The Lifts of Scripture

thank the lord well thank you for your worship your attention and engagement in the in the presence of the lord tonight you can be seated i'm going to be bringing a lesson that's going to kind of be all over the map with regards to a scripture text so i'm not going to read one at the outset but we will be looking at scripture as we go along tonight and i am thankful to be able to share the word of the lord with you um a couple days ago before the new year began a friend of mine posted on her facebook and she said do i have 52 friends that would send me their favorite scripture because what she intended to do with them she explained is to write that scripture on the sunday of her calendar so every sunday would be filled with a scripture and the name of the person that submitted that scripture and she has committed to pray for that individual to read that scripture and kind of meditate on it throughout the week i thought that was super cool so i thought you know what i'm going to respond i'm going to help her out a little bit and the problem with it was i don't have a favorite scripture it fluctuates it's it's different by the day or maybe even by the season of life it's just there's just so many in there that are just so rich and and full and powerful but as i was going through the highlights in my youversion app i was like okay what are what are the scriptures that i've highlighted because clearly those meant something so i was reading through those and man as i was reading just through those scriptures i just began to feel encouraged and strengthened and uplifted and i just thought you know that's the power of the word of the lord i kind of had you know the post-christmas blues kind of dreading the new year holiday regretting going back to work this past monday and so i was just kind of in the mullygrobes when i saw that post by my friend on facebook and as i began to read through those i've started to feel better i'm just going to be honest i'm going to testify about the goodness of god and about his word as i began to read his word i just felt better i thought yeah that scripture is man that's a powerful one that was good to me i remember when the lord brought that out and i why i highlighted i'd go to the next one the same thing would happen and man i just had me a good little holy ghost time on my couch post it on facebook have a holy ghost time posting on facebook okay don't do it in any other way right well i want to talk then because of you know scripture obviously i want to talk about the lifts of scripture the lifts of scripture so i know with a title like that we could take this in a lot of different ways i could talk about how i could talk more about i already have how scripture is encouraging to us and it lifts us and it lifts our spirits how many of you do though you have a favorite scripture like you could shout it out to me brother everett what's your favorite scripture okay what's it say yes great scripture wonderful anybody else you have a scripture if i've called you out now you're afraid you're just terrified that i'm gonna do sister lisa what's your favorite scripture the lord goes with you he will not fail you or forsake you deuteronomy 31 6. good uplifting scripture strengthening it's something that you've held to no doubt brother if it's something you've gone back to and said you know what seek ye first this is gonna center me this is gonna this is gonna help me live my life we have favorite scriptures and they lift us and they help us and i do have i do have some favors i wouldn't be able to name just one just standing here but i i could probably rattle off to you about 10 different references i don't know if i could quote them like these have done though i was a bible quizzer go bible quizzing but we have favorite scriptures we have go to's when we need a lift right when we when we need to to lift our eyes off of a circumstance or we just need encouragement and we need just that uplifting we can go to scripture when we're low and we can find the strength and the hope and the light and the help that we need but that's not the lifts of scripture i'm going to be talking about tonight the scripture also talks about how the lord lifts the different things that god does the ways that he lifts some of the scriptures that talk about psalm 107 verse 25 for he commands and raises the stormy wind which lifts up the waves of the sea the lord so powerful and so mighty lifts up the waves of the sea anybody ever tried that just it's just kind of usually the waves lift me and i think that's what the psalmist was alluding to a lot of times we get pushed around by life and the waves of our lives just push us around and they have control of us but the psalmist says the lord lifts the waves of the sea so god has the power over what seems to have the power over us and he he lifts those things that are impossible to us psalm 147 verse 6 says the lord lifts up the humble and he casts the wicked down to the ground so he he lifts or he exalts or he holds up psalm 3 is is one of my favorite psalms but new king james version says lord how they have increased who trouble me many are they who rise up against me many are they who say of me there's no help for him or her in god the psalmist is saying many have lifted themselves up against me they've lifted up their voice or they've lifted up their weapons to destroy me but verse three goes on but you o lord are a shield for me you're my glory and you're the one who lifts up my head when i would hang my head low or when my head would fall beneath the surface of the trouble and the anxiety swelling around me the psalmist said the lord lifts my head keeps my head afloat keeps my head above the trouble and the struggle and so there's lifts in scripture and it's the lord doing the lifting that's also not the lips i'm going to talk about

