True Blessedness
St. Andrew’s, Salmon Arm
October 4th, 2026
Lighting the Christ Candle
Welcome and Announcements
Call to worship
Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and shield; my heart trusts in him and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Save your people O Lord, and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever
Hymn: 500 Open my eyes that I may see
Prayer of Adoration
Steadfast God,
as the seasons change, we know you to be ever-constant
and see that you are still at work in the world,
transforming hearts and situations.
You have shown us the true face of love in Jesus Christ,
reaching out with healing and hope to touch desperate lives.
We praise you for your love that works for reconciliation
among neighbours and nations in this divided world.
May we see the face of Jesus as we gather to worship and glorify you today.
Renew our hope by the gift of your Spirit at work among us,
so that we can live to praise you
as one God now and always
with the whole Church that bears the name of Jesus.
Confident of your grace, forgiveness, and empowering, we confess to you our sins:
Prayer of Confession:
Almighty God, you love us, but we have not loved you. You call, but we have not listened. We walk away from neighbours in needs, wrapped in our own concerns. We fail to condemn evil, prejudice, warfare, and greed. God of grace, forgive who we have been, amend who we are and direct who we shall be through Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news! Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ – and Christ died for us; Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us. Believe the good news of the gospel. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven by God’s renewing grace.
Passing the Peace
Hymn: 496 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet
Prayer for Understanding:
Send us your Spirit of wisdom, O God, so that we may hear your Word speaking through the Scriptures with ears that understand and hearts that respond in love. Amen.
Scripture:
Exodus 33: 12-23
Psalm 32
Sermon: True Blessedness
Many people have favorite pieces of scripture and often those portions of scripture are found in the Psalms; like Psalm 23 for example. In spite of the fact that I do not have any particular favorite piece of scripture; I certainly can see why people are drawn to the Psalms. Psalm 32 has caught my attention for a couple of reasons; not only is it blatantly honest and truthful but it also has a lot of the Gospel in it.
Matthew Henry summarized Psalm 32 in this manner: “we have here a summary of; #1 gospel grace in the pardon of sin, in divine protection and in divine guidance and #2 a summary of gospel duty; to confess sin, to pray, to govern ourselves well and to rejoice in the Lord.” Today I have chosen to use this as a general outline for this sermon, but I would also like to point out that psalm 32 is a psalm of instruction, instruction in the nature, of true blessedness.
As was highlighted in Shirley’s sermon last week, that was so well presented by Don; many people today are in the pursuit of happiness and as a result some are left saying; “what must I do to be happy?” The truth of the matter is our happiness, really depends on our being found in favour with God; not in the wealth of this world but rather in the wealth of Spiritual blessings. No one has ever found, or ever will find true happiness or true blessedness, until they first make peace with God.
It seems like many of the attitudes toward happiness in our western world seem to revolve around material possessions. One person I know summed it up this way, he said: “the one with the most toys, when he dies, wins.” Without Christ that is a hollow victory. As a firefighter, years ago I remember being called out to several suicides; on one occasion we arrived at a big new house, with a double car garage, it was full of all the toys, and the victim; perhaps a crushing debt load was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We, as a society, want everything, we want it now, without restriction, we believe we deserve it all, and we will not be satisfied until we have it all.
Paul writes to the Ephesians with words that certainly apply to these attitudes that are so prevalent today. He says in chapter 4: “So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more.”
How do we find happiness? We find happiness in peace with God, through the redemptive blood of His Son, Jesus Christ and the indwelling presence of the Holy Sprit. The Holy Spirit, which produces in us the qualities of happiness, the qualities of blessedness, indeed the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
That is the “good news” that we have been given today, the gospel that is alluded to in Psalm 32. The gospel that Matthew Henry breaks into two parts: God’s part which he calls “Gospel Grace” and our part which he calls “Gospel duty”.
In Gospel Grace we have the pardon of sin. Psalm 32 says: “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him.” God, in his Grace, can and will pardon sin, Psalm 103 tells us: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”. Jesus speaking in Luke said: “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations”.
God, in his Grace takes the matter of dealing with sin very seriously and so should we. That is why it is written: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God”. God’s desire is to pardon our sins, to cover them with the blood of Christ, and to remember them no more. God desires to cloth us in righteousness, a righteousness that is not from ourselves but rather; a righteousness, that is a gift from God, a gift freely given, by his grace and received through faith in Him.
In God’s Gospel Grace we are offered divine protection, many of us have experienced it, certainly the psalmist David had. In verse 7 he proclaims: “you are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance”.
In Exodus we read how Moses had asked to see God’s glory and God had replied that no one can see the face of God and live. Knowing, that is not the answer Moses was looking for, the Lord continued, saying: “there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my Glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand, until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen”.
This is a beautiful example of Divine protection and as I read that passage the thought struck me: if God would place Moses in a cleft in a rock and cover him with His hand, to protect Moses from the Glory of God; how much more will God protect Moses and us, from the evil things of this world. You can almost hear God saying to Moses and to us: “fear not for I am with you as you walk into the unknown, as you walk into the valley of the shadow of death. Be still and know, that I am God”.
Gospel Grace also offers us Divine guidance, verse 8 declares: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will council you and watch over you”. If this were not David’s experience surely, he would not have written it in the Psalms, for all people to see.
In John, chapter 14, Jesus spoke these words to his disciples: “I will ask the Father and He will give you another councillor to be with you forever – the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him or knows Him, but you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans.” God does not leave His people powerless to live a righteous life; “Having believed we are marked in Him (that is Christ) with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His Glory.” (Eph. 1:13)
In Gospel Grace we see the work of the Trinity, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, one in essence; God the Father pardoning sin, Jesus Christ the Son protecting and saving, and the Holy Spirit giving Divine guidance. I remember Larry Viers once comparing the Trinity to a tree, which has three parts: the crown or the branches, the trunk and the roots. Larry said: “the roots are like the Holy Spirit they gather and feed the tree; the trunk is like Jesus it gives strength and support to the tree; and the crown is like God the Father, who is over all and gives the tree beauty. If you take away one, the tree dies, you can’t have a living tree unless it has a crown, a trunk and roots. So, it is with us we must believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in order, to have eternal life; to believe in God alone is not enough, even the devil believes there is a God.
