00:00:01 Whenever someone asks me, \"Where are you from?\" It\'s a very difficult question, and I\'m sure most of us have experienced this, especially if you\'ve been traveling, and we are immigrants, as almost all of us are. I remember this time very vividly a few years ago when I used to work in the tech world, and I was on a business trip to Singapore. And I walked into the elevator in a Fairmont Hotel, and a tall, white Caucasian gentleman walked in with me and two Singaporean Chinese girls. 00:00:31 And he looked at me, and he asked me this question, \"Where are you from?\" And I was a little confused and didn\'t know exactly quickly what to say. So I told him, \"I\'m from California,\" which is kind of where I was going from. And then I asked him, \"Where are you from?\" And I was thinking he\'ll tell me probably Kentucky or Boston or New York. He said, \"I\'m from Calcutta.\" 00:00:55 Because he was in Calcutta, overseeing the startup project for building the Nano car factory, which was the largest in Asia at that time. And then there were these two Singaporean Chinese girls bursting out in laughter. They didn\'t understand what is going on here right now. And we\'ve all traveled a lot, and for us, as I\'ve shared before, before we moved into our current home, we lived in 16 homes in 10 years across six cities and three continents. That\'s a lot. 00:01:34 So finally, landing in our current home, my prayer was, \"God, please do not move us again. For a little while, at least.\" And it\'s been wonderful. We\'ve been there for almost 15 years, I think now, and we are grateful through which we\'ve been able to launch our church as well. And the Psalm we read today about talks of where the soul finds home. It\'s a Psalm, it\'s titled as one of the Psalms of the Sons of Korah. And there are only around 11 Psalms of the Sons of Korah. 00:02:15 We are doing the series of Summer in the Psalms, and you got a taste, a little bit of the wide variety and richness of Psalms, not just Davidic Psalms. Last week, you heard a Psalm of Asaph and also from different people. Because Psalms are so rich. They are so layered. I was reading an introduction on a commentary to the Psalms, and it was very intimidating, where Martin Luther said the Psalms are so difficult that no one can ever claim to have fully understood even one Psalm. 00:02:51 I stopped right there and I said, \"What am I even trying to do then?\" To try to preach from a Psalm as though I have understood it. But it is so beautiful. And the people who are writing this, these are called the Sons of Korah. The Sons of Korah are an interesting group of people. They have a dubious starting history, I\'ll talk about that towards the end. But these were people who were from the tribe of Levi, the Levites. They were traveling with Israelites. They were initiated by Moses. 00:03:32 We read about them in Exodus 6. They\'re the descendants of Kohath, son of Levi. And they have been journeying with the Israelites from that time onwards till they enter the promised land. They have seen the ups and downs of how God has been dealing with them. And they have also witnessed the period of great decline during the time of Judges. And then they saw the brief rises during the Davidic times. They\'ve also continued with them when they were exiled. 00:04:09 The Sons of Korah went with them into exile. And while in exile, they penned a few Psalms, which we find in the earlier part in the Book of Psalms, which is Psalms 42 to 44. And you see a constant theme that comes from them. They\'ve seen all of these rich variations of what life holds and how people respond to God. There is one thing that they say in the most famous Psalm, Psalm 42. We all know what that verse is, Psalm 42:1, \"As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longs after you.\" 00:04:47 That\'s an exilic Psalm, where they are singing in exile. They don\'t have the temple, and they are longing to be in God\'s presence. And here, this group of Psalms, they are not written when they are in exile. They are written when they are ruled by a king, probably it was King David. And for those who are interested in some more details, it\'s a small detail from a literature point of view. There are two verbs in the Hebrew language. One is the perfect form and the imperfect form. 00:05:23 The perfect is called the Qal, and the imperfect is Hiphil. When they are in exile, the imperfect is always like there is a longing and for an action that continues, and it hasn\'t been realized. So the Psalms written in exile have used the Hiphil form of the Hebrew verb. And now the Psalms that are written when they are in Jerusalem under the leadership of a king is in the perfect tense, which means now they are able to actually experience God\'s presence. It\'s completed. 