The Remedy for Taking God for Granted

My name is Steve Walker. I'm one of the elder elders, older elders. Travis, Tria, Tessa are in Texas with Tatum. Try saying that three times. Uh, so this morning they're going to be spending Thanksgiving together. And um, so this morning as well as next Sunday, I have the privilege of opening up the scriptures for us. So this morning, I invite you to turn to Psalm 103. You heard it uh at the call to worship, at least most of it. Psalm 103 in your Bibles. We have an outline for you to use in your bulletins if you'd like. But if you're allergic to outlines and notes, you can just ignore it. Uh most of it will be right on the screen. So let's take a minute and pray, and we're going to jump right in. Our hearts are open to you, Lord. our minds now. Open our eyes.

Help us to see you clearly to respond to you in a way that would be glorifying to you and really good for us. Speak through your word. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So only three days till Thanksgiving. It depends on how you count them. But uh as our culture ignores Thursday, Thanksgiving, and focuses instead on Black Friday, uh when our holiday shopping frenzy begins or on Cyber Monday when we can get steals and deals from the internet, what do you say? Let's not let's not skip over Thanksgiving. Instead, let's cultivate Thanksgiving and gratitude, which, you know, kind of might be more challenging uh than we think. One of my favorite theologians, Calvin of the uh of the famous cartoon script Calvin Hobbs by Bill Wat uh is at his desk listing all the stuff that bugs him. Dry it out. Ketchup on the bottle room. How do you say ket is it ketchup or ketchup? Ketchup. How many think it's ketchup? How many think it's ketchup? Ketchup. Okay. Dried out ketchup on the bottle rim, toast crumbs in the butter, mushy bananas, worms on the sidewalk, skin on pudding, making a hand gesture for quotation marks, raisins, and his imaginary pet tiger Hobbs suggests, "How about excessively negative people?" "Yeah, that's a good one." Calvin responds. And then all of a sudden, it hits him. Hey, see if you're looking for something to complain about, believe me, you're going to find it. Whatever it is, whether it's a messy ketchup bottle or some other common pet peeve. I mean, you know anybody that does these things? Complain, to continue to express unhappiness about something, or gripe, to complain persistently and irritatingly. or whine to gripe or protest about something in an annoying voice. Know anybody like that? Don't raise your hand. You know, I thought so. But I want you to notice what God expects. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Apparently, God's will for us is to give thanks in every circumstance at all times. I suppose that means that God's will for us is to never ever be ungrateful or whiny or negative or grip griping or complaining or bitter. In fact, God is saying that he can't imagine us being in any kind of a situation at all in which we could not find something to thank him for. It's his will for us to be thankful in whatever circumstance we find ourselves and it's a decision we apparently have to make to be thankful as well as a discipline that we cultivate over a period of time. And yet look it is so easy to slip into being ungrateful, unthankful, complaining, negative people who take God and his gifts for granted. I mean, how could we? Well, we could and we do and we shouldn't. So, King David penned Psalm 103 to help us with this very thing, not to take God for granted. And the psalm intends to short circuit our complaining and griping and whining and excessive negative uh outlook uh and replace it with a sense of all that we owe to God. And so if you get nothing else out of today, let's let this sink in. Thanksgiving is the natural response of one who remembers how indebted he is to God. Thanksgiving is the natural response of one who remembers just how indebted he is to God. And it begins right here with actually talking to ourselves. We should be thankful for all that God has done and we should intentionally bless the Lord. Look at verse one. I'm sure you have your Bible open. Stare at it. Verse one says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul." Seven times in this psalm, we're commanded to bless the Lord. And it really pictures a person feeling so overwhelmed with gratitude that he drops to his knees thanking and and praising and adoring God for all he is and all that he's done. So whatever else it is, it's not this shallow or thoughtless response. And I want you to notice very particularly that he is commanding himself, his soul. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. He's talking to himself. Commentator Derek Kidner observes that sometimes we feel the need to rouse ourselves to shake off apathy and gloom when we come to God. You probably felt that this morning. Fog outside, fog inside. I'm not feeling much at all.

