every chance you get this week.
Could you put off buying something for yourself and gift
that money to someone else? Anger.
Practice breath prayers. Just a short prayer, every
breath. As you breathe in, breathe out a
blessing, perhaps on the person who's frustrating you.
Breathe peace. Ask God for your help.
Take time to calm your inner world, and take time to pray for
those who frustrate you. Dejection.
Start a gratitude journal. Begin each day this coming week
by naming 10 things you are thankful for.
There's a Cydia, which means apathy or listlessness.
Commit to prayer walking each day this week.
There's Vainglory, which means boasting fast from any posting
on social media this week which showcases admirable aspects of
your life. Just keep that to yourself.
Then there's pride, which is really the root of all sins, and
the suggestion is for confession.
Be honest with someone you trust about this week's talk and the
areas of struggle you are dealing with.
In Revelation chapter 2, God begins by commending the church
in Ephesus for their hard work and their perseverance.
But in verses 4 through 5, he says, yet I hold this against
you. You have forsaken your first
love. Remember the height from which
you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did
at first. I'm just going to give you a
sermon within the sermon. This is just a little bonus.
That's not a bad way to repair a relationship to start there.
If you're struggling in a relationship, if you're
struggling with a spouse or a loved one, remember when.
Remember the good times together, perhaps, and turn away
from the direction that you're going and start doing again the
things you did at the beginning when you first fell in love,
when you first had that relationship.
Start over. If you've drifted into one of
these sins, know that you can turn around today and go God's
way. Maybe the spiritual hunger shown
in these verses will inspire you to pursue a closer walk with
God. I remember the first time that I
read The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer.
Anyone read that book? Wonderful book, wonderful book.
I encourage everybody to read it.
I thought, here is a man who's hungry for God.
Here's a man who will not be satisfied with anything less
then to bow his soul at God's feet and love him with all of
his heart and soul and mind and strength.
And I thought, that's how I want to be too.
I want to be like that. It's contagious.
AW Tozer called people with this
passionate love for God the Fellowship of the Burning heart,
and I'm convinced that this fellowship is much smaller than
we might suspect. I remember the tender joy on my
grandmother's face as she would sing in the garden, and I've
sung songs like Refiners Fire or As the Deer or I'm Desperate for
You, and other songs more recently, such as Homesick for
Heaven. Songs over time, over the
decades that have seemed to express this hunger for God.
The author displays this same passionate pursuit, and it gives
us an example to follow today. The second thing we see in this
passage is the Pilgrim's Progress.
The Pilgrim's Progress. God gives his strength to us as
we are tested by the difficulties of life.
Look what verses 5 through 8. Blessed are those whose strength
is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the valley of Baca.
They make it a place of springs. The autumn rains also cover it
with pools. They go from strength to
strength till each appears before God and Zion.
Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty.
Listen to me, O God of Jacob, Sela.
The Valley of Baca is also known as the Valley of Tears or the
Valley of Sorrow. It's a valley full of thorny
bushes that inevitably scratch you as you travel on your way to
Mount Zion to worship. It's a place of testing to see
if you're willing to endure that travel to worship God.
But it's also a place where travellers see the provision of
God as they pass through the valley of Baca.
They make it a place of springs. The autumn rains also cover it
with pools. There's something when you need
it. Now.
God is a just in time kind of a God.
God gives you what you need, not necessarily what you want, but
what you need just in time. It's one thing for me to hear or
read stories about God's faithfulness.
It's another thing entirely to see God's faithfulness in your
time of trial and to know that you were faithful to God in your
trial as well. Verse 7 says they go from
strength to strength. Most of the time.
The further you walk, the more tired you get.
But here we see the people on pilgrimage getting stronger the
further that they travel, and so should it be in our walk with
Christ. As we learn more about Jesus, we
learn to draw our strength from Him.
I remember a missionary that had to return to the States to have
a surgery and I watched her as she recovered when she was so
weak that she could barely, barely lift her arms.
But her face lit up with this incredible joy as she as she
worshipped the Lord. And eventually the strength of
her body caught up with the strength of her spirit and she
was able to return to the mission field.
