Havensville Christian Church

06/07/2026

Many people believe that emotionalism is the foundation of worship, but as we saw last week, true worship praises God! From the first few verses of Psalm 135, Pastor Ora Martindale gave us three objective reasons we have to praise God. Firstly, He is good; secondly, He gives us pleasure; and thirdly, because He has chosen those of us in Christ as His own! Last Sunday, we added three more reasons to praise God. “I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” Psalm 135:5-6. We can praise God because He is the one all-powerful God, in control of humankind and all of creation. God can do anything but fail! He has shown us His power in the plagues on the Egyptians and the conquering of Canaan for His people, and later in His son, who conquered sin and death for us! How God handled the Israelites gives us a fifth reason to praise Him, that even in our rebellion against Him, He still cares for us! God will never leave or forsake us! The next verses show the stupidity of idolatry and worshiping something besides the Lord. “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” Psalm 135:15,18. As idols are nothing, worshiping them will only degrade you. The last reason shown here that we have to praise God is that He works in His people’s lives, like He did with Levi, Aaron and their descendants, just as He does with ours. As always, learn more in Pastor’s May 31st sermon, available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Kw8cCEMQVmU?si=hMDOdEwT8ZcZctwr

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05/30/2026

“Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.” Psalm 135:3. The essence of worship is praising God. That is the conclusion the writer of Psalm 135 makes, drawing support from six other places in the Old Testament. This passage gives us rational, objective, useful, strong, and lasting reasons to praise the Lord, not emotional ones. Everyone who has eternal life, through faith in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross should worship God. Many don’t however, often letting hurt from the church, or emotions, get in the way. In Heaven our worship will be made perfect, being the greatest and most awesome thing that we will do! We can be thankful towards God in all circumstances, because He is the One who has given us life and sustains us; every physical and spiritual blessing comes from Him! The Lord is good and works all things to our good, we have no reason not to praise Him! It is when we take our eyes off Him and begin to fear the things around us that trouble comes. The world focuses its attention on the stuff around us, but we should really give our attention to the One who created it all; true pleasure comes from worshiping God! We have no reason to fear, through faith in Christ we are God’s chosen; we will always be His! God calls Israel His treasured possession. We too are His treasured possession! The Lord has proven Himself as the one true God, greater than any of man’s gods; why not worship Him?! We have many more reasons to praise God, see some of them in Pastor Ora Martindale’s full sermon on this section of Psalm 135, available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/vJGS2qekn7I?si=EYLOcWz4ldLxyzUQ

05/24/2026

Last Sunday in our worship, we went over the last of the ascents psalms, Psalm 134. These were songs that the Israelites would sing on their way to Jerusalem, to prepare themselves to worship the Lord. Throughout human history, all of mankind has worshiped something, because God has created us to know Him. But as man went astray, they looked to their own devices and ideas for what and how to worship. True worship is an intimate relationship with God, with the word worship meaning “to kiss face to face”. These psalms give us principles that teach us the proper way to worship the living God! By confessing our sin we clear our hearts for worship, by recognizing that Jesus’ sacrifice has taken our sin away. This idea is found in the first psalm of ascents, Psalm 120. Next, we see what our number one priority should be, the One we are to worship, the Lord! For Jews the proper place to worship was Jerusalem, for us it is in our soul, with the help of the Holy Spirit and His Word. Humility is the proper attitude to have in worship, for God is merciful to us. Our future is secure; because we are in God’s hands, we are to have hope and trust Him! The blessings God has in mind for us are unimaginable! If we fear God, we will never fear anything else. God is in control; the strongest form of trust we can show is to wait on Him! We should remember it is not what we can do for God, rather it is what he does for us! Last week we saw that we are to have peace with fellow believers. Knowing all of this, we should worship the Lord with praise, giving Him thanks in all situations for what He has done and will do for us! “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.” Psalm 134:2. See more final thoughts from Pastor Ora Martindale on the ascents psalms and Psalm 134 in last Sunday's sermon, available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/pyjfLY1XSDA?si=UdD_5QqZS9Gn1qxK

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05/17/2026

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1. This is a tough statement from God’s Word! Unfortunately, some believers don’t get along, but the Christian life is not meant to be walked alone! Throughout the scriptures God commands His children to come together to worship. It’s hard to worship alone; believers who come together can encourage, help, and teach one another, providing for one another’s spiritual growth. Of all the problems the Corinthian church had (which were many), the first Paul addressed was their disunity. And in the list of sins in Proverbs that God hates most is a person who stirs up conflict. Jesus gives us a picture of how we are to get along in the Gospel of John, when He takes on the position of a servant and washes the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper, just after they were arguing who was the greatest in God’s Kingdom. God’s command to us is to love one another, with the key being to stay in His Word, which unites us. Just as God’s love is the key motivator of His character, everything we do is to also be done out of love! From 1 John- “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:11&16. If we want to do what is beautiful and refreshing in God’s eyes, we should get along with believers who are hard to get along with! “For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” Psalm 133:3b. See more from this short but powerful psalm in Pastor Ora Martindale’s full sermon, available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Dh-AOJOSKjs?si=C0YPBg9OvFrn0DFh