And if you look at this psalm, there's no single event that has moved him to praise God. No, no pending answer to prayer, no miraculous escape, no sudden or unexpected provision. We don't know why he's saying this. It's just a deliberate stirring of his own soul so he in truth can praise God. And how do you do that? I mean, how can you muster the emotions and feelings if they're not there? The answer is right there, verse two. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. We muster thankful thankfulness by not forgetting. Of the eight commands in this whole psalm, seven of them tell us to bless God and one command tells us forget not. And the command to forget not as soon as we might. Fact is we can and do forget. It's it's not that our memories fade, but that we take for granted things that we've come to enjoy and expect. We don't ponder where these favors have come from or to whom we should be indebted. Sometimes the forgetfulness is deliberate. We we just stop believing that we're indebted and we come to see ourselves as deserving. We think we've earned them either by our own effort or our own goodness or just because we've had them for so long. I want you to just picture this. Imagine this for a moment that you're on your usual morning walk. Maybe maybe it's a commute and you're going, you know, you leave your car and you're going to you're going to walk down the sidewalk and go to wherever you go. And I you see me approaching you and I'm I'm going the other way. and and and as I approach you, I I fumble for my around, pull out my wallet, and as I pass you by, I smile and I I hand you a $100 bill. And and then I pat you on the back and say, "Have a great day." And then I keep walking. You're shocked. You you you you sputter. You But you managed to say, "Thank you. Thank you.

And the next day it happens again just like yesterday. And the day after that it happens again. And it happens again and again and again every day for 99 days. And on the hundth day I approach you, pat you on the back and say, "Have a great day." And I keep walking and give you nothing. No Benjamin, no cote, no $100 bill. And what do you say? Hey, where's my $100? Right. God owes me. Life owes me. You owe me. I don't deserve not having these things. Really? I think you're forgetting.

So to start our thinking about all that God has done and to instill a sense of how indebted we really are to God, David lists five benefits God graces our lives with in verses 3 through 5. Let me read it and then I'm going to tear it tear it apart. God bless God who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. So, let me just isolate each one. First one, he forgives us. Who forgives all your iniquity. Now, we're going to return to this one later on in the psalm. It's worth it. But uh commentator uh loophold hc loophold uh says there's no blessing that is greater in scope for poor sinners nor any that is so entirely undeserved. Isn't that right? For anyone who has tasted God's absolute forgiveness, it's got to be at the top of our list of unforgettables. And then he heals us. Who heals all your diseases. Now, if you're thinking at all, you're saying, "Hey, wait a minute. If this is saying that God heals all our diseases, then what if we get a cold? I mean, or flu or poison oak or cancer or degenerative arthritis. I mean, why does anybody die? It it can't be promising a good ending to every sickness because people do die." So, there's a couple of ways you can take this. You can take it in the immediate or you can take it in the eventual. In the more immediate sense, whenever anybody recovers from an injury or an illness, it really is from God. God may heal directly miraculously or indirectly because he's created all the immune and regenerative processes in the body. So if you and I get up from being sick, it is God's doing whether he uses physicians or prescriptions or time or prayer or a combination of any of it. And if you anytime that you and I are are sick or hurt and we get up and and later we feel better, don't you feel grateful? Even if you don't turn around and say to God, "Thank you, God." And you kind of just think, "Oh my god, I'm so glad I feel better."

And this is a big one. So, if you'll allow me to summarize, I was thinking about this, and this is the one that, you know, almost all of our prayers when we're hurt or sick, they just they just fasten on on that. So, let me just give you four ways. Let me summarize four ways that God heals. Uh, natural. This is all free. Natural, medic, naturally, medically, supernaturally, and eventually. naturally, medically, supernaturally, and eventually. Naturally, he created these magnificent bodies of ours

with healing built in. So, you know, we get cut and we scab over. Can you imagine if we if that didn't happen, you'd die of a paper cut. Uh we catch the flu and our immune system just kicks in. It's fantastic. Praise God that we are like this. And then not just naturally naturally but medically, he gave human beings the ability to innovate and create to learn and practice medicine. I'm thankful for that. It's part of the blessing of living in the 21st century. We're we're not limited to leeches and bloodletting. God has given us wisdom to heal and we should be immensely grateful. I'm a cancer survivor because of 21st century medicine. Yeah. Isn't that great? Yeah, you're sure. Thank you. I did nothing. You know, I just submitted to it. And uh and you know, uh he also heals supernaturally on occasion. He heals miraculously apart from any human intervention. God, uh Jesus healed to confirm his identity, to confirm his word. And God heals providentially even today as he sees fit. He can do what no one can do. So healing happens naturally, medically, supernaturally, and then eventually. According to the New Testament promises, God will make all things new and all things right. And so we read this, all creation is waiting patiently and hopefully for that future day when God will resurrect his children, of which that he's talking about you. For on that day, thorns and thistles, sin, death, and decay, the things that overcame the world against its will at God's command, will all disappear, and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom from sin which God's children enjoy. He's going to heal us completely in resurrection where our bodies will be changed to conform to his perfect body and will never be afflicted or in pain or suffer again. I can't wait. Praise God.