Philippians 413 says I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me. Use the means of grace not for
an end in and of, in and of themselves, but for a way of
drawing closer to God as a way of filling your soul with God's
love and with God's power. And remember that the valley is
not the destination. It's a place of discovery.
It's a place to learn more about God and more about yourself.
I'm not sure what valley you might be in today, but I know
that everybody deals with something and know that God
intends to make you stronger because of it.
So we've seen a passionate pursuit, we've seen the pilgrims
progress, and finally we see the perfect provision.
The perfect provision. God has blessings in store for
those who trust Him. Read with me in verses 9 through
12. Look upon our shield, O God.
Look with favour on your anointed one.
Better is one day in your courts than 1000 elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than
dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a son and a shield.
The Lord bestows favour in honour.
No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is
blameless. O Lord Almighty, blessed is the
man who trusts in you. Better is I would rather they
show a recognition that being in God's presence is better than
anything else in the world. I remember the story of Martha
complaining to Jesus that Mary was just sitting at the Lord's
feet listening to what he said instead of getting up and
helping her. But Jesus told her in Luke 1042.
Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away
from her. A friend and I once ate at a
restaurant that served all you can eat pancakes for $0.25.
Yeah, back in my day. And the waiter told me if you
leave hungry, it's your own fault.
Matthew 5-6 says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be filled.
If you're empty and hungry in your soul, if you sense
something as missing, you came to the right place because God
says you can have all of him that you want.
But here's the thing, When I ate all those pancakes, I won't tell
you how many I ate, but when I ate those pancakes, I didn't
want another pancake for two years.
I didn't eat another pancake for two years.
Honestly, I had had enough. But it's the opposite with God.
It's the opposite with God. The more time that we spend with
Him, the more that we draw our life from his life, the more of
him we want. Saint Bernard, put it this way,
We taste thee, O thou living bread, and long to feast upon
thee. Still we drink of Thee, The
Fountainhead, and thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
The more time that we spend with God, the more of Him that we
want. Verse 11 describes God as a son
and a shield. This illumination and this
protection. Who gives favour and honour?
In fact, God doesn't hold anything back.
No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is
blameless. I'm not going to say that you're
not going to experience difficulty.
We already talked about the valley.
We are. We will occasionally walk
through the valley, but the blessings of God upon His people
are unmistakable. Verse 2 and verse 10 talk about
the courts of the Lord. And if you remember, in the
Tabernacle and later in the temple, there were separate
areas with greater restrictions. Really.
There was the outer court, and then there was the inner court,
and then there was a veil, a heavy veil which separated the
holy place from the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies.
And only one person could go into the Holy of Holies, and
that was a high priest. And that was only on one day of
the year. But it was the Holy of Holies
where the presence of God was in a special way.
When Jesus died on the on the cross, the veil of the temple
was torn into from top to bottom as if God was saying, you can
come in now, you can come in. Hebrews 416 says, let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of Dean.
Hebrews tells us that the earthly Tabernacle was a copy of
a heavenly of the heavenly courts.
It was a copy. It's just an imitation, but now
we have access in the heavenlies, in heaven, in the
heavenly courts. We have access to approach in
our spirit God's throne of grace.
More than anyone in the Old Testament.
We now have access to the presence of God Himself.
Finally, we can realise the reality of what it says in verse
4. Blessed are those who dwell, who
dwell, who stay there in your house.
They are ever praising you. Today, in all the stress of
life, in any valley or test, your spirit can continually
dwell in the presence of the Lord.
The Bible says God has placed eternity in the heart of man.
God has placed a God sized God shaped whole in our spirit, in
our soul and we all feel the need to fill that void.
Most of the people in the world honestly are trying to fill that
void with power, pleasure or possessions.
The same things that Jesus was tempted with in his desert.
The devil came to him and said if you are the Son of God, tell
these stones to become bread. You haven't eaten in 40 days,
it's not pleasant. You're hungry.
Why don't you just enjoy a little pleasure?
Throw yourself down from the temple.
When the angels catch you, you'll be recognized and you'll
as the Messiah and you'll have all the power.
