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here Prairie Lakes Church, welcome a really glad that you're here. We have a couple of things to celebrate before we get going. Okay. So hey next weekend all of us as a church all of our campuses we're gonna get to do this kind of together pray and celebrate to new campus pastors. But this weekend this weekend is the first weekend that Manny Pollard is at our Decorah campus and Andy Sayer is at our Osage campus. So for both of you guys, as you are figuring things out those campuses as you're kind of celebrating those guys and you know, some of your meeting for the first time we just want to say welcome. We're so very very glad that you're here. We've been praying for you.

For a very long time and like I said next week and we're gonna get a chance to pray over them and just do that together, but welcome to Prairie Lakes Church you guys we're really glad that you're here. Okay. Hey, we're gonna continue and actually finish a series that we've been in for the last four weeks called Psalms in real life and I want to start by asking you this question. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone?

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone where you felt the need to say this? I don't think you know what fill in the blank means you ever felt maybe you've even said it. So I've done that. I've felt that I've said it here's my example. Here's my example. I've got some friends who for whatever reason like to do Tough Mudders.

Tough Tough Mudders and most of us know what that is. Okay. It's a race where the courses just deliberately difficult and as they've got more popular. They've gotten more insane. Let's say like you don't just run through mud, you run through electrically charged wires.

Yeah, no, that's good. That's what a great idea that is and my friends who describe running those things. They describe it as fun. Fun to which I respond. I don't think you know what that word fun means right?

I don't think you know what that means but okay turn about is fair play it goes both ways. I do a lot of hunting. Mostly deer in Turkey. I would describe it as fun but to someone else the idea of getting up at 3:30 in the morning to go sit in the cold for hours and calling to birds who absolutely refuse to come anywhere near you or the plunge your hands into an animal carcass and take out its guts and drag it for 200 yards right not everybody's idea of fun. I've been told that as well. I can't tell you how many times I've been telling a hunting story to someone and about Midway through it's all over their face. It's all over their face not their idea of fun, right?

I don't think you know what that word means. So as we conclude our our series and Psalms this week in Psalms in real life. Let's just get this on the table. You might feel the same way about what we're talking about this weekend and it's not the word fun. It's a completely different theme but it's a huge theme in Psalms and this theme often does not match up with what our idea is of it. And so here's what we're talking about this we can hear the theme we're talking about hope Hope okay, there is all kinds of Hope and hopefulness described in the songs. But as we dig into it, here's we're gonna find how the Psalms describes hope and how we describe it my be two different things. It might be two different things. We might start feeling like at some point. We have to educate the psalmist a little bit on what hope really is, right. So so listen, you're gonna see this as we go open up with me to Psalm 118 is where we're gonna be Psalm 118.

If you have a Bible, that'd be great for you to open it. We will have some of the verses on the screen certainly so you can follow along as well. But as you do let me tell you a little bit about how God's people have actually used this particular Psalm throughout history because it's actually it's it's relatively famous so to speak.

Okay. So so first this Psalm Psalm 118 was sung as a processional song. As priests and people kind of watch towards the temple and as the priests entered into it and they sung it during the Feast of the Tabernacles. So this this was an annual thing that Jewish people did to remember what it was like to kind of travel around without there without a permanent home without a permanent place to worship and how great it was to have a permanent home and a permanent place to worship, you know, so so that's that's how it was first used. It was also song at the end of every Passover meal.

So this is the meal that you know families would have shared around tables to remember how God delivered their people from from slavery in Egypt. So you would have had a memory of singing the song If you grew up as a Jewish boy or girl you would have a memory of singing this song on the table the psalm every single every single year, but it wasn't just a part of Jewish life way back when all four of the gospel writers Matthew Mark Luke and John all four of them use the words of Psalm 118 Verse 26, which we're gonna get to as they explain the meaning of a parable Peter quotes this song and X in Acts for 11 Paul refers to it in Ephesians, 2:2321.

And and then not only then but like today if you grew up in a liturgical church tradition, right you follow the lectionary you can have the same readings and themes every year in the same week kind of deal. This is the standard Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.

reading in the modern lectionary in other words very widely used Psalm in part because it captures in the span of a few verses what it's like to Hope And really what hope is like with God in God living with him, okay?

