Psalm 130<\/p>\n
1<\/sup><\/em> <\/em>Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; 3<\/sup><\/em> If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, 5<\/sup><\/em> I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, 7<\/sup><\/em> O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, Every now and then this could be me.\u00a0 If someone asked me:\u00a0 How\u2019re you doing?\u00a0 This might be my answer. \u00a0\u00a0I need a lift.\u00a0 I need a lift for my spirits.<\/p>\n For I look around and what do I see?\u00a0 Some people I know and care about having a tough time.\u00a0 I see a society that has lost its moral bearings, adrift in a sea of immorality.\u00a0 Then I look at myself.\u00a0 I want to live for my Lord Jesus.\u00a0 But too often I see a person who is not very kind, not very patient, not very generous.\u00a0 I need a lift.\u00a0 How about you?<\/p>\n The writer of this psalm sure did.\u00a0 But unlike so many people today and us sometimes, he knew where to look.\u00a0 This morning we thank the Holy Spirit for giving him these words that speak to us.\u00a0 So this morning I ask you:<\/p>\n FEELING DOWN?\u00a0 LOOK TO THE LORD AND SEE Sin gets us down whether we realize it or not.\u00a0 Listen to the psalmist:\u00a0 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord<\/span>;\u00a0 Out of the depths.\u00a0 This man was not in some dark dungeon.\u00a0 He was feeling down because of his sinfulness.\u00a0 So do we at times.<\/p>\n But more often than not we don\u2019t make the connection when we feel the same way.\u00a0 Yet think about it.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it true that much of those depths can be traced back to our sinful condition?\u00a0 The bad choices we have made and the consequences that followed.\u00a0 The lie or gossip that came back to bite us.\u00a0 The laziness or bad attitudes that have cost us in some way.\u00a0 The distance we\u2019ve put between ourselves and others- especially God.\u00a0 Sin gets us down whether we realize it or not.<\/p>\n And sin would keep us down \u2013 in a far worse way than many realize.\u00a0 This man knew.\u00a0 The prayer of his heart expressed this terrible truth.\u00a0 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,<\/span><\/p>\n O Lord, who could stand<\/span>? Who could stand before God and be accepted?\u00a0 Who could stand his all revealing gaze?\u00a0 The answer is so clear.\u00a0 If God broke out a file that listed all our offenses, not one of us could stand, not even one.\u00a0 God\u2019s judgment would sweep us away.<\/p>\n But this man knew what we now know.\u00a0 God had revealed it to him.\u00a0 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?\u00a0\u00a0 4<\/sup>But with you there is forgiveness<\/span>; \u00a0With the Lord there is forgiveness.<\/p>\n What does that mean?\u00a0 It means something much different than the forgiveness that sometimes comes from us.\u00a0 We tell people we forgive them, but often deep down we hold on to that memory.\u00a0 We keep that record maybe for decades able to recall it in the heat of anger.<\/p>\n Thank God his forgiveness is not like ours.\u00a0 I suppose that\u2019s why the Hebrew word for forgiveness is only used for God\u2019s.\u00a0 For the Lord doesn\u2019t forgive and then later remember.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t forgive and later on shake that sin in your face.\u00a0 He forgives and he forgets, just as he promises, I even I am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.<\/span> (Is 43:25)<\/p>\n But how can that be possible?\u00a0 How can God be a god of justice and yet forgive our sins as if they never existed?\u00a0 Look to Jesus\u2019 cross where you find God\u2019s amazing answer.\u00a0 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.<\/span> So Look to the cross of God\u2019s one and only Son and think of these words.\u00a0 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.<\/span> God made my forgiveness possible. He made it real by taking my guilt and putting it on his own Son, our Lord.<\/p>\n So look to that cross and see your Lord.\u00a0 And know this.\u00a0 Sin gets us down.\u00a0 Sin would keep us down.\u00a0 But with the Lord there is forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n Therefore you are feared<\/span>.\u00a0 When I first read that I thought, that makes no sense.\u00a0 God sends his Son to die for me.\u00a0 He now forgives me so I fear him?\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 Well if you understand fear to mean run away and hide.\u00a0 But there\u2019s another fear in the Bible.\u00a0 What we have here.\u00a0 This man rescued from the depths of his guilt could only stand in awe of God\u2019s mercy. Praise the Lord, o my soul.<\/p>\n What about us?\u00a0 When we realize what God has given us, what he has given up for us at the cross of his own Son, something is going to happen in here.\u00a0 And whether we fall to our knees or rise to our feet or just plain sit in silence, our hearts say Wow. You\u2019ve forgiven me Lord.