Summer of Psalms: Part 3

Summer of Psalms: Part 3 - A Holy Synopsis

PSALM 103

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in our Psalms. I love being in the Psalms. Sometimes in life and sometimes at church, we're constantly learning new things Sunday after Sunday. And that's good. But there's also such incredible value to returning to something familiar, something comfortable. And so I just love that we come back usually every summer to Psalms. And it's so good to be hearing these themes that, again, we hear year after year. But it's so good to be washed over by the truth of God's character and to hear of His love, His goodness, His justice, and His compassion again and again and again. And so I pray that you guys are enjoying this series, and that it is refreshing and rejuvenating for your souls.

As to why we're in our specific passage this morning: this summer for kids' ministry, we sent out a reading list. So all the kids could read five chapters a week from Genesis to Revelation. And, you know, for the younger ones, they don't have to read; maybe their parents can read or a sibling can read to them. But by the end of the summer, they'll have read a lot of chapters—I think over 50 chapters, which is amazing. And if they do it, they get an In-N-Out gift card. So there's a little incentive there. Yeah. And so our family, sometimes we've been reading it before bed. The girls are in bed and then I'll read whatever passage it is for that day. And sometimes we've been a little bit behind, so I've had to read a lot in one night to keep up. And I have one daughter who's at the age of trying to do anything to stay up later. So it's, you know, like, "Oh, I didn't get my drink of water." Okay. "Oh, you know what? I didn't put that toy away." Oh, you want to put the toy away now? Okay. Yeah. Go for it. And then sometimes when we're reading, she was like, "Can you just read it again and again?" And who am I to say we're not going to be reading Scripture for, you know, two or three times? So this one night we were on Psalm 103 and she just kept asking for me to read it again. And as I was reading it three or four times that night, I was just hit with like, I love this passage. It's such a good psalm. And I was struck with just how great of a little synopsis this is of God's character.

Some psalms focus in on one characteristic of God. And I love those. Those are really good. But I just loved how general this one is. Such broad strokes of who God is. And I love that my daughters were hearing all these things about God in this one chapter. Some of the things are easy to grasp, that God is a loving God. Okay, we can understand that. And some other things we may need to wrestle with a little bit. How is God this? How is God that? David, the author of our psalm this morning, hits on God's forgiveness, God's character, His steadfast love and covenant faithfulness, and even a very famous passage from the Old Testament, God's quote about Himself. And so I'm excited to dive into this psalm with you this morning. And we're going to go ahead and read. If you want to turn in your Bibles there, it'll be on the screen as well. And as I read this aloud, I just want you to have this question going through your mind: Who is God? And then as you read or as you listen, just see how much of this psalm answers that question. I want you all to think, who is God? All right, I'm going to go ahead and read Psalm 103. It says, "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. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not accuse nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed; He remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children's children, with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will. Praise the Lord, all His works everywhere in His dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul."

Would you pray with me one more time? Heavenly Father, thank You for Your word. And we do praise You, God, for who You are and what You've done. And God, I pray that through Your truth this morning, we would be encouraged, that we'd be empowered to live for You as we go about our days to give You all the praise. So we pray this in Your holy name. Amen. All right. The question: who is God? Did you guys feel like that psalm provided enough of an answer? There's probably a list that you were forming of all these things about God. And I just want to go section by section and kind of break it down a little bit more.

So the first section, verses 1 through 5, David begins with blessing Yahweh and extolling His character. And by the way, if you are newer to the faith and you hear me say Yahweh, that is the Hebrew word for God in the Old Testament. So I just have this little habit of saying Yahweh when I see it in the Old Testament. So do not be confused. Yahweh, God, the same thing. But David begins with blessing Yahweh, the self-instruction, telling himself, praise God. And I think it's similar. I was thinking of what I do now, what seems like every morning, which is I have to tell myself to get up. I do not want to get up. I am tired, and I'm sitting there, and I hear my alarm, and I'm literally telling myself, you have to get up. You need to get up. And I think it's similar to that. Do I feel like getting up? No. Do I want to? Not at all. But I should. I know I need to. And it's the same here. We praise God for who He is. Do we always feel like praising God? No, probably not. Do we always want to praise God with wherever we're at in life? No. But we need to. I like this self-talk: "My soul, all my inmost being, all of who I am, praise God. Praise His holy name. Forget not all His blessings." All of who we are, from our physical bodies and what we do with our body to our inmost being, our thoughts and our feelings. All of who we are, from our head to our toes, praise God. And don't forget a single one of His blessings, or some translations say benefits.