00:05:53 It\'s a beautiful experience to them. Charles Spurgeon said this about this particular Psalm. He said, \"If the 23rd Psalm, Psalm 23, is the most popular- And the 103rd Psalm is the most joyful. We are going to hear that next week. And the 119th Psalm is the most experimental, and the 51st Psalm, Psalm 51, is the most plaintive or repentive. He says this psalm, Psalm 84, is one of the most sweet of the Psalms of peace. It\'s a very sweet psalm, and it carries that refrain, and goes here. 00:06:36 And I want to give the thesis or the big idea behind this psalm right at the start. There\'s no suspense. I\'m going to give it to you right at the beginning, and then we\'ll unpack that in bits and pieces. And this is the big idea of this psalm. And the big idea is our soul finds home in Christ, with Christ, and through Christ. Can you repeat with me? If you forget everything, just remember this and it\'ll help you not just in reading this psalm, but in reading every psalm. Can you repeat with me? 00:07:12 Our soul. Our soul. Finds home. Finds home. Only. Only. In Christ. In Christ. With Christ. With Christ. And through Christ. And through Christ. Very simple. That\'s the big idea. And let\'s see how we can get that from this psalm in all of those verses. There are five things that this psalm is talking about, of what happens when we are in God\'s presence. First, it says that we can experience real joy in God\'s presence. Second, we can experience real rest in God\'s presence. 00:07:54 Third, we can experience real strength in God\'s presence. Fourth, we can experience real protection in God\'s presence. And fifth, we can experience real blessings in God\'s presence. I\'m deviating from my usual three-point sermon to five points, but don\'t be scared, I\'m not going to go that long, okay? I\'ll keep it short for us today. What is God\'s presence? 00:08:21 The Israelites, every year, they had to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem from whichever city they were, because God had instituted specific festivals for them to remember who He was. 00:08:36 And some commentators believe this particular psalm was written when they were going to celebrate the festival of Booths, or Sukkot, as it\'s called, where they would build artificial tents from natural materials and live by the countryside to remind themselves of how God was taking care of them when they were journeying through the wilderness. 00:09:01 And as they are in those tents and they are longing to reach Jerusalem so they can be in the temple and do all the acts of sacrifice and worship and experience the blessings that come with it, that is what they\'re all longing for. They\'ve all lived different lives in different cities, going through so many ups and downs, but this is their family retreat, sort of, like our Lake Tahoe moment, if we were to think of it. But what is God\'s presence? God\'s presence is not something we now go to. 00:09:39 Though it is in a sense, where we gather, that\'s the reason we gather every Sunday. We know that God\'s presence came to us as Emmanuel, Christ in us. We can experience this presence of God, unlike the Israelites in olden times where they had to go on this pilgrimage. We can experience God\'s presence anytime, anywhere, because we now have Christ in us. And this Christ who is in us is also the Christ who is with us in all our ups and downs. 00:10:18 And even when we are not able to find joy in life, we are not able to experience rest in life, when we feel weak and have no strength to go through challenges, when we feel we are not having protection against harm that comes to us, it is through Him we can experience all these blessings which we are going to see before us. Firstly, there is real joy in God\'s presence. The psalmists found real joy. 00:10:52 They were chosen by King David in his time, and they were singing when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem, and he could join with them and sing and dance. That\'s the epitome of joy because they are experiencing, \"Oh, I\'m now bringing the presence of God into my heart, into my life, into my city, so we can rebuild.\" It begins in verse one, it says, \"How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord. 00:11:26 My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.\" There is real joy because His dwelling place is lovely. Actually, the Hebrew verb for beloved, it says in this verse, the word lovely is actually referring to a person who is called a beloved. There is joy in a place not just because the place has something great, but because who is in that place is the reason for joy. And here, look at the names that the psalmist brings up to address God He talks about beloved. 00:12:15 This beloved, who is this beloved? Says he\'s the Lord of hosts, or he\'s the Lord of the armies. He\'s a mighty God, and he says he\'s also a living God, and he uses the word Yahweh as the Lord of hosts, which is the covenantal God. There is joy in God\'s presence because of who he is. Knowing this God, revealed to us in Christ, through Christ, brings joy. There\'s nothing else that even comes close to experiencing it. Remember the first time you heard the gospel, the joy it brought to you? 00:13:02 That\'s what it\'s talking about. And the joy that we receive is not just a superficial joy. The verbs that are used here are intense verbs. He says, \"My soul longs and faints.