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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
As we continue reading in the Psalms today, we will be reading from Psalm 80. Please listen, oh shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph's descendants like a flock. Oh God enthroned above the cherubim display your radiant glory to Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Show us your mighty power, come to rescue us. Turn us again to yourself, oh God.
Morgan Teruel:Make your face shine down upon us, only then will we be saved. Oh Lord God of heaven's armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers? You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucket full. You have made us the scorn of neighboring nations. Our enemies treat us as a joke.
Morgan Teruel:Turn us again to yourself, oh God of heaven's armies. Make your face shine down upon us, only then will we be saved. You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine. You drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land. You cleared the ground for us and we took root and filled the land.
Morgan Teruel:Our shade covered the mountains, our branches covered the mighty Cedars. We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea. Our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River. But now, why have you broken down our walls so that all who pass by may steal our fruit? The wild boar from the forest devours it and the wild animals feed on it.
Morgan Teruel:Come back we beg you, oh God of heaven's armies. Look down from heaven and see our plight. Take care of this great vine that you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself. For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies. May they perish at the sight of your frown.
Morgan Teruel:Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice, then we will never abandon you again. Revive us so we can call on your name once more. Turn us again to yourself, oh Lord God of heaven's armies. Make your face shine down upon us, only then will we be saved. As we reflect on Psalm 80, there's a refrain that happens three separate times in this Psalm.
Morgan Teruel:Two of the times it's a shorter, more abbreviated version and one of the times it's elongated. And I'm looking at the shorter version, it ends in this refrain. It says in verse 19, turn us again to yourself, oh Lord God of heaven's armies. Make your face shine down upon us only then will we be saved. This verse in these words turn us again in some translations say, restore.
Morgan Teruel:Restore us, oh God of heaven's armies. Whether it's restoring or turning us again to God, it's sort of is acknowledging that this is gonna be a pattern for us. That there are gonna be times where we are unfaithful to God through the sin and the brokenness of our own choices, or we're hurt by someone else. And we experience the need to be restored. The need to be turned back to God and to see his face, to ask for his face to shine upon, which is a blessing that Aaron prayed over the Israelites.
Morgan Teruel:So when we look at this, whether it's restoration or turning again, maybe be reminded that that's a grace that's offered to us. That we don't run out of times or out of chances to be restored. That we have a rescuer, that we have a savior who will restore us, who will turn us again to the God of heaven's armies. And his face will be made to shine down upon us because only then will we be saved. So let's pray together.
Morgan Teruel:Lord, I pray a prayer of restoration over every person listening or watching today, whether we're hurt by our own choices or we've been hurt by the choices of others. So often we find ourselves in need of turning our face to you again, in need of being restored by you again. But God, you always come through. You come through as our rescuer time after time. You come through as our savior time after time.
Morgan Teruel:And may we remember that there is no chances of running out of your grace in these situations where we need your restoring or we need you to turn our faces again, God. We thank you for your grace that is afforded to us so easily and so availably. We love you. Amen.