Sermon Notes, February 19,
2017
Rev. Garry McGlinchy
Pastor
Garry continued his sermon series “Seven Hebrew Words Every Believer Should
Know.” Over the last few weeks we have
been talking about Hebrew words that every believer should know. We talked about hessed, God’s loving kindness; emunah,
meaning faith in action; tefillah,
prayer that requires us to examine our hearts; and ruach, meaning breath, wind, or spirit; we talked about how the
Holy Spirit, ruach hakadesh, is alive
in us, giving us a rhythm of inhaling God’s Spirit and exhaling praise; and shalom, in the Hebrew meaning Peace.
This week's word is nephesh, meaning Soul, living being, life,
self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion. The Hebrew symbols, reading right to left, are:
·
nun-
seed: Continue, Heir, Son
·
pey - mouth:
Blow, Scatter, Edge
·
shin -
two front teeth: Sharp, Press, Eat
The scripture basis for today's
sermon is Psalm 19, where David meditates on God's Creation and His Word. He also meditates on his own sins, and God's forgiveness of
sin. In verses 1-6 we learn about His power and forgiveness
through nature. In verses 7-11 we learn
about His holiness and our sin through His Word. And in
verses 12-14 we learn about His gracious forgiveness that frees us as He
reveals Himself through everyday experiences.
In
verses 1-6 we are surrounded by God's amazing creativity, His
craftsmanship. We see this in the
Heavens as they reveal His existence, His power, His love, and His care for all
of His creation. All of this, the
universe, the planets, the sun that the planets revolve around, the Earth and
everything in it did not just happen.
They were created. We see this in
the design, the orderliness, and the intricacy of God's personality and
creativity. As we take in all of God's
work in creating, it is hard not to appreciate the beauty of His handiwork.
In
Romans 1:19-20, Paul points out that everyone knows about God because nature proclaims
God's existence and power. Now, this
does not mean that we should put our Bibles on the shelf because all we need to
do is focus on nature to understand and learn about God! The Bible, the scriptures, are authoritative
and necessary for the proper guidance of the Christ-follower. Nature points to His existence; the Bible
lays out His plan for our salvation!
What we need to understand is that we need to proclaim God's Glory like
His creation "proclaims the Glory of God."
What
does this have to do with the word Nephesh? Nephesh,
as we have discussed, means soul. It
also means life. With that said, as believers
of the one and only true Creator of the Universe, the one who laid out a plan
for our salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, we should proclaim His Glory
with ALL of our lives. In Deuteronomy 6:
4,5 we read "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength." Jesus said the same thing when He was asked
about the greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:37)
We are directed to love the Lord with all of our soul!
Psalm
19 paints the picture of God's creation declaring the Glory of God. "Yet they have no speech, no language,
no sound is heard from them." In
other words, all of creation declares His Glory without making a sound. We should pay special attention. Our lives were meant to declare God's Glory
just like His creation declares His glory.
As Dave Adamson puts it: We are to declare His Glory With all of our lives, For all of our lives.
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