So let's dive into it Psalm 118. Here's verse one. Here's what it says. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good his love his love endures forever. Thanks to the Lord for he is good his love endures forever. And if you read continue to read the song versus two through four Echo the same idea, you know, it'll say hey Israel God's people, you know say that is love endures forever. Aaron God's priests the people that are working in the church. So to speak those who fear the lord anybody who's got a personal relationship with God. Hey agree and say this out loud It's Love and doers forever. And the reason is just like this is the foundation of what hope is like in the Psalms the foundation. Is this our hope rests entirely from beginning to end.

From beginning to end on God's love for us if we're talking about. Hope you can't talk about Hope without talking about God's love for us. Okay. And if you read all the way through the psalm the very last verse is the same thing verse 29 his love endures forever. It's like a bookend, okay.

now that word love that word love there when you read it in the psalm that word love is actually a Hebrew word that's packed with meaning. Packed with meaning there's like four different nuanced ideas all packed into one Hebrew word that we translate as love but the Hebrew word is this word acid acid, right? If you can say that out loud without spitting and spreading whatever disease you're probably carrying in the summer, you know said a lot of acid, right, but that's what God's love is it's hesitant and it's got four different kind of big nuanced ideas.

It it means loving kindness Mercy graciousness, right? So that's that's why it's translated as love but it's not only that it's loyalty. It's join obligation. It's faithfulness goodness and graciousness. It's Godly action. See that word Heaven that word love means all for those things.

So in the Bible says God loves you. Okay. Because that's an idea. We're familiar with. But we might not be familiar with the fullness of that idea. And this is what our hope rests on so let's get it. Okay when the Bible says God loves you.

Here's what it's saying. It feels God's love feels like Mercy. Like not getting the punishment you deserve. God's love feels like Grace, which is getting good gifts that you don't deserve.

God's love feels like a commitment. Like loyalty like he's going to keep his end of the bargain. No matter what God's love feels like faithfulness. Like like he's gonna be there for you. He's gonna and he's gonna be the same guy in every circumstance. He'll always be just as good.

as he ever was and as he ever will be and it's not just an idea right? It's tangible. It's it's it's it's in action, right? You can point to God how God acted towards you.

In this tested loving kind of way. Our Hope rests on that kind of love that God has for us Which is great, right? I mean that's that's great. But also that's kind of what we would expect I think.

Right. There's nothing surprising about that. certainly, you would expect this from a God who claims to be God right claims to be perfectly good doesn't feel hard to understand see that the Bible knows exactly what love means which probably you know, it means probably knows exactly what what hope means and and we would imagine maybe it matches pretty closely up with how we would Define her how we would expect but Here's we're gonna find as we read the bookends of this love. Okay, and then we start reading what's in between.

which is how this love is experienced. Well, we can put our hope in what it's like to put our hope and and rest Our Hope on this kind of love. I think here's what we're going to see is this, okay? Well, the definition of God's love might be what you and I would expect.

Well, that's probably true. We're gonna often encounter it. In ways that we wouldn't expect. hope often Springs from encounters with this kind of love God's love.

In the places and circumstances you would least expect it. That's what we're going to see as we kind of unpack. This Psalm are are definition of God's love is probably what we would expect. But our experience with God's love which is where hope starts to spring up our experience with it.

is often not what would you expect? Have you ever had the experience where you thought you knew something? Like you thought you understand it. You thought you get it. You thought you understood it, but then when you experienced it.

you went like oh. Now I get it now I get it. One of my favorite movies in these past few years is kind of surprising but it was Ford V Ferrari and maybe some of you have seen that maybe some you haven't but if you missed it what this movie tells us the story of the Ford Motor Company back in 1966 and what they did is they partnered with the former racer.

At an auto designer a man named Carol Shelby and they also partnered with a British race driver race car driver Ken miles. And what they were trying to do is compete Against The Perennial winner of the 24-hour car race LeMans. Okay, and and The Perennial winner the auto group that was just dominant in this in this race was Ferrari and there's the movie title, right? It's a great movie by the way Christian Bale. Matt. Damon is pretty good. But anyways, here's the story back in 1966 Henry Ford. The second was in charge and Henry Ford was the grandson of Edsel Ford who founded Ford so he's CEO. But what Henry has done is he put a he's put a bunch of like being counters and Engineers no offense in charge of this racing project and this group of guys that in charge of they refuse to listen to the advice of of Carol and Ken the guys on the ground the guys that had the most kind of practical knowledge about what this race car needs to be able to do and what it needs to be like, okay, and so there's this great scene.

