Microphones

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning. Have you ever had an instance where you said the right thing, but you said it in the wrong way? Right? Maybe you had a question, an honest question, but you asked it in a very snarky way. Or maybe you were trying to give some feedback to somebody, and it may have even been positive, but you picked a terrible moment to do it. When we talk to people, how we say something is as important as what we're saying. It's true because in communication there is information that we want to relay but there's also tone and body language that we use. You know a common illustration that people use is the phrase I never said she took your money. I never said you took your money. Each word in there if you picked one at random and you emphasize that word the phrase carries an entirely different meaning. For example if you emphasize the first word I never said she took your

money that would mean that somebody else must have said but I didn't say it. Or if you change the word to she. So I never said she took your money. Well that would mean that I said that somebody else took the money something like that. It changes the meaning just because you are changing your tone. And so when we read the songs, it has both information and tone. Both of those are coming into play. And that's why we call this series songs, the rhythm and the first, because the rhythm is the emotion, it's the tone, it's the, it's the body language, if you will, of the songs, but then there is the verse, it has information, it has things that we need to meditate upon, deep, profound truth that after we meditate on it. And so last week we did the extended introduction, we looked at Psalms 1 and 2. Today we're going to be moving into the book divisions of the Psalms.

So there's five books and they're not evenly distributed. You can see they go all the way from 1 to 150. And so today we're going to be in book 1, which is Psalms 1 through 41. method what we're going to employ for this whole series is that we're going to look at one psalm to study all the psalms in that book and so today to represent book one we're going to have psalm 40 we're going to be looking at psalm 40 so if you want to get your your Bible open to psalm 40 that would be helpful and what that's going to do by focusing on psalm 40 it's going to allow us to have some focus but still get a general sense of what book one is about to aid in that focus I'm going to choose one word to represent each book, to describe the book. And so the word for today, for book one, is microphones. Microphones. That's going to come up in a couple of different ways. So just, I'll bring it up again.

So we're going to read Psalm 40 aloud. And then we're going to learn about microphones. And if you would, I know it's unusual, but if you would, would you mind standing as we read? It's 17 verses. It won't take too long. can read along with the screen. Song Chapter 40 I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined me and heard my cry. He drew me up from a pit of destruction, out of the mine rebuy, and set my feet on rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous needs and your thoughts toward us no one can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given

me an open ear. Burn offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, behold, I have come in the scroll of the book has written of me. I am delighted to do your will Oh my God, your law is within my heart I told the glad news of deliverance and the great congregation behold I will not restrain my lips as you know Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation verse 11 As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. For evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. There are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Let those who be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those we turn back and brought to dishonor, who delight in my hurt. Let those we appalled because of their shame, who say to me, aha, aha. But may all those who seek you rejoice to be glad, and you may those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought of me. You are my help and my deliver do not delay oh my god you may be seated may god bless the reading of his word psalm 40 there's a couple of things that I want to notice in psalm 40 and the first is what I want to call quoted dialogue I didn't make that up it is quoted dialogue that we're going to be looking at you can see it a lot of different places in psalm 40 specifically in 8 through 10 there's a lot of it there so in 8 it says I'd like to do your will, your law is written on my heart,

verse 10 spoken of your faithless and your salvation. In 15 and 16, 15 the enemies say ah ha ha ha and in 16 those who love God say great is the Lord. So it quotes a lot of people and it might just seem incidental or it might seem really small like a small part of the song. However it is a major literary device that is used throughout book one with a purpose. I want to give you another example. In Psalm 10, which is also in book one, I'm going to read 4 through 6 and verse 11. Listen to the quotes here. It says, In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. His ways prosper all times. Your judgments are on high, out of his sight. As for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, I shall not be moved throughout all generations I shall not meet at Percy and then skip down to verse 11 he says in

his heart God has forgotten he has hidden his face he will never see it and we can notice it here in particular that the quote dialogue here it emphasizes the emotion of the moment so psalm 10 highlights the wicked here it highlights the hubris of the wicked the wicked literally is thinking to himself saying to himself I won't get caught nothing that will happen to me I will not meet adversity throughout all generations and that is prime and arrogance and we can see it illustrated right there also in Psalm 22a there's people that are scorning the righteous person and in Psalm 22a here's their quote it says he trusts in the Lord let him deliver him let him rescue him for he delights in him." So I'm 41, I'm 4-5. As for me, I said, O Lord, be gracious to me, heal me, for I have sinned against you. My enemies say of me and Malice, when will he die, and his name perish?

So the coded dialogue here, what it does is it actually layers in an emotional rhythm. So we hear David's prayer and we hear the contrition in it. We don't just say, the Psalms don't just say, and David prayed. We hear his prayer and the contrition that's in it. We perceive the motivations and the hubris of the wicked. We are gripped with the joy of obedience. We are gripped with the despair of being left to our enemies. In other words, code of dialogue in book 1, it's used so that we can feel what's going on, so that we can take in the emotional rhythm. And so that's what Book 1 is doing. It's using that quote of dialogue to relay that rhythm. Book 1 also highlights the words that we say. So look back at Psalm 40. Psalm 40, in the first couple of verses, it says that, it says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and what did he do? He put a new song in my mouth.

