Advice For Travelers- Part 1
Psalm 84:1-12
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Introduction: Illus. “How To Improve Your Memory,” Amusing Grace, p. 197, #693. Michael Angus, the chairman of Unilever talks about the importance of having a good memory. He confessed that he had been having memory lapses, and so he ordered a book entitled “How To Improve Your Memory.” When the book arrived he took it over to the bookcase to put it in the section reserved for unread books. When he got there he found another book entitled How To Improve Your Memory!
This sermon is titled “Advice for Travelers.” However, advice is only good if you use it. Too often we stick it on a shelf for a later time and then find that we have already filed similar advice away before. This morning we look at Psalm 84, a “psalm of pilgrimage,” to see what words of advice the psalmist has to give to us.
This psalm is a very well-known and well-loved Psalm. Every year crowds would flock to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. They would make the journey from every part of the territories occupied by Israel. They would make their pilgrimage to the Holy City to worship at the Temple.
This Psalm is the thoughts of one who is making this pilgrimage as he makes his way up to Jerusalem. His desire is to get to God’s house - to be in the company of God’s people, worshiping. We read about it in vss. 1-2: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.”
DO YOU HAVE A LOVE LIKE THIS - A LONGING FOR GOD’S HOUSE? A passionate desire to be in His presence night and day?! It is in having a desire like this that will allow us to be able to put this advice to practice. The advice comes from verses 5-8, and so these are the verses we will be focusing on this morning. In these verse we will see 4 keys for a successful passage through life.
I. LOOK TO GOD ALONE FOR YOUR STRENGTH- (Zechariah 4:6;
2 Corinthians 11:23-28, 12:9; 2 Timothy 4:7-8; Isaiah 40:29-31)
a. Glad for our weaknesses-
("Blessed is the one whose strength is in You."), Psalm 84:5 starts out…
The Christian life is impossible without God’s strength. YET so often our greatest battle is about learning to trust God instead of trying to do it on our own. ZECHARIAH 4:6 says- “God said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.’”/ It is not by our power or effort, but by God’s power that we will live successfully; and by successfully I mean the way God desires and has designed for us to live.
The Apostle Paul knew this as well. He had a particularly tough life which included great labor for the Lord, imprisonments, floggings, he was beaten for his faith and stoned, he was shipwrecked, and often found himself in danger on his journeys. He had times of sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, and he continually felt anxiety in regards to the many churches he oversaw. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28 is the passage that tells us of this). But in the last days of his life he was able to say in 2 TIMOTHY 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but to all who have longed for his appearing.”
Paul knew what we need to know, as God says through Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-
“….‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”/ Now it may sound crazy to boast in our weaknesses. We usually want to forget our weaknesses, ignore our weaknesses, keep our weaknesses hidden. But it is in understanding our weaknesses that allows us to trust in the power of God!
This is the only way to beat “burnout”. This is the only way to overcome the struggles of life. This is the only way to rise above the mundane of our existence. We do NOT have enough resources to make the whole journey. Christians burn out because they strive in their own strength! On your own strength you can only get so far, but you’ll never finish well without God’s strength.
b. Living in God’s strength-
ILLUSTRATION: There’s a story of a man setting out across the Nullabor desert with just half a tank of gas - thinking that it will be enough to get him all the way home. “If I just drive a little slower,” he thinks, “I can make this gas last.” But there are simply not enough resources, and the inevitable happens, he runs out of gas and he is stuck by himself in the desert!
We think such a man is crazy to embark on a journey, especially a journey across the desert, without enough gas, without enough resources. At some point there has to be refueling; refilling. And yet, so many/ are just as crazy because they believe they can live the Christian life on their own strength - on their own resources.
Most Christians will agree that you can’t make it on your own strength. Yet so many do not take steps to ensure God’s strength for themselves. Why is this? Well, it is sometimes caused by indifference, or by busyness, or by not knowing how to do it. The first 2 you have to determine yourself to change; seek God who will give you enthusiasm for life, and seek to slow down in your life. Now is the time to start taking your Christian faith seriously. In regards to not knowing how, Isaiah gives us some help in Isaiah 40:29-31. In this passage Isaiah tells us that we will be strengthened if we live in God’s strength by waiting on God (meaning we don’t try to do it on our own because of our impatience when we don’t see God working), and by having a daily prayer and Bible reading time.
So often we look for God to give us these “spectacular insights” - the hidden mysteries - about how to defeat all our enemies and move the mountains in our lives, but the truth is/ if you discipline yourself by getting down the BASICS of the Christian life (Bible reading, prayer, worshiping at church, telling others about Jesus) our ENEMIES will FLEE AND our MOUNTAINS will CRUMBLE! Why? Because in doing these things, you start to live daily in the Lord’s strength! Simply, but powerfully, being built up and led by God. I believe that if you keep to the basics consistently - do them often enough - God will get blessing to you!