Verses 3 through 5 have this list of God's blessings or benefits. He forgives our sins. Every single one. We'll get some more of that in just a bit. He heals our diseases. Every single one, either here or in heaven. He redeems us from hell. He saves our lives. He crowns us with love and mercy. A heavenly crown. He wraps us in His goodness, this eternal beauty. And He renews our youth. We're always young in His presence. Now, I don't mean like in an ignorant way where we're just children, and I don't mean like in a perfect skin type way, but speaking to what sin brought into the world and how it affected humanity and the negatives of old age, but in our relationship with Him, He renews us, and we feel the life with Him. He mentions the eagle, which is that symbol of strength and speed. So David is saying, praise God and don't forget about all these things about God. He's telling himself, don't forget. And you look at this list and you're like, that's a pretty unforgettable list. That's an amazing list. How would you forget? But we are, we're so quick to forget things in reality. You look at this list and it seems unforgettable, but we are so quick to complain, to worry, to become bitter, to become insecure. We have trust issues. We will spiral in the moment of anxiety, and we become hopeless and forgetful of how good God is, the fact that He sustains us, the fact that He blesses us. So let this be a reminder for all of us today. Don't forget. Don't forget the blessings of God. Maybe set a reminder on your phone, rotating through these truths. Maybe every day, you know, you wake up to your alarm, Monday morning, tomorrow morning, 7 o'clock. Your alarm goes off, and then you see this banner on your phone on the screen that says, "He has forgiven you." And just how would that change your day if you started your day remembering, I'm forgiven. God's forgiven me of my sins. And maybe Tuesday, wake up, 7 o'clock, your alarm goes off. There's a banner on your phone that you've set that says, "He heals the sick." And you're thinking, oh, you know what? I got that neighbor who said their mom's in the hospital. I can pray for them because I know that God is a healer. Maybe Wednesday you get the banner that says, "He redeems me." Thursday, "He crowns me with love and mercy." What a way to start your day remembering that you are crowned by God, the King of kings. He's crowned you with love and mercy. Reminders of God's blessings. Do whatever you need to do to not forget who God is and His blessings to us.

So David tells himself, don't forget. And next we see the works of God. Verses 6 through 14 reflect on God's loving disposition towards Israel. Think of the last time that you had to fill out a resume. Or maybe you've been on the other side of the table and you've received a bunch of resumes. And you're looking at the characters of people and their accomplishments. This is kind of what we get here in this section, is God's resume. We're learning who God is and what He does. And we see it through some highlights. It says, through the works of Moses and the deeds of the people of Israel. So He's highlighting this time in Israel's history, in Moses' lifetime, where they were just getting to know God. So you had things like the ten plagues, parting the Red Sea, manna in the wilderness, heavenly sustenance, providing the law on Mount Sinai, being guided by God with a pillar of fire and a cloud. And that experience for Israel was so foundational to them learning who God was. They had heard of God. They had known Him by, like, hey, He's the God of our forefathers. But that time with Moses was, oh, we're learning firsthand who God is. And how their God, this God, Yahweh, is above all other gods. Verse 8 through 13 is probably my favorite section of this entire psalm. And we could have a whole series just going one week with one verse of 8 through 13. So, so good. Verse 8, this is quoting Exodus 34:6-7. Verse 8 says, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love." The first time that we see that in Scripture is when God is telling Moses. And here's the scene, is that Moses had done all those amazing experiences with God, walked with God, the ten plagues. He had walked through the Red Sea. He had been God's right-hand man as He's leading Israel through the wilderness. And yet Moses had never seen God's face. And you imagine going through some amazing things in life, and you're like, hey, I'd like to meet and see the person I'm working with. I'd love to have that level of intimacy in our relationship here. And so there's a moment where Moses is up on the mountain and says, God, can I see Your face? I just want to know You in a deeper way. And God says, I can't do that. My glory is too much; that if you were to see Me, you would die. But I will tell you who I am. And God says in Exodus 34, He says, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”

