Listen here.
StoryChanger Devotional: What’s your price tag? (Isaiah 53)
New Book: Luke: Stories of Mission and Mercy by David Murray
The StoryChanger book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His by David Murray
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
Listen here.
0:14 How to put the Amazing Back into Grace (Isaiah 52:13-15)
7:47 What is your heart? by Meribeth Schierbeek
12:31 5 Reasons to Be All In at Church by Thom Rainer
New Book: Luke: Stories of Mission and Mercy by David Murray
The StoryChanger book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His by David Murray
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
Listen here.
1:31 What is Revival (Isiah 52:1-12)
8:37 The Key to Friendship by Jo de Blois
13:40 Helps for Daily Devotions in the Digital Deluge
New Book: Luke: Stories of Mission and Mercy by David Murray
The StoryChanger book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His by David Murray
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
Listen here.
0:33 How to be a courageous witness for Christ? (Isaiah 51:4-23)
5:42 Daily Devotions in the Digital Age
New Book: Luke: Stories of Mission and Mercy by David Murray
The StoryChanger book: The StoryChanger: How God Rewrites Our Story By Inviting Us Into His by David Murray
Visit thestorychanger.life for more resources on changing our story with God’s Story.
INTRODUCTION
As Christians, we want a healthy and vigorous devotional life. We want to enjoy worshipping God in our closets, in our families, and in our church. We want to honor and please God in our worship as well as get spiritual benefit from it ourselves. But sometimes we’re not sure if this is happening. Indeed, sometimes we have no sense of pleasing God nor of spiritual profit. What’s going on there? What’s going wrong there?
Psalm 15 answers that question and points to the solution. It’s this: Our daily life is connected to our devotional life. Or, to put it another way. A healthy devotional life is inseparable from a holy daily life. How is our daily life connected to our devotional life?
I. LIVE A HOLY DAILY LIFE (1-5)
David begins with one of the most important questions we could ever ask. “Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” (1). Who can worship God? Who can live in God’s holy presence? Who can worship God successfully?
His answer is not about getting the right religious practices in place. It’s not about following liturgical rules. In fact, he leaves the sanctuary altogether and finds his answer, not in the place of worship, but in the place of work, daily work, everyday life. Look at his description of an ideal worshipper.
Work cannot be separated from worship without both suffering.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Enjoy holy work to enjoy holy worship. Sunday worship cannot be separated from Mon-Sat work. We can’t live like hell six days a week then sing like heaven on Sunday. We can’t be a devil in our daily work then an angel in our private devotions.
We can’t hate others in our work
then love God in our worship
“So, what’s the result of living a holy daily life?”
A healthy devotional life.
II. LOVE A HEALTHY DEVOTIONAL LIFE (1, 5)
In answer to the question in verse 1, the holy person described in verses 2-5 will sojourn in God’s tent, this godly person will dwell on God’s holy hill. And, as the Psalm concludes, “He who does these things shall never be moved” (5). A stable steady godly life will result in a stable steady relationship with God.
If we live a holy daily life, we will enjoy a healthy devotional life. Then, when we begin to worship, we can be confident that God accepts us, that God welcomes us, that God says, “You can stay here.” We will also enjoy a sense of spiritual strength and security. We shall never be moved.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Works cannot give us life. “But I thought we believed in salvation by grace? I thought our personal holiness had no place in our salvation.” That’s true. Salvation is by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone. Works have no place in our salvation. In fact, Christ’s work in fulfilling this Psalm perfectly is our salvation.
Works have a place in the saved life. Once saved, God does connect our enjoyment of him and our enjoyment of our salvation with a holy life. If we want to love God well, we must live for God well.
10 Obstacles to Personal Devotions in the Digital Age
10 Helps for Personal Devotions in the Digital Age
A healthy devotional life is
inseparable from a holy daily life.
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Gospel: Jesus’s perfect daily life and perfect devotional life is our only hope of getting life.
Worship: Get more enjoyment in worship by living a life of worship.
Coldness: if you are experiencing coldness in worship, look for a cause in yourself first.
Heaven: This Psalm will be perfectly and fully experienced in heaven where everyone will have a perfect daily life and a perfect devotional life.
Prayer: Holy God you want holy worshippers. Therefore give us perfect holiness in Christ and develop growing holiness in our lives.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How have you noticed the connection between your working life and your worshipping life?
2. How do you know if you are experiencing and enjoying God in worship?
3. What are the ethical areas you are tested in in your daily life?
4. How does hearing this Psalm sung by Jesus change the way you sing this Psalm?
5. How does John 14:15-17 and John 14:21 help you understand this Psalm?
6. Who do you know that needs this Psalm and how will you disciple them with it?
INTRODUCTION
Where are you on the worry timeline?
Friends > School > Grades > Sports > Weight > College> Work > Marriage > Mortgage > Tuition > Health > Children > Children’s friends, etc > Pension > Inheritance .
It doesn’t matter what stage we are at in life, we have worries and anxieties that can dominate our lives. It damages our health, sleep, digestion, joy, our spiritual lives. How do we find peace when we are anxious?