i want to spend some time talking about the different lifts of scripture where scripture commands us to lift something first of all in psalm 134 and verse 2 the psalmist instructs us lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the lord and we have been doing that already in this service lifting our hands to praise him he he receives it as a simple gesture seemingly nonsensical doesn't look like it would mean anything but to god it means something because it's a command of his word and he receives it as praise as as we lift our hands in the sanctuary we are commanded that's one of the lifts that we're commanded in scriptures to lift our hands first timothy 2 and verse 8 has the same command says i desire therefore that the men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting so clearly we are instructed by scripture to lift our hands i'll be honest with you when i was younger that was one expression of worship that i was very self-conscious about i don't know if you remember the old building if those of you that were there at the old building just real long and rectangular right so if i'm on the platform standing at the pulpit in the old building right over there on the first pew my mom would sit there she would sit kind of in the corner papa would sit kind of right there with her he had to go out and count the offering and he'd come back in and so we would all sit i would just sit there when i was younger and i was afraid and when i was sitting on the front row to lift my hands off like the people behind me they're going to see me this is just going through my head and i just i'm just being i don't know how old i was maybe it was like 10 or 11 before this lifted and left me but i remember sitting there but in the wacky thinking of a single digit year old i thought you know what if i sit with my back to the window and my mom is here and the pulpit is there nobody's behind me and they can't see me i did pass high school i don't know how with reasoning like that that i did but so it's a command of scripture and sometimes we can feel awkward about it we can feel funny about it but god desires it and he he wants us to lift our hands and i'm thankful that i'm involved in a church that we don't make fun of one another's worship and we make it comfortable around here for you to express yourself in worship and to clap your hands or to lift your hands and give glory to the lord it's one of the instructions of scripture to lift our hands and while it is an act of worship it is only an act of worship because it is first and foremost an act of dependence and surrender think of a little baby little baby little toddler they come up to you they lift their hands what does that communicate to you they they want you hold me hold me i want you i'm depending upon you to meet my every need to give me what i want to give me what i need we babies they they lift their hands it's an act of dependence i i want you i need something that that i can't get for myself i am completely dependent upon you so dependence lifting our hands it is an act of worship because it's a sign of our dependence and of our surrender to him lifting my hands it means my hands maybe are lifted off of the situation i lift my hands in worship because i'm i'm lifting my hands off of this god i need you to take care of this i've had my hands on it i've tried to work on it i've tried to twist it manipulate do what i need to do and tried to work it out the best that i can but really at the end of the day god i just got to lift my hands and dependence upon you and he receives that as an act of worship that is a deep and true act of worship and we can lift and say god i trust you i'm not going to depend upon my own resources and my own reason and my own ability but i'm going to lift my hands off of the situation and i'm going to give it to you and depend upon you it's an act of dependence and it's an act of surrender i've heard that lifting your hands is the international sign of surrender i don't want to go into any hostile setting and try to figure that out and try to test that theory but i've heard that that's the case but surrender says you're in control and i'm not i'm surrendering the control i'm surrendering the control there is a humility in lifting our hands to the lord that's what makes it an act of worship it's because we are understanding we are signifying lord i'm depending upon you i'm surrendering to you i'm i'm giving you control of this circumstance of this situation of this season of my life of this day i i'm surrendering the control god i surrender to you making that an act of worship psalm 119 and verse 59 says i thought on my ways and then i turned my feet unto thy testimonies david said when i looked at my life the direction i was heading what filled my days what i pursued most passionately what i spent my time doing how i spent my money how i treat my friends my family and my acquaintances and the strangers in my life my work ethic the inconveniences of my when i looked at all of that i realized i needed to turn i needed to change to repent and go a different direction the direction of my life in big or small areas was perhaps not headed in the direction of god's word or his character so i needed a turn a tweak a recalibration i i needed to surrender my life my walk and my direction is not naturally in line with what god would want our life our direction in life our walk in life is not naturally headed in the direction and in line with what god would want that's why we need that scripture in there david saying i thought on my ways i looked at what i was doing and then i i turned to walk according to his testimonies