“I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt. We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.” Psalm 123:1-4

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers,

We have been journeying to Jerusalem this Lenten season by reading and reflecting on the Psalms of Ascent —- Psalms 120-134.  If you would like a full copy of the weekly manuscripts, please email me. I’d be glad to email copies to you.

There are some important words that we will look at today.  The first is “eyes” and the second is” mercy.”

The word “eyes” is used four times in verses one and two.  At first, we are told that the Psalmist lifts up his eyes and then he “looks” three times.  The eyes of the slaves look to their masters and the eyes of the maids look to their mistresses. So our eyes will look to the Lord. This is not an endorsement of slavery. Back in the times of the Old Testament, it was common for those who served others to keep their eyes on their masters.  The master may never say a word but simply point or look at something and the servant would already be in action.  That is what the Psalmist is saying about keeping your eyes on the Lord.

What if we are the servant, and Jesus is our master?
Are we keeping our eyes on Jesus so much so that nary a word is ever spoken than we are already moved to action? (pause and ponder that)
Or do we try every which way to Sunday to make sure we get orders from the boss before we spring into action? (Not that I would know anything about that!)

I challenge you to look to Jesus.  So often, plain, and simple, we do not spend our time looking to Him. Instead, we look to the world to find the solution to our problem. We look to others to help us and to make sense of our problems. We look to fill our hearts with other things that promise to make us happy, or bring us comfort.

Stop being afraid and look to Jesus
Stop allowing resentment to ruin your life and look to Jesus!
Stop worrying about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough troubles of it’s own, look to Jesus!
Stop abusing alcohol, drugs and sex; they will never fill the hole in your soul, look to Jesus!
Stop the frenzy for money and material possessions the prize you run after, look to Jesus!
Stop being unforgiving and forgive, set yourself free, look to Jesus!
Stop being insecure in who you are and look to Jesus!
Stop allowing other people to steal your joy and look to Jesus!
Stop flirting with temptation and look to Jesus!
Stop being jealous and look to Jesus!
Stop being angry and look to Jesus!
Stop being impatient and look to Jesus!
Stop being critical and look to Jesus!
Stop running the rat race of life and look to Jesus!

There is a wonderful old hymn called “Turn Your Eyes on Jesus.” This song was written by a woman named Helen Lemmel. I encourage you to YouTube your favorite version and sing along.

The chorus of that hymn gives us these powerful words …

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

What a great hymn.  Are you weary and troubled? Has the light of the world been dimmed in your life and the only thing you see now is darkness?

The answer is to turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Lift your eyes UP to the one who is HEAVEN.

The writer of Hebrews encourages us to fix our eyes on Jesus. These verses in chapter 12 of Hebrews come after the famous “hall of faith”, chapter 11.  “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, and we are to throw off all the weights of sins that cling so closely and fix our eyes upon Jesus so that we can run the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Listen, when you choose to follow Jesus, I can almost guarantee you that you will have many nay-sayers who will ridicule and mock you. The psalm today gives us the best advice: Fix your eyes on Jesus, and ask the Lord to have mercy on you as you follow Him.

So What?

What does the writer of the Psalm teach us today?  There is one other key word that is used over and over again and that word is “mercy.” The word “mercy” is used three times in the last two verses. The Hebrew word for “mercy” is “chanan” and it means, “to show kindness, to be gracious, to show favor, to be graciously kind, or mercy.”

I believe that mercy is the most important word in this short Psalm. Why? Because that mercy is what the Psalmist is praying for.

Mercy is an aspect of grace, but the unique aspect of mercy is that it is given to the pitiful, in this case to those who have endured “much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.”

Put yourself in the story.  Put the story in you.

I can remember when I decided to leave the family business and go into the ministry.  Not everyone thought it was a good idea.  I was laughed at, even ridiculed, and ostracized by some. Even my own family ridiculed me. My dad fired me and told me to get out. When I was leaving, he said, “I suppose you think your God will take care of you?”  I told him I knew my God would take care of me.  Some in my hometown told me that I was a fool and that they would not support me. All I knew was that God was calling me into full-time ministry and I had to keep my eyes on Him. A dozen years later, after serving three churches, I was called back to Southern California. I was going to work in a prison ministry. When that door was frozen shut, I went to my denomination. I asked if they would merely lend me support to help some friends start a new church. They said, “No. You are not what we are looking for. You are foolish.  You cannot start a church without money.” Again, here I was, having to keep my eyes on the Lord.

I am sure that if you made it this far in reading this Seed of Faith, you have faced obstacles and even ridicule for stepping out in your faith.

Call upon the mercy of the Lord and keep your eyes on Jesus as you journey to Jerusalem this season.

Every week I tell you to put yourself in the story and then to put the story in you. But from now on—after you do those two things—then go put the story out there…in your corner of the world…dropping breadcrumbs of faith all along your way.

See you Sunday as we hike up that mountain towards Jerusalem TOGETHER!

Keep looking UP, look UP to the maker of the mountains.