So David is bringing us back here, saying this is who God is. From God's mouth Himself, this is who God is. I love that scene. I love that passage. If you've ever been asked the question of, you know, if you can go back in time and in history to experience one thing maybe in the Bible, if you could go back and live a moment from the Bible, this would be up there for me, is hearing from God who God is. I think that'd be just incredible. And it continues in verse 9, all about forgiveness, how much He loves us, a steadfast covenantal love that has no bounds. It tells us that He forgives us. He forgives our sins. Verse 11, "As high as the heavens are above the earth," in other words, it's immeasurable how much He loves us. We cannot fathom how much He loves us. And I think sometimes we dismiss that. We're like, yeah, He loves us a lot. No, think about it. We cannot fathom how much He loves us. Verse 12, it says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." I mean, how comforting is it to know that God loves us more than we can imagine and that He forgives our sins, all of them. And He doesn't hang it over our heads. He doesn't say, hey, you're good this time, but I remember, I know, one more time. No, as far as the east is from the west. He completely removes them. Verse 13 says, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him." If you were to think of a New Testament parable about a compassionate father, can you guys think of one? Anything come to mind? It's not like a pop quiz. If you thought of the prodigal son, it's exactly what I wanted you to think of. The most compassionate story of a father. And that is hearkening back to the Old Testament and how much God has tried to convey, I am a compassionate God. I'm a compassionate father to my children. The scholars at Bible Project write that the primary word for compassion here is *rahamim*, which is deeply tied to the physical womb. It conveys the unconditional, instinctual love and intense bond a mother has for her child. And that's what God's love is for us. This deep, deep bond with His children. He loves us. And He wants to have compassion on us. We need more compassion in the world today. And the church should be the primary source of that compassion in the world. We as Christians, we in this room should all be a source of compassion in our circles of life, our neighborhoods, our families. We should have and model and give out compassion just like God has had compassion on us. So this section of our passage is a great synopsis, 6 through 14, of who God is.

And then we transition a little bit more. In verses 15 through 19, David compares the brevity of human life to the everlasting God. David shifts to looking at our reality as humans, as creation, showing how finite we are, and emphasizing the contrast between how great God is and how human we are. As a part of God's creation, all of us as humanity, we are truly sustained by God. Colossians 1:17 says, "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." Guys, without Jesus, this world would fall apart. Without Jesus, our worlds would fall apart. We would fall apart. He truly sustains us in ways we cannot imagine, but in ways we can. Just to say, how did I get through that day? That's probably Jesus. With you, walking with you, giving you what you needed. How did this happen? How is the world surviving right now with all the chaos? It's being held together by God. If you look at verses 14, you compare 14 to 19. Our reality is that of dust. So fickle, unstable, taken by the wind. But God's kingdom, verse 19, is this reality of a solid kingdom, firm, unchanging, in the heavens. And I love the phrase in verse 17, "from everlasting to everlasting." In this verse, God is being praised for His steadfast character in nature. Whereas humanity is seen as kind of transient. We're prone to wander. But God is always at this fixed point. We have a hard time sticking to the right thing, a hard time heading down the right path. We tend to go off path a little bit, and sometimes our life is like this, and we're sometimes on the right path with God and then all of a sudden we're far off to the right. We come back and then we're off to the left. And God is unchanging. He's steadfast.