\" The word for faint is literally my body is spent pursuing and going after this because I want this. And it talks about my heart and my flesh and my soul, which means the joy that comes from Christ is something that envelopes our heart, our mind, our body, and our soul. 00:13:40 We don\'t always long or faint for Jesus when you wake up every day, do you? There are always other things that we tend to pursue and get drift away thinking that they will give us joy. We tend to get distracted very quickly. Sometimes can be trivial things like doomscrolling on your social media, when you wake up, when you go down, when you\'re bored, when you\'re sitting, sometimes even at the lights or waiting for your doctor\'s appointment. 00:14:22 But there can be some bigger things that we pursue with vigor, because they tend to promise joy for us, isn\'t it? Maybe more money, more acceptance amidst my friends, maybe finding that perfect life partner, or maybe my children\'s success. If my child gets into this school, I\'ve made it. It was worth me becoming an immigrant and working hard. And that\'s why you work hard. And some of you tell your children, \"I came to this country because you can have a better life.\" 00:15:03 It\'s why I do 90-hour work weeks. You literally are spending yourself because you\'re hoping that, which is a good thing in a sense, that your children will have a better life, but that\'s where if you put your joy in, it can disappoint us sometimes. And in one sense, none of us perfectly long for this joy. 00:15:24 We are so fragile, we are so feeble, and it just takes little things to get us distracted, and we become like a kid in a candy store, wandering around and thinking this toy is good until you find the next one, which is a little more shinier, or another one which is bigger, or you turn and you find your friend has taken this other toy. Going to purchase clothes with your spouses is a good experience. 00:15:56 You know very well what\'s going to happen, especially if you\'re going to purchase a wedding dress like a sari. You go, you walk with them, and I\'ve had this experience with three women in my life. My mom, my sister, and my wife. And there\'s a pattern that\'s always there. You walk in and there\'s this person who shows you a cloth, a couple of saris, and you like it. And then it\'s always the same question: \"Do you have any other colors in this?\" And then he comes and shares more colors. 00:16:34 And then it\'s always the same question, \"Do you have any other designs in this color?\" And it goes for, it depends on who it is. I don\'t want to discriminate and reveal our inside family secrets. They\'ll actually go back and buy that first sari they saw, which would have taken just five minutes. So that\'s what I did when we went to buy for our wedding. I saw her pick the first sari, I said, \"Let\'s just buy it.\" And it works. 00:17:03 Because you always think there is something else that\'s better out there that\'s going to give you joy. So none of us can be like this. But you know who was always pursuing this joy, who perfectly longed for it all the time? It was Jesus Christ. He says, \"I love my Father.\" He longed to go to his father\'s house to prepare a place for us who keep falling and drifting away and chasing after these worldly joys. 00:17:38 He said, if we are in Christ, he will be with us, and through him, we will get to go into our Father\'s house and be with our Father and experience joy. Isn\'t that beautiful? You see how the big idea is flowing out through this? And sometimes we tend to get so caught up in these other joys and we tend to worry. Our joy can be taken away if certain things change in our environment, isn\'t it? 00:18:11 Especially in this current climate of AI and Coming and disrupting, and everyone seems to be in a state of anxiety. Am I next? Is my job on the line next? Is my team going to be laid off next? And even big, established, successful firms are wondering if they are going to be done. And we tend to let our joy be affected by this, but guess what? Even if this firm you work for lays you off, that firm may not be there 10 years from now. 00:18:51 But if you are in Christ and Christ is in you, and if Christ is with you, you and I will be with Him in His Father\'s house, not just beyond 10 years after which this company will not be there, for eternity. Isn\'t that joyful? Isn\'t that more beautiful and glorious? And so you can tell that disruptive technology or your firm, \"Hey, take my job.\" This is not where I\'m going to find my joy, though I try. I have Christ in me, and I have Christ with me. 00:19:27 He will provide something better, not just for this world. He will take me with Him to my Father\'s home forever. So let me ask you by way of application, my dear friends. You don\'t have to tell me, or you could if you want. Turn to the person next to you specifically and tell them one thing that you\'re currently fainting for instead of God. Is it a job offer, perhaps? A relationship status? A metric of success? 