The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 18: Taste and See

Episode Date: August 21, 2022

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! – Psalm 34:8 Jesus is not a philosophy to be followed, an idea to be understood or a religion to be practiced. He is the one true God meant to be experienced. He is more than enough to conquer our fears, reign over our circumstances and hear our cries.

So good. Amen. Amen. Church, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, grab them. We're going to be in Psalm 34. And as you find your way to Psalm 34, I just need to address a thing before we get going. Last week, in an attempt to set up an illustration, describing the Hebrew word ha said, I spoke about breastfeeding. So let's talk about that for a second. The Bible says this.

The Bible says in Proverbs 1218, that careless words stab like a sword. and wise words lead to healing. And what I thought was a lighthearted, goofing off. If you're new here, sometimes I joke around, all right? And in an attempt to do that, though, I was careless with my words. And what the Bible means in Proverbs 12, when it says careless words stab like a sword, it means regardless of your intent, like if I was careless with a pocket knife and it slipped out of my hand and stabbed you in the face, it is still my responsibility.

And so I was careless with my words, and the last thing I want to do is to shame. anybody or hurt anybody with my words. All I want to do is point people to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so I am sorry. I apologize for my careless words. Church, I need you to hear this, okay? Three things. I love you. I love this church. I love getting to do this thing together. And again, I am sorry. And I want to say thank you. Thank you for the grace that you give me every single week to stand up here and do what I get to do. And I hope by God's grace I'll get to do this for decades and decades to come. And so to that, I just say, I love you, thank you, and I'm sorry. So grab your Bible, Psalm 34, here we go. The prescript of this, this tells us when and where

this Psalm is written and what's going on. It's titled, Taste and See that the Lord is good. And then it says this, of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, Abimelech, is the title, it means king, the king that it's talking about is a guy named Akish, so that he drove him out and he went away. So let's do a little background on David, just so you can know what's going on before this happens. If you're new to Bible study, this is like David and Goliath, that David. David grew up, he had a bunch of older brothers.

His dad kind of ignored him. His older brothers were like tough and big and linebackers, but he thought David was kind of, I don't know. And so he really ignored him. And so his dad made him to be a shepherd. Now, when we hear a shepherd, We think shepherds are awesome because of the Bible bookstore, but way back in ancient times, being a shepherd was not awesome.

And so David is out in the fields for a really long time, just taking care of sheep. And apparently you got a lot of time on your hands. And so he learned to do things like play the harp, but you don't want to pick on him about that because he can also beat up lions and bears with his bare hands, so you don't want to bring that up. And then also he got really good with a sling.

And what's crazy is what David's time out in the wilderness, he could have seen it as punishment. Instead, he used it as preparation for a battle that was coming one day. Now, that'll preach right there, okay? Some of you don't even hear anything else. The season of life that you're in right now is not punishment, but it's preparation for a battle that God has for you coming up. And so he got really good with a sling, and then one day he shows up to check on his brothers, and there is this giant standing out in the valley of Allah, and he is cussing, cursing the people of Israel, and nobody shows up. And little shepherd boy David is like, I got this, and he goes with the power of the Lord,

okay? And he stands up face to face with this giant. He says, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, and he starts, woo, woo, woo, and he goes, because I'm going to tell you what's about to happen today, I'm going to strike you down, I'm going to cut off your head, I'm going to feed your body to the births of the and the beasts of the field, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. And then, boom, he clonks him into head, down goes the giant, and he chops his head off with

his own sword. That's what happens. And then after that happens, the prophet comes up to this kid, to David, and he anoints him as king. And then there's a long time between his anointing his king and him stepping into being the king. By the way, that is a picture of your salvation. The moment you put your faith in Jesus, you are anointed to be glorified one day in heaven, and then it's nothing but war between that moment and the moment you go to see him face to face.

That's a whole other sermon, see? And so, after this happens, after he kills Goliath, King Saul is kind of paying attention to it, but he's all right. And then these girls write a song about David. It's a very short song, but it becomes very popular. And the song goes something like this. Saul kills his thousands, but David kills his 10,000s. Now here's the thing.

I don't even know about this. Sometimes when people say public things about you, it ain't even true. Because it ain't true. He didn't kill 10,000. He killed one real big dude. That's it. But they keep singing it, and they keep singing it, and they keep singing it. And then Saul gets super bothered by this.

What are you talking about? The little heart playing kid, that's who y'all are talking about, and he gets jealous. And so then the Bible says that Saul has a, evil spirit from the Lord. Put that in your theological pipe and smoke it. God's giving out evil spirits to people? I don't even know what that means. Whatever. And then three different times, three different times, Saul hurls a spear at David to try to kill him. We don't hurl spears anymore, right? We just hurl insults. But he's here. He hurls spears to try to kill him. And he sends assassins to his house. And so then eventually, um,

Jonathan, who is Saul's kid, who is on David's team, goes to David and I look, man, my dad is relentless and he is going to try to kill you. And so David flees, he goes on the run, and the Bible says that he is sorely afraid. That's like mega afraid, deathly afraid. And here's what's crazy about fear, man. When fear begins to overtake you, fear will cause you to say things that you thought you would never say. Fear causes you to act in ways that you never thought you would act, and fear causes you to go to places that you would never, ever go.