I saw this growing up, uh, being embodied by older Christians that I so admire. I grew up in a church with some amazing Christians who modeled to me just the steadfast faith. And if I can put it, I'm going to have to imagine things. I'm a very, I got to see it. So I don't have a graph or I'm just going to use my hands. But if I can put it in the imagery of like wave patterns where God is this constant line up here, this is perfect, right? It's always there. And I think in our youth, whether by age or by spiritual maturity, we tend to have a lot of ups and downs. We're following God, we're reading His Bible, we're praying, and then all of a sudden something happens, school, work, and we're like, oh, I'm not following God. And then we come back up, and it's a lot of this. The wave pattern is up and down, up and down. Maybe it's in our reaction to things, and we're exercising compassion and love, and then all of a sudden something happens, and we're just hateful and judgmental, and we're back down here again. Maybe it's in our relationship to God, and we're feeling close to Him, like I said, we're reading, and all of a sudden, we're no longer close to God. What I noticed about some of these older Christians that I grew up with, one of them, maybe some of you guys know, Bob and Arlene Hughes, that were such faithful saints to me of just constant following God, is that as they got older and wiser, their graph was just kind of like this steady uphill climb. And no matter what happened in life, no matter the tragedies that they experienced or the truly amazing things, they were not like this. It was just this, really. And like, you know, God's straight line up here. And they just kept getting closer and closer. And I think that's what David is talking about. We tend to be so fickle. We tend to be so like this. But really, our desire and our prayer should be a constant growing closer and closer to God. No matter what is happening in life, we are not shaken from holding on to Him and being like Him.

David has brought us back around now in our passage to the divine, where he calls upon the heavenly powers to praise God, just as he did at the beginning of the psalm. So verses 20 through 22 concludes by calling everyone to bless and praise God. Every heavenly being, the hosts, the angels, the mighty ones, all His works everywhere. Anything under His dominion, and we know that everything is under His dominion. Old Testament scholar Robert Alter says, "And in this vast cosmic setting, the speaker repeats the words of his initial injunction to his own being to bless God, now making himself a part of the great chorus of all creation." I just kind of imagine like a big choir, and the conductor or whoever the choir leader is doing it, and then all of a sudden he turns around, and he just starts praising God too. That's what we were supposed to do. Given who God is, what He has done, what He's done for us, the only thing left to do is to praise God. Pastor Lauren and Pastor Chris and myself were in San Diego a couple weeks ago for our district conference, and in our Wesleyan denomination, everyone in the Pacific Southwest area gathered in San Diego. And our new superintendent over our entire denomination gave a brief speech. It was really good. And he was just reminding all of us pastors of the number one purpose we have as churches. And that is that the world may believe in Jesus. So simple, yet so profound: that the world may believe in Jesus. And then the favorite part is that he led us in the Doxology. And the words of the Doxology, if you don't know, are this: "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." Already from Psalm 103, right? "Praise Him, all creatures here below." That's all of us. "Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts," everyone in heaven. "Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." If I had a voice, I would have led us right now in singing that, but I don't. No, I can't. God's not leading me in that way right now. I love it, it's so beautiful. I just, maybe those words will stick with you this week. The Doxology will be playing. If you don't know it, look it up. It's short, but beautiful.

