There and Back Again

Let’s open our bibles to Psalm 84. Find with me Psalm 84. Let’ Stand and read it together. (Read Psalm 84 - ESV) And all of Gods people said together, amen. Have you ever been somewhere that you had a hard time leaving and coming home? I would like for you to think back to a time where you’ve gone somewhere, perhaps it’s to a family members house as a kid.

Or, perhaps it’s a destination like Disney, or some other type of vacation you’ve gone on. Now, as your thinking of this place. How did you feel on the last night you were there, knowing, that in the morning you were going to prepare for the journey back home, and back into the life you left behind. Sometimes I’ve gone on vacation and I had an amazing time. But I was ready for my own bed.

I was ready for the comforts that I had bought for our homes that I had to go without for a week. Like those moments you go camping, and you long for your shower. We long for those comforts we have at home. But, What about those times when you’ve went somewhere and had this magical amazing time, and now the night before it sinks in that you’re leaving in the morning, and it becomes this bitter sweet moment of celebrating the joy you’ve experienced, but at the same time your sad that you have to go back to the real world.

Alicia and I would probably say, that was our Puerto Rico experience. Our Puerto Rico experience was so impactful on our lives, that Alicia was trying to find a church for me to work at, a house for us to live and a job so we could just stay and live in Puerto Rico. UNfotnualy, we had to return my mom home and pick up our dogs. But Her experience caused her to desire to stay in this place of joy.

What we find most times, is that when it comes to vacations and our experiences away from our home. The road back home is often a hard one to travel because we long to be back where we were, because we experienced something amazing. And To be honest, I mope a little bit when we begin to head back home. Usually, the car is quiet with the kids passed out in the back.

And I am sitting there driving looking over to Alicia knowing what she’s thinking. Most times, I believe she’s thinking “Why can’t we just live there? Right? When we were leaving family camp this past year, Gabe said to us in the car… we should move here. Most times I believe if it wasn’t for us coming home to get our dogs from the sitter, Alicia might try to convince me to not come home at all and to replant in Cape May or even Puerto Rico.

This is probably the closest many of us will come to understand of what is happening in this Psalm. Because instead of the Psalmist being on vacation. What we’re reading is that they have just experienced an amazing time of worship in the house of the Lord. And it wasn’t just any experience, but it was a joyful one. It was an experience of being in the very presence of God, and they were overflowing with joy.

But, many of us don’t think of worship as joyful. Honestly, a lot of the time we come to church with a vague sense of obligation. Like, I got to go to church today because I’ve gotta teach or I got to do something. It’s like serving in the church has become this obligation instead of an opportunity. It’s no longer, “WOW! I have the opportunity to come to the House of the Lord.

I have the opportunity to be in his glorious presence with others seeking His presence. Or the opportunity to love on others who may not of had a good week, or a worst week than I had and I get the oppomritty to uplift and encourage someone else. We feel like we are supposed to go but we will use whatever excuse we can find not to go. If there is literally anything else that we could do instead, many times we find reasons to do it so we can skip church.

I believe, if we drill down or get to the root of why this is true. What we would find is that many times we show up to church without the expectation of service today being ,transformative. We don’t expect to be changed. And perhaps we do not expect change because we truly, do not want to be changed. One of the first signs of a prideful selfish life? Is a life that says, I can’t grow anymore.

That I’ve have arrived to where God wants us to be. And the danger of this kind of mindset will turn a person from growth, to maintenance. And instead of coming to church, to meet God and to experience Him and His goodness and to grow in relationship wit God and with others, we come to church expecting church to meet us and our needs. Francis chan spoke one time that he had a church member come up to him after service and say, “I just didn’t like worship today, I didn’t like any of the music.

And Francis looks at them and goes, Well Good… because we didn’t come to worship you.” It’s really easy for us to reject change, and comfortably live in maintenance mode. Psalm 84 is encouraging the worshipper to re-center their lives on seeking God and this Psalm begins by doing this in corporate worship, or in the temple, or as we would say, at church. Really this Psalms begins by showing us how important it is to gather together for His strength in corporate worship.

And we know that God’s presence and activity are not confined to any one place, whether it be a temple or a church, or whatever, but what is remarkable about when we gather for worship is that God’s inspiration flows from the places where he is more obviously found. That is why in Hebrews 10:25, we are told not to forsake the assembly of believers. We need worship. It reboots our lives and keeps us pointed in the right direction and running forward towards the prize set before us.

So, how do we leave a place where we undeniably come to worship and meet God but head back out into the real world where life happens and the atmosphere in our life can be harsh and unforgiving experiences? Well the Psalmist teaches us that we “Must Dig blessings out of the Harsh Conditions of our Lives.” Look with me in Psalm 84 verses 5. 5 “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” The worshipper realizes that as he leaves the temple that he isn’t leaving the presence of God.

God’s presence is going with him and giving him strength. Get this: His body is full of the strength of God. Meaning I am physically able to do what God is calling me to do. Blessed are those who’s strength is in you he writes. And why am I doing it? Because His mind is full of the remembrance of his time in the Temple. He’s been changed. God impacted his life and he has worshipped, and God’s presence is changing him and he doesn’t want to be who he once was.

But he knows that going back into his old life, he’s going to experience the harshness of life. Right? How many of you would love your church walk to be the same as your home walk! We’re so much more confident when we are in church. We’re much more prone to worship and pray and read our Bible and mingle with a christlike hearts at the temple, at church… but that hardly ever carries over into our private life.

So what does he do? Well, here is the key… he creates wells on the ways home and where he lives. Now watch this.. he’s leaving and heading back home. He’s going through the Valley of Baca… Verse 6 says, As they go through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. Baca means two things. No it’s not some hillbilly slang for Levi Garret or Copenhagen…

It either means a shrub that withstands the harshness of dessert life. Or it means weeping. So, as he journeys away from the temple and he walks in this what? This valley of harshness and weeping…. he realizes that going back into his old life can be sad, full of weeping and he also finds it to be spiritually dry and harsh. Like, why can’t my worship at home be as vibrant and amazing as it was at the temple.

So, In the midst of this dryness and weeping, the presence of God that has gone with him from the temple calls him to dig wells. He makes it a place of Springs, meaning he’s going to need to dig these springs where he lives. We learn that Springs and wells are places of presence. God met Hagar at a well. Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at the well. They are places where we are gaining strength.

And for those two ladies, they gained more than strength, they gained God’s presence. Many communities would built cities around the well. It was a community meeting place. But here’s the thing.. wells don’t just dig themselves. They require planning and hard work. And perhaps that’s why many christians experience Spiritually dry spells when they leave for home after worship. Have you ever heard the phrase.. I come to church to get filled up for the week.

or I come to mid week services to get refilled? Every time I hear that phrase, my heart breaks. I get sad because, I personally don’t need to come to church to get filled. I’m filled all week long. Most Christians only experience a deeper relationship here, at church, because this is the only well they draw from in their life. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying church is useless…

because in Psalm 84, although God calls him to dig spiritual wells, he still longs to be in the house of the Lord. As should we. We should be longing to be in church. Because this well is refreshing, and cool, and kind, and where we worship with our community and it should be where we draw others in. But the biggest problem with todays Christianity is that the only time most Christians drink from the well is on Sunday morning in church.

The problem is, is when sometimes we say things like, I need church, or a mid week service because I need to fill up. If that analogy is true, then the problem isn’t you’re running dry throughout the week. The real and more deeper problem is, is that you haven’t built wells where you live. You’re leaving church and going out in the dry and parched land, and perhaps with hearts singing…

wow what an amazing worship service.. wow what an amazing word form the pastor. and then as you walk this world, you’re becoming weary because there’s no wells in your home, or at your work, or where you take your kids to activities. Because if there was, You’d be filled and overflowing all the time. I sense the greatest problem with our culture today is that our homes, our jobs and where we do life are actually places that are shallow with fakes wells.

We have scriptures on our walls as decoration, we have bibles laying around our house, we have everything we need for our homes to look like this amazing well of God, but it’s actually just a hole in the ground with some bricks to look nice. We can’t draw living water form imitation wells. When I was kid, my mom took me to the dollar store and there was this trumpet.

Now, growing up, I was a boy scout. And I saw this bugle at the dollar store and I begged my mom for it. I wanted it sooo bad, and I was already telling her how I was going to play with it, and practice and how awesome it would be to use it at boy scout camp. But she wouldn’t let me have it. She said no because my mother said, it was fake.

It was an imitation bugle. And I was like no.. it’s real mom. Finally I broke her down and she gave me the money to go in and get it.. but guess what… it was just a wall decoration. Even if I had bought it… I could only use it as a decoration. Real music comes from a real bugle. And it the same with wells… real living water only comes from real life giving sources.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not talking about literal wells. I’m taking about So he does two things and it has a result. Highway to God and Builds wells. And the result is growth. Have you ever heard the phrase.. I come to church to get filled up for the week. or I come to mid week services to get refilled? I believe that statement is one of the worst theological statements a christian can believe.

If you are born again Christian, with the indwelling presence of Christ within you, we’ve got to stop this whole idea that church is a filling station. You wanna know why people feel drained and they believe that they are filled up per say at church? They feel this way because at church, it’s the only well in their life they ever draw from. I sense the greatest problem with our culture today is that our homes, our jobs and where we do life are actually places that have no wells or imitation wells.

Wells draws people in. And someone can even say, well what about church? Can a church dry up… you bet.. you wanna know how? Churches become ghost towns because the wells of the people attending that church have dried up. It’s been capped off, the water no longer is fresh living water, but it’s stagnant. It needs stirred and it needs fresh living water to pour into it. When a church goes into maintenance mode instead of mission mode.

It because a dry well. Communities can’t thrive off of wells that are stagnate, bitter or empty. So how do we dig wells? Well first it’s by prayer. Oswald chambers wrote: “The purpose of prayer is to reveal the presence of God, equally present at all times and in every condition.” Prayer is what saturates the soul in God’s presence. It’s where the mouth of this living water begins. Our wells at home and at work and out in the community will always be dry if we’re not bathing ourselves in prayer.

Second, by faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” When I think of faith I think of the hard work of digging wells. The water, or perhaps gods presence many times isn’t always seen, until we do the work. Living faith is faith that is active and moving. Dead faith is faith that is just that… dead. Thirdly, trust.

The Psalmist closed this Psalm by saying, “O Lord of host, blessed is the one who trust in you.” True Worshippers are called dig blessings out of the harsh conditions of life so that others can gather to experience the life giving presence of Jesus. So what happens when we pave highways and we dig wells in our homes and communities and we lead people to church. Well, look with me for my final thought…

Verse 7.. they go from strength to strength each one appears before God in Zion. When I first read this I thought it was saying, when you leave the temple, you create highways and dig wells so you can go from well to well to gain strength. And ya know… that could be true. BUt strength to strength means this… It means to becoming *