00:20:00 And maybe you can bring that in prayer, not as something to feel guilty about, but something to hand over to God and ask God to remind you of Christ in you, who will give you this. And maybe in your dinner tonight, you can ask, what is it as a family we are all anxiously waiting for? Is it that admission in this esteemed university, or better grades or achievements, or maybe a bigger house or whatever it may be? 00:20:36 And surrender that and ask Jesus to fill you with a joy that is unspeakable, as Peter talks about. Secondly, we move on in the Psalm, verse three onwards. There\'s real rest in God\'s presence. It says, \"Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altars, O Lord of Hosts. My King and my God, blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah.\" 00:21:22 White-crowned sparrows, they breed in Alaska or northern Canada, and they\'re known to migrate all the way south into continental United States down to Mexico, potentially traveling thousands of miles each year. There is a small park near our home, Coyote Hills, and if you take one of those trails, you can see there, it\'s called the Pacific Flyway, where birds from South America fly and converge there, and then they take off and fly into Canada and into the Midwest. 00:22:07 So these birds travel a long distance. And Coyote Hills has all these places which are marshlands and waterholes. That\'s where they come to rest. And it\'s beautiful to see. You can go there. It\'s a great family hiking spot. You can see wide species of birds, from very tiny ones, there\'ll be numerous of them, to large birds. 00:22:34 Here, the psalmist is identifying himself to be like one of these birds, and he says, \"Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow,\" which they think is another smaller bird, \"a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.\" Swallow needs a nest to grow a family. And a home, for them, is safety away from predators that provide security and rest after long flights. But what is the key to experiencing rest? The key to experiencing rest is the word that comes in verse four. 00:23:17 It says, \"Blessed are those who dwell in your house.\" That\'s a very strong word. Dwelling is a word which means abiding. What does it mean to dwell in your home? If I ask you, \"Hey, do you dwell in your home?\" You may look at me with, \"What are you even talking about?\" What does it mean to dwell in your home? After a long day at work, most of us look to go back home, and what\'s the draw for you to go? It\'s not the home, right? It\'s, again, the people who are in the home. 00:23:54 And it\'s not just the people in the home. Dwelling, abiding means, it talks of how you relate with those who are in your home. I still remember the day when my children first climbed into my bed and called me Daddy the very first time. The bed in my home is one of our favorite places to hang out. We played a lot of games, especially when they were very small and very little. We invented our own games. It\'s called Fly and Ribbit, and they allowed climbing on me, they allowed jumping on me. 00:24:35 It felt home for them to know that they can do this. They don\'t have to think about anything, worry about anything. They have their father, they have their mother. It\'s home. And we can have that rest again in Christ. He takes us to our Heavenly Father in whom we can find rest, because you don\'t have to work to earn that love. But Christ himself said, \"Even the foxes have holes and the sparrows have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest.\" 00:25:17 And yet, for those of us who don\'t know how to rest, he gave his life away and guarantees that rest to us. Says, \"All those who are weary and heavy-laden, come to me and I will give you rest.\" He himself did not have a place to lay his head, but he takes us to our Heavenly Father if we are in him. We are in fact seated with Christ in the heavenly realms right now. 00:25:59 When we pray, when we kneel down to pray in Him and through Him, we get to enter the Holy of Holies and experience the bliss of being in God\'s presence and enjoying our Father\'s presence anytime, anywhere. This should help us to remind us to stop hustling, to stop grinding, to stop fretting. All of these are celebrated core values in the Bay Area, isn\'t it? Work hard, play hard. 00:26:32 But our soul needs rest, my dear friends, especially in hurried Silicon Valley and any other large metropolitan areas in the world. It\'s the same in New York, in Boston, in Atlanta, in Chennai, in London, anywhere. Dallas Willard had this quote that I read several years ago and it stuck to me. It says, \"Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your lives.\" Are you always running and not stopping or resting? Why is it we hurry? Why is it we like to hustle? 00:27:16 Why is it you sometimes feel guilty if you\'re not working on a weekend? We hurry because we think we have to provide for ourselves. We hustle and do 10 things more than we can actually do, especially if you\'re in school and aspiring to go to college. 