\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n So are you feeling down?\u00a0 Look to the Lord and see.\u00a0 See your sins forgiven<\/strong>, But see something else.\u00a0 Look to the Lord and see your future, bright. <\/strong><\/p>\n Somebody once said:\u00a0 If you have hope, you can get through most anything.\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 Well our Christian faith is about hope.\u00a0 You hear it loud and clear in the words.\u00a0 5<\/sup>I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, <\/span><\/p>\n and in his word I put my hope<\/span>\u2026. 7<\/sup>O Israel, put your hope in the Lord<\/span>,\u00a0 But what hope?\u00a0 What future?\u00a0 Certainly we hope for and we can count on God\u2019s blessings in this life.\u00a0 We just had a wonderful wedding and family time.\u00a0 But if we are expecting to wake up one day and find everything just fine, all joy, no sorrow we are sadly mistaken.\u00a0 Our Christian hope is not for this life.\u00a0 Again and again life reminds us of that.\u00a0 Flash a peace sign all you want.\u00a0 But we live in a fallen world where hatred, selfishness and violence will always be.\u00a0 And we live in this weak, sinful flesh which troubles us and dies a little bit each day.<\/p>\n So our Christian hope is not about this short life.\u00a0 For if it was, what would it mean for the Christian whose body or mind is broken.\u00a0 What would it mean for the Christian whose life is cut short by disease or persecution.\u00a0 What would it mean for those loved ones left behind to grieve their loss.\u00a0 The apostle Paul says it this way:\u00a0 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.<\/span><\/p>\n But our Christian hope is not for this life.\u00a0 It\u2019s for another.\u00a0 That life which our brothers and sister who have gone before us now enjoy.\u00a0 The psalmist was waiting for that life.\u00a0 He was looking forward like the apostle Paul who said:\u00a0 I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far. <\/span> For what does the psalmist say?\u00a0 With the Lord is full redemption. <\/span><\/p>\n Has this ever happened to you?\u00a0 It did to my parents.\u00a0 They got a nice brochure about a resort that looked great on paper.\u00a0 But then we got there.\u00a0 The lake didn\u2019t look so good.\u00a0 The room was shabby and the service not so good either.\u00a0 My mom and dad were disappointed.<\/p>\n Or how about this.\u00a0 You decide to move to another neighborhood to escape some of the problems.\u00a0 But then you get there and what do you find over time.\u00a0 You exchanged one set of problems for another.\u00a0 You\u2019re disappointed.<\/p>\n There is no disappointment in heaven.\u00a0 For with the Lord there is full redemption.<\/span> Total freedom.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to that day when we are set free from all that hurts and saddens.\u00a0 No more broken hearts or bodies.\u00a0 And we will live, really live as God meant us to.\u00a0 Not with tears in our eyes or worry in our hearts but with joy\u00a0 in that hope that will be ours.<\/p>\n So is it any wonder the psalmist says:\u00a0 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning<\/span>, The watchmen would wait anxiously for that morning light when his watch was over.\u00a0 He could go home.\u00a0 Well this man know what God had in store.\u00a0 So he waited anxiously for that full redemption.\u00a0 He waited anxiously for that time when he could go home.<\/p>\n And we don\u2019t have to wait and wonder.\u00a0 This is more than a wish for what may or may not come true.\u00a0 For what do we know? People may let us down.\u00a0 Even our moms or dads may let us down.\u00a0 But with the Lord is unfailing love<\/span>.\u00a0 Love demonstrated on a cross and made certain at an empty tomb.\u00a0 Love poured out on us when we were baptized. With the Lord is unfailing love that gives you hope and a future that is bright.<\/p>\n So when you are feeling down, look to the Lord.\u00a0 Look to his Word and see.\u00a0 See your sins, forgiven.\u00a0 See your future, bright.\u00a0 You can count on it.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Psalm 130 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. 5 I wait for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>2<\/sup><\/em> O Lord, hear my voice.
\nLet your ears be attentive
\nto my cry for mercy. <\/em><\/p>\n
\nO Lord, who could stand?
\n4<\/sup> But with you there is forgiveness;
\ntherefore you are feared. <\/em><\/p>\n
\nand in his word I put my hope.
\n6<\/sup> My soul waits for the Lord
\nmore than watchmen wait for the morning,
\nmore than watchmen wait for the morning. <\/em><\/p>\n
\nfor with the Lord is unfailing love
\nand with him is full redemption.
\n8<\/sup> He himself will redeem Israel
\nfrom all their sins. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Your sins, forgiven
\nII. Your future, bright<\/p>\n