I want to end our time this morning with some questions, reflection questions to help us process Psalm 103. The first one is this: Where is your focus right now? Sometimes in life, we feel disconnected, maybe from ourselves, from other people. We're wanting to look inward, get ourselves right, and maybe that's needed to have this inward look of like, what's going on inside of me? But I find it insightful that David focuses on God. There is an internal work that is done, not by us, but by the Spirit in us, without our help. But when we focus and meditate on the person of God and realize and worship who He is, something happens inside of us. Our view of ourselves and our view of our circumstances, whatever we're struggling with, it comes into this holier perspective. I think of a camera. Things come into focus better. I don't know how many of you are familiar with photography; I dabble back there and I twist the lens and I take some pictures. All of you I know have taken pictures on your phone. You can zoom in. You can use your two fingers to pinch and zoom and tap to focus. I think of it like that. When you focus on what you want, usually that's at the center of your screen. And you tap and it focuses. And sometimes if you have that setting, the rest in the background becomes a little bit blurry. Just a little bit. And that's okay. It's still good, right? You captured what you want at the center and everything else that was there. And I think that's how we need to have our relationship with God. Our view of life and God is that God is perfectly in focus at the center. Everything else can be a little bit blurry. That's okay. It's still good, but we need to have God in the center and fully in focus. If we don't, then that means that something else is perfectly at the center and at focus, and God is somewhere blurry on the peripheral. We don't want that. And so I ask, where is your focus in right now? And does it need to adjust to have God at the center and in focus? Maybe it's helpful to focus on something specific. If you're sitting there and you're like, I want to focus on God, how do I do that? Maybe it's the reading of His word and you want to make reading and studying and meditating on God's work a bigger focal point of your life. Do that this week. Maybe it's His creation and you want to focus on Him as creator. And so maybe you just spend more time in creation this week. Get out for, well, it's really hot, but find some shade and just sit in the creation and recognize that God created all of this. How amazing is He? Or maybe it's your relationship with God and you want to spend more time with Him. And so maybe you go on a walk and you pray with God in the morning or you take a break from your work. It's a quick 10 minute jaunt around the building, whatever it is. And you're just praying and talking with God. Where is your focus and how can you bring God into focus more?

Second question: What characteristic of God do you need to grow in? We had a great list here of characteristics of God. And we know that we are called to be like God. Ephesians 5:1 says, "Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." We have this long list. Which one do you need to grow in? Take some time, maybe right now, little moment, just search your heart and say, what area of my life needs to reflect God more? If you're struggling, you're like, I don't know. Ask the Spirit. He'll convict you. Don't worry. He definitely will. He'll bring something to mind. He'll bring something to your heart and say, you know what? There's an area that needs to be more like God. Specifically, if you're going to come back to this passage, verses 8 through 10, do you need to be more compassionate? Do you need to be more gracious with other people? Do you need to be slower to anger? Maybe the conviction dial is going up now. Do you need to be more abounding in love? Do you need to not blame others for everything? Do you need to not harbor anger towards other people? Do you need to not treat people as their sins deserve? Oh, it's a hard one. Do you need to be more forgiving? If you're like me, maybe it's all of them. You're like every single one. But if you want to grow to be more like God in these characteristics, maybe you can pray with God and bring one to the forefront of your heart and mind. And with God, commit to being more intentional and growing in that area. Have the Spirit pray that God convict me more. When I have a moment where I'm not compassionate, let me know right away, God, that I could see it and be like, you know what, I should have done that differently. Or maybe as a situation is playing out or as a conversation is happening, pray that God make me aware of what I need to be more. Do I need to love others? Do I need to forgive in this moment? Do I need to not bring up the thing that they did the last 10 times? Do I just need to let and not harbor that against them? What characteristic of God do you need to grow in?

And then the third final question is this: How much are you praising God? Really, this is just an encouragement to praise God more. You cannot praise God, I think it's impossible, to praise God too much. For me, it needs to happen, I need to do it more at the end of the day. It's kind of Becky and I, our habit of before falling asleep, we just kind of connect, we pray, and it's like, what? I need to praise God more in that day. Where did God intervene for me? Where did He bless me? Where were the mercies that I saw from Him? Where did He meet my needs? David wrote this modeling for us that we too need to praise God. So for you, how are you going to do that? Where are you going to do that? Maybe it's at the beginning of your day. And you're going to take a beat before you go off to work, maybe before you get out of the car. And you're going to thank God and praise Him for stuff that hasn't even happened yet. And maybe that will help you look forward in that day and say, God, where are You working? I want to see. I've already praised You, God. I know that You're going to do it. Now I'm aware. God, where are You at? Maybe it's as you go, and as you notice things throughout your day, the mercies of God, the small blessings, you take time to praise God and just stop and say, God, I just saw that that was amazing. Thank you for that. And then you keep going with your day. Maybe it's at the end of your day. Maybe it's at the end of your week and during your Sabbath on your rest day. And you look back over the week and say, God, You did all these things. Thank you so much. I praise You for what You have done. Church, if we were to do this consistently enough and long enough, do you know how much more your heart will be attuned to God? Do you know the benefits that you will experience giving praise to God on a regular basis? You'd have more peace in your life because you'd trust God more, because you would have seen so many more ways in which He loves and cares and provides for you. We'd be more consistent in our relationship with Him. We'd be more compassionate towards people. We'd be more gracious. I truly believe we'd be less anxious and less stressed out, less worried. And then if you're less stressed, less worried, less anxious, imagine your health benefits: better blood pressure, better healthier immune system, lower risk of disease and mental health issues. I'm not saying everything is perfect if we praise God, but it certainly is better if we get into the habit of praising God.