He forgives us. He heals us. And then he gives us hope. It says, "Who redeems your life from the pit." Now, the pit is not the pits. The pits is being in the dumps or or depressed or you know kind of caught in the quag quagmire of a sinking life. But the pit in the Old Testament is the grave. That's that's it's talking about death. And when he redeems our life from the grave, from the pit, it's it's saying that he re that that death is not going to be the end of the line for us. Death is God's sentence on a sinful human race. But to those of us forgiven, it's going to be reversed in resurrection. We're waiting for that day. No matter how bad your day is, you look ahead and you're going to experience resurrection. I mean, doesn't that put a bad day in perspective? Hello.

Aren't you grateful? He gives us hope and then he bestows dignity on us. Who, it says, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. So, you know, we don't wear crowns today, but back then it was something that gave a person dignity and honor. It set them apart. And what gives us dignity and honor is God's unfailing, steadfast love for us and his merciful compassion on us. Uh, a couple of weeks ago, Travis quoted Tim Keller. Uh, it's just worth repeating here. You are more sinful than you know. You should let that sink in. But in Christ, you are more loved than you dare to dream.

Don't forget

what dignity we have. And then the last one is it says he fulfills us. He satisfies us with good so that our youth is renewed like the eagles. Apparently, no matter how old the eagle grows, he still soarses effortlessly on the winds of heaven because that's what he was made for. uh and all that God gives us deeply satisfies us so that no matter how old we are, we rest in him. We're contented in him and we find our fulfillment in him. And that really keeps us from being hardened and bitter and earthbound and cynical. All common marks of old age. Now, I'm going to say something and I'm going to embarrass somebody. And that is Dave Gibson is older than I am.

And this is what's going to embarrass him.

He is such a model of trusting God, of loving God, of caring about what God thinks when he could just as an older man, he could just kind of

be apathetic and bitter and live for himself. And he is exactly the opposite. And when I grow up, I want to be like him.

So when we take these benefits, these gifts for granted, we forget. We forget who the giver is. And that amnesia can actually poison us. You know, like lungfuls of air. We we just expect our next breath, the next blessing to be there. Number of years ago, um at a men's retreat, I was horsing around scampering across the field. I know scampering is not the word that you would really use when you think of me, but I was scampering across the field and I tripped and I landed awkwardly and and I broke a rib. Uh and I also the the rib part punctured my left lung and it deflated it and despite attempts to take a breath, I couldn't I couldn't breathe in. It's called a numor thorax. Uh and it's like getting the wind knocked out of you except it doesn't come back, you know? So you're sitting there go and the oxygen level plummets, you know, and so for the next halfozen hours, I forced these really shallow breaths into my lungs through sharp pains. And that, you know, the whole ride to the hospital uh in the back of the ambulance was very interesting. Um, and it was months before I could sleep lying down or resume breathing from without without pain. And when I finally healed, uh, what I had always taken for granted, uh, which had gone and now was back gave me a a real new perspective. I take lungfuls of air today, even after, uh, so many years away. And I and I and I'm grateful. I just think, well, I'm not hurting.

When things go away, often times that's when we remember.

And the point is don't forget now.