In Psalm 32 David speaks of what Matthew Henry calls Gospel duty, Gospel duty to confess sin. David says: “then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” David makes it clear that forgiveness comes when we are honest before the Lord, when we acknowledge our sin and not cover it up. Verse 2 says: “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.”
Many of us knowingly or unknowingly have the attitude that, God knows my sins and shortcomings so why, should I confess them all. Often, I find myself embarrassed before the Lord to the point of where I simply say; “Lord I have sinned please forgive me”. This is a form of cheap grace; I merely brush over my sin and iniquity and in doing so I deny ownership of it and deceive myself which results in very little repentance and a continual lust for more. Honest confession facilitates dialogue with God via the blood of Christ, which then empowers the Spirit to empower us to move out of a bad place and into a right relationship with the Father and our fellow man. There are however sins that we commit, that we are not aware of and we are told when we honestly confess the sins we are aware of; God is faithful and just and will forgive us from all unrighteousness. David knew what it was like to be weighed down by sin. “My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” Separation from God; have you felt sapped by the weight of sin? Honest confession opens the doors of communication between you and God; after all we have a Gospel duty to pray. David says: “therefore let everyone who is Godly pray to you while you may be found. Surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.”
Billy Graham once wrote: “Many people regard prayer as a venerated tradition. We have no sense of coming to grips with God; we simply use prayer as a formality. Yet how can we go on unless there is a renewed emphasis on prayer? Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put.” That bears repeating; Prayer is the highest use to which speech can be put.
Think about that; the scriptures are full of instances where prayer has changed peoples lives, saved nations, won wars, healed people’s infirmities, raised people from the dead, delivered people from drought and famine. We have a Gospel duty to exercise fervent prayer; in the scriptures we are admonished to pray continually and give thanks in all things. We also have a Gospel duty to govern ourselves well; “we are not to be like the horse or mule which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”
Do we like sinful men boast of our rebellion against God? Are we proud of our errant ways and wear them as adornments for the world to see; like a horse or mule are adorned by the trappings of their degradation; the bridle, the bit and the saddle.
Paul says, “but among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s Holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking which are out of place but rather thanksgiving.”
I believe when we are honest in our confession of sin, and faithful in our prayers, we will be well governed in our behavior and freed to perform our other Gospel duty, which is to rejoice in the Lord, rejoice in God. David tells us to “rejoice in the Lord and be glad you righteous; sing all you who are upright in heart!”
When we have experienced the forgiveness of sin, when we are filled with the Spirit of God, when we are that blessed person, whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered, whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit; how on earth can we contain or withhold our praise to God? How on earth can we not rejoice, how on earth can we not be happy?
Moses questioned God saying: “If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
This morning, I put this to you: It is true happiness, true blessedness which comes only from Gospel Grace and Gospel duty, which comes only when we are found in favor with God, only when His Holy presence is with us, it is that that will mark us and set us apart from all else in the world. Let us not be found wanting; when it comes to True Blessedness, when it comes to Gospel Grace and when it comes to Gospel Duty. Let us hear the Lord answer us as he answered Moses saying: “My presence will be with you, and I will give you rest. I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name.” Amen.
Hymn: 432 O Lord of heaven and earth and sea
Offering and Doxology 830
Offertory Prayer
Generous God, what we return to you today has first come to us from you. Bless what we offer so that those in need may taste your abundance which we know already in Christ, our Living Lord. Amen.
Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
God in whom we live and move and have our being,
each week our prayers join with those of Christians around the world
to seek your healing grace for those in need
and pray for justice and mercy in your fragile creation.
We thank you for the ways in which your Spirit can surprise us,
bringing healing and hope in situations which cause us to despair.
Encourage us when we feel overwhelmed.
God, speak to us a word of hope and
Embrace us with your love.
We remember before you today people living face to face with war and violence,
for the peoples of … Ukraine, & the Middle East
and all those places where ancient hatreds burn.
God, speak to us a word of peace and
Embrace us with your love.
We remember before you today people living with illness and suffering,
for those struggling with disability or waiting for treatment,
and for those who know grief or fear or loneliness
God, speak to us a word of healing and
Embrace us with your love.
We remember before you today people facing discrimination and social prejudice,
for those who are bullied at school, at work, or at home,
and for those who are made ashamed of who they are
.
God, speak to us a word of dignity and
Embrace us with your love.
We remember before you people caught up in economic uncertainty,
those worried for the future, or struggling to make ends meet
God, speak to us a word of reassurance and
Embrace us with your love.
We remember before you today your whole creation in its increasing vulnerability.
Teach us how to care for the rips and tears in the fabric of the world you love
so that all your creatures may live together in health and wholeness.
God, speak to us a word of wisdom and
Embrace us with your love.
We pray all of these things in the name of Christ Jesus who taught us to pray together saying:
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
Hymn: 498 Sing them over again to me
Benediction
Psalm 96
Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to the LORD, all you families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Now may the Love of God, the Grace of our Lord Jesus and the impowering of the Holy Spirit go with each one of us through-out the days ahead.
Blessing Song Go now in peace
Go now in peace. Never be afraid. God will go with you each hour of every day. Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true. Know He will guide you in all you do. Go now in love, and show you believe. Reach out to others so all the world can see. God will be there watching from above. Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
3-Fold Amen