i daily we daily need turns i daily need to lift my hands and surrender unto the lord sometimes in major ways but most times in just minor ways and minor doesn't always mean easy or insignificant but i'm talking about just daily and hourly endeavor to look at my life my actions my words my plans my motives and then to look at god's word and see the discrepancy and see where i need to turn and say okay this is what i've got my hands doing right now but that's not what god's word says i should be doing i i thought on my ways and then i turned my feet i lifted my hands in surrender and said god i'm going to surrender to your way and that is an act of worship when we surrender our lives in the direction of our lives in in the most significant ways and in the most seemingly insignificant ways the small decisions of our day the small decisions of our lives we can turn to him turn and tweak our direction i'm so glad that the one that we surrender to is full of mercy because i have needed it more and more and more and more throughout my life recognizing the grace and the mercy of the lord that i need i'm so glad that he is full of mercy that when i lift my hands and surrender that he is ready to pour out grace he is ready to pour out mercy and receive me in love it's why the psalmist would say in psalm 123 and verse 2 we keep looking to the lord our god for his mercy we keep looking why do you keep looking there psalmist well because he keeps dishing it out because he keeps a ready and steady supply of his mercy that in that daily walk when i realized you know what i probably shouldn't have said that to that person i probably shouldn't be acting this way and i and i tweak my direction he's full of mercy and he's full of grace and he receives and he helps me and he doesn't cast me off and write me off and he doesn't make me do 30 000 hours of penance no he just in an instant he receives my worship and my surrender and he forgives because he's a god of mercy so we keep looking to the lord i encourage you keep looking to the lord for his mercy maybe there's a struggle in your life maybe there's a temptation that you you seem to constantly fall to keep looking to the lord our god for his mercy because he has it for us the bible says he will abundantly pardon he pardons abundantly and i am so so very thankful and in need of that and so we recognize that we need his mercy and we need his grace which leads us then to living with a humble acceptance that i'm dependent upon him i'm insufficient to satisfy or fulfill myself and i never lose sight of the fact that i need him so i keep looking to him which brings me to the next lift of scripture in matthew 17 and verse 8 it says when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no one but jesus only we're commanded in scripture several different times to lift our eyes or the the act of lifting our eyes is talked about in scripture in this scripture in particularly i understand that they are coming off of the mountain of transfiguration where they had seen moses and they had seen elijah two great patriarchs of the jewish nation so i understand that when the verse says they saw no one but jesus that it's meaning that moses and elijah were now gone and jesus was the only one left standing there but i do think that it's a good reminder for us to get our attention solely on jesus to focus on him to the unfocus of everything else if you can only focus on one thing and you can really only truly focus on one thing with our eyes in particular we're gonna lose focus of everything else everything else is going to become a little bit blurry some of you know that i like to take pictures of birds and when i sharpen that focus and i get that focus on that beautiful bright cardinal sitting on my bird feeder the squirrel waiting just outside of the gate is out of focus thank god the distraction the devourer is out of focus because i've got the focus on what i'm truly looking at what i'm truly wanting to see same is true here they saw no one but jesus only we can get him in our sights and we can focus upon him everything else will fall just out of our eyesight and fall out of focus and become blurry and we can focus on him we can focus on what he wants us to do and how he wants us to act and how we he wants us to live and to do what he needs us to do when we focus solely on jesus some of you old-timers will know that we were once labeled jesus only people right anybody remember that term oh they're the jesus only well i'd like to be guilty of that i really would and so i asked myself does my life say that does my life say that that i see no one but jesus only that i don't even see amber i see jesus only i'm not negating seeing others in the importance of reaching out and helping others and supporting others scriptures full of love one another and all the one and others of scripture but when it comes to our purpose and when it comes to our direction when it comes to how we act and how we live i want to take my cue from jesus only i want my focus to be on him and i don't want all these other inputs in my life making things staticky and distorting things but i want to have a true and a clear picture and i have one right here if i'll just focus on it i can focus on what he says it'll center me it will help me it will stabilize me and strengthen me if i will just but live jesus only does my life say that does my schedule say that my finances my priorities does it say jesus only the great sin of israel was that they began to lift their eyes and look to other things besides their one true god lamentations 4 17 and the new living translation says this we looked in vain for our allies to come and save us but we were looking to nations that could not help us no wonder they were lamenting no wonder there was destruction in their life because they were looking around at what everybody else could do or could say about their situation without ever consulting without ever looking to god only and that was the distortion in israel's heart that was the prostitution in israel's heart was that they looked in vain for their allies to say then they looked to nations that could not help them they looked inside of themselves for solutions and don't we do the same israel trusted in everything but god he was all they needed and they didn't turn to him when they began losing what they held dear their their land their temple when they began losing those things what they needed when they felt threatened they turned to other resources