Thanksgiving is the natural response of one who remembers how indebted he is to God. And it isn't just that God has done these gracious things for us. His giving goes to the very heart of who he is. So we should be thankful for who God is. Like for instance, he's righteous and just. Verse six, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Doesn't say he wants righteousness and justice, but that he works. He's the living and active God who does something. He is righteous and just in all that he does because that's who he is. Now, this section, verses 6-19, is framed by two very strong statements of God's providential working in righteousness and justice. The first one is uh is in verse 7 and just basically say says that he providentially intervenes according to his wisdom and will. He made known his ways to Moses verse 7 his acts to the people of Israel. Now for Jews this would remind them of their history when they were in in Egypt and enslaved to Pharaoh and suffering and what what happened. God heard had compassion and intervened with miracles to deliver them. But for us, it goes even beyond that. Not only did he once do something, he still intervenes to answer our cries and make things right. And most notably in our history, God intervened in the coming of Jesus to save us and intervened in many of our lives when we heard the gospel and believed and it changed our lives. Don't forget that he providentially intervenes. On the other end, verse 19, he sovereignly rules. Verse 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. His throne or rule is established. Now he does what he thinks is best. And this speaks of his providential uh intervention and and his his absolute sovereignty. And sometimes we might wish him to show you know a more direct hand in the world. But trust me, the intervention someday will be explosive in what's known as the day of the Lord when Jesus returns and sets all things right. For now, he expresses his power in ways that draw people to him in mercy. And be and and between these two statements of sovereign power and providential intervention beats the very heart of God.

His heart moves him to meet our needs. Like what needs? Well, first and foremost, we need to know him and what he's like. And so, he reveals himself to us. Verse 8, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That is a really important statement in the Old Testament. Six times it's repeated. First time it shows up is uh that God is speaking to Moses and says, "Let me tell you who I am." And he says this. He says this. And it isn't David describing God here or Moses describing God. This is God describing God. God reveals himself to us. Besides being gracious, giving us what we don't deserve. He's merciful. He doesn't vent his anger on us when we certainly deserve it. And and primarily, David is highlighting a couple of traits of God that we should always remember and never forget, like his steadfast love. That's what he says. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Abounding in steadfast love. That's God's unfailing love. His promisekeeping love, his faithful love. And it's abounding. It's more than enough. God does not have a limited supply of steadfast love that's quickly used up by a few needy people.

And to show us how great this love of God is, David ushers us outside and tells us to look up in the sky. We do. We see all the starry host and and he says this, "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him." So the way to express his immeasurable love for us is to compare it with some immeasurable distance. It's beyond it just beyond comprehension. And it doesn't come in spurts either. Verse 17, the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children. So it's unending. It's undying. It never gives up. He never he never walks away.

And so then David takes us inside and shows us a family to reveal another trait of the living God that is his merciful compassion. Uh the term compassion is translated mercy in verse four. If you look at verse four or verse 8, it's translated merciful. Uh verse 13, it's translated compassion. It's all the same word and it's from the root word which describes a woman's womb. Isn't that interesting? It refers to the feelings of tenderness and responsibility that a good parent has toward his or her kids. His compassion, God's compassion, means that he's moved with concern and care and he allows himself to feel what what we feel and not harden himself to our suffering. You know, when God says the first time that God does says this, he's he's talking to Moses and he says, "The Lord, the Lord." First word is compassionate. This is that word. I think I would look at if I were God, I'd be saying I'm infinite, you know, or something. I there's a lot of stuff that God is that I would be really impressed with. That's what I would want to start off with. And he doesn't. He starts with, "I feel you. I feel what you feel. I care about you." Whatever else God is, he is most certainly not uncaring, not apathetic, not distant, not indifferent, not unmoved, not untouched by your life.

God makes himself vulnerable to us. And from his love and compassion, he addresses a couple of great needs that we have. And we're going to go back, we we're coming returning to to this thing about forgiving our failures and sins. Verse 9, he will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. To chide or New International Version uh translates it accuse. It sounds like he's scolding. That's not really the word. It's a legal term referring to bringing a court case against somebody to press charges. And until we come to terms with our own sinfulness, he will in fact do that. He'll press charges. But the moment that we confess our sins and put our faith and trust in Christ, he instantly forgives us completely forever. Now, what it would cost him to do that would we'd only later discover in the coming of Jesus who would give his life in our place to play pay for our guilt. But but that's incredible. He will not always try, nor will keep his anger forever. Verse 10, he does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. He doesn't respond in kind to our failures and shortcomings. Man, that's a that's a huge understatement, isn't it? I want God to give me what I deserve. No, you don't.

You want his mercy and grace, right? Verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. He's completely removed the guilt of of our intentional transgressions. He completely separates us from what we have done. And all these speak of his forgiveness that we must remember and not forget. He forgives our failures and sins. And then he's faithful in our frailty and weaknesses. Verse 14, he knows our frame. He remembers that we are what? Dust. You think where does that come from? Well, it comes from Genesis 2:7. And the Lord God formed the man man of a man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature. And then our ancient parents believed the lie that they could choose for themselves what was good and true and right apart from God. And in fact they disbelieved God. And so the sentence of death came. God says, "By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." I'm sure you've heard this that if you dehydrate a body completely, extracting every ounce of water from it, it it's reduced, you know, to just a few pounds of inexpensive basic chemicals. Fact is when a person dies and is cremated all he was fits into this little box or ern and then we scatter the ashes like dust in the wind.