And so this week, church, how are you going to praise God more? That's our action step this week. If you pull out your bulletin, your program, and you see at the bottom it says, "I'm going to be intentional to praise God more," and you're not just going to check this off, well you can, you can check it off and if you want to do that and drop it in the back on your way out. What will happen is this week you're going to get a text from us pastors, and we're going to ask you, what have you praised God for? And it's not convicting. It's not supposed to be like, oh, I haven't. It's just now you get to share. I've praised God for this, this, and this, and we're going to praise God with you. So if you'd like to do that, we would love to praise God with you. If you could check that off, put it in the back, you'll get a text from us. We want to be doing this together as a church, as a body of believers, all following God together.

Summer of Psalms: Part 2

Summer of Psalms: Part 2 - The Goodness of God

PSALM 16

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

But we are on week two of our Summer of Psalms series. And this is such a fun series because the Psalms are so special. They are just a really unique type of scripture. And I love that we're able to just kind of jump around and pull out what God has for us in each of these Psalms. Last week, Pastor Lori was our guest speaker, and she talked on Psalm 73 and what it looks like to have the Lord with you when you are in it—for Him to keep your feet steady, to keep you from slipping down that slippery slope, and that regardless of what is going on in other people's lives, you know that He is with you.

Well, today we are going to be in Psalm 16. And interestingly, this psalm was actually written by King David, so it was a different author than Psalm 73, but there are similar themes. And what we as a staff have actually been talking about is that the Psalms have many recurring themes that you will probably hear over and over. Even though you have different speakers, different psalms, and different authors of the psalms, there are recurring themes that we see over and over in the Psalms, like God's faithfulness, His steadfast or covenant love, lament and crying out to God, and then Him responding. These are very common themes in the book of Psalms.

So we're going to dive in to chapter 16. And as I said, it was written by King David, and it was written during a time of trouble. He was facing some hard times. So we're just going to read the whole chapter together as we open. Verse one: "Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord. Apart from you, I have no good thing.' I say of the holy people who are in the land, 'They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.' Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips. Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful ones see decay. You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

This psalm, David goes back and forth between talking to God and kind of talking to himself, moderating his thoughts for us. So he starts by just crying out to God: "Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge." He's having a really hard time, and he's just like, "God, I need your help. You are my refuge. I'm crying out to you, please keep me safe." But then right in verse two, he starts talking to himself again. And he says, "I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. Apart from you, I have no good thing." So he is reminding himself that he is not the Lord. God is. God is the Lord. And apart from God, David understands that he has no good thing. Now here's the thing: David actually had a lot of good things. He had wealth, power, family, connections, and a whole kingdom that he was running. He even had the favor of the Lord, but he knew that he had no good thing apart from God. Any good thing he did have was only because of God in his life. He still knew, regardless of all the things that he did have, that there was no good thing apart from God. And so that's our foundation. That's our jumping-off point. That's where we are building everything else upon today: the understanding and the truth that apart from God, we have no good thing.