00:27:37 I need to take five AP courses, and I need to excel in three sports, and I need to play five musical instruments and do community service, and you crash at the end of the day because you think that\'s what\'s going to give you what you\'re longing and yearning for, and you will never get there. It\'s a sort of a trust and a faith in your own system and your own self. Realizing that will help us rest in Him, and so we don\'t treat the Sabbath day holy. 00:28:15 I\'m going to get into trouble for this, but I\'ve seen this as a family, one of our core values is to try and practice Sabbath rest on Sunday. And it\'s hard. As our daughter is in med school, and they have this quiz every two weeks. They get to take it between Friday till Monday. So because we have this practice of not doing work on Sunday, no matter what, and she continues that, it\'s hard. 00:28:50 When all her friends are partying hard on Friday night and doing fun things on Saturday, she\'s sitting and working hard. And when they\'re all studying and doing their quizzes on Sundays, she\'s at church and being in God\'s presence, and it\'s hard. It\'s a very difficult situation, isn\'t it? But our soul needs rest. So let me ask you, my dear friends, is Sabbath-keeping a luxury that you can\'t afford, you think, in your career? Or do you want to rest? And you can. 00:29:35 You can rest in your faith because Christ has done it all. You don\'t have to bring any good works to earn your Father\'s love. And you can rest when He asks you to rest, because even when you are not working on a Sunday, God is at work. He\'s at work in the world. He\'s working in your boss\'s heart. He\'s working in your company. He\'s working in the results they\'re working hard to produce. 00:30:01 At the end of the day, it is the sovereignty and the providence of God that keeps this world in order, not your hard work or your company\'s choices or your CEO\'s decisions. And so you can rest because guess who? My Father is in charge. He\'s going to take care, and I can just spend time. As a kid, not just jumping on Him and climbing on Him like my kids do, but just coming together and worshiping Him. 00:30:29 And feeding on Him through His word and His sacraments, that just refreshes my soul, and it\'s all going to be okay, isn\'t it? There is real rest in God\'s presence through Christ. Thirdly, there is real strength in God\'s presence. Verse five onwards says, \"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. 00:30:59 They go from strength to strength, each one appears before God in Zion.\" You know the valley of Baca, some commentators say, the word baca means tears or dryness. It\'s a valley of tears, a valley of dryness. Israel is sort of like California, the topography and the weather and all of that. When we go through valleys, and we will go through valleys in life, that can come from, in their case, valleys can dry up. We keep having droughts very often, right? 00:31:42 Every two, three years, we hear, \"Oh, California has droughts.\" And if your main source of economy, if your main culture is agriculture, and if you don\'t have rains, that\'s dryness. It affects your livelihood. And God sometimes allows us to walk through dry seasons in life. Or as farmers in valleys, historically, they were under the target of the Philistines who would raid the farms and take away their herds and their sheep. So there is danger from enemies. And we can feel weak. 00:32:26 Valleys expose our vulnerabilities, our weaknesses. You all remember the story of the Samaritan woman who came to the well dried up and met Jesus, who Himself came to the well because He was thirsty and wanted water, too. But Jesus, when He spoke to the Samaritan woman, and she has been going through valley after valley after valley and trying different relationships that did not work for her. 00:33:00 And when asked, she was deflecting, and she was resorting to religion and theology, and Jesus cut right through it to speak to her heart and offered Himself as the living water. That streams of living water would come when He is in you and in me. When the Spirit is in us. And the same Jesus, when He was on the cross, He was thirsty, but God did not quench His thirst. Yet He knows when He is in us, He quenches our deepest thirst. 00:33:47 Like the Samaritan woman, we tend to seek religion to quench our thirst or achievement to mask it, and it will not. Only Christ will and Christ can. And for those of us who do this, Christ offers the same living water to us. So let me ask you, my dear friends, perhaps you are in a valley right now. But once you cross the valley with Christ in you and Christ being with you and helping you come out of it, it says you go from strength to strength. 00:34:23 The only thing to do when you\'re in a valley is to hold on to this Jesus and not let go of Him. The only thing you can do in your valley is the direction of where you go ought to be towards Christ and not away from Him. And when you do that, He strengthens you, strengthens your inner man. So in your valley, are you going to God or away from Him? Perhaps you can identify one dry valley that you\'re currently going through actively. 