The movie where Carol Shelby and Ken miles, they conspire to lock the corporate suits in an office on the track and also then to bait Henry Ford into the race car. And the idea is this they think if they can get him to experience it like they experience it.

If they can get into experience just how terrifying it is to go that fast and make those kinds of Maneuvers. And then also maybe have more of a knowledge of just how incredible those drivers and designers must be to do it well and safely and effectively than just maybe Henry will put him in charge of the project rather than this group. Okay, and so that's exactly what happens and at the end of the sequence they're turning on the track, you know, Henry gets increasingly panicked and then suddenly it all comes to a stop their tiles are tires squeal car swerves or smoke everywhere, but then silence and Stillness and then the camera pans to Henry who after taking a second to gather himself looks like this.

It's great. It's such a great scene in this scene last for like 15 seconds. Like he just cries he just cries seconds and then he wets himself and then and then what a Carroll Shelby Matt Damon's here. He asked Mr. Ford are you? All right. And here's a Henry says he goes.

I had no idea. no idea see he thought he knew. Until he experienced it. And when you experienced it, he realized. He didn't know.

That's kind of what does almost is about to do as we walk through this song Here verses 5 through 28. He talks about God's love but he's gonna talk about how he experienced God's love and the source of his hope and and if you think about just the book ends you go like oh this is gonna be great. But what he describes is like, oh, wow, not what I expected. So start reading with me in verse 5 someone 18:5.

Here's what he says when hard pressed. That's where he starts. When hard pressed I cried to the Lord he brought me into a spacious place that word hard pressed is one that we don't use a lot today. Right and it's got a few ideas attached to it. There's anguish distress pain, but really at its core hard pressed is like narrow straights. It's like narrow straights every morning I back out my car from my garage and I've got some pretty narrow straights as I backed that thing out. My wife gets to cruise straight in hop out going to Merry way more because she drives a larger vehicle R SUV, but I drive a sedan and so for me to get in and out of that garage you get like angle my way in and crank the wheel this way real hard and kind of even my way in and crank the wheel the other way, you know, so I don't hit the side of the garage or whatever, right?

Um, and so as I do this about every other time, here's what I'm starting to think. I've got a 12 year old. I'm thinking like in two years he's gonna be doing this and there's just no way I am letting him do it ever, you know like that. You know, like do you remember when you had to First parallel park a car?

Like when you were learning to drive remember that feeling? Do you remember when you first backed out of a garage or into the garage? Do you remember when you got on the highway for the very first time you started going 50 and 55, you know? What would you what were you feeling? Well, I mean that the my remember like it's stressful.

It's like stressful and it and if you weren't stressed out, I'm also betting you probably got like five speeding tickets in your first year right until that cautious muscle kicked in for you, but that's really the idea of this word hard pressed. hard pressed narrow straights Okay. Remember remember what we said? Hope often Springs from encounters with God's love in the places and the circumstances that you least expect. And for the psalmist for the psalmist. Here's the first one hard-pressed what he's saying is this you're gonna experience it under pressure.

Your experience in those times in those Seasons where you just feel all kinds of pressure. your hope is going to Spring from an encounter with God's love. In times where you're under extreme pressure? Not where you'd expect. Hope to spring up, right?

Not where you would expect to experience God's love not where you're deliberately putting yourself to to go. Look for God, you know those times of pressure. Let me just read the next few verses here because you're gonna get the get the picture what what the psalmist is gonna describe essentially is like a battle scene like a like like a swords clubs Shields kind of deal because that's the place where he was when he experienced this So so here's what it reads. Okay, just just listen, and if you've got a Bible in front of you follow along verse 5 when hard pressed to cry to the Lord he brought me into a spacious place.

The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. What came your Mortals do to me? The Lord is with me. He's my helper. I look in Triumph on my enemies. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than a trust in humans. It's better to take refuge in the Lord than a trust in princes. All the nations surrounded me. But in in the name of the Lord I cut them down. They surrounded me on every side but in the name of the Lord I cut them down. They swarmed around me like bees.

But they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns. In the name of the Lord I cut them down. I was pushed back and about to fall. But the Lord helped me. the Lord is my strength and my defense he's become my salvation I'm wondering if we have in any in whatever room you're in. I'm wondering if we have any last Kingdom fans.

