Church In The Valley - Ontario Ranch Campus

We classify a number of psalms as royal, in that they concern either God as King, or the human king. For our purposes, we will only consider a psalm royal on that basis if the content indicates that the king is the speaker. We should point out that hymns, laments and other psalms may also be categorized as royal, so this type is a rather overlapping category.

Many psalms look back to the past, particularly to the great acts of God's redemption. They acclaim God's enduring love by remembering his creation of the world, his redemption at the exodus, and his establishing them in the land of promise.

Laments are songs of disorientation, sung by those who are in distress. Laments do not just express the distress of the person who suffers, but also begins to minister to that person my moving them towards a more positive attitude towards God and life.

A few psalms contain divine oracles, and often these psalms are called prophetic, on the assumption that a prophet connected with the sacred centre uttered the oracle on behalf of God. Thus, rather than prayers to God, like the majority of psalms, or even exhortations to the congregation on behalf of the worship leader, God is the speaker of most of these psalms.

Psalms of confidence are recognized primarily by the psalmist's expression of trust in God even in the face of opposition.

Thanksgiving songs are similar to hymns in their joyous expression, but they cite an earlier lament that God has answered. Westermann famously spoke of thanksgiving as narrative psalms of praise, as opposed to descriptive psalms of praise, in which 'the deliverance from danger is recounted'. Thus, with Thanksgiving, we complete the cycle with a song of orientation.

Many psalms share language, concepts and concerns of wisdom literature (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Songs). When such similarities pervade a psalm, we classify it as a wisdom psalm.

Hymns are songs of joy, intended for those occasions when life is going well. The composer of a hymn and those who sing it are happy with God, their fellow worshippers and themselves.

Psalms means to make music or to sing praise. It is also a prayerbook for God's people.

Trust in the Lord and fear of the Lord are the beginning of wisdom. In the Old Testament the fear of the Lord was the attitude that brought protection, wisdom (Proverbs 9:10) and many other blessings. In the New Testament, receiving Christ as Savior and Lord is how we begin to fear God. Whoever chooses to walk with Jesus Christ has found the key to life and success (as opposed to destruction and failure). Ounce yield to Christ as Lord, we must dig in and begin obeying the Scripture (John 8:31-32) to stay on the path to freedom.

The Nabal fool is a predator. If given the choice between a win-win or win-lose situation, they will choose win-lose every time. They prey on unsuspecting people. It is important to us to live in the reality that Predators exist. In this message we will answer the following questions about the Predatory Way fool... 1. What is the Predatory Way (Nabal) Fool? 2. What do we do if we are this type of fool? 3. How do I relate to this type of fool at home, or at church, or at work?

This Mother's Day we will look at the Profile of a wise woman in Proverbs 31.

The Halal fool is dangerous. They are arrogant in their push to gain status in a group. And they don't want the status to serve the group. They want the status to serve their desire for glory. In this message we will answer the following questions about the Glory Way fool... 1.) What is the Glory Way (Halal) Fool? 2.) What do we do if we are this type of fool?

An extreme version of the stubbornly self centered person is the Cakal. This person has a reckless lifestyle. The Fun way fool needs to yield to Christ and learn to yield to the "control" of the Holy Spirit.

There are 5 profiles of fools that emerge from studying the Hebrew words that are translated to fool in English. The second profile we are looking at is the My Way Fool. The My Way Fool (E'viyl in Hebrew) is committed to selfishness ('ivveleth) uses control to get what they want.

The first profile we are looking at is the Easy Way fool. The Easy Way Fool (Keciyl in Hebrew) is committed to selfishness ('ivveleth) in order to do the least amount of work as possible.

Introduce that our hearts are SAD (selfish, arrogant and damaged). Present the story from Creation to Christ along with past and present ways that the world says the cross of Christ is folly. Then, introduce the fools that we will look at in this series.

Habakkuk recounted the faithfulness of God to the people of God. In this message, the aim is to encourage you to develop your personal history of God's powerful presence in your life so you can take joy in the salvation of God. Hence, as not being dependent on circumstances for joy and inner peace.

To be encouraged to not jump to the wrong conclusions about what God is doing in history and our own lives. Trust Him and rely on His Word to sort it out. Live by faith, and not like the people in the world around you.

Encouragement to go directly to God and ask Him questions. Also, to learn how the law of God is the basis of a stable society and be encouraged to live based on God's Word.