00:35:00 Maybe it\'s a job search, or maybe it\'s a breakup you\'ve experienced, or it\'s a diagnosis that\'s troubling you or your loved one, or a season of doubt. Rather than trying to work through it alone or in your own strength, maybe you can reach out to one person who is in the body of Christ, who can come alongside you to pray with you and encourage you. And that\'s how we experience Christ being with us because He doesn\'t leave us alone, and that\'s why we are here as a church. 00:35:35 If you\'re going through a tough time, our human minds will tell us, \"Don\'t seek help. You can do it. Fight it out. Tough times never last, but tough people do.\" No, it\'s a myth. Tough times will last. There is no tough people who ever come out. We are called to go through and weather storms and valleys together as one body, experiencing Christ\'s presence with us through one another, and that\'s one of the reasons we are here as a church. Fourth, there\'s real protection in God\'s presence. 00:36:16 Verse eight and nine, \"O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. Behold our shield, O God: look on the face of your anointed.\" When we face enemies, as I said, in the valley, we\'re often raided by enemies, which could come from losing our jobs or livelihoods, says God is our protection and our support. I know it\'s interesting the name. The psalmist switches to calling God as the God of Jacob. Jacob\'s story is familiar to us. 00:36:57 He was a guy who always thought he can outsmart his way in dealing with life situations. He was good with his words and his quick wits. He was a street smart person, perhaps. And we remember finally, when his life turns around, he was going to meet his brother Esau, from whom he stole his inheritance. All through his life, he failed by trying in his own strength as a deceiver to overcome any obstacle he faced in life. 00:37:30 And sometimes perhaps some of us try that and God lets us and says, \"Okay, let me see how far you think you want to go by your own strength.\" And he waits to see us finally exhausted, say, \"God, I don\'t have strength to take the next step.\" And finally, when he comes to realize he needs God, he prays. And that\'s when the miracle happens. Do we try to fight life\'s challenges with our own strength or do we go to God? But when you are in Christ, Christ faced all our enemies on our cross. 00:38:11 Where are our enemies? Our ultimate enemy, death itself, has been conquered on the cross. And Christ himself taught us to pray our Father. That is what it means, look upon the anointed one. So ask yourselves, my dear friends, where are you currently self-reliant in a way that\'s exhausting you? Perhaps you\'re overworking, over-networking, over-controlling an outcome. Maybe step back and let go and let God, as they say. As a household, perhaps name an enemy you\'re facing. 00:38:52 Is it a financial pressure, a strained relationship, a health concern? And pray about it together this week as a family, rather than only by yourself. And lastly, the psalmist reminds us that there\'s real blessings in God\'s presence. It\'s a beautiful way to end. It says, \"For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 00:39:19 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you.\" This is a famous line. What does he mean by saying, \"For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere\"? The pilgrims who come to Jerusalem have to go back. We can\'t always stay in Lake Tahoe, can we? 00:39:45 They get kicked out on Sunday afternoon, go back down to the valley, Silicon Valley, to your hustle, to your grind. And so there is this natural feeling. And the sons of Korah, their life and bread was singing and leading people in worship, can\'t do that all the time. And so they say, \"I\'d rather stay here than be elsewhere. 00:40:12 I\'d rather be a doorkeeper,\" and they were literally doorkeepers for generations in the house of God, he says, \"than dwell in the tents of wickedness,\" which is go back to the places which are perhaps like Silicon Valley, one of the most godless places in the world, and work amongst people, many of whom do not believe God, who are atheist, agnostic, nuns, whatever it may be. 00:40:36 You may feel like suddenly I\'m surrounded by all these people in a place that doesn\'t look anywhere close to where I was in God\'s presence, but he says, \"No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.\" There is a call for us. 00:40:56 When you experience real joy in God\'s presence, when you experience real strength in God\'s presence, when you experience real rest in God\'s presence, it\'s so that you can take that and go and live a life of integrity for this God in a godless place amidst godless people and taste God\'s blessedness. Now, it\'s very popular these days. 00:41:25 There\'s an exodus of people who leave Silicon Valley and want to go to Texas or Austin or Florida or other places because houses are cheaper and life\'s no pressure and you can chill, and I\'m not against that, if that\'s where God is calling you to do. But you know where is home? Home is where you\'re on mission for God. We didn\'t land up here because you planned and you figured your way. God has brought each one of us intentionally to where you and I are to be on mission for God. 00:42:05 That\'s when you can experience rest. Harry Reeder is a founding pastor of Birmingham, Alabama\'s Presbyterian Church, and he passed away a couple of years ago. I was there at a conference and I heard this story from one of the people he mentored when he was in his prime, and he had a legitimate opportunity to contest in the presidential elections to be the president of America. And he had a great shot at it. He had a lot of support. 