05/09/2026

Psalm 132 continues the series of songs of ascents that have been the focus of our Sunday worship, led by Pastor Ora Martindale. This psalm speaks of King David and the promises made to him, and of Jerusalem and the Lord’s plans for it. King David was called a man after God’s own heart. Though David was the least of his brothers, made mistakes, and failed miserably at times, it was still David that God continually chose to use, because David had God’s Word in his soul. After conquering the Jebusites, David desired to make their city Israel’s capital and the dwelling place for the Lord by bringing the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle there. God blessed David’s work by establishing Jerusalem as Israel’s worship center, making it the place all Israel was required to go to worship the Lord! “For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.” Psalm 132:13-14. God also blesses David by promising David that one of his descendants, who we know as Jesus Christ, will reign on his throne forever! David desired to build the Lord a house in Jerusalem, but it was here the Lord drew the line. Because David was a man of blood, a warrior whose job was to protect the people of Israel, God chose David’s son Solomon to build His Temple. We must be careful not to assume our will is God’s will and instead keep in His Word and align our will with His. Both we and David will serve the Lord in our resurrection bodies during the Millennium, learn more about this time and God’s promises to David in Pastor’s full sermon on Psalm 132, available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/I4GZqW02Zc8?si=aPCOPQOMGW4r97wM

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05/02/2026

Psalm 131 is a song by David about having a humble attitude before God. This song helped prepare the Israelites for worship and was included in their songs of ascents. “My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.” Psalm 131:1. Though David held the highest position of authority in Israel and was considered their greatest king, David himself was determined not to let his heart be proud. Even his son Solomon, considered to be the wisest man to ever live, acknowledged where true wisdom comes from (God’s Word) and where pride leads (destruction). In our own lives, if we were determined to learn everything there is to know, even if we read one book every day of our lives, we would read less than one percent of the books in the Library of Congress! We have nothing to brag about, there is always someone out there who can do our job better than us, but we should do our job to the best of our ability, to the glory of God! Having haughty eyes is the original sin of the devil, who thought he could elevate himself above God. This thinking led to the theory of evolution, which says we are accidents with no hope. But God says we were created for a purpose, with Heaven to be gained! We, His creation, are in no place to judge God, and strive for great earthly gain in vain. Instead, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, we are to find satisfaction in our lot. Like a weaned child, we should be content and put our hope in the Lord! There is much more to see in Pastor Ora Martindale’s full sermon on this short psalm, available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/hpQn1lBHPnc?si=0ChKLoPJ6Q84bFx5

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04/25/2026

There are some things in life that overwhelm us, and that is where Psalm 130, this week’s psalm, begins. “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.” Psalm 130:1-2. The burden here is sin and the guilt that’s left behind and felt before God. This psalm is a song of ascent and a repentance psalm; part of worship is recognizing that we are sinners that need a savior and that it is only God who can take away our sin. No amount of money or good works will free us from the slave market of sin, but Jesus has paid the price for us on the cross! “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.” Psalm 130:3-4. When we confess our sins the Lord is faithful and forgives them, and they will never be brought up again. It is not sin that sends someone to Hell, only the rejection of Jesus Christ as their Savior! We all face troubles in life, some of which strike deep into our innermost being. When we face these struggles, where do we turn? This psalmist makes the right choice, by taking their problems to the Lord! The Lord, the Creator of the universe, is the only one who knows how to solve every problem we will ever have. When we put our problems in the Lord’s hands He will grace us out; He will always take care of His children! Waiting for the Lord is the strongest form of trust in Him that we can show, but we don’t wait by idly standing by; instead, as the psalm says, we read His Word and put our hope in it! See more from this powerful psalm in Pastor Ora Martindale’s full sermon, available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/GoOPq6dy0rg?si=TehkcrT_t22W7Rux

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04/19/2026

The songs of ascents were joyful, yet serious songs that the Jewish people would sing as they were on their way to the Temple to worship. Psalm 129 is one such song, a victory song for Israel, that though no other nation has been persecuted more than Israel, God has preserved them! “‘They have greatly oppressed me from my youth,’ let Israel say; ‘they have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory over me.’” Psalm 129:1-2. From their time of slavery in Egypt, to persistent oppression from ancient enemies surrounding the Land, being conquered once by the Assyrians and Babylonians, later being destroyed and scattered throughout the nations by Rome, Israel faced constant attack from other nations whose goal was to eliminate them. This has continued into modern times, though Israel has not always had a nation with borders, the Jewish people have still faced persecution from many. Martin Luther believed that if the oppression of the western church was lifted off the Jewish people that they would come to Christ, but when they didn’t, he became a great hater of the Jewish people. From that time on hatred for Jewish people was promoted from the pulpit, setting the stage for the Holocaust. That hatred for the Jewish people still exists; though the USA is pro-Israel today, we see from Bible prophecy that this will not always be the case! Eventually the Anti-Christ will come and make a peace treaty with Israel, which they will gladly accept, but ultimately the nations of the world come together against Israel, bringing on the end of human history. This hatred of the Jews exists because Satan does not want God to fulfill his promises to the Jewish people! See more about how God keeps His promises in Psalm 129, and Pastor Ora Martindale’s full sermon available on his YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Kx0TAeZB5hA?si=ZYyvRPHTrl3uoZuD