Genesis Church - Sermons Genesis Church

The situation for the community of faith in Psalm 123 is difficult and bleak. They are a people scorned and oppressed. They would like their God to show up with fire from heaven and devour their enemies, but so far His vengeance hasn't happened. They need a song reminding them of God's sovereign rule from the heavens when it seems as if He is absent and uninvolved. Psalm 123 is a community lament seeking relief from the Lord. It is a cry for mercy from the God who can act and change their situation.

Yet, it is also a call to faith, to lift their eyes together and see again the God who is enthroned in the heavens. He is the master, they are the servants. When they cannot see His hand at work, they know they can trust His purpose and character. The call is to keep trusting and walking in obedience, even if it doesn't make sense to those around us. Because God is faithful.

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!'" I remember my parents quoting this almost every Sunday as my sister and I were fighting in the car on the way to church.

Psalm 122 is a Psalm of joy anticipating the experience of entering Jerusalem with the people of God. This song for the journey remembered the ultimate destination, Jerusalem, and the goal---to gather with God's people in His presence to worship. They sang this song to remind themselves that it was a privilege to be chosen by God and included in His glorious purpose.

The greatest joy in life happens in knowing God and worshiping Him.

Don't you love driving in the mountains? There is something majestic about terrain that is not, well, Illinois flat. Whether driving through the Rockies, Smokies, or our more hill-shaped Ozarks, there is always beauty to behold. On the other hand, a trip through hilly mountainous terrain on foot may not be as fun.

For many of the Hebrews, the trip from their hometown to Jerusalem took them through hills and even some small mountains. Rather than seeing beauty, they noticed danger. Hooligans and marauders were in those hills. There were some dangerous animals, and definitely some difficult walking with risk of injury. When the Psalmist says, "I lift my eyes to the hills," he is genuinely concerned about the dangers that lie ahead and wondering where help might be found. Yet, He quickly remembers Jehovah, the God who sees their journey and will protect them along the way.

Our Psalm of Ascent this morning, Psalm 121, is a great song of hope for the journey, a reminder that the God we serve doesn't take naps or have days off. Rather, our God is sovereign and purposeful, and will use the hills in life to shape us deeply.

This morning we will look at Psalm 120, the first Psalm of Ascent, a song from sojourners who are far away from home, who are being harassed and suffering. Yet, they know their God is the source of hope and peace that fills their longings. They are beginning a journey to meet Him face to face.

Today closes out the series, The Recipe, on our vision for making disciples. Over the past weeks, we revealed 10 ingredients that we hope to "bake" in to the lives of people and we have looked at the different types of people we are called to disciple. We have created a grid for disciple making that will help every ministry in our church evaluate and cast vision for the central task Jesus has given our church.

Our final sermon in this series will cast vision about the ways Genesis is already being intentional about Jesus' commission and share the strategies we hope to implement in order to improve our recipe going forward.

With only a couple weeks left in our series, The Recipe, on our task of making disciples, this morning we come back to where we began---with Jesus' commission to make disciples of all nations.

We believe that Christ has entrusted us, Genesis Church, with the commission to make disciples here in Eureka/Pacific and the surrounding area. We are an outpost of Christ's Kingdom in our community with this task. But, we are also part of the task of taking the Gospel to the nations.

Today we will take a look at the layers of people reached by the ministry of Jesus, from those who were far from God all the way up to the most religious, and from individuals to large crowds. Hopefully we will learn that following Jesus and obeying His commission will lead us to make disciples of all sorts of people, from those who are completely uninterested in church to those who are serving as leaders and pastors and everyone in between.