Psalm 16

Psalm 16 is an inside peak of David's reflection on what the Lord had done for him (16:5-6) and his anticipation of how the Lord would work in his life (16:10). His hope was nothing less than resurrection based on the resurrection of the Holy One (whom he predicted in v. 10). In Peter’s Pentecost sermon, he attested to David being a prophet and that David was speaking of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

When we reflect, the question arises at times, “What if everything isn’t pleasant, like David was saying?” I think that’s a real question we all have to face at points in our lives. In response to this question, I would like to note that David began this Psalm by asking for God’s help, protection and preservation. Something was happening in David's life that showed he needed God to directly intervene and to be his help and guard. Even with hard things happening, we see David proclaiming his love for the Lord by delighting in His people and by not running after other gods. David asks for the Lord’s goodness because, as he was reflecting, he was seeing that all of the good in his life came from God.

God shows that same goodness to us in Jesus. I think David was preaching to himself and reminding himself of all that God had done for him: giving him a pleasant inheritance, God giving him counsel, God going with him and then, futuristically, resurrecting him. He was recounting God’s faithfulness to him in his life and was confident God would be faithful to him in his death. That’s something we can all count on: His presence, His faithfulness, His grace and kindness to us now and for all time. It’s no wonder that David wanted to walk on God’s path of life to know the fullness of joy in His presence, both for all of his time on earth and afterwards. We can know the presence of God through His Son and that’s the wonderful gift the Father has given to us in Jesus. 

Let’s set the Lord before us and walk in the hope of His Resurrection,
Pastor Andy

Questions for reflection and conversation:

• Where do you need God’s help in your life currently? (v. 1) 
• In what ways do you need to remind yourself of God’s goodness to you, like David did in Ps. 16?
• What issues are you facing that you need His counsel (v. 7)?​

Hey Church Family, 
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Are Y’all hungry? I have just the answer for you. It’s God’s Grace Sandwich, which is how I referred to Psalm 73 on Sunday. I can tell you that whatever else you may have tasted in this life, there’s nothing like what His Grace Sandwich has to offer.

It starts with His goodness towards His people, towards those who seek Him and whose hearts He purifies in the process. (Ps. 73:1). For the filling, we have a hearty serving of confession (Ps. 73:2-15). This can be a bitter taste sometimes but I think you will find that once you have tried confession, you’ll see that there’s a sweetness mixed in with it. This happens as we recognize our sins before the Lord but find Him quick to cover us with His forgiveness.

Amazingly, this sandwich can give you perspective for your life. Have you ever tried a food that makes you wonder if you’ve ever had something like it before? Well then, this sandwich is for you. As you partake of this Grace meal- which by the way also comes with unlimited refills of the Holy Spirit and deep fellowship with the saints- you’ll understand your life in a whole new way and will wonder why you didn’t have this meal much sooner. It will help you see yourself and others in a whole new light (73:16-22).

Finally, for the completion of this sandwich, it’s God’s grace again. You see, grace is at the beginning of this Psalm, it covers the middle portion of confession, and it finishes the Psalm too. God's grace is experienced through His Presence, His taking our right hand, Him giving us counsel and being the strength of our heart forever.

He is better than anything else we could desire on this earth. And really, Who else do we have in Heaven, except for Him? Yes, dear friends, I invite you to taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. 34). I think you will find this to be life changing. 

Looking to be filled with something good? Look no further!

Pastor Andy

Questions for reflection and conversation:

1. Have you tasted and seen God’s goodness? How?
2. What do people look to in order to fill their lives with good things? Where have you previously looked?
3. Do you have regular times of confession and being covered by His grace?

“You are the God who sees me.”
Gen. 16:13, NLT

Hey Y’all,

The Scripture we walk through together on Sundays isn’t just theoretical theology to make us feel better or to help us feel spiritual. On the contrary, these are spiritual truths that are reality on which we can base our lives. Even if we’ve heard similar messages or even the same truth repeated, they are worthy of our focus, meditation, and obedience. These truths are also capable of comforting us.

This week we studied how God is All-Knowing and All-Seeing. While that can seem rather obvious, when we really ponder it, we can rest knowing that our Heavenly Father knows everything about us and knows exactly what’s happening with us (Ps. 139:1-3). On the other side of the coin, since He knows everything and sees everything, He’s able to hold us perfectly accountable (Heb. 4:13) for our lives and how we’ve lived out the life of Jesus within our contexts. That’s not a Heavenly threat, just reality.

So in good times and bad, happy times or sad, peaceful times or stressful, He’s our perfect, Holy, loving, merciful, good, faithful, eternal, unchanging, God. He’s our rock, so let us trust in Him (Is. 26:4) and let us walk with Him (Micah 6:8). 

Throughout each day, may we lean on Jesus, the perfect Son and true embodiment of His Father.

Pastor Andy 

Questions for reflection and conversation:

• Does it give you peace or stress knowing that God knows you up close and personally? Why?
• How are you seeing the Lord Jesus in your life? 