Last Kingdom fans, if you're not familiar, it's a Netflix series that tells the story of the rise of king Edward and then the origin of England as a nation and just so you know not something I'd watch with the kids who keep that in mind, but it's a pretty fascinating Story the crazy part about it is that King Edward was fighting a war on several different fronts. He was fighting war with other Anglo tribes, but he's also fighting against the Danes the the Scandinavian Vikings and the series really tells the story of this guy who tread son of utread who's a Dane who is captured by Englishman as a kid and he's he's kind of a King Without a country until the to the very end but one of the final episodes he and his army, they're outnumbered and and they're being pushed off a literal Cliff right and and utret is there and he's in with his army and he can see soldiers kind of falling off the cliff to their death the left and the right until an Allied Army SW.

sin and engages and you know last minute right he goes from being pressed up against his shield looking over his shoulder to like space space to maneuver space to Breathe Again space to fight again That's kind of the picture in this Psalm. It's the it's in that place of pressure.

That narrow straight. that God provides space Space surrounded on every side swarming like bees, but then suddenly space. So here's a learning for us. Okay, here's a learning for us. We want to experience the love of God and the hope that Springs up from those times where we're under pressure.

when the pressure mounts give God some room. Pastor John talked about this all the time. It's one of his favorite phrases. And the reason is is just sticky phrase. Hey, are we giving God room? We especially that when the pressure mounts when the when work stressed when family stress when life stress when we're just feeling the pressure of all of the uncertain of the what are we doing to give God room? What are we doing to just deliberately say, I'm not gonna think about that for a while.

I'm gonna put myself into shut myself off from that even for a few moments. I'm gonna try to experiment with this sabbath idea. I'm gonna try to take a day or part of the day. We're not doing anything. I'm just gonna give God room to work to speak to me. When the pressure mounts give God some room you be surprised.

How quickly Hope Springs up, okay? All right. Let's read the psalm the rest of Psalm together. And as what we're gonna do is as we do let's let's recall what we said at the top right that that parts of this Psalm are quoted by all four gospel writers as well as by Peter and and Paul as they wrote parts of the New Testament. We're gonna be putting some of those verses on the screen here as well.

But just listen and follow along now. We're in verse 15 Psalm 118. Shouts of joy and victory resounding the tents of the righteous. The Lord's right hand has done Mighty things. The Lord's right hand is lifted high as right hand has done Mighty things. I will not die. But live I'll Proclaim What the Lord Has Done. The Lord is chastened me severely.

But he's not giving me over to death. Open for me the gates of the righteous. I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the Gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I'll give you. Thanks for your answer me. You become my salvation and then we get to verse 22 and this is the one that's most often quoted.

the stone the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone the Lord has done this and it's marvelous in our eyes. So that verse sounds familiar to you. It's because Jesus quotes this verse. And he quotes it at the end of a parable. He just told in order to explain the meaning of the parable and this particular parable of Jesus's that we're talking about is the one where he tells the story of an owner of a Vineyard who sends employees to collect payment from those who were renting the vineyard and raising grapes and as he sends these employees the people renting they beat these employees up and they refuse to pay Some of them they even killed.

So find what the owner does in the parable is he sends his own son thinking that they'll respect his son but the tenants conspire to kill his son in attempt to completely cut the owner off and take over the vineyard for themselves. And as Jesus finishes telling this Parable he quotes.

verses 22 and 23 of this song in Mark 12:9 after he quotes it here's what he says. what then will the owner of the vineyard do He will come and kill all those tenants and give the vineyard. to others see in the parable. Okay. The owner of the vineyard is God the owner's son. Of course is Jesus. So here's what Jesus is saying, right? You're gonna kill me.

Just like the runners in the story. That's gonna happen. But as it does Jesus is saying this don't think for a second. That just because God allows that to happen that you're somehow now in charge.

And you're somehow now the authors of your own story. Don't think God's still in charge regardless of what's Happening Here regardless of what God allows to happen. God is still in charge. You might reject me. But I just want you to know right now. Jesus is saying it's on me whom God is going to build a new Humanity a new world a new life a new family.

