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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
For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a Psalm a day. We started in January 1, and every day you're gonna get a new Psalm with the opportunity to read the Psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the Psalms.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace.
Dani Crowley:We continue our journey through the Psalms today by reading Psalms 53. It says only fools say in their heart there is no God. They are corrupt and their actions are evil. Not one of them does good. God looks down from heaven on the entire human race.
Dani Crowley:He looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no. All have turned away. All have become corrupt. No one does good.
Dani Crowley:Not a single one. Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread and wouldn't think of praying to god. Terror will grip them. Terror like they have never known before.
Dani Crowley:God will scatter the bones of your enemies. You will put them to shame for God has rejected them. Who will come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel? When God restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice. This Psalm is telling us, a little bit of what we need, which is a savior.
Dani Crowley:And we need a savior from our own lack of goodness because there's not a single person that is good. No, not one. And so we need Jesus. And this Psalm is foreshadowing of what is to come, which is Jesus, our savior. And so we need Him because of our own lack of goodness.
Dani Crowley:But we also need a savior because of the lack of goodness that is done to us. Jesus came not only to save us, but to also bring full justice to his people. And that is the hope that we have as children of God, as people of God. And so for us, I hear this, this challenge, this correction, let's not be foolish and say that there is no God. But even in the moments when we're waiting for justice to come or we're waiting even to work out our own lack of goodness, our own sin, our own the things about ourselves that frustrate us, we remain hopeful knowing that Jesus comes and he brings full restoration for us.
Dani Crowley:He is our savior. He is the hope of the world. So let's pray that into our lives today. Jesus, we thank you for who you are as a God who is just and good, and also a God who is merciful to us and we receive your mercy today. We recognize that we are not good and that we are in need of a savior, savior from ourselves and also savior from the lack of the good that is in the world around us.
Dani Crowley:Lord, fill us today with hope, a hope for full restoration to come. And God, a hope that, only you give us. We love you, Jesus, and we thank you for your presence to us today. We pray this in your name. Amen.