And so David begins to act in a really weird moe, man. He shows up, as he's on the run, and he shows up, he goes to this place called Knob, and there's a priest there, and he goes up to the temple at Knob, and he's like, hey, man, he's talking to the priest. His name is Hahimilek, which is confusing because the king's name is Abimelik, but whatever, that's how the Bible rolls. He goes to him, and the Himalek's like, why are you by yourself, man? Usually you rose strong.

You've got to like mindy mitha following you around. He's like, well, see, here's the thing. I'm on a secret mission. The king has put me on such a secret mission. I can't even tell you about it. Now, he was not on a secret mission. This was a lie. He begins to lie to the priest.

And he says, and I'm kind of hungry, man. You got something I can eat. And the priest is like, only thing we have is consecrated holy bread. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. The king said I could have some of that. He did not say he could have some of that. but he gets the consecrated bread and he's like oh yeah and i left my sword in my truck so can i i need a sword you got a sword the king's like the only one we got is the one goliath sword and

david's like oh i know that one will i chopped his head off with it it's probably you should give it to me and so he takes that sword he lies to the priest takes bread that he's not supposed to eat takes a sword that ain't his and then of all places in the world he flees to a place called gath Now when you read that, we're in like 1 Samuel 21. When you read that, you would be like, Gath. Here's why. Because Goliath was from Gath. And you look at him, you're like, bro, don't go to Gath.

What are you doing? You can't go to Gath. If anybody is going to recognize the biggest sword on the world, it's the people that grew up with the biggest dude on the world. You know what I'm saying? What are you thinking? you see when fear overtakes you you ain't thinking you ever look at yourself and say what was i thinking no man because when fear creeps in you'll say things you thought you'd never say

you'll do things you thought you'd never do and you'll go to places that you thought you would never go and so he goes to gath and he gets recognized when he rolls in to golias's hometown everybody's like that's him that's the song that the girls were singing that saw kills his thousands, and that's the David that kills the 10,000s. So they're going to bring him to the king. The title is Abimelech. His name is Akish. And then the Bible says that David really disgraces himself and acts like a crazy person. Start scribbling on the wall, and then lets his drool, and the Bible says, spittle, get all over his beers. And way back in ancient times, that was disgraceful. Today, it ain't awesome.

Like at the end of the service, if you come up and you got drool on your face, I'm going to be like, ooh, we need to, I mean, something ain't right. And so then they bring crazy acting David to the king, and the king says, man, we got enough crazy people on here on staff. Get this guy out of here. And so they send him away, and he goes, and he hides in a cave. Yeah, here's what's going on with David. Man, I was listening to this preacher this week.

I listened to a broad preacher, and he was talking about it in a different context, but he was talking about musical chairs. Remember musical chairs? Remember the first time you were ever exposed to the game, musical chairs? Remember when you're walking along and they explain to you, okay, you're gonna walk around, the music stops, you're gonna find a seat.

And then you're walking, and the moment you're like, Hey, wait a minute, we ain't got enough chairs. Remember that? All right, I'm gonna tell you something. It was a big youth group game back when I was a youth back in the 1900s, all right? And there were very few things I excelled at at youth groups. sell that at a youth group.

Guess what I crushed musical chairs. I'm built for it, man. I'm just telling you, I am, all right? And I would win, and especially in youth group. Not always the most athletic bunch, but, you know, whatever, okay? But everybody loves Jesus and the whole thing. It's good. But here's what happened.

Okay, here's the way the game goes. By the end of the game, there's two people circling one chair, and only one person gets to sit down, right? That's the game. In our lives, man, we've got all kinds of emotions, all kinds of feelings, all kind of stuff, just circling around in our heart. But at the end of the day, it comes down to this. There are only two things circling around our heart, and it's faith and fear, and only one gets to sit down. That's it.

And what happens in this moment, one of David's worst moments, is that he allowed fear to sit down on the throne of his heart, and it causes him to say things he thought he'd never say, things that he thought he'd never do and go to places that he never thought he'd go. And so then finally, he runs. God, even in his own mess, God delivers him out of the hands of the king of Gath, Abimelette, and he runs and he finds himself in this cave, the cave of a Dulem is what it's called. And then the Bible says there's 400 men in the cave with David, the big cave. And these aren't awesome men.