And it says, in verse 9, when it comes to telling of God's goodness, I am not restrained my lips." So you see, mouth, lips, that's other places here. Psalm 12, 2-4, everyone who others lies to his neighbor with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all the flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts. Those who say, with our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are with us. Who is master over us? So you see that, right? Lips, tongues, I mean, it's almost kind of gross to read it, but it's accenting, right? the mouth, the lips, the tongue. So on 15, 1 through 3, O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell in your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. Verse 3, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor? It could just say, and who does not slander? But it talks about a tongue right there. In book 1,

The idea of the, it is all over that it's pointing to tongues, mouths, lips. And what that's doing is it's highlighting this really strong connection between what you do with your mouth, your words, the connection between your words and your heart, and then, and then the connection between those two to the outcome of your lives. So put it another way words are the microphones of our hearts Words are the microphones of our hearts

Jesus Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees Matthew 12 and he reminds us all it says out of the abundance the heart The abundance of the heart the mass speaks this in verse 34 and then three verses later in Matthew 12 37 It says, by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Jesus is saying, your words are going to come out of the heart that's there. If you've ever had a rough relationship with someone, you know, like you just didn't get along with them, you didn't like them, you didn't respect them, you didn't love what they stood for. But you know, you were like, oh, I'm just going to try to be kind, I'm going to try to have joy, I'm going to try to be sweet to them. But then when you try to do it, it just comes out fake. I mean, it's fake. They might respond the same way and it's all fake and it's just kind of disgusting.

You know, it's like, oh, why don't you try to do that? Because your heart is always going to come through. You can try to fake it for a little while, but the heart is going to come through. And Psalm Book 1 and all these Psalms are illustrating that powerfully. And we should think a lot before we speak or post or comment or, you know, just kind of say some offhand comment to someone else, the words that we use are the microphones of our hearts. And we need to see that if there's something going on with our words, that it's actually not just, oh, we need to correct our speech, it's that we need to deal with what's going on in our hearts. It would, because we can't cover it up, we can't just change the way we talk without changing what's going on with our hearts. And the only one who can change our hearts is the Lord. And this points to what we see next in Psalm 40. Well, we see it laid out

a couple of places, but it's really all over Psalms Book 1, that God invites us to speak our hearts to Him. God invites us to speak our hearts to Him. And we see it in the first verse, it says, wait patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. that he leaned over, he listened, what are you saying? The Lord is paying attention. The Lord invites us to do that. In verses 11 through 14 it describes the despair going on and this is David asking for help. Right? In Psalm 40. In Psalm 18 6 it says, in my distress I call upon the Lord to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice and I cried to him reached his ears in Psalms Book 1 what we see it's a an open invitation to speak our emotions to the Lord David throughout these songs most of which someone through 41 most of which are written by David I believe all of them but I'm not totally sure maybe one or

to or not. David, though, in all these psalms is not shy. He's not timidly asking for deliverance or vengeance or provision. David is going full throttle and he's saying, My enemies are around me. Deliver me. Punish them. Lord, I need this. And he's not presuming upon the Lord's goodness, but he's just speaking his need. You don't get the The fact that David is trying to be overly pious or religious or pretentious or anything like that, he's just speaking his heart. And this is another reason why I chose microphones for Psalms Book 1. Because the Psalms in this book 1 invite frank dialogue, honest communication with our creator. Now, this might sound a bit like a contradiction from what we've already been talking about, right? Because on the one hand, these Psalms are saying, hey, watch your mouth, watch your lips, watch your tongue, watch what you're saying, be careful.

It's gonna speak your heart. So there's this big connection between your words, your heart, and the outcome of your lives. But on the other hand, we have God saying, look, just tell me what's in your heart. Just speak your heart to me, especially in frustration and pain. You read Psalm Book 1, there's a lot of frustration and pain that's being vented to the Lord God Himself. And so what that does is that can kind of trap us in this religious catch-22 where, you know, we're thinking, maybe we're thinking sinful thoughts, we all do it. We think sinful thoughts, but then, whenever we kind of come to our senses and we think, oh, what am I thinking about? Then we have shame, and we don't want to approach the throne of God because of that shame, because we were thinking those thoughts. And so there's an irony that can happen, because we are in shame for what we've done.

We actually stay away from the only one who can deliver us from that shame, the only one who can heal us from this heart that just speaks evil, right? God is the only one that can restore our hearts. And so what he does is God doesn't seem to be overly concerned, right, whenever we are being open and honest with him, that we somehow act, you know, that we speak in King James, or that we act religious or pious. The truth is that God already knows what's in our hearts. And often he is just waiting for us to confess that. He's waiting for us to be vulnerable. And so if we can see these microphones that are available to us, maybe it'll spur us on to pray, to pray honestly. Don't pray pretentiously. Just pray and ask for what you need. And if you're truly wondering, how could this happen to me? How can my life have ended this way or have gone this way, well then say it.