That seems like so bleak a picture for so eternal a being. That's us.

And God knows that your life hangs by a thread

like beautiful flowers which are easily crushed which you know grace the morning but wilt in the heat of the day. Our lives are full of contradictions. Every one of us here what we are physically is a picture of what most of us are in every other respect. Not terribly steady, never really predictable, pretty easily crushed, subject to breaking, and eventually needing to be remade. That's us.

And God knows it. And how does he address our frailty and weaknesses? By his faithfulness and constant love. Verse 17. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children. People are born into the world into this age of the world. Whatever their age is, they spend their days. They make their marks. They work. They have kids and they have grandkids and they suffer. They enjoy life. They grow old and they die and another generation takes their place. And no matter how beautiful, no matter how wonderful, no matter how sturdy, no matter how strong a person is, he or she will pass away and eventually be forgotten to later generations.

Listen to me. But God will never forget.

He will never forget you because he loves you. Always has, always will.

Don't forget that.

Well, who are we whom God treats this way? I would be remiss in saying that God treats everyone this way. It's not true. God, it is true that God loves the whole world. John 3:16 that he gave his only begotten son and so on. He provides a savior for everyone, a rescuer for everyone. But this is different. Once you know, once a person accepts Christ, now we're talking about all these benefits, all these blessings. David is very careful about describing those people whom God personally loves and is compassionate toward. He gives us three descriptions of them as he wraps everything up and and it is one we who fear him. Verse 11, 13 and 17 for those uh verse 11 for those who fear him. Verse 13 to those who fear him. Verse 17 on those who fear him. Fear doesn't mean that you're afraid of God or you're afraid of what he might do to you. It means that God has a has a proper place in your life. He is to us God. He's God. And seeing him fulls size, we respect him. Boy, that sounds that sounds way too small of a response, respect, but that's that's every bit of it. We regard him. We reverence him. He's the most important person we've ever met. And it really describes this unbalanced relationship. Not two good buddies or even equal partners, but God to be worshiped and us who are so indebted to his grace.

We who fear him, we who accept his promises. Verse 18, to those who keep his covenant. While the terms and conditions of the older covenant between God and Israel were different from what we have today in Christ, but essentially God chose them as he has chosen us. and he gave them promises as he's given us promises and we must respond to what he has promised it and what he's offered to us. Jesus died in our place to pay for our sins and has been raised from death to assume the position of the Christ, the savior, the king, the rescuer. And he offers forgiveness and new life for all who confess their absolute need for him and trust completely what he did to make things right with God. And and and God spoke through those, you know, the Old Testament prophet and said, "When I forgive your sins, you will become my people and I will be your God." He claims us when we claim him. Once we're forgiven in Christ, we accept what he has done for us and then we follow him. So whom are we whom God treats this way? We who fear him and accept his promises and take to heart his commands. Verse 18, second part, to those who remember to do his commandments. So we we don't take God lightly. We don't we don't take what he wants lightly. Are we going to be perfect? No way. Are are we under pressure to to, you know, measure up or perform or he won't love us or accept us? No, no, but nor are we people who do our own thing, who ignore his directions or wishes. We want to obey him. We see wisdom in his words. We take to heart his commands. All he has done for us makes us want to listen to him. We love him because he first loved us.

And such gratitude really is contagious. And so David ends this way. Bless the Lord, oh you who his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Verse 22, bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. And those who see how good and gracious God is can't keep it to themselves. This isn't a solo. This is a symphony. And so we say to the rest of heaven, "Bless the Lord." We say to all creation, "Bless and praise God who created you and gave you life and constantly showers his goodness on you." And we say to each other, "Don't forget, bless the Lord for all he has done." And we say to ourselves, to our own souls, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and don't forget." Why? Well, because thanksgiving is the natural response of one who remembers how indebted he is to God. this week, especially this Thanksgiving week. Let's not forget. Amen. Let's pray.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, God.

All this in Jesus do in his name we pray. Amen.