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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
Psalm one fifteen. Not to us, oh, Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory. For your unfailing love and faithfulness. Why let the nations say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens and he does as he wishes.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Their idols are merely things of silver and gold shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak and eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell. They have hands but cannot fill, and feet but they cannot walk, and throats but cannot make a sound. And those who make idols are just like them as are all who trust in them.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:O Israel, trust the Lord. He is your helper and your shield. O priests, descendants of Aaron, trust the Lord. He is your helper and your shield. All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He is your helper and your shield. Notice the repetition. God today is our helper and our shield. Verse 12. The Lord remembers us and will bless us.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He will bless the people of Israel and bless the priests, the descendants of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both great and lowly. May the Lord richly bless both you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The dead cannot sing praises to the Lord for they have gone into the silence of the grave, but we can praise the Lord both now and forever. Praise the Lord. Psalm one fifteen is an invitation, yes, to worship and prayer, but specifically to examine our own hearts and the potential risk that we are all in right now in terms of making things into idols. And then it ends with this benediction that the God that we serve who is the maker of heaven and earth would richly bless us and our families. But by way of reflection, I wanna draw our attention to this kind of examination in the first few verses where it talks about these idols are made of silver and gold, so they're made out of material things.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:They're shaped by our hands and then notice the description they have mouths, they can't speak, eyes, but they can't see, hands, but they can't feel. In other words, the idols of our lives appear to have life to them, but ultimately there is no life in them. Right? So we can craft anything. Anything good in our life can become a God thing.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Right? An idol is where you and I take a good thing and we turn it into a God thing. Our careers, the the approval of others, our families, our romantic relationships, our dreams, right? All good things that God desires to give us. But the temptation today is for you and I to go to God and not honestly examine the idols of our hearts.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And to notice how our emotions are very much swayed and dictated by how we think our idols are serving us and what we think they're trying to do for us. And so the caution of Psalm one fifteen is to examine our hearts and to confess before Jesus the temptation in all of us to try to find our help and our shield, our defense in something that isn't God, but is an idol. So for example, for some of you today, what your boss thinks of you, you think will ultimately defend you. For some of you today, that romantic relationship you think will satisfy you, will make you feel secure, loved and seen, but isn't an idol. For some of you, your children and their success is your idol.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For some of us, a future financial security, right, is is what we're resting in. Whatever the case is, confess it to Jesus now. Lord, we hear you now inviting us to respond in prayer and with humility and honesty to name the idols of our heart. To realize that they appear to have life but there is no life ultimately in them. And to receive the honest truth that anyone who worships an idol becomes essentially like it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We become lifeless because we give our life to something that cannot satisfy us or give us life in return. And so as we confess those idols, God, would we turn to you? Would we trust you today, Jesus? Why? Because you are our help and you are our shield.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You will come to our aid and you will ultimately deliver us and in that we can experience your blessing. Would we receive that now in the quietness of our own lives and the quietness of our days as we experience more freedom from idolatry and more life in you Jesus. We pray these things in your name. Amen.