Ask that question. If you feel like the Lord God has hung you out to dry, then say so. You might be wrong, but say it. And sometimes it's really easy for people to point to Job and miss Jesus. Because they point to Job and they say, look at Job, he talked back and got, you know, smacked him down. But actually what happened was that Job spoke his heart And God gave him correction. He showed himself faithful by actually bringing all that to the Lord. And I don't know if you've read the image, Joe, but it actually ends in victory, in blessing, in a good thing. Yes, Joe made the correction. Joe was not perfect, but Joe did show his faithfulness to God by speaking his heart, by saying, I don't understand this, I need some explanation. And God gave some reasons for some, and in others he just said, you're not gonna get an explanation. I can't, it's too wonderful for you to even understand.

And this is what, this is the message of Job. And sometimes we just mess that up and we think, oh, I don't wanna get slammed like Job. But we miss Jesus and Jesus saying, come to me, all who are in a heavy labor. And I will give you rest. take my yoke upon you, learn from me. Jesus is saying, look, come to me in your pain. Pray to me, use the microphone. And if you're still worried about speaking your heart to the Lord, if you're still worried about being too candid for God, just take this as an encouragement.

You were never worthy enough to speak to God in the first place. It's all on His grace anyway. And so what I want to tell you, let yourself walk in that grace and step up to the microphone and speak your heart to God. Be open with Him. He will not turn you away. It's like the parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18. And if you want, you can go back and read it, but what Jesus says about that parable is that God is asking us to be persistent in asking for what we need. He's saying, look, just bug me about it. Bring it before me. I don't care if you pray 450 times. Pray 450 times, bug me with it. Declare when you have been wrong, ask me to make it right, the Lord God says to us. So we can speak our heart, we can step up to the microphone. There is one last theme that I wanna cover, Psalm 1 and that is God's powerful word. Right? So in Psalm 40 and verse 3, we talk about how many people are going to see and fear the

Lord. They're going to put their trust in the Lord. Verse 5, the Lord has multiplied his wondrous deeds and his thoughts toward us. 16 all who see you seek you will rejoice and be glad this idea of God's power of God's absolute strength his word kind of going out it's repeated several times in Psalm book one I'm gonna read two different sets of verses Psalm 18 13 through 15 the Lord God also thundered in the heavens and the most high uttered his voice hailstones and coals of fire and he sent out his arrows and scattered He flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils." That's a big powerful picture of God there. He's laying creation bare. Another one, Psalm 33, 6 through 9, it says, by the word of the Lord the heavens were made by the breath of his mouth all their

hosts he gathers the waters of the sea as a heap he puts the deep in storehouses let all the earth fear the Lord but all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it came to be he commanded and it stood firm God's God's word is powerful. God's voice creates and teaches. God's word goes out and exacts justice. God's word goes out and gives grace. God's word goes out and exposes all the things that were uncovered. It reveals mystery. God is not hopelessly yelling from afar at evil lovers. He's not saying, oh, you better stop doing that. No, God's word shapes existence. God's microphone pervades everything, everywhere.

The same word, the same word that created the heavens, the same word that exacts justice and gives grace, that this same word, the same voice desires to speak to our hearts, specifically to our needs. This is prayer. Prayer is not something that is therapy for you. Prayer is commuting with the Lord God and heaven, the Creator. Everything you see and hear, everything you know, all the laws of physics were just created, spoken into existence. This is the power that we are asked to tap into when we pray. The Psalms in book one are a beautiful illustration of this. What I want to challenge you to do, I'm going to challenge you to read Psalms book one this week. It's about six verses or six, excuse me, six Psalms a day. So if you just take one through six and you just go all the way through, you're gonna read Psalms 1 through 41 in a week. And just as you do,

remember what the Lord is showing us here. Remember that what we say matters. Our lips, our tongue, our mouths, they're capable of all these things. And that God invites us, at the same time God invites us to speak honestly and openly with Him, to be vulnerable, to be candid and say maybe what is not fun to say or not popular to say or doesn't paint us in the best light. But if we're frustrated with a co-worker we can tell the Lord God. If we're mad at our spouse we can tell the Lord God. If we are afraid that we have ruined something then we can tell Jesus it's good to do And it's not just therapy. The Lord wants to hear that and speak into it. Speak in the situation that you find yourself in. This is God's desire. We see this all over Psalm Book 1. I want to encourage you to step up to the microphone, speak your heart to the Lord, and let's do that just even as we pray. Jesus, we step up

to the microphone together Lord our hearts before you are laid bare you know what's in our hearts you know you know how we think you know what we've done you pursue us anyway I pray that we could respond to you we could respond to what you are doing Jesus help us to take that next step as you're in that we pray amen If you want to take that next step, you can visit our website southburleson.church. Our website is southburleson.church and there's a way to fill out a connect card right there. So I want to encourage you, if you want to make a decision for the Lord, if you need help, I will contact you personally if you fill out one of those cards on our website. Again, South Bertilis and Spaldum, down to the church, South Bertilis and Dutch Church, find the connect card, it's going to be right on the front there, and fill it out, and someone, me, I will get back to you this week

and help you make that decision.