“Father, help us to be so intent on keeping our eyes upon You that nary a word must be spoken before we are after doing Your will. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.”

God loves you and so do I,

Pastor Dave

www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1

Dear Faithful Seed Sowers,

Welcome to this week’s Seed of Faith. It is our prayer at the SEED that the verse for our church will be amazingly true for each one of you: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23) 

Yes, we pray that we will all be born again and again though God’s enduring Word of life, Jesus Christ. There is no other way!

Each year at this time I sit down with pen and paper and spend time in prayer. I seek the Lord’s will and guidance as what I am to preach and teach. Twice a year, I put together the Sundays for six months of the year. I sit with an empty preaching calendar—complete with potential titles, subjects, and Scriptures. I also have my bible nearby and the church calendar list of Sundays. This gives me helpful guidance as I attempt to layout the year ahead, breaking it down into two six month sets. I have been praying for many months for the sermon series outline for the first half of this year.

The Lord put it on my heart to teach through the Psalms of Ascent during this Lenten season leading up through Palm Sunday and Easter. After Easter, we will turn to the last book of the Bible and dive deep into the book of Revelation and the seven churches.

I encourage you to take time to read Psalms 120-134 during this season of Lent.

As I prayed and heard the Holy Spirit whisper to continue the Psalms of Ascent, I went to my computer to look. I sort of remembered doing them—was it a series I’d done in Round Rock, Upland or Aurora? Was it a bible study I had done somewhere? It just seemed familiar to me. I went to my computer and I realized that I started it during Lent of 2020. We all know what happened next: COVID. I saw that I had started the series and had preached on two psalms: 120 and 121.

These are the psalms (songs) the people would sing together as they traveled UP THE MOUNTAIN TO JERUSALEM in order to celebrate their special FEAST days. Three times a year, the Jewish people were to gather together in Jerusalem. Soon there were psalms that they memorized and sang together as they hiked up the mountain.

Psalm 120 is the Psalm of repentance. A perfect place to start singing. “God, I’m a sinner and I need to repent of my ways.” Perfect place to begin.

Psalm 121 calls us out of the world and the environment of deceit, lies and hostility and sets us on our way to God. Psalm 121 is the Psalm of trust. It teaches us to “lift our eyes to the mountains,” for that is where our help comes. Think about climbing up the mountain together with a group of your best friends and family, and there you are singing, “Where does our help come from?” “Our help comes from the mountain maker! Psalm 121 is a demonstration of a person who determinedly trusts God to work out His will and “guard you from every evil” in the midst of difficulty.

Here we are now at Psalm 122–the Psalm of worship. Psalm 122 is a demonstration of what people of faith everywhere always do: gather to an assigned place and worship their God. Just like us today, gathered in person and online—gathered in an assigned place in order to worship GOD.

Right above us are the San Gabriel mountains. At the top of one of the peaks is Mt. Baldy. Can you imagine us all gathering together and singing this psalm of worship as we made our way to the top? A song of worship would be perfect as we hiked.

Worship! What comes to your mind when you hear the word “worship?”

So many questions came to mind when I sat down to write this week’s message.

What does it mean to worship?

How are we to worship?

When are we to worship?

Why do we worship?

Why is there so much voluntary and faithful worship by Christians?

The word for “worship” is used 173 times in the Old Testament and 79 times in the New Testament—252 times total. The Greek word for “worship” is “προσκυνέω proskuneō” which means to bow down, prostrate oneself, kiss or give reverence.

Jonathan Edwards, who is considered the greatest theologian that America has had, said this about worship, “If man does not give his highest respect to the God that made him, there will be something else that has the possession of it. Men will either worship the true God, or some idol. It is impossible it should be other wise; something will have the heart of man. And that which a man gives his heart to may be called his god.”[i]

Brother Lawrence said, “The end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshipers of God we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity.”[ii]

So what is in your heart?

In his book, “What Is Worship?” J. Vernon McGee tells of the time one of his church leaders invited him to hear a symphony orchestra perform. He said he knew nothing about music, but went anyway “to be nice.” What he first heard was a horrid cacophony of individual squeals and squawks, as each musician tuned his instrument. But then, he related when the conductor entered the scene, what a difference there was! At his cue, all those different instruments blended their voices to create truly beautiful music. Today, McGee explains, “every man is playing his own little tune. (But) one of these days, out from the wings will step the Conductor, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He lifts His baton, from the ends of God’s universe those galactic systems will burst forth into song. Every bird, every angel, and then man will join the heavenly chorus. In the meantime, you and I can bow before Him and bring our own little souls into the harmony of heaven.”[iii]

While we were back in Illinois recently, my wife and I had the wonderful joy and blessing to go to our eldest granddaughter’s concert at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is on a full-ride scholarship there for playing the viola. Jac and I paid our respects at our dear friend’s visitation and then we drove 90 miles into Chicago. We arrived a little early, so we met our granddaughter in the food court for a little snack. She had just finished tuning up. We then walked over to the concert hall for the concert. Wow! What a blessing. I would agree with J Vernon McGee, as they were warming up, the noise in the room was loud and annoying but when the conductor came and stood in front of them and began to direct each instrument to play in tune, the music was amazing and such a joy.