**As Psalm 84:5 says- “Happy (blessed) are those whose strength is in God…” The first key for a successful passage through life is: LOOK TO GOD ALONE FOR YOUR STRENGTH.
II. PUT YOUR HEART INTO THE JOURNEY- (James 1:5-8; Revelation 3:15-16)
a. Make the right preparations-
Then verse 5 continues- “…Whose heart are the highways to Zion,” or as another version says, “Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.”)
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to stop when I have to drive a long distance. (Just a couple of weeks ago we drove to Fresno to visit my aunt on the way to Sequoia. Even though the drive is only about 4 hours to Fresno, we chose to stop about an hour and a half into the journey to have lunch. In many ways I would prefer to drive straight there.)
When I get in the car, my heart is set on the destination point;
set on the journey; set on the pilgrimage!
The psalmist tells us that it is important to have our hearts set on the journey. How do you know if your heart is set on the journey? First, you make the right preparations.
Second, you don’t get side-tracked.
1. Illus.- When you go on a trip, what do you do before you leave? You pack, right? You make sure that you have all the necessary things for the trip so that you will be prepared. You make sure you have the right clothes, and that you have the accessories needed for the trip. It makes the trip difficult if you find out along the way that you haven’t packed what you need, if you find that you aren’t prepared. And for us, when we go on trips, to be prepared means to have drinks for the kids, as well as the DS games and books for them to read so that they will be able to stay occupied!
God wants us to be prepared spiritually, and the first essential of being prepared is to be into this journey with our whole heart. You know, God loves wholehearted people. People who throw themselves into life. In fact, He has some things to say about half-hearted people, doesn’t He?!
James 1:5-8- “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”
And James 4:8- “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
To be double-minded is to not be whole heartedly seeking and trusting God!
Revelation 3:15-16 says it even more strongly, as Jesus says, “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
b. Don’t get sidetracked-
Example- In one of the Olympics, in the Marathon race, there was a runner from Tanzania who was hours behind the other runners. By the time this runner entered the stadium, the drama of the event was long over. As he approached the finish line, he was limping, and grimacing, and his appearance was very ragged. His knee was bleeding from an earlier fall, and the remaining crowd began to cheer him on to the finish line. After the race he was asked: “Why did you stay in the race?” His answer: “My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it.”
He endured exhaustion, pain, and potential embarassment/ all for the purpose of just finishing the race. He was able to do this, because he was not sidetracked during his journey, but kept his eyes on the goal.
God didn’t give us our lives to just start the race. He gave us life to finish it. We are to put our whole heart into the journey. MAKE OUR LIFETIME COUNT! We shouldn’t be people who are just letting life pass us by - being dictated to by our circumstances - “waiting out” our time until Jesus comes - we must have our eyes on the finish line, with our energies, our heart, our hands and feet, occupied with making the journey count - living for Jesus . Paul wrote: “For me to LIVE is Christ”.
It can be easy to get sidetracked, because there is so much in this world that calls out to us to follow. There are so many things we can do other than live for Christ. So many things to do other than come to church or read our Bible or pray to God or serve others. But the things of the world will not make our journey more meaningful; letting God be our strength and being prepared for the journey will.
THE PROCESS IS IMPORTANT. What you learn and achieve here on earth with the life God gave you is important to God.
“Happy are those whose strength is in God, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.” The second key for a successful passage through life: PUT YOUR HEART INTO THE JOURNEY.
Don’t wish your life away. And don’t just let it pass you by. Make it count for God’s glory. Grow. Learn. Be committed.
Conclusion: There are two more keys I want to share with you from this great Psalm, which I will do next week. But reflecting on this morning, we remember that we aren’t designed to live by our own strength. In fact, if we admit it, we realize that we have many weaknesses that cause us to stumble along. But the good news is that God has given us His strength to draw upon. This really comes to us by living out the basics of the Christian faith and regularly putting them into practice in our lives.
Along with this, God wants us to be sure that we are prepared for life. So God wants to guide us in the preparations that we make: daily, weekly, monthly, for our lifetime. God knows that if we are well prepared, then we will live a full life filled with joy. And to make sure we do this all the more, we need to stay focused. I don’t know if you are like me at all, but when I am at work I might start one project, then something else captures my attention, and then something else, and the next thing I know I’m working on 5 different things! I have gotten sidetracked. I finally have to stay enough is enough, and concentrate on one at a time until I finish all five!!
By starting each day with our eyes focused on Jesus, we can be more sure that we will get through the day successfully. Let us receive God’s strength this day as we seek to put our whole heart into this journey of life God has given us. Amen.