Everyone will will respect you. Just bow down and I'll give you
all the possessions in all the kingdoms of the world.
You'll be a trillionaire. Power.
Pleasure. Possessions.
It's the same temptations we have.
Jesus was tempted in every way but without sin.
And the people of this world pursue these things to try to
fill the God sized void in their soul, and they feel fuller for a
little while, but it never satisfies.
It never satisfies because we have an infinite need and only
the infinite God can satisfy it. Mick Jagger saying I can't get
no and I won't say saying it. I can't get no satisfaction.
And I try and I try and I try
and I try, but I can't get no satisfaction because there's a
God sized, a God shaped hole in his soul and only God can fill
that. So there's a back story.
I don't know if you realize this.
There's a back story going on behind the scenes for Psalm 84.
If you look in my Bible, it says Psalm 84 for the director of
music according to Getteth, which I think is a strained
instrument. So Garrett, you're, you're in
there of the songs of Kora, of the sons of Kora, a song of the
sons of Kora. Who's this Kora guy?
Was he some spiritual leader? Was he a, a prophet perhaps?
Was he a, did he write songs as well?
Who's this? Who's this Kora?
Was he a spiritual example for the people to follow?
No, quite the opposite. Kora was a Levite who got
jealous of Moses and Aaron and LED 250 members of the Israelite
council along with some 3 prominent men from the tribe of
Reuben in a rebellion against the authority of Moses and
Aaron. And it's recorded in the Book of
Numbers chapter 16. Spoiler alert, this did not end
well. God proposed a test, said have
the 250 consul leaders take some of the holy incense which only
the priests were allowed to offer, and put this incense in
small metal, small metal dishes called sensors, and make an
offer, an offering to God along with Aaron.
And then God said, move away from the tents of Korra and from
the tents of the three men of Reuben.
And then the earth opened up and swallowed Kora and all that he
had, and the man from the tribe of Reuben and all that they had.
And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who
were offering incense. And then God had Aaron take and
hammer out these sensors and overlay the altar with them as a
sign for the Israelites. But the sons of Korra didn't
stand with their father. Their desire was for God alone.
And we see their humility and their hunger for God in the
lines of this song. My soul yearns, even faints for
the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God. But this wasn't the only Psalm
written by the songs The sons of Korra.
Several other psalms were written by the sons of Quran.
We continue to hear this heart's cry.
They wrote what we call Psalm 42.
And in Psalm 42 verses one through 2, it says as the deer
pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God, my
soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God? They also wrote Psalm 46 verse
one says God is our refuge and strength in ever present help in
trouble. Verse 10 says be still and know
that I am God. They wrote Psalm 48 verse 9 says
within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
Over and over again. We continue to see their hunger
for God and their reliance on his strength and love.
And does this inspire us? Does this devotion inspire you
today, as Paul Harvey said, And now you know the rest of the
story, You may come from a religious family, or maybe you
used to go to church and you drifted away.
Or maybe you realize today that you have barely even sampled
everything that God has for you. So my question is, what about
now? What about today?
Is God drawing you closer to Himself today?
What is He whispering to your soul?
There's a word that we see twice in the margin.
It's my right margin in my Bible of Psalm 84, and it says sela.
You often see this in the margins of the Psalms, Sela.
The best definition I could find of sela is pause.
Take time and think about that. Think about what you just read.
And that's what we want to offer you today.
As the musicians come, we invite you to pause and take time to
think about the love God has for each of us today.
Maybe you realize that you used to be hungrier for spiritual
things of God than you are right now, and you want that to be
renewed. Maybe you've drifted into some
of the eight thoughts John Cash enlisted that you want to
confess and repent from those today.
Maybe you feel like you're going through the valley of Becca,
through a valley of sorrow, a valley of tears.
And we want to support you, to encourage you, and to offer you
the comfort and strength that we have found during our dark
times. We're on a pilgrimage together,
and we offer you a moment to pray with those who have found
the rest and peace to be found walking hand in hand with God.
Maybe someone here realizes they need God's greatest gift,
salvation in Jesus Christ. Don't harden your heart.
Today is the day of salvation. That's what the Bible says.
Today is the day of salvation.