This is what worship is about, dear friends. We all come together to offer our different gifts and together we create an amazing symphony for God to be glorified with.

“I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.” Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem.” Psalm 122:1-2

When we read or sing these opening verses, we see that the pilgrims have arrived in the city of Jerusalem. They walked and worked their way up the mountain. Why? To worship and give God all their praises.

Jerusalem is the city of peace. The pilgrims were called to praise and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That is an amazing point: The place of worship should bring peace, a peace that surpasses all our understanding. The Prince of Peace came to rule and reign in the city of peace called Jerusalem.

WORSHIP. Proskeneo…we bow down before our God, and we sing praise.

SO WHAT?

As we begin this series on opening doors in 2024, where or what door is God calling you to walk through when it comes to making your journey with Jesus? There are open doors for worship. There are open doors for praise. There are open doors for prayer. Have you ever thought that it might be a great idea for each of us to open our Bibles up during the week, and not just together on Sundays? I could tell you this much, if we knew that next Sunday, we would be walking up to Baldy to reach the summit together, there would be many of us who grabbed the Living Word like it was our only road map! Go ahead, get out your book of Psalms and start reading 5 a day—and do not miss the idea that you can make notes in your Bible, or in a journal, about what ideas the Holy Spirit fills your head and your heart with. Today is February 4th—so this means if we have read 5 Psalms on the1st, 2nd, and 3rd—today we would be reading Psalms 16-20! If that is too much, then get your Bible out (even get your phone out) and get ready for next week’s journey up to Baldy with Psalm 123! Read it like it is your guide and road map! Or sit and ponder your notes and Psalm 122 each morning. The point is that we WORSHIP—bow with reverence before our God.

Every week during the message on Sunday, my wife is using the NOTES section on her phone. She takes precocious notes and clicks away at the power points. I have often wondered why she does that. This week I figured it out. When I am on the airplane, I am either reading on my iPad or listening to music or both. This week, on our flight to Chicago, I saw her using her phone and re-reading her notes and the PowerPoints from last week’s message! I did not just see her do it one time, but there she was on every flight pulling up notes from previous Sunday. Do you know what else?  As we landed, and made our way to the next gate, I heard her dropping verses and points all along her way. Anyone here even remember what the message was about? 2024—THE OPEN DOOR! I cannot tell you how many times I heard her speak to complete strangers about their open door! One man, let us call him Jerry, told her an amazing, almost unbelievable story. He and Jac talked about Jesus and how Jesus has changed their lives. Jerry accepted Christ 5 years ago and he has not missed a Sunday since! Jac gave Jerry a business card from THE SEED and sat there and showed him how to take the spiritual gifts test! His mom and sister were with him and they, too, are taking the test. I asked Jac on our last flight, “What’s going on?” She said, “I’m taking this OPEN DOOR 2024 serious, Dave. I pray every day that I do not miss a single OPEN DOOR. I pray that if God shows me an OPEN DOOR—I am going through it—no matter that I have no idea where it may lead.” Let me tell you, Jerry—was a big guy, he had tats all over, and he had been to jail. He came to Jesus in jail. Seriously, usually I am the guy talking Jesus, but I got to see the words the Holy Spirit gave me from Sunday be lived out this week as my wife shared. Jac had been reading and rereading all the scriptures about open doors. The hour-long JESUS discussion at the O’Hare airport began with Jac asking, “How was your time in Chicago?” Kind of like—well, here is an open door—wonder if Jerry wants to go with me through it? Jerry’s son had just graduated from Navy bootcamp, and this proud dad could not contain himself. He talked about how the Navy went all out for the ceremony and how his son is going to train to be a Navy seal. I just sat back and watched God work as Jerry shared and Jac planted seeds of faith.

Remind you of us going up that mountain together to worship God? Yes! Maybe this week it’s going to be your turn to plant seeds of faith.

Every week I tell you to put yourself in the story and then to put the story in you. But from now on—after you do those two things—then go put the story out there…in your corner of the world…dropping breadcrumbs of faith all along your way.

Each week we have the opportunity to come to church and worship. Worship is voluntary. But when we gather together to worship, we get to encounter the presence of living God together– in our worship, our praise, and our prayers. We grow stronger together as a community of believers as we worship — as we give our voices, our time, our talents, and our treasures to the One who loved us so much that He gave His one and only Son. In worship we come face to face with the God who created us, the God who redeems us and the God who continues to provide for us. WORSHIP…proskuneo…we fall on our knees, and we praise our God as we pilgrimage HOME!

As we conclude today’s message, let us recite the last 3 verses of Psalm 122 as we pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.” For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” Psalm 122:7-9

See you Sunday as we hike up that mountain towards Jerusalem TOGETHER!

God loves you and so do I,

Pastor Dave

www.theseedchristianfellowship.com

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