Psalm 84:1-12
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Introduction: Illus. “How To Improve Your Memory,” Amusing Grace, p. 197, #693. Michael Angus, the chairman of Unilever talks about the importance of having a good memory. He confessed that he had been having memory lapses, and so he ordered a book entitled “How To Improve Your Memory.” When the book arrived he took it over to the bookcase to put it in the section reserved for unread books. When he got there he found another book entitled How To Improve Your Memory!
This sermon is titled “Advice for Travelers.” However, advice is only good if you use it. Too often we stick it on a shelf for a later time and then find that we have already filed similar advice away before. This morning we look at Psalm 84, a “psalm of pilgrimage,” to see what words of advice the psalmist has to give to us.
This psalm is a very well-known and well-loved Psalm. Every year crowds would flock to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. They would make the journey from every part of the territories occupied by Israel. They would make their pilgrimage to the Holy City to worship at the Temple.
This Psalm is the thoughts of one who is making this pilgrimage as he makes his way up to Jerusalem. His desire is to get to God’s house - to be in the company of God’s people, worshiping. We read about it in vss. 1-2: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.”
DO YOU HAVE A LOVE LIKE THIS - A LONGING FOR GOD’S HOUSE? A passionate desire to be in His presence night and day?! It is in having a desire like this that will allow us to be able to put this advice to practice. The advice comes from verses 5-8, and so these are the verses we will be focusing on this morning. In these verse we will see 4 keys for a successful passage through life.
I. LOOK TO GOD ALONE FOR YOUR STRENGTH- (Zechariah 4:6;
2 Corinthians 11:23-28, 12:9; 2 Timothy 4:7-8; Isaiah 40:29-31)
a. Glad for our weaknesses-
("Blessed is the one whose strength is in You."), Psalm 84:5 starts out…
The Christian life is impossible without God’s strength. YET so often our greatest battle is about learning to trust God instead of trying to do it on our own. ZECHARIAH 4:6 says- “God said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.’”/ It is not by our power or effort, but by God’s power that we will live successfully; and by successfully I mean the way God desires and has designed for us to live.
The Apostle Paul knew this as well. He had a particularly tough life which included great labor for the Lord, imprisonments, floggings, he was beaten for his faith and stoned, he was shipwrecked, and often found himself in danger on his journeys. He had times of sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, and he continually felt anxiety in regards to the many churches he oversaw. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28 is the passage that tells us of this). But in the last days of his life he was able to say in 2 TIMOTHY 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but to all who have longed for his appearing.”
Paul knew what we need to know, as God says through Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-
“….‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”/ Now it may sound crazy to boast in our weaknesses. We usually want to forget our weaknesses, ignore our weaknesses, keep our weaknesses hidden. But it is in understanding our weaknesses that allows us to trust in the power of God!
This is the only way to beat “burnout”. This is the only way to overcome the struggles of life. This is the only way to rise above the mundane of our existence. We do NOT have enough resources to make the whole journey. Christians burn out because they strive in their own strength! On your own strength you can only get so far, but you’ll never finish well without God’s strength.
b. Living in God’s strength-
ILLUSTRATION: There’s a story of a man setting out across the Nullabor desert with just half a tank of gas - thinking that it will be enough to get him all the way home. “If I just drive a little slower,” he thinks, “I can make this gas last.” But there are simply not enough resources, and the inevitable happens, he runs out of gas and he is stuck by himself in the desert!
We think such a man is crazy to embark on a journey, especially a journey across the desert, without enough gas, without enough resources. At some point there has to be refueling; refilling. And yet, so many/ are just as crazy because they believe they can live the Christian life on their own strength - on their own resources.
Most Christians will agree that you can’t make it on your own strength. Yet so many do not take steps to ensure God’s strength for themselves. Why is this? Well, it is sometimes caused by indifference, or by busyness, or by not knowing how to do it. The first 2 you have to determine yourself to change; seek God who will give you enthusiasm for life, and seek to slow down in your life. Now is the time to start taking your Christian faith seriously. In regards to not knowing how, Isaiah gives us some help in Isaiah 40:29-31. In this passage Isaiah tells us that we will be strengthened if we live in God’s strength by waiting on God (meaning we don’t try to do it on our own because of our impatience when we don’t see God working), and by having a daily prayer and Bible reading time.
So often we look for God to give us these “spectacular insights” - the hidden mysteries - about how to defeat all our enemies and move the mountains in our lives, but the truth is/ if you discipline yourself by getting down the BASICS of the Christian life (Bible reading, prayer, worshiping at church, telling others about Jesus) our ENEMIES will FLEE AND our MOUNTAINS will CRUMBLE! Why? Because in doing these things, you start to live daily in the Lord’s strength! Simply, but powerfully, being built up and led by God. I believe that if you keep to the basics consistently - do them often enough - God will get blessing to you!
