77. Find Yourself a “Vista Point”

0:00Beppe come new, get 10 minutes of spiritual formation every weekday with John Orberg. This is a just a point. It is called that because sometimes when you're traveling on the road, just like sometimes when you're going through life, it's so easy to be so caught up and where am I going in my head as someplace else that I forget to pause and look at where I am and see there's an incredible beauty here and I'm unbelievably fortunate blessed to be in this space. So I'm pulling off today so that you can have a vista point in your day and I can too. We're learning how to do this from the Psalms, how to step back and take a look at our lives from a different perspective and in the Psalms above all, above all, above all, it's a perspective of looking at our life. There's a car right there. There may be a few more. Perspective of looking at my life from the point of view where I'm expecting God to

1:04be present or I'm troubled or disoriented because he's not or I'm repentant because I'm aware of the fact that I need him or I'm asking for his help. And today, the vista point is an invitation to look at beauty and to cry out for joy. So this is a Psalm that is one of my favorites. It's the first one that I ever learned and it's Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands. I love that language. That's from the old King James translation, partly because it's calling on lands. Now that includes, I assume people, the nation so far beyond Israel. So that's a wonderful thing. But it's also kind of calling on the earth. All you lands and lands were a beautiful thing and the ocean is beautiful. And the Psalm says now, everybody, I want you to make a joyful noise. And part of what I love about that also is anybody can make a joyful noise.

2:04This Psalm in this line of particular makes me think about my dad. My dad was not a particularly musical person. He played the trombone but would not say that he played it well. When he sang, he would kind of parody himself because he didn't think he had a particularly good voice. To tell a story might have been true that when he was in grade school, back in those days, they would make students sing the national anthem. And that his teacher said to him, yeah, why don't you just say it, John? He would sometimes sing to us a song when it was time to wake up in the morning and the first line, which is about the only one I need to repeat, would go, good morning to you. And he always sang it kind of like a moose in pain might sound. But it always meant my dad was experiencing a sense of joy and well-being and it made me kind of happy. And it makes me think you might feel like only a trained person would be able to make a beautiful noise. But it doesn't say beautiful noise. It just has a joyful noise and you can do that all in lands and we're invited to do that.

3:09Make a joyful noise all the lands. So as you go through the day to day, how can you make a joyful noise? You just look around and saying, wow, maybe singing, maybe saying thank you, God. Make a joyful noise all you lands. Come into his presence with singing, into his courts with praise. The invitation today is to look at, there is much wonder, much goodness in life, including just the beauty of the earth. And then this is another day where my mind is working relatively and my body is working relatively and my heart is beating and I have friends that I can talk to you and I have thoughts that I can think, I have places that I can go, I have good works that I can do to be grateful for this. And then it goes on, no. So I'm thinking about the verbs in this song, make a joyful noise.

4:09But then, no, what should I know? What's important for you to understand today? Know that the Lord He is God. Now this is spiritual reality 101, there is a God, it is not me. The Lord He is God. It is He that has made us and not we ourselves. Oh, words, you have been created by God. God has made you and whatever your gifts, deficits, age, limitations, abilities, God made you. And God is well pleased that you exist, that I exist. God is well pleased that you are you and that I am me. Know that He has made us and not we ourselves. We are not self-made people. We're the products of a master craftsman. And he's pleased with this work. I read in the last week or two about a guy, a true story guy who will often go to thrift

5:12shops and look for little treasures that other people have not recognized. And quite recently, he went into, it was either a good, well salvation army place, something like that. And in a bin, somebody had just placed a lakeers jersey. It was available for $3. So he bought it for $3. It had the name Chamberlain on the back of the journey. Jersey. Wil Chamberlain. Oh my gosh, that guy is riding the bike. Good job, buddy. Keep going. Man, that's a joyful noise. So the name Chamberlain on the back. As you know, if you're a basketball fan, Wil Chamberlain, unbelievably gifted basketball player, average 50 points a year and a single season, just iconic, it turns out not only was his name on the back of this jersey, he had worn the jersey, guy that bought it, got it authenticated. And Wil Chamberlain wore it in a playoff game against the New York Knicks back in the 1970s. So the guy ended up selling it for $90,000, bought it for three bucks, sold it for $90,000.

6:20It was in the discard bin, but it was a treasure. And here's the truth about you. No, we're as people. It is he that has made us, not we ourselves. You did not make you. You are not self-made, so no room for hubris in it, but you are made by God. And so there's no room for despair. You have no business running yourself down and trusting yourself. You are the product of a master craftsman. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Now, of course, the pastures where a sheep would live, where a sheep would be nourished, where a sheep would find and a food to eat and enough water to drink and a safe place to rest. Where do you live today? You live in his pasture. We are the sheep of his pasture. Where we are today is the place where God will meet our needs today to do what God is asking us to do today. Here is people, the sheep of his pasture.

7:20And then serve the Lord with gladness. Come and do His presence with singing. And so I got an email today on the family thread. My wife wrote about how I'd been gone. Our dog did a very bad thing in a kennel. And she said it was just a bad mess. It's going to be a mess for me to clean up. So I wrote and said, don't worry about it. I will take care of it. And I thought I can do this with gladness. I can serve with gladness. And then she wrote back and said, thank you so much, honey. That's a real act of love and set a picture of what our dog had done. And it was a much more file thing than I had thought. So serving the Lord with gladness is going to take a little bit of attitude work on my part. But I can do that. It's only temporary. Other people are facing way worse stuff than that. Serve the Lord with gladness. So here's the deal today. Salmon hundred vista point. Just pause for a moment. The earth is God's creation. It's a real good thing. There's so much to be grateful for. And this perspective, make it joyful noise sometime today. Sing something.

8:21Say a while. Say thank you. Remember, it is he that has made you, not yourself. You're not self made. You're a treasure. Even if you feel like you've been in the discard bin, serve the Lord with gladness. That's the vista today. So today, let's make a joyful noise. What is your joyful noise sound like? For me, I'm a musician and I love to sing. And everyone in my family will tell you if you're around him, he's always whistling or singing or humming something. And I'd say most often that's my joyful noise. I just love to sing and I love to sing out to God. Sometimes I just make up my own song. By the way, we have another podcast called Formation Podcast where John sits down with guests to talk about their field of expertise. And recently he sat down with Johnny Erickson Tata. If you don't know about her story, I'm not going to explain it now.

9:23But she said, sometimes I just sing to God and make up my own song. And I really related with that. But back to my question, how do you make a joyful noise to God? Do you want to let out a Yelpa scream, a Woohoo, you sing? Do you give an affirmation verbally to somebody else or even just say, yay God. What's your verbal expression of joy and praise? We love to know. I'm Tim, Channel Host here of Become New. We're an on-profit and all these resources are completely for free. One new resource to let you know about is John wrote a book called Steps Recently and we created a master class to go along with that book. You can find more information about it at stepsguide.com. We're really proud of the product that we created. Those videos are completely for free for you to use with a group, a friend as an individual. But we hope that it helps you in your journey with Jesus. Thanks again for joining us today.

10:23Be blessed.