God is faithful! Sunday found us studying our Beloved Father’s faithfulness to us, His children. He has been faithful from the beginning and our Eternal God will be faithful forever. 
There were two things we specifically looked at on Sunday about God’s faithfulness:

1. We get to see His faithfulness every day because His mercies are new every morning, Lam. 2:23
2. His faithfulness is great, also in Lam. 2:23. Here, great means numerous. So, in other words, His faithfulness knows no bounds. He is faithful through and through and won’t run out. 

God’s being faithful is crucial to all that we believe in the Christian faith. In fact, when Jesus’ return is pictured in Rev. 19:11, He is called, “Faithful and True”. Faithfulness is not only an attribute of His, it’s what He’s called. This confirms that we can rely on Him to return, to save us, to win the End Times battle, and to remain faithful forever. 
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The New Testament continues to have much to say about God’s faithfulness. Here’s a list of verses where God is called faithful: 

• 1 Cor. 1:8-9- God is faithful so we are not lacking any gift, He’ll sustain us until Christ comes back.
• 1 Cor. 10:13- God is faithful and will provide a way to bear with temptation or escape from it
• 1 Thess. 5:24- God is faithful and He will sanctify us through and through, keeping us blameless for the day of Christ. 
• 2 Thess. 3:3- The Lord is faithful and will establish you and guard you from the evil one.
• Hebrews 10:23- We should hold fast our confession of Him because He is faithful. 
• 1 Peter 4:19- Let us entrust souls to the faithful One when we are suffering.
• 1 John 1:9- If we confess our sins, He is faithful and will forgive us and cleanse us.

As much as life hands us lemonade, He is faithful and the chocolate milk of His mercies are new every morning because of His great faithfulness! 
Banking on His Faithful Love,
Pastor Andy
Questions for reflection and conversation:

• How would you describe God’s faithfulness to a child?
• What are some recent ways you have seen God’s faithfulness in your own life?
• How does knowing that God is faithful impact your faith in Him and your love for Him?

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. Ps. 34:9, NIV

There are three parts to this verse that are actions on our part. They are:

• Taste: We are to taste. We are to put ourselves in a place to have a taste of the Lord’s goodness. Why taste? Tasting involves personal sensory experience. If the food is tasty, we want more and tell others about it. The same is true when something tastes bad, we are quick to tell others about it, unless of course, someone is hosting you for dinner. If that’s the case, good luck! David is telling us to experience, to take in and process that the Lord is good. He is good in character and good in what He does. 
• See: David then says that we need to see that the Lord is good. Seeing here is to understand, to personally comprehend that God is good. Then, once we have experienced and truly understood that He is good, David then tells us there’s a blessing available to us. That blessing is for those who not only taste and see, but take the next step after doing that. 
• Take refuge: This is the next step that David spoke of taking, once we’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good. This step is going from tasting to engaging fully and entrusting our lives to the Lord Jesus. The blessing is having Jesus Himself in our lives! He blesses those who gladly (and in faith) go from a simple sampling of Him to wanting all of Him and to finding refuge in Him. This blessed refuge is for those who taste, see, and then keep pressing further in Him. There’s a sadness and lack of blessing for those who taste and see and stop there. There’s an even worse fate for those who refuse to even try to taste as well as for those who taste but refuse Him. 

This is all predicated on the fact that the Lord is good. If He weren’t good, there would be no reason to taste and see. There would be no point in trying to take refuge in Him. It’s His fundamental goodness that draws us to Him, enables us to trust Him, and to believe His love for us. 

Truly, God is good! All the time! 

Pastor Andy

Questions for reflection and conversation:

1. What’s a time that you have tasted the goodness of God?
2. In a cynical and unbelieving world, how can we help people see God’s goodness?
3. Why do you think David used the word “taste” about experiencing God’s goodness?

Love is everywhere in our culture. We hear about it in our songs, we see it in our movies, it’s the pursuit of many TV shows, and we use the word love about many things. In the end, our society is still hungering for love. Have you ever heard someone say the phrase, “there has to be more than this”? I have heard people say this and other similar terms and it reminds me of their need for Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we have the privilege of knowing God’s love and His ultimate expression of His love, sending Christ to rescue us and bring us into His kingdom (Col. 1:13).

As children of God, adopted through Christ, we can know and experience that:

• God is love (1 John 4:8,16)
• His love is perfect (1 John 4:18)
• There is no greater love than His (John 15:13)
• He loves us with an everlasting love (Jer. 3:13)
• He loves us so much that He did not spare His own Son on our behalf (Rom. 8:32).

Even in saying all of this, though, I am concerned that we often miss out on God’s love. One of the questions I asked myself as I was preparing to preach about God’s love is, “Why don’t we experience God’s love?” I have come to think that one of the major reasons we don’t experience God’s love is that we aren’t convinced of His love. We fear that something will somehow interfere with His love towards us. These things then eat away at our relationship with God.