The Bible says that they are bitter in soul and they're in debt. So here's what they are. They're good with a sword, and they got a bad credit score. That's who is with David. And in that place, David writes these words, Psalm 34. Now, if you knew Hebrew, which probably most of you do, but you would see that Psalm 34 is an acronym that the first letter of each verse corresponds to the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. It doesn't translate well, but that's what Psalm 34 is.

probably so that people could memorize it. And then in that context, 400 rejects. David's got all this stuff going on. He's got plenty to complain about. Externally, Saul's trying to kill him. Internally, I'm sure he's wrecked with guilt. Because a part of what happened is once King Saul found out that the priest that Nob gave him some bread to eat,

then he sent out some soldiers to kill, not only the priest that Knob, but all of their families too. and David knows that all of that is his responsibility, and in light of all that going on in his life, he says this, 34-1, I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. That David has pre-decided,

no matter what I'm going through, no matter how bad the circumstances are, no matter whose fault it is, whether Saul's fault or my fault, fault or a Mimilex fault, no matter what, I am pre-deciding that I am going to bless the Lord. When, David, well, there's only two times. Daytime, nighttime. That's it.

Good times, bad times. I'm going to bless the Lord at all times, and his praise shall continually be in my mouth. I told you this, I think last week or maybe the week before it all runs together for me, that you know that unspoken gratitude is worthless. Right, ladies? Unspoken, I'm talking on your behalf about your husband. Unspoken gratitude is worthless. Now, I think praise and blessing needs to start in your heart,

but if it only stays in your heart, then God says you're not doing it right. It needs to come out of your mouth. Now here's what I need you to see too. Externally, he's got plenty to complain about. I'm living in a cave with a bunch of rejects. I've been acting like a fool in front of a king. I'm on the run, not my fault.

The king that I'm serving playing him heart music when he gets the evil spirits, he's trying to kill me. He's got plenty to complain about, and instead of focusing on his external situation, he focuses on the sovereign king of the universe, and he says, I will bless the Lord at all times. Internally, too, I'm sure he's a wreck. internally he's probably thinking what am I doing man what is wrong with me I mean I lied to the priest

and because of my words his whole family got taken out I've disgraced myself in front of all these people acting like a crazy person I'm sure the whispers are getting bigger and bigger and bigger and yet even though externally his life is a mess and internally his life is a mess his confidence is not in his circumstances. The only thing greater than his fear and his pain was his conviction that God is worthy of his praise. That's what he does. He's saying, as long as I got breath in my lungs,

I'm going to have praise in my lips. That's what I'm going to do. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be on my mouth. Verse 2. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me

and let us exalt his name together. Gretchen and I love to pray this verse together. That how about us together? How about, oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together? That's a cool thing to pray with the first lady being awesome. You know what I'm saying?

It's a different thing to pray with the dude in the cave with 400 people that can't rent a car because they got bad credit. You understand what I'm saying? But that's what he's praying. By the way, speaking of Gretchen, she's writing a 21-day devotional

to prepare our hearts for saturated. you should sign up for it. That's not a request. You sign up for it right now. C-O-E-22.com slash saturated. We'll email it to you every single day. But listen to what he says. Oh, he's looking at these guys.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Think about when you get a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass does not make the thing that you're looking at bigger. It just makes the thing seem bigger in your life. We need to see God for who he really is. So we need to magnify our understanding of his glory and his grace.

bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger in our life. And it's a team sport. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. You see, worship is contagious. He's saying, listen, I just need to tell you guys, you 400 guys hiding out in this cave, what the Lord has done for me and who he is.

Ultimately, what David is saying is this, is that he is worth it. That's what worship is. You realize that? when we worship God, it is a declaration that you are worth it. Let me ask you this. What is he worth to you? Is he worth your song?

Is he worth your time? Is he worth your affection? Is he worth your witness? Is he worth your money? That's when everybody's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I was good until you got to that part. Hey, listen, man, in John chapter 12, there's this unbelievable picture of authentic worship. and here's the thing that you learn if you're a Bible scholar like me.

You know what comes before John 12? John 11. You should write that down, man. What's going on in Mary's heart that she would walk into the room while they're having this party for Jesus? And the Bible says that she comes in with the most expensive things she owns. A bottle of perfume, gnawed is what it's called. It would take multiple lifetimes to be able to purge. something like this. And because of who Jesus is and what he has done in chapter 11, which

this only works in English, but some of you have hit chapter 11, like financially, but some of us spiritually, you're bankrupt like chapter 11, and then God saves you and redeems you, and it leads you to John chapter 12, where you are willing to bust that thing open, pour it on the feet of Jesus, and as you pour out your worship, the entire atmosphere changes, but there are religious critics of what this lady is doing. And you know what their question simply is? Because they're like, couldn't she have spent it on the poor? Here's what they're saying.

Is he worth it? Is he really worth it? And what she is saying is she cries and anoints his feet, she's going, he is absolutely worth it. Let me ask you, is he worth it? Because if you, like during, while we were singing the songs here earlier and you're sitting next to somebody one of these crazy 22ers, and they're like, I mean, they're into it.

And you're like, why are you crying? We didn't even started talking yet. and you already crying, here's what they're saying, he's worth it. They've been through chapter 11, and now they're walking into chapter 12, and they're just pouring out the most expensive thing they have, which is their soul on the feet of the one that is worth it. It'll magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Then verse 4.

I can hardly read this, by the way, because of the Shane song, every time I see these words, all the way I hear it is, I saw the Lord. And I can't sing good, but man, that's what it goes on in my mind. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. From the cave. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Notice what it doesn't say.

I sought the Lord and he answered me and he delivered me from Saul. Because Saul is just one thing that's going to happen in his life. And he doesn't need to be just delivered from this one event. He needs to be delivered from all of his fears. And fear is simply this. Fear is this misplaced trust. Fear is when you take your trust and you put it in your temporary circumstances.

But faith is when you snatch back your trust and you put it in the sovereign king of your circumstances. And in this time, he seeks the Lord. Let me ask you, man, when you're being chased, when things aren't going your way, we've talked about this several times through the Psalms, what do you seek? because what you seek first in your time of need is your functional Savior.

And if you seek the approval of man, that's your God. You seek more money, that's your God. You seek primarily some kind of coping mechanism where you're all that stuff's fine as long as it's a means to an end, then the end is Jesus that you seek him. If you seek a better version of yourself, I got this, then you are your functional Savior. You see, the reality is, is we are all looking for and need a deliverer. The reality, though, is that Jesus is the only one that can deliver us from our fears. And it goes on to say those that look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

This verse right here is multi-layered, Old Testament and New. Those who look to him are radiant. In your time of need, where do you look? You see, because our face is like the moon, man. It just reflects whatever we're looking at. Do you realize that? And those who look to Him, those who look to Jesus are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

You see, I talk about this all the time. In the beginning, when God created image bearers, and he takes the dirt, the Hebrew word is Adam, is where we get the name of Adam, and he puts it together. But the Bible says that Adam is not yet a living creature until God breathes a ruach of life into Adam, and then he opens his eyes and he is face to face with his creator,

and he knows him as Heavenly Father, and that's what every single one of us are created for. That's why the temporary things of this world just won't satisfy, man. And then sin breaks that relationship. And when sin enters the world, sin opens the door and it allows in hopelessness and chaos and all kind of death and destruction. And we are separated from the faith,

of God because He is a holy and righteous God and we are a sinful people. In fact I think also David might be talking about Moses here in the book of Exodus when Moses goes up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments to receive the law by the time you get to Exodus 33 Moses makes a request of God. He says God show me your glory I want to see you face to face and God essentially goes can't happen bro can't happen because the lamb has not yet been sent to take away the sin of all who would believe. And so if you were in my presence, if you saw me face to face, it would burn you up, but

I tell you what I'll do. I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock and I'll walk by, turn on the afterburners, and you can just see kind of the residual glory of me. And Moses does that. And because Moses had been with God, by the time you get to Exodus 34, when he walks down off of the mountain, everybody's freaking out, because Moses' face is shining, it's radiant. because it radiates within Moses, but because his face reflects the fact that he has been with God to the point where Moses has put on a mask, not like everybody's fighting over today, but like

just head, like a whole mask because people are like, what's up with your face? Your face is different. Let me just tell you this, church, you meet Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It should change your face. Some of you in worship, too. I'm going to just tell you, some of you in worship. You say you're a Jesus follower. You're supposed to be full of the joy of the Lord. Praise God. I'm not doubting it. You just should tell your face. It should reflect it. He says those who look to him are radiant. Your faces shall never be ashamed. In fact, by the time you get through the book of numbers, Moses was not a good speaker, so he had his guy Aaron would speak on his behalf all the time. And Moses tells Aaron, I want you to give a blessing to the nation of

Israel. And here is the blessing of all blessings. You've probably heard this at the end of a church service somewhere or a wedding or something like this. And he says this, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord lift up his counteness upon you and give you peace. And yet in the old covenant that could not be fulfilled until Jesus steps on the scene because Jesus is the yes and the amen of every promise and prophecy of the old covenant. And it is fulfilled through Jesus in us.

This is why Paul is going to say in 2 Corinthians 3, this. And we all, these are people that believe in Jesus, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. In your time of need, you fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfector of our faith. And when we do this, then our faces will be radiant.

and we will never be ashamed that you and I are the reflection to this world of the radiant love of our Heavenly Father. And so he continues to cry out. Verse 6, he says, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him, that's good news, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

You see, the more we look to God, the more we magnify God, the more we see him for who he really is By His grace, he will allow us to see us for who we really are. And we will begin to say, I don't got this. I'm just a poor man that needs help. You see, the beginning of the sermon on the Mount by Jesus, the longest, most famous sermon that he ever teaches.

He begins it with this kind of language. He says this, blessed are the poor in spirit. What does that mean? When you begin to see God for who he really is, then you will begin to understand, hey, I'm not a bad person that needs to just do a little better. I'm a spiritually bankrupt person that can't get myself out of this. And the moment you begin to see yourselves for who you really are, then Jesus says, congratulations, that's what blessing means in the New Testament.

Congratulations when you're poor in spirit and you realize you're spiritually bankrupt, because now you are ready to receive the kingdom of God. It is within hand. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and said, saved him out of all his troubles. And then look at the response. Look at God's response when the poor man cries and God hears him. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers him.