00:42:40 And so when people went and asked him, \"Pastor Harry, why would you consider contesting and joining politics and taking part in the elections?\" And he said, \"Why would I leave the best job I have in this world to go and pick some ordinary job like that?\" It\'s not the job that you have or the place that you have that\'s going to give you rest. 00:43:07 When you have figured out the place where God wants you to be, whether it\'s Silicon Valley or New Delhi or Africa or Zimbabwe or Papua New Guinea, or right around your own cubicle in your own space in this Big Five giants, to be on mission, and what is your mission, and you know what that is, and you\'re willing to pay whatever cost that it takes, you\'ll find rest. 00:43:36 And you do that through diligence, through excellence in your work, through demonstrating your life of integrity to the peers around you, and showing them that you have peace, and you\'re not fretting and freaking out every week as they are. And when they see, \"Why does this guy have peace when I\'m freaking out if I have my job next week?\" And you get an opportunity to share that. And you create some amazing products. You\'re at the cutting edge of technology. 00:44:10 God is not just interested in you merely being a witness by sharing the gospel, it\'s also in what you produce. The work of your hands. You have a tremendous potential to create good goods that can serve humanity\'s flourishing. Then you have rest. You may or may not get paid for that. It can happen by being an elementary school teacher in Silicon Valley, or it can be as a product manager, it can be as a software engineer or data scientist. 00:44:44 It is not what you do to make more money that gives you rest. It\'s what you\'re doing to reflect God that gives you rest. And he says, no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. He talks of a person of integrity, not perfection, but someone who wants to integrate all aspects of our life, our faith life, our work life, our family life together. One of the commentators said, \"Who can sing this psalm like this?\" None of us can. 00:45:24 But this is what he says, \"Christ is the one who can both fully sing it and fulfills it. He is both the singer and the one who fulfills every aspect of its song. Christ is both its supreme singer and its treasured subject.\" And that gives us tremendous sense of grace, isn\'t it? I told you who the sons of Korah were. You know what their beginning was? You can go all the way back and read about it in Exodus, in Numbers chapter 16. Their forefather, Korah, was not a godly man. 00:46:11 He stirred up a riot and a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. And Moses called him and those he created a rebellion to come and light their vessels of incense, and he prayed for God to demonstrate his justice. And because of his rebellion, he was swallowed up by the earth. But then you read in Numbers 16:3, the sons of Korah all did not die. Just like Korah, humanity has rebelled against God\'s king. We do not deserve a place in his house. 00:46:53 But the good news is that Jesus left his father\'s house and entered our homelessness. He had nowhere to lay his head. He was rejected outside the city and endured the judgment of exile at the cross. He rose again and opened the way into the Father\'s presence. Through Christ, rebels like you and me, just like Korah himself, can be turned into a worshiper. Some of us are spiritually distracted. You have been trying to make a home out of things that cannot hold the weight of your soul. 00:47:28 So I plead with you this morning, come to God. Come to Jesus, who offers you rest. Some of you are in the valley of Baca. Do not conclude that God has forgotten you. Your valley is part of the road towards a destination. This is not your final address. Draw strength from him one day at a time. Get help from one friend at a time. Pray together with someone one day at a time. Some of you are troubled by what God has withheld. Look again at the cross. The Father did not withhold His Son. 00:48:01 You may not yet understand His providence, but you can trust His heart. In Christ, you have a home in the Father\'s presence. In the valley, you have strength for the journey. In danger, you have a son and a shield to protect you. In loss, you have the promise that no ultimate good will be withheld. At the end of the road, every one of us, as God\'s pilgrims, will appear before Him in Zion. And He will take us home. All we need to do is remember what we said at the beginning of this psalm. 00:48:43 Our soul finds home only, repeat with me if you still remember and are awake. I\'m done. Our soul finds home- Our soul finds home- ... only in Christ- Only in Christ- ... with Christ- With Christ- ... and through Christ