Psalm 123, “Look to the Lord”

Text: Psalm 123

Intro: In the age of Google where megabytes of information are a mere mouse click away, our culture has programmed itself to look anywhere and everywhere but to God for answers. In this stand alone message on Psalm 123, Brad Evangelista speaks on what it means for Christians to "look to the Lord" for our help.

1. True obedience is all-consuming.

The posture of the servant and maidservant is one of total focus on the master. There’s no condition upon it. Their existence is all wrapped up in the pleasure of the master. Not “if you bless me, then I’ll do this.”

1. Most of us live lives full of little things.

• We tend to minimize the everyday mundane routine type of obedience as not worthy of significance. It adds up. Obedience in these small things trains us for obedience in the big things.

2. The great lie—serving God means forfeiting pleasure and joy. Not so!

• “If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” –C.S. Lewis
• Psalm 16:11 
• 1 Peter 1:8

3. True obedience covers all of our life.

• "Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" –Abraham Kuyper

4. We all have obstacles to obedience

         a). Have you considered what yours are? (fear of man, selfishness, debt, habitual sin)

         b). Have you settled / gotten cozy with your obstacles?

5. This church has, and will have more obstacles to obedience.

• What are they?
• Complacency, Cultural idols, Subconscious bent toward selfishness & consumerism.

2. Our greatest need is mercy that only comes through Jesus. 

This is a massively important and necessary perspective. Another great subtle deception of our time is that we just need a little help. God merely becomes a means to a better life and the Bible becomes a guidebook for managing life’s problems whether it be anger, stress, fear or parenting. But that is not the message of the Bible. The message of the Scriptures is how God in grace and mercy saves rebellious dead sinners. We don’t need tips on better living, we need saving grace and mercy.

3. Frustration can be very good for us.

The writer says that they have had “More than enough contempt.” In other words, they were fed up with the way things were. Life had pushed down on them for so long and they were ready for God to move and have mercy. The point for us is that God sovereignly works through even our frustrations and trials to bring us to a place where we might look up and see Him.