From there, we can start to see some other themes as we look through the rest of the passage. As with most Psalms, we are able to learn more about who God is and then what our response should be to Him. Because the Psalms elicit a response. Really, all of Scripture does, but I feel like the Psalms do it in a unique way. Some Psalms are songs that are meant to be sung. Say that five times fast. Some Psalms are songs that are meant to be sung. Some are prayers that are meant to be prayed. Some are poetry that are meant to be learned, recited, and internalized. But all of it is meant to create change, to elicit behavior change, to have the heart transformed and changed, and that ultimately our heart posture is made right with God. So that's the starting point: that apart from God, we have no good thing. We're going to just take this section by section, so we're going to jump down to verse 4. It says, "Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips. Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance." David knew that God was enough for him. And so David is preaching to himself and reminding us that we are to have a heart of contentment. We are called to have a heart of contentment. He didn't want to run after other gods, and there were many he could have chosen from. But he said in verse 4, "Those who run after them will suffer." There were so many pagan gods in the surrounding nations that there were many to choose from. But David said, "My God is the one true God. Yahweh is the one true God, and He is enough." The libations of blood that David's referring to were some of the pagan practices that they had in their religious services, including human sacrifice. And David said, "That is not the way of God. Those who seek out those practices or those gods—I don't even want to say the names of those gods because they are not true, they are not real. Only my God is."

David knew that God was his portion and his inheritance, as he says in verse five. Last week, Pastor Lori touched on this when she explained that when the Israelites were given their tribal lands, their promised land, it was divided up into tribes and they were given their sections of land for where they were to live. And that was their inheritance that they would pass on to future generations. But the tribe of Levi, who were the priests, did not get their own land. Now they had somewhere to live and sleep and all of that, but they were given the tabernacle and they were given this space to usher the rest of the Israelites into worship, and God said that He would be their inheritance. And David understood this. He understood that that is the case for us as believers, as those who follow Christ. We are not owed anything. God spared us what we actually deserve, which is the punishment and death for our sins. Our portion and our inheritance is the Lord. What grace and mercy is that? That we are spared what we actually deserve, what our inheritance actually should be, and we are given His mercy and given of Himself. David is talking about being content, and I think it's twofold. I think he's talking about actual, this-side-of-heaven contentedness in our world today: being content with the things that we are given, our roles, our stuff, the people in our lives, the things we are given and called to steward. That we are called to live content. But I think the second part is that we are also called to be content with who God is to us. He, God, is our portion and our cup. It's really hard to live content, especially here in America, in the Western world. But He is our portion and our cup.

I love verse six. We're doing Psalm 16 today because I felt like the Lord laid it on my heart, but also He had me here this last winter for a long time. It kept popping up in random places. I'm like, "Okay, Lord, you have my attention. I will park it in Psalm 16 until you tell me otherwise." And I studied it and I worked through it, and I tried to understand what my response should be to it. But I felt like it had such a powerful message for us that I wanted to share that with you. But specifically, verse six just stuck out to me. And if there's one thing you take away for this week, memorize this verse. Actually, I put it on your Connect card for you to check off and commit that you're gonna memorize this verse this week. Because when things come up, when discontentment creeps in, this is a verse that you can call to mind and remember that the boundary lines have fallen for you in pleasant places. But do we actually believe that? Because some of us have experienced some legitimately hard things. So do we believe that the boundary lines have fallen for us in pleasant places? Like I said, in America or in the Western church in general, it can be even harder, almost harder than in other places to believe this because we are so often not content with what we have. And the world and culture tells us we need more. We can't possibly be happy with the things that we have now. We have to have the better thing. We have to have more. And honestly, sometimes that just looks really fun, right? Like, they have to—I mean, like, that looks real good. But just because it looks good or even sometimes is good doesn't mean it's right for us, because it is outside the boundary lines that the Lord has set for us. Maybe sometimes we don't even want to necessarily leave the boundary. We just want God to push them out a little bit. Just expand them just a little bit. We want more, but just a little bit more.

The boundary lines are good for us, and the Lord says that they have fallen in pleasant places. Now that is not to diminish the hard that we experience this side of heaven. That is real. But because the Lord is our inheritance, we can believe that the boundary lines are in fact in good places. Now, hear me on this: There is a time and a place to ask for more. There's a time and a place for you to have that conversation with God asking Him for more. Maybe for that promotion you're hoping for. Maybe for more children. Maybe for more influence for the kingdom. Whatever it is, there is a time and a place for that. But I can pretty much guarantