God loves with a redeeming love

This was my talk at Sharper 2021, a Plymouth men’s event for CVM (Christian Vision for Men)

 

Good morning gentlemen, and secret ladies too. I know you’re there!

 

 

I’d like to start by reading a few words from Psalm 103.

 

“Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Psalms 103:1-5 NIVUK

https://www.bible.com/113/psa.103.1-5.nivuk

 

The writer of these words, King David is talking to himself. Something that of course all the best of us do.

 

I talk to myself all the time. Don’t I? Yes you do Ant!

 

In this Psalm David encourages himself to praise God. My soul.

 

Sometimes praising God is not something that seems to come naturally.

 

It was a good thing for David to remind himself of all that God had done for him.

 

These words were written around 1000 years before Jesus, but it as we see what God has done for us through Jesus, that we find their fuller meaning.

 

As Christians we need therefore to remind ourselves of these things, perhaps all the more so when times are tough.

 

We will only have time to look at some of these benefits this morning, and it will be worth you going through these verses again later and even the whole of Psalm 103 in your own time.

 

God calls us with a redeeming love. That is our focus for this short time.

 

Redeeming love.

 

Redemption. A little used word in everyday language.

 

Maybe you’ve had the joy of redeeming your mortgage. Paid in full. That house is all yours.

 

But a quick google search and you will find headlines like these:

 

Football’s 6 great redemption stories.

 

Redemption men: 5 footballers who turned their careers around.

 

Its an old story now, but there is one person who comes up in just about all these lists, like it or not.

 

Another David.

 

David Beckham.

 

1998. This is a particular memory for me. In a holiday cottage in Falmouth, watching England playing Argentina, the Michael Owen wonder goal. Everything looks promising.

 

Until David Beckham is sent off for kicking Argentina’s Simeone. For no apparent reason. Most of us didn’t even notice it happen.

England go on to lose a game on penalties they had looked like winning.

 

Hard to tell whether they lost because of Beckham’s misdemeanour or Sol Campbell’s perfectly good disallowed late goal.

 

But it was Beckham’s actions which haunted me that night. I did not sleep one minute. All I could think “why did he do it?”

 

Even as a Welshman myself, it shook me.

 

I was supposed to be having a holiday. Next day I slept on a chilly Cornish beach.

 

According to the online stories, redemption came for Beckham in October 2001 with his last minute free kick against Greece which saw England into the 2002 World Cup finals.

 

He redeemed himself.

 

The reward I am sure for determination, hard work and a strong mental attitude.

 

When it comes to God, the bad news is we cannot redeem ourselves.

 

But the good news is God redeems us.

 

King David says, “He redeems my life from the pit”.

 

I wonder if you are in a pit this morning, with no apparent way out.

 

You feel trapped. Life is out of your control.

 

A slave to your fears.

 

You can’t get any lower. Nothing else could go wrong.

 

There is no sign of light in your life. There is no joy for you.

 

In truth we have all been there, but many of us listening today have escaped thanks to the redeeming love of God.

 

Redemption means that someone has paid the price of our rescue. It is costly. It involves sacrifice.

 

God is able this morning to lift you from that pit you find yourself in.

 

You see every one of us needs a redeemer. In verse 2 we find the reason. It’s only a small word.

 

Sin.

 

We are all sinners and we all do bad stuff. We might as well be in a pit, because there is no way we can reach out to God. There are no heroics for us to perform. We can’t bend it like Beckham.

 

This time no one is going to redeem themselves. We will always fall short of God’s perfect standard.

 

But the good news is this in verse 2 of Psalm 103:

 

A God “who, forgives sins”.

 

Forgiveness is available from God in order to remove that sin. No barriers between you and God.

 

But David doesn’t just say that God forgives sins. Because you may be thinking, “well I am sure that God forgives sins, but why would he forgive me? How could he possibly care about me?”

 

I’m no one.

 

But David says God “forgives your sins”. He does care about you.

 

But you might still protest, “You don’t know what I have done. If you knew, you would know that God would not forgive me.”

 

But I’m still selling this verse short for David says “he forgives ALL your sins”. There is nothing that he will not forgive if we come to him in repentance.

 

You may even have done time as punishment for your actions.

 

My father spent a lot of time in Dartmoor Prison. In his retirement he became part of the chaplaincy team there.

 

And the reason for that?

 

Because no one, no one is beyond God’s love and forgiveness.

 

And the stark reminder is that King David, who wrote the words of this Psalm, an adulterer and a murderer,  had experienced this forgiveness and redemption for himself.

 

You are in the pit. He lifts you out.

 

But the full meaning of redemption involves a cost being paid.

 

God’s love is a redeeming love and it is such that he pays the price of our rescue.

 

And how does he do this?

 

He comes to our rescue. In Jesus. Prepared to get his hands dirty.

 

Jesus, God himself, pays the price of our redemption. And how does he do that?

 

With his own blood.

 

He becomes one of us.

 

God’s love is a love that acts, as Jesus lays down his life, bearing the punishment for our sin, in moments that we can barely begin to understand, so that I can be forgiven.

 

That I can be a child of God.

 

If we see his hand reaching out to us we need to take hold of it in repentance. Knowing only God can save us.

 

And if we are followers of Jesus this morning, and have experienced his redeeming love for ourselves, then like King David, we need to talk to ourselves.

 

Praise God! Come on!

 

Remember all his benefits. Remember everything that he has done for you. And praise him again.

 

But of course we need to remember we still get it wrong. The Apostle John says if we say that as followers of Jesus we don’t  sin anymore, we never get it wrong, we are only kidding ourselves.

 

And even now, as a believer in Jesus, you may have that feeling of being in  a pit.

 

You’ve lost your way. You’ve messed up. You’ve got it wrong. Your relationship with God is ruined.

 

Hey listen. God still loves you with a redeeming love. He has paid the price of your sin.

 

John again gives us the promise, “if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

You’ve wandered off and your walk of faith has gone backwards. Even in that mess you have made there can be redemption.

 

God reaches into your pit with a hand of redeeming love.

 

Whatever it is you have done.

 

Reach out and take it.

 

God calls you with redeeming love.

 

Price paid.

 

“Praise the Lord, my soul”.

 

Whether for the first time or for the thousandth time this morning, may each one of us have reason to praise the God who calls us with redeeming love.