The angel of the Lord, not an angel, multiple times in the Old Testament, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, who has eternally existed before he is born in Bethlehem and given in the name Jesus, he will show up and reveal himself in the old covenant. This is called a Christophany. We did a whole series on it a few Christmases ago. And here's what happens when we cry out to the Lord, the angel, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him.

You know what it reminds me of? Remember Psalm 91? I'm sure you remember everything I said during that song. But one of the things that he said is, like, pinions would you surround us and protect us? Opinions is a weird way, by the way, to say feathers. This is what Jesus was talking about when, on the last week of his life, and he's marching into Jerusalem, and he looks over the wall of Jerusalem,

and he sees all these religious people, but they don't know him, and he's like, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. I would have, like a mother hen, I would have gathered you unto myself, like little baby chicks, and when the world was coming after you, I would cover you with my wings. I would encamp around you. It's a picture of substitutionary atonement. And so when we put our faith in Jesus,

what begins to happen is oftentimes we think their enemy is surrounding us, and little do we know that God Almighty is surrounding the enemy that feels like it's surrounding us. That he encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. And then I think the crux of the whole Psalm is this,

oh, taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. taste and see not just believe that but taste have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good if I ever seem a little angsty while I'm doing this preaching thing

it's because of verses like this because I don't honestly I don't care what you do with your time on a Sunday morning I want you to taste and see that the Lord is good I want you to know him I want you to experience him Have you ever tried to, have you ever had like an incredible meal and then you're trying to describe what the thing tastes like to somebody that hadn't eaten it?

It's frustrating, isn't it? My stepmom and my dad were here on Thursday night. They were sitting right over there. And as this was not part of my sermon, I looked over and saw my stepmom and I thought about that every time we go out to eat a steak, she gets hers like extra well done. Now, she's the sweetest lady I've ever met in my life. but she's making a horrible mistake there. I mean, come on, man. And you try to explain it to her.

You're like, no, no, no, no. I don't think you understand. Listen, listen. How good is our God that he gave us the cow and the pig? And through the blood of Jesus on the cross, when he says it is finished. Now, primarily he was talking about your sins are paid for. But it's also that the old covenant is fulfilled. And so now people that love Jesus can walk in freedom.

We can take the blessing of the pig and the cow, put them together in a bacon-wrapped fillet and cook it with a blood still in it, called Medium Rare, and then taste and see that the Lord is good. You've got to try this. She's over there with like wirecutters trying to get through this. What do you, it's not, I don't. Oh. And yet there's so many people, man, and your church experience is like an extra well done.

Like you kind of treat church like a hobby. The point here is not for you to like. get here late because you don't love all this thing because you don't know why everybody's into it so much and they just sort of be entertained and maybe challenged by me to do a couple things different in your life. No, you're missing the whole point of the whole thing.

I want you to know him. I want you to taste and see that he's good. Church is a terrible hobby, man. If you need a hobby, get a boat. Some. But the reason we gather together is this so we can meet him, we can know him, we can experience him, we could taste

and see that the Lord is good. This man, I don't want to just know about my wife. No facts about her. Stalk her on Instagram and just, but add a, no, no, no, I want to, I want to know her. I want to kiss her on the mouth. That's all I'm going to say about that's because I'm tired of getting emails this week. But I want to, like, know her. Taste and see, man, that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Let me tell you who knows that he's good. is somebody that's needed to take refuge in him. Listen, I get it when our circumstances are awful that we pray for different circumstances. I'm not saying we shouldn't pray for that. But oftentimes our God is so good to us that he allows us to go through events

that we would never sign up for so that we can taste and see how good he is. I mean, let me ask you, how are you going to know him as a healer until you need to be healed? And how are you going to know him as a miracle worker until you need a miracle? and how are you going to know him as a refuge until you are attacked and you have to run into him

and then taste and see even though the world is coming against you that your God has you and he encamps around those that love him. That's what's happening, man. Let me tell you what else. When you taste and see that he is good, you'll never walk away from it for the rest of your life. There's this thing going on. It's really popular online right now. This is going to get me in trouble too, okay, because they'll say I'm insensitive.

but listen, there's this people that's talking about deconstructing from their faith. That's not what that word means, but I know what they say. Let me tell you who's not going to walk away. Anybody that has tasted and seen that the Lord is good. I mean, Peter, James, and John on the mountain of Transfiguration, 20 years later, you couldn't talk them out of that because they were on the mountain and they saw the transfigured Jesus. All of the disciples and apostles and the people that saw, like in the Gospel of John,

they're sitting at the Sea of Galilee, eating fish with the world. resurrected Jesus, they had tasted and seen that the Lord is good and nobody could talk him out of that. Because it's an experience that they had with the resurrected Christ, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Bless is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. Those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Particularly in the Old Testament, this word fear the Lord will be used a lot. It does not just mean like afraid.

It means like reverence. But the fear of the Lord is under the banner of the love of the Lord for you. Like I said, my dad was here Thursday. So it reminded me as I was standing up here. I looked over at him and I thought, huh, when I see the phrase in the Bible, fear the Lord, I understand it because when I was growing up, I had a fear and reverence for my dad. Now, was he going to kill me? Probably not, though I gave him many reasons to.

But I also, in fact, he told me, son, if you just keep telling stories about me, people going to think all I did is whip you. And I go, well, I don't want to remember. And yet, and yet, even though we did not grow up in church, when I began, as a teenager, when people began to explain to me that God, is your heavenly father, it made a lot of sense to me. Because he loved me. He wasn't very vocal with it.

Now he's a granddad. Everything changes. It's all warm and hugs. I'm like, who are you, old man? It's crazy. I remember when we first had JP, I told you this. I put him in the little car seat and gave him a kiss. Get in the truck.

And I was like, Daddy, did you ever kiss me? And he said, in the mouth? Like, heck, son, stop. Let's drive. You're making me uncomfortable. Like, that's how it was. But he always showed up. He always provided.

He always protected. He never stopped fighting for me and my brother. And so I revered him. And David says, listen, even though I've given you many reasons to squish me, you don't. In fact, you encamp around me. I can run to you for safety. So I revere you, oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. That means he's better than life.

And then he picks these two things, the young lions, suffer and won't hunger. If anybody can provide for themselves, it's the young lion. They're the toughest fastest. They're young. They're not even old crotchety yet. They can chase down anything they want to eat, and yet they cannot still fully and finally satisfy themselves. But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Every good and perfect gift is from above. And the best gift you can have is you get him. You get him. So there's nothing you could lack because in him you have all that you need. And he says, verse 11, come, old children. Remember who he's talking to? He's 400 rejects with swords and bad credit scores. And he's like, come on, old children.

Listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord. You see, God is the kind of God that would allow us to experience a little bit of pain now to avoid a whole bunch of pain then. Again, like my father, he disciplined me. And not the kind, not like you go to your room and think about it. We didn't get to think about anything, okay? I know some of you did. it's evident to us all, okay?

So, but not him, man. He says, I will teach you to fear the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? And then he's going to give us application. If you see the Lord, if you know the fear of the Lord, if your heart has been transformed by the loving kindness of our God, it's going to change things about you.

If you get run over by the grace train of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you'll walk away different. the first example he uses is this. He says, it's going to change the way you talk. He says, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. I think it's very possible that David is thinking about what he just went through. That maybe he's referring to how he lied to the priest and how he lied to the king. And wherever there are lies, destruction always follows. And so here, he is talking about intent.

that's what keep your tongue from evil is. Are you trying to use your words to hurt people? But like I said at the beginning of the sermon, the Bible also talks about when your words hurt people, but they are careless. So I want to address this because I think our culture needs to hear this right now. Because there are so many people

due to social media, the internet, out of all kinds of factors that are just standing right on the edge of a fence, just waiting for somebody to say something so that we could be offended. And if that's you, man, you should pay attention to that. Something's going on in your heart that is really, really unhealthy. And so, Ann, I just need you to know, okay?

Oftentimes, here, I will use some jokes. I will speak and say, let me ask you. You ever go to church and get just totally bored? I mean, just absolutely bored out of your skull. I'm like, what are we even doing here? Okay, so that's the churches I went to, that's kind of how it was. And I thought, you know what? The Bible says that laughter is good medicine. Proverbs 1722 says that a cheerful heart is good medicine. So one of the things we try to do in here

is not take ourselves too seriously, especially me. I don't take me very seriously at all. And most of the time when I make fun of people, I'm usually the butt of the joke. You know why? Because I know me, there's plenty to make fun of, and I have endless material. to show you that God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And so let me just be clear about some things. Very, very clear. In my joking around, my intent is that we would not take ourselves very seriously.

We would take the gospel very, very seriously. So let me just be as clear as I can be. Just save me some more emails. So I am pro breastfeeding all the way. Go for it, okay? Secondly. My actual email is. not Jimmy cracks corn at I don't care.com. I'm actually making front of a children's song that I don't

understand. One day I was like, what are we teaching our kids? Jimmy's Cracks corn. I don't care. Like, I don't even know what that is. So that is not my actual email address, okay? All right. While we're clearing things up, clearing things up, I don't hate the Amish. I don't hate the Amish. I don't. It was a joke. The joke was, if you're Amish, you shouldn't be watching. What do you you doing, you're breaking your rules, no, stop. And then everybody emails, and the joke was simply, I doubt I'll get any Amish emails because of the, I'm all, I'm, I'm into your soap and your butter, whatever you do, man, I'm into it. And the amount of people that were offended on their behalf was unbelievable, okay? It was a joke. Those were jokes are, okay?

All right, I got nothing against homeschool, nothing. In fact, the government made us try it. We can't do it, man. You homeschool people are amazing. Look, Tebow was homeschooled. Who? I got nothing to get. It's just a jab. It's just like when I say John the Baptist was probably homeschool. That was just a joke, okay? Just, y'all got to breathe. Just relax, man. I'm pro you. I don't hate the Southern Baptist. I'm a recovering one. I still got some in me. The majority of my buddies that I bring in to preach are Southern Baptist, okay? You just take yourselves too seriously. You got to relax. Let's talk about cats.

I'm not a fan, but I've never kicked one. I've never harmed a house cat. Nothing like that. I have it. You don't want to say you kick a cat's not even a sin. I don't actually do that. I don't, okay. So then why do you say it? Here's what I say. Okay, sometimes as a teacher, you use hyperbolic language to get a point across to make, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, you know, and, And here's what I would just say. And so if that offends you, I'm probably not your preacher. There are many, many Bible teachers. They say nothing funny ever.

They don't even try. They're very serious. And they're very, way better to me, for sure. So if you take yourself seriously that, because here's the thing, David uses some hyperbolic language. Psalm 137, he says, God, would you bash my enemies, baby's heads against the rocks? What? That's a Bible verse.

Psalm 139. Would you slay everyone who disagrees with me? That's what he says, okay? He doesn't say it actually happens. In fact, Jesus does the same thing. Jesus uses very hyperbolic language that I don't think he means literally to get everybody's attention.

Here's what he says. If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. And he's talking about lust. And do you think after that, all the one-handed people were like, hey, I'm offended.

All right, so I'll just say all that to say. If you can't laugh, especially at yourself, I may not be your preacher. And, and if you're offended by what the Bible says and you're offended by the gospel, welcome to 1122. Okay, that's who we are. And then he says this. I've got to go a little faster now. He says, turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.

We seek drama. He says seek peace. He could have sought revenge. He had multiple opportunities to seek revenge against Saul. He never does it every time he trusts the Lord, and he seeks peace. The ultimate example of this is Jesus. Jesus could have shown up on our planet and just said, I'm offended. And he could have sought to be right, and he would have been right, because he didn't sin.

It wasn't his fault. Husbands, here's some more free advice. Ready? You can be right or you can be a husband? Where do you get that? Husbands love your wife, is Christ's love the church, and gave himself up for her. Jesus steps onto the scene, and instead of being right, he could have been like, I'm perfect, you're a sinner, center, center, center, peace, see you later.

Actually, I won't. You're going to hell, going to heaven. I'll never see you again. He could have, but he didn't. He took responsibility for our sin in a pursuit of peace coming after us so that we could be at peace with God the Father, even though we don't deserve it. David says, seek peace and pursue it. Then he says, the eyes of the Lord are towards the righteous and his ears towards their cry,

He's going to talk about righteousness like crazy. Righteousness is not that you're getting it right. Righteousness is a right standing before God. Years ago, there's a guy at our church, and he was a captain at like the naval yard in Mayport. He was the captain of one of the battleships. And he invited me to have lunch with him on the ship. And so I go with him, and we go to step on the boat, and they ring a bell. Bring him down on him.

God makes an announcement. and then everybody stops and salutes and it's me. And listen, Navy people, I'm going to mess it all up, so give me a break. Okay, but I'm standing there and these people that have given their life and earned the position that they have, they are working and working and working and working on this ship, and then some nobody, this nobody, just gets to walk up on the ship, and they all stop and salute me.

And then, and then he takes us up to his chambers, which is the very, it's like the top of the ship, man. The captain's quarters, and a guy, like, dressed in his deal, comes up, is like, can I get you something? God has given his life to protect people like me, who's done nothing to deserve it. And I go, I heard you got a good BLT, and he runs against me a BLT. Brings it to me. As I shared that story, there are many Navy people in our church that says, I've never been to the captain's quarters. Do you know why I got to go there?

It's not because who I am is because I'm with this guy. And because I was with the captain, I got treated like he got treated. It's a picture of the gospel. That's what righteousness is. That's imputed righteousness. You're going to show up to heaven. They're going to ring the bell, making an announcement. Everybody's going to salute Jesus.

And guess who's standing there with him? Everybody that believes. And you get in, not because what you have done, but because who you are with. That's what he's talking about. He says, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears. Please hear that. When those who believe in Jesus cry for help, Yahweh hears and delivers them.

out of all of their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Then he says, many are the afflictions of the righteous. There's an amen. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. It's not like you follow Jesus

and everything just gets better. We follow him because he is better than anything we could have on this earth. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. And you say, how? How? Here's how. It's all through the blood of Jesus.

Like, what are you talking about? Aren't we in the Psalms? Jesus doesn't come to the end. Hey, look here. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. This is what the gospel writers quote when they're talking about Jesus shedding his blood on the cross.

David somehow carried along by the Holy Spirit knew that a lamb was coming to die in our place. He prophesies in Psalm 22, blow by blow exactly what is going to happen on the cross. He is talking about Jesus. Jesus, that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that whoever would put their faith in him, that Jesus would make full payment for our sin, and we would be credited with his perfect

life, and we, when God looks at us, he would see us as righteous, not because of our right activity, but because of our right standing under the blood of Jesus. He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his soul. servants, none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. You see, David knows this firsthand. That word redeems means as a gift, you get something for free that you didn't earn or deserve. But the manufacturer of that thing, the owner of the thing, pays full price. We've talked about it a million times. When you redeem a coupon, it's a picture of the gospel. You get a

free gift. Whoever gave you the coupon, they pay full price. When we're a money, when we're We are redeemed. We get the gift of salvation that Jesus came to do for us what we could not do for ourself. And if you would put your faith in Him, your belief in Him, then we get to receive that right standing before God. Sins washed away that we get adopted into his family. And because we are with His Son, Jesus, he treats us and buys us, purchases us, changes

our name, changes our future, like a legal adoption. We are invited into his family for anyone who would believe. and then we can take refuge in him, and no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned. Because I'm telling you, I'm sure the enemy would whisper to David, that doesn't count for you, man. That can't count. It surely can't count for you.