Jesus says God's Gonna use me. The one you rejected. as the Cornerstone So here's the point. Okay. Here's the point. We've said this already hope often Springs from encounters the God's love and the places the circumstances you least expect we talked about that number one being under pressure. Here's what we're going to see from the second half of the psalm.

Hope often Springs. from patterns pain patterns of pain that's what's so unexpected about this. Hope that's rest that that Springs up from an experience with God's love.

We flee pressure right? I'm not looking for more pressure in my life. You know, we flee the stress. We flee the narrow Straits. We want more space. No, thanks. That's why we live in Iowa, right? I can see the Horizon in every direction.

We flee that and we free pain too. I mean nobody's running to seasons of pain. Nobody invites pain into their lives except for those crazy Tough Mudder people and we don't understand them and we just pray for them, you know. But God has this incredible pattern this incredible pattern. It's in those times of pain.

That we experience his husted right his his faithful love. to us And it's through those times of pain. Where he proves himself to be faithful? near good and powerful And as he proves himself in those times of pain, that's where hope.

Springs up it happened for the psalmist. And then repeats in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus it repeated again for Paul which is why he wrote about it it repeated again for Peter which is why he wrote about it and there are those of us in the room with you today who would testify to the same truth as well?

God works the same way today. Here's the lesson for us. Okay. Here's the lesson one day. We'll be free from pain pain is never the plan. Okay. One day we'll be free from it. But the pattern until that day is this God's hope often finds us in our pain.

That's the pattern. so ask for this hope look for this hope and expect to find this hope Because it worked that way for the psalmists. It worked that way for Jesus worked that way for Peter. It worked that way for Paul it works that way today.

Recently just this last week. We had about 44 of our Prairie League staffers across our campus attend. A leadership event called the Global Leadership Summit and it's what we do it. Most every single year make it available to our staff.

It comes out of a church of Chicago and just really two days of solid really good leadership talks people from kind of all over the place. But one of the people they had a chance to interview. There was the director Ron Howard, right? And this was Opie from The Andy Griffith Show and he you know directed Apollo 13, right just a fascinating guy, but his most recent project and you can you can see it on Amazon Prime right now, if you got that, I think it might be in theaters as well, but it's called 13 lives.

13 lives and that's what the interview was about. And the story of this this movie and actually we've got a picture of it here. The story of the movie is is the story of 13 tie.

children Who got caught in a cave as the cave flooded? And it's the story of of really a group of Thai and British people partnering together to figure out how to rescue these three kids and I'm not gonna spoil it for you because it's it's great. But like your heart rate will be going hundred miles an hour for the whole movie I don't know if you've ever done any scuba diving.

I don't know. If you've ever kind of felt like a tank and a breathing apparatus as you sunk down and you could feel the pressure. In this movie these guys go through create they go through like 2,000 meters of caves and sometimes just underwater and their tank is scraping and some of you were like, I can't even hear about that. I've never watched this movie. I feel classroom book you just describing it.

Right, right. Here's the beautiful part of this. Okay? And it's a real story, right? So we know that all 13 kids lived. They didn't know it at the time. And they risk their lives going through narrow Straits.

To get to 13 kids who spent two to three weeks in that cave. Finding them. Giving them what they need. Helping them stay encouraged. Giving them food giving them water ultimately designing a solution.

That put their lives and their kids live at risk for the sake. of saving I would recommend you watch it. And as you do I want you to have Psalm 118 in mind. Because the pressure and the pain that we feel every single day Jesus felt every single minute of that.

And he strapped on Humanity. So he could be a part of our story. So the things I'm telling you from the Psalms, he would testify that's absolutely true. Hope Springs from those times where you're under pressure and God shows up Hope Springs from those times of experience pain.

And God proves that he's in it with you. So I hope you've enjoyed this journey through the Psalms. It's been it's been really good. Well, we'll finish up the the social media kind of Psalms reading. Hope you continue to kind of get blessed from that have a wonderful week this week next week. We start the moved series which I'm really excited about. But hey before we let you move on to the next part of our service here. Let me just kind of pray for us as we kind of close down this this series together Father in Heaven. Thanks for your for your Psalms. Thanks for just how human they are God how much permission they give us to really be just human beings who are caught up in this story live in this thing out not seeing what's next. But thank you for intervening in our story God help us to discover these things that we talk about as true as we follow you.

And look to you as we walk through what we're walking through Jesus. I pray all this in your name. Amen.