but i encourage us from the lifts of scripture let's not make israel's mistake let's lift our eyes to the lord let's look upon him for our help he is the one the psalmist said i lift mine eyes into the hills from whence cometh my help my help comes from the lord my help doesn't come from other sources everything else is a resource he is the source other people other relationships other government programs they're all a resource my source is god and god alone i'll get good input from people that love me and i'll get good advice from from people that can speak into my life and i receive those as godly and spiritual direction but that is a resource my source is him and him alone so we can't make israel's mistake and so i encourage lift your eyes to the lord trust in the lord no matter how bad things get and and when we feel threatened when our peace feels threatened or when our comfort feels threatened when our way of life the things that we've always known and always done when that feels threatened we will want to find stability and so we'll try to recreate things on our own we'll we'll try to find our peace and something or someone will try to fabricate supports for ourselves whether mental emotional or financial supports maybe not all of that is bad but maybe those things have been removed because god is wanting us to know that he's all we really need i encourage you use the struggle the setback the opposition whatever term you want to put on the dark cloudy murkiness of your life i encourage you use that pressure in your life to identify your go-to responses learn something about how you react so that we can then lead ourselves in those reactions so i know whenever this xyz begins to happen and i feel threatened and i feel you know my security threatened my peace threaten these things begin to fall apart what do i turn to what do i do and i'm talking very practically like do you binge ice cream do you turn to books and try to lose yourself in a book because you just need to get caught up in something that's not real because the reality is just really haunting you that's i'm just be honest and trans that's one of my tactics to try to recover whenever i feel lost and insecure and unstable and so i encourage you use the pressures and the stress of your life that they're for you they're for you to to help you to learn and we can learn what our go-to responses is and then whatever comes up that's the thing that we're really depending on now we we want that to be god ultimately so we want to think on our ways and turn you know turn our ways and actually do the right thing but i would just encourage you take inventory when you begin to feel scattered and insecure and out of control what am i turning to mentally or emotionally for strength and stability and support right now what am i turning to and if the answer is anything other than god or his word then i would encourage you to think about that and then let that be an area that you address say okay lord this is what i y'all you don't i don't want to put the pressure on like oh you're doing it wrong so you need to do it right this is life this is what we're here we're not expected to be perfect you're not expected to do the right thing all the time so what i'm saying is there's grace and there's that mercy we were talking about a while ago and so you discover this in this situation and you tweak it and you make it right and then you go through another situation and god reveals well really you're kind of dependent upon this and so we tweak it and we go on it's the life of transformation it's a it's a process there's not this snap your fingers and it's all done and so i just encourage you use the pressures and stresses in your life saying what am i going to this week what am i what am i doing in my life where i'm trying to find strength and stability and what am i turning to and and how could i depend on god in this situation rather than what i could do we can lift our eyes psalm 119 great psalm lots of good little nuggets in there 119 verse 37 says turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your word worthless things empty things things that will not long term satisfy i mean i can turn to a novel but it's not going to long term satisfy me it's not going to long term strengthen me and help me and stabilize me but if i will turn and lift my eyes to jesus he has long-term peace he has long-term stability for me and so lord turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your word lifting our eyes off of earthly solutions in order to see the heavenly solution with an eternal and godly perspective we will inevitably in life say the wrong things about our situations we will diagnose ourselves wrongly our situations wrongly our disagreements our offenses and struggles wrongly if we don't first surrender with that grateful humility if we don't then see things from god's heavenly perspective we will think wrongly about the things that we we're going through