BACKGROUND
God’s Fatherhood brings many desirable blessings into our lives.
Before we look at God’s teaching on this, I want to make three qualifying statements. First, there’s a difference between spiritual causes of anxiety which have spiritual cures (which is what this passage is all about) and physical causes of anxiety which may need additional medical and practical management.
Second, we need to remember how our temperament affects anxiety. Some of us have a more anxious temperament and others have a more confident temperament. Having a confident temperament does not always mean that you are more dependent on God. Having a fearful temperament does not mean you are less dependent on God.
Third, this is not a once and done exercise. For many of us, it’s a daily battle and may even be a lifelong battle to combat anxiety and fight for peace.
How do we find peace when we are anxious?
I. WORRY STARTS WITH OUR EYES
We have double vision
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (24). If we are trying to serve God and money, we are look in two different directions at the one time and end up cross-eyed. We don’t see money properly and we don’t see God properly.
We have blurred vision
Sometimes we are long-sighted, meaning close up things are blurry. We can’t see close up things clearly. We can’t see that our bodies and our lives are far more important than food and clothing (26).
Sometimes we are short-sighted, and can’t see far away things clearly. Other things blur our vision so that we don’t see God the Father clearly (32).
We have dull vision
God’s kingdom is the brightest realm in the whole universe. Yet, because of wrong priorities, we don’t see it brightly. Our vision of the kingdom is dull, unclear, vague.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
What are you looking at? Usually we lose our vision slowly, gradually, unnoticeably. We don’t realize how bad our vision is. But over time, it can deteriorate until we can’t even see that we can’t see. We think our vision is normal when it’s far from normal for a believer.
Have you visited the eye doctor? Jesus is deeply concerned about our eyes. He loves to restore and redirect our vision (Matthew 9:27–30; Mark 8:22–25; John 9:1–7).
WHAT WE SEE
IS WHAT WE FEEL
“How can i get my eyes fixed?”
Our eye doctor has a prescription.
II. PEACE STARTS WITH OUR EYES
Look at your Father (26, 32). Look at his heart (his compassion), look at his hand (what he’s pointing to), look at his head (what he wants us to think about). Then look at his eyes and follow his gaze as he directs you to look at new sights with new eyes.
Look at the birds (26). They don’t sow, reap, store, plan, produce. Yet they get enough from God the Father and sing about it all day long. Are you not more valuable than them? Look at the birds.
Look at your watch (27). Look at the passage of time, the ticking hands, the flashing dots. Have you ever managed to slow that down or speed it up? Look at your watch.
Look at the wild flowers (28-30). Are the flowers working? Are they slaving away to make themselves more beautiful? Look at how God clothes the fields with them, fields which will soon be cut down and harvested. Will he not give you clothes too, you who live far longer? Look at the wild flowers.
Look at your unbelief (30). We don’t like to look at our ugly unbelief, but Jesus calls us to face up to it and look at it. he’s telling us that worry is caused not by our lack of finance but your lack of faith.
Look at unbelievers (31-32). Look at the stress, the worry, the fear that unbelievers experience because they don’t believe in a heavenly father. If you lose peace of mind, you’re just like them, and therefore lose your distinctive Christian witness. Look at unbelievers.
Look at the kingdom (33). Look at the kingdom before you look at anything else. Seek the glory of the King and he’ll make sure everything else will be provided. Look at the beautiful kingdom of God.
Look at the king’s righteousness (33). If this is a reference to the righteous rule of the King, then it’s calling us to trust his just dealings with us. If it’s a reference to his provision of righteousness, then we’re being called to look not at our own imagined righteousness that we try to earn but his real righteousness that he gives us in Christ. Look at the King’s righteousness.
Look at today (34). If you look at tomorrow, you double your worries. God’s given you a daily quota of worries. Don’t look at tomorrow’s worries. If you’re going to look at anything, look only at today’s.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Believe to see. This is not talking so much about our physical eyes of sight, but more our spiritual eyes of faith.
See to feel. The more we see right, the more we will feel right.
BELIEVING IS SEEING
AND SEEING IS FEELING
SUMMARY
A NEW CHAPTER
Gospel. Maybe you are still blind to the Gospel. If so, you have to start with asking Jesus to give you sight of himself so that at least you can begin to get your sight adjusted.
Media. The media is designed to distract, distort, and dull our vision. Remember, what you see is how you feel. Change what you see to change what you feel.
Heaven. One of the reasons I look forward to heaven so much is to be free of anxiety. There we will see as God sees and feel the peace the God feels.
Prayer. Wise and Skillful Eye-Doctor, give me an accurate diagnosis and a powerful prescription so that I can see what you see and therefore get peace for my soul.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Where are you on the worry timeline?
2. What do you see that makes you worry?
3. Which of the eye-doctor’s remedies have worked for you in the past?
4. What other helps can you think of for anxiety?
5. What will you change about your media and social media exposure?
6. Who will you introduce to the eye-doctor this week and how will you do it?