What are we to do in response to this? We become convinced or persuaded, as Paul was, of God’s love as we see in Rom. 8:38. How are we to be convinced of this? We need to look at the cross (Rom. 5:8) knowing that this was God’s demonstration of His love for us: Christ dying for us, as sinners. And, we need to remind ourselves of His love, call it to mind, and even say it to ourselves as Jeremiah modeled in Lam. 3:20-24, that we are not consumed because of His great love for us.

Friends, life will bring many things our way, we need to hold on to Him and His love throughout our entire journey with Him. 

Blessings for the Journey,

Pastor Andy

P.S. This is Pastor Kyle and Pastor Andy reminding you that God loves you! 

Questions for reflection and application:

• Share a time when you have experienced God’s love.
• What helps convince you of God’s love for you?
• How do you think God’s love can change a person’s life? 

“Being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might,
for all endurance and patience with joy.” Col. 1:11, ESV

The Apostle Paul speaks frequently about God’s power. He tells us the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16). He tells us the cross of Christ is foolishness to those who don’t believe but to those who do, it’s the power of God (1 Cor. 1: 18). Paul wanted to know the power of the Resurrection of Christ (Phil. 3:10) and Paul longed for the day that Jesus will transform our bodies to become like His, by His power (Phil. 3:21).

There’s one other thing that Paul often did when he spoke on God’s power: he prayed for it for others. For example, in the Scripture above, Paul prays that the Colossian believers would be strengthened. How did he pray they would be strengthened? He asked that they would receive all power and this power would come from God’s might. In short, he is asking God, in His power, to strengthen the Colossian believers to go the distance, that they might have endurance to walk the long road of faith. It takes real strength and stamina to run a long distance course.

Here, Paul sounds like the prophet Isaiah who reminds us that even youths will grow weary and tired but those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength (Is. 40:30-31). This is a wonderful thing to pray for another believer. We can pray His strength for them, that His power enables them to walk confidently in uncertain times, and that they rely on His strength in times of illness, difficulty, or confusion. His strength is appropriate to pray for each and every believer, regardless of their situation, because we all need His power to live this Christian life. 

Let’s Seek Him in His Power this week,
Pastor Andy

Questions for reflection and application:​

• Share a time you experienced God’s power personally or in your family.
• Do you think God’s power can be misunderstood? How so?
• Who is someone in your life that you need to pray for and ask God to strengthen them? 

There is a wonderful thing we will find when we acknowledge and trust God’s sovereignty. We will be able to find rest in Him and that His peace will be ours. Rest will be possible because He’s the ultimate authority in the all the universe. He’s got plans and purposes specifically for our lives. This is in direct contrast to the lie of the devil that life has no purpose and that all is meaningless. Peace will be ours because the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7).

The peace of God is supernatural and unexplainable but is also a very real and experiential thing. While His peace is a gift and blessing He gives to His children, His peace is rooted in His Sovereignty in that:
He works all things according to His will,
Nothing will thwart His will,
He has settled everything in the work of His Son on the cross,
He’s in control, He’s in charge, and nothing will unseat Him.

​Phew, how’s that for Sovereignty? And, as Ashley reminded us when she gave the benediction on Sunday, our Father is Holy, Eternal, He’s our Unchanging Rock who is Sovereign. May we rest in Him today and everyday!

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,
Pastor Andy
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Questions:

• What other aspect of God’s Sovereignty is a blessing to you?
• Is there an aspect that you struggle with it?
• Why is this an important attribute of God to study and meditate upon?

Trust in the Lord forever; because in the Lord, the Lord himself, is an everlasting rock! 
Is. 26:4, CSB 

Rocks are everywhere. We don’t like them in our shoes but we’ll listen to a rock concert (depending on the band) and we’ll watch movies that have the actor, The Rock. But as Christians, we have placed our trust in the actual Rock, Jesus Christ. He’s the One we build our lives on and He’s the only One worthy of such trust from us. How is He worthy? Why can we depend on Him? We can do exactly that because He is eternal and unchanging, just like His Father. That’s why Isaiah could tell God’s people long ago in Old Testament times to trust in the Lord forever. This makes Him our Rock. David knew this and loved Him for it. In fact, David placed his entire trust in the Lord and based his life on knowing, loving and following God, his Rock. Admittedly, David made significant mistakes. And, yet, God in His kindness forgave David upon his repentance. God extends that same offer of kindness and mercy to us in His Son, Jesus. We can confidently receive His offer and His love because we know that He’ll always love us and He will never change. So, we too can place our entire trust in the Lord, and base our lives on knowing, loving, and following Him. Now that’s something we need to ponder deeply and regularly!

Thankful He’s the everlasting Rock,
Pastor Andy

Questions:

• How have you experienced God as your Rock?
• Have you personally received God’s mercy and grace in Christ through faith? When?
• What situations are you facing that are reminding you to depend on our unchanging and eternal God?