but once we've surrendered with that grateful humility and we've looked from god's perspective then it's time for the final lift that i'll talk about it's time to lift our voice lifting our voice the scripture is full of scenarios and and full of scriptures and commands even to lift the voice and the first first way i'll mention just a few three in fact three to ask lift your voice to ask proverbs 2 and verse 3 in the new living translation says cry out for insight and ask for understanding lift your voice and ask god for help we've done that we've done it already in the service we took needs to him that is us lifting our voice to ask why because daddy i need you i can't do this on my own i'm dependent upon him and upon him alone he not only receives as an act of worship but there is that ask aspect of that where he says you know what my child needs me the one that i love needs me they're relying upon me they're depending upon me there's something going on in their life and so he says cry out for insight ask for understanding isaiah 37 4 lift up your prayer isaiah 40 and verse 9 lift up your voice with strength get a little yelly about it if you have to lift up your voice with strength lift up your request let your requests be made known unto god he said he wants us to ask in luke chapter 11 and verse 9 jesus speaking says ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you the instruction is ask lift up your voice and ask him or lift up your voice and ask again anybody ever prayed for anything more than once yeah i think we all have and it's okay to ask again that is not the vain repetitions that scripture is talking about it is not a vain repetition for you to ask again and again and again for what you want god to do in your life or what you need him to do in your family that's not in vain that's not empty as long as it's coming from your heart as long as you're asking out of a pure heart with that humble that humility that we were talking about earlier he receives that that's not a vain repetition to him he hears that his ears are open to our cry the bible says he is not deaf to our cry he wants us to lift our voice and ask and ask again john 15 and verse 7 jesus said if you abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you ask ask again and we don't just ask but we ask with a grateful humility so we're not asking in a prideful demanding way as if god i know better than you in this situation because i've lived with this person for years and they just you would just have to know them lord so if you could just break their teeth oh god that is a that is an ask in scripture i'm here to tell you it's psalm 55 something i think or 56 58 maybe that's an ask right there but we don't come to god and ask in a prideful or demanding way we come to him humbly saying you know what lord i surrendered to i know that you know me better than i know myself i know that you know that individual better than they know themselves or i know them i know that you see the entire situation where i only see just a sliver of it i only see one tree of the forest you see the entire vast forest of this entire situation and so i don't come demanding but lord i come asking in humility grateful humility grateful that you hear me grateful that you welcome my cries grateful that you even listened to me a little peon on earth that you would even give me the time of day grateful humility we don't ask prideful and demanding or in a pout if i don't get what i want sort of way but we're asking and if god's plan is to do it differently fine that's got to be part of our ask that's that grateful humility part that's the surrender the dependence if if he chooses to do it another way than the way that i ask fine because he's god and he knows and i know at the end of all days everything will be just fine i'll be just fine they'll be just fine everything will be he'll take care of me because we're cement surrendered and submitted to his purpose but when we're surrendered to him and we're seeing things from his perspective because we're looking to him then we will be asking the right things in the right way and then we'll be blown away by what god does he responds to our ask his ear is not deaf and his arm is not short he doesn't just hear your ask he can respond to your ask and so lift your voice to ask the bible talks about lifting our voice to speak to strongholds matthew 21 and verse 21 says but also jesus again speaking if you say to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea it will be done you can use your voice in prayer and with spiritual authority to move the strongholds and to debilitate the strongholds and the strong man of your life you can use your voice lift up your voice to speak to strongholds he said that we could he said that we should and it's not our power we're dependent upon him remember i got my hands lifted i'm dependent upon him it's not going to be amber's power coming through it's going to be god's power coming through to move that mountain i can't do it on my own but he said to lift my voice and to speak to the strongholds in my life i can declare to that mountain you got to get out of my way because god says so and then finally lift your voice to point attention to jesus john 12 and verse 32 says jesus again and i if i am lifted up from the earth i will draw all peoples to myself and i understand that he was talking that lifted up from the earth is him talking literally about his cross if i am lifted up from the earth on a cross i will draw all peoples to myself i will bring others into the fullness of salvation that they need i will bring them close i i will bring them so i know that it's talking about literally on the cross but i also know from other passages of scripture that if he is lifted up if he is lifted up in our praise that