You're responsible for the priests and all of his family dying. You're responsible for Bathsheba and Yariah. I mean, there's so many sins lined up, and when the enemy whispers that to us, he's whispering the lie of condemnation. Hey, that might count for everybody else, those good church folks, but he ain't talking about you. You were unfit for use.

But then the Bible tells us in Romans 8. One, therefore, for whoever trust in Jesus, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because the enemy constantly tries to define you by your scars. Look at your scars. You earned them.

Didn't you do that? And then Jesus comes along and says, no, no, no, you're not going to be defined by your scars. You're going to be defined by mine. And so you receive that, my faith, my faith. And I know I've used this illustrated a hundred times, but my dad was here on Thursday, so I did it then, so I'll do it now. The best picture of faith that I can think of in my little mind is when I was a little kid and my dad would take me to, well, we didn't do swim lessons.

He'd take me to the pool. It was very Darwinian where I grew up. It was like, only the strong survive. Okay. And what my dad would do, go to the Dillon Pool, he'd get in the deep end, he'd send me to the diving board, and I would walk out to the edge of the diving board, and he would be in the water, treading water, and he would say, come on, buddy, jump. And in that moment, I believed that, that's my dad.

Like, I recognized him. I rode here in a truck. He came with my mom. She's over there covered in, like, iodine and baby oil. You remember that? No. Dringing a tab. All right.

Google all that. It's great. And then my dad's in the water going, come on, buddy, jump. Here's the thing I know. I recognize it. I do. It's him. The Magnupiae mustache, OP shorts.

Got a Murrubur light on his lip. Flipping. Come on, turn. Brun, right. Crazy. All those things are true about it. But at that point, my faith is in me, because I am standing on my own two feet. And here's what I know.

Here's what I know. If he doesn't keep his promise and I step off of this diamond board, I don't know how to swim. And on my own, there's no way I can survive. And so what it means to put. put my faith in him, my trust in him, to believe in him, to run to him as my refuge, is to step off that diving board and believe him, trust him, put my life in his hands. Right now, some of you, for the very first time, by the power of the spirit of God inside of you, you hear our God, our maker, our refuge, going, come on, come on, just jump. Come on, just jump.

And maybe you've been coming to the church for a long time, and today you've got no new information, but you're standing on the diving board, and you believe that. God loves you, that you're a sinner, that Jesus died on the cross, but you have never taken that step of faith and put your life in the hands of your Heavenly Father. That's what it means to taste and see that the Lord is good. I want to give you the opportunity to do that right now for the very first time. If you'd bow your head, if you'd close your eyes. And the only reason we do that is so that we would not be distracted by anything temporary in this world.

but that we would be able to focus. Do you hear the voice of God to you for the very first time saying, come on, jump. Come on, admit it. You can't do this on your own. Believe that when Jesus died on the cross somehow, it counted for you. And if that's you, then confess him as your Lord and Savior. Take that leap of faith and put your life into the loving arms of your Heavenly Father

and taste and see that he is good. And if you're ready to do that, if you're ready to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, as a sign of that, would you just lift your hand high in the air? and say, Father, here I am. Praise God. Lifted high in the air. Praise God. Praise God.

Leave them up. It's not your hand in the air that saves you. It's Christ's life, death, and resurrection that saves you. But you're saying, Father, here I am, save me. Our good and gracious heavenly, Father God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. And, Lord, I thank you that in our time of need and our time of trouble that we can run to you and that you encamp around the righteous, your children, that believe in you. God, I thank you.

that in this moment right now, that there are men and women, there are students that are coming home to you and you are rescuing them and you are redeeming them, you were adopting them into your family, and they will never be condemned. Lord, I thank you for the people that are tasting and seeing that you are good.

And God, to those of us who have known you for a while, would you just remind us of your gospel, would you remind us of your goodness? God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? We respond to the gospel, and we will sing Psalm 34. It ought to go better than it's ever going to be.

It always sounds good from up here, but it ought to go real good for us because we're going to have a deeper knowledge of the words that we are singing. And what we're saying is, you're worth it. You're worth it. And then we're going to bring, we're going to bring our ties and offerings, our first and a best, because we're going to say, you're worth it. And the king of the universe invites us with unveiled faces to come into the presence of the king, to kneel before the king of the universe, who can change everything and who is our refuge, and he's also our heavenly father. And he says, come on, whatever's going on with you, you bring it to me. So we're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray.

Let's respond.