**As Psalm 84:5 says- “Happy (blessed) are those whose strength is in God…” The first key for a successful passage through life is: LOOK TO GOD ALONE FOR YOUR STRENGTH.
II. PUT YOUR HEART INTO THE JOURNEY- (James 1:5-8; Revelation 3:15-16)
a. Make the right preparations-
Then verse 5 continues- “…Whose heart are the highways to Zion,” or as another version says, “Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.”)
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to stop when I have to drive a long distance. (Just a couple of weeks ago we drove to Fresno to visit my aunt on the way to Sequoia. Even though the drive is only about 4 hours to Fresno, we chose to stop about an hour and a half into the journey to have lunch. In many ways I would prefer to drive straight there.)
When I get in the car, my heart is set on the destination point;
set on the journey; set on the pilgrimage!
The psalmist tells us that it is important to have our hearts set on the journey. How do you know if your heart is set on the journey? First, you make the right preparations.
Second, you don’t get side-tracked.
1. Illus.- When you go on a trip, what do you do before you leave? You pack, right? You make sure that you have all the necessary things for the trip so that you will be prepared. You make sure you have the right clothes, and that you have the accessories needed for the trip. It makes the trip difficult if you find out along the way that you haven’t packed what you need, if you find that you aren’t prepared. And for us, when we go on trips, to be prepared means to have drinks for the kids, as well as the DS games and books for them to read so that they will be able to stay occupied!
God wants us to be prepared spiritually, and the first essential of being prepared is to be into this journey with our whole heart. You know, God loves wholehearted people. People who throw themselves into life. In fact, He has some things to say about half-hearted people, doesn’t He?!
James 1:5-8- “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”
And James 4:8- “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
To be double-minded is to not be whole heartedly seeking and trusting God!
Revelation 3:15-16 says it even more strongly, as Jesus says, “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
b. Don’t get sidetracked-
Example- In one of the Olympics, in the Marathon race, there was a runner from Tanzania who was hours behind the other runners. By the time this runner entered the stadium, the drama of the event was long over. As he approached the finish line, he was limping, and grimacing, and his appearance was very ragged. His knee was bleeding from an earlier fall, and the remaining crowd began to cheer him on to the finish line. After the race he was asked: “Why did you stay in the race?” His answer: “My country did not send me 7,000 miles away to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it.”
He endured exhaustion, pain, and potential embarassment/ all for the purpose of just finishing the race. He was able to do this, because he was not sidetracked during his journey, but kept his eyes on the goal.
God didn’t give us our lives to just start the race. He gave us life to finish it. We are to put our whole heart into the journey. MAKE OUR LIFETIME COUNT! We shouldn’t be people who are just letting life pass us by - being dictated to by our circumstances - “waiting out” our time until Jesus comes - we must have our eyes on the finish line, with our energies, our heart, our hands and feet, occupied with making the journey count - living for Jesus . Paul wrote: “For me to LIVE is Christ”.
It can be easy to get sidetracked, because there is so much in this world that calls out to us to follow. There are so many things we can do other than live for Christ. So many things to do other than come to church or read our Bible or pray to God or serve others. But the things of the world will not make our journey more meaningful; letting God be our strength and being prepared for the journey will.
THE PROCESS IS IMPORTANT. What you learn and achieve here on earth with the life God gave you is important to God.
“Happy are those whose strength is in God, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.” The second key for a successful passage through life: PUT YOUR HEART INTO THE JOURNEY.
Don’t wish your life away. And don’t just let it pass you by. Make it count for God’s glory. Grow. Learn. Be committed.
Conclusion: There are two more keys I want to share with you from this great Psalm, which I will do next week. But reflecting on this morning, we remember that we aren’t designed to live by our own strength. In fact, if we admit it, we realize that we have many weaknesses that cause us to stumble along. But the good news is that God has given us His strength to draw upon. This really comes to us by living out the basics of the Christian faith and regularly putting them into practice in our lives.
Along with this, God wants us to be sure that we are prepared for life. So God wants to guide us in the preparations that we make: daily, weekly, monthly, for our lifetime. God knows that if we are well prepared, then we will live a full life filled with joy. And to make sure we do this all the more, we need to stay focused. I don’t know if you are like me at all, but when I am at work I might start one project, then something else captures my attention, and then something else, and the next thing I know I’m working on 5 different things! I have gotten sidetracked. I finally have to stay enough is enough, and concentrate on one at a time until I finish all five!!
By starting each day with our eyes focused on Jesus, we can be more sure that we will get through the day successfully. Let us receive God’s strength this day as we seek to put our whole heart into this journey of life God has given us. Amen.
posted by Logan's Blog at 12:55 PM
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