will draw people to him when we praise him to other people we talk to other people about him when we magnify him and we glorify him and we give him praise and we point attention to jesus with our voice with our words the testimony that we have people are drawn to that they're drawn to an experience with him and so i just encourage you talk to people about what god's done in your life talk to your neighbors talk to those that are in your small group talk to them about what god has done lift your voice to point attention to jesus psalm 34 and verse 3 says o magnify the lord with me and let us exalt his name together let us lift his name we can lift our voice to lift his name now we can't make him any bigger he's as big as he's going to get so what does that magnify mean well i just kind of take it to mean we can get a better and a clearer and a bigger picture of who he actually is i can remove all the other things that i've been looking at and maybe the doubts and the disillusionments of life and i can clear those away from my sight so that i magnify god and make him bigger i don't want to be looking at my situation as bigger than my god i don't want to talk about my situation more than i talk about what god can do in my situation so magnify the lord let us exalt his name together and finally from psalm 99 and verse 2 it says the lord is great in zion and he is high above all the peoples he is lifted up above all the peoples and then in verse 5 it says exalt the lord our god and worship at his footstool because he is holy we can lift our voice in praise pointing attention to him now i know that god has done something for you just by virtue of the fact that you're here and you're sitting on the pew he got you safely here in some manner in some means whether in your own car or the van or a ride with a friend some way or maybe on your two legs although it's cold out there you but you got here you're breathing in and you're breathing out we've all got something to thank him for but i bet there's something else meaningful in your life and in your experience that you could lift your voice and praise and again not just in this room not just in this location but in every location that we go letting there be a praise on our lips a lifting of our voice to point the attention to jesus

i'll invite you to stand and if you've got something in your heart that you want to lift your voice and praise about i encourage you to do that right now lord we lift you we lift your name and we know we can't make you any bigger you're as big as you're gonna get you're as big as you need to be but lord we magnify you and we put the focus and we put the attention upon you and we make you bigger in our praise we make you bigger in our sight and in the way that we view you lord we exalt you we lift you right now we lift our voice i pray that you would give courage and that you would give boldness to us to lift our voice to the strongholds into the opposition in our lives i pray that you would fill us with insight god we ask you for insight and we ask you for wisdom and direction to know the next steps of our lives lord we lift our eyes to you if perhaps our eyes have gotten focused on other things tonight we lift them back to you and to you alone lord we recalibrate ourselves according to your word lord we lift our eyes to you the one who is our help the one who is our strength we lift our eyes to you in jesus name in jesus name in jesus name

and we of course have been focusing on our field and we're going to pray for that here in a moment before we dismiss but jesus said lift your eyes and look on the field for they are white they are ready for harvest when you look at your coworker you're looking at your field when you look at your neighborhood you're looking at your field when you look at your unsaved family members you're looking at your field and the proclamation of jesus was to lift your eyes look on them they're hungry and they're searching it may not look on the outside like they're hungry and they're searching they may seem like they got it all together but if you'll lift your voice and praise about the one tell them about the good services we've been having tell them about the exciting things we've got coming up on the next weekend and throughout the next year if you'll lift your voice there's going to be something stirred inside of them that field is going to be stirred that seed is going to be planted in that field can we lift our voice right now and pray for our field lord i thank you i thank you for the promise of harvest and for the laws of nature that guide it lord you said if we plant that we would reap abundantly and so i pray that you would help us to sow bountifully that so that we could reap bountifully lord i pray that you would help us to look on our field lord help us to look to others lord to look at them and to see them and to see the need that is in their lives and to meet that if we can at all possible but to definitely point them to you with our voice point them to you with our words our praise towards you i pray that you would help us and lead us to people and lead people to us god i pray that you would help us in the name of jesus help us lord to lift our eyes lift our eyes to you lift our voice to you and lift our hands to you and surrender and worship would you do that one more time just an act of worship to him lord i thank you and we lift you we go out of here tonight lifting your name we're lifting your name above every other name above every name of disease above every name of if malady and infirmity we lift your name above it and we go out of here focused upon you lifting your name and we're gonna lift our eyes to look at our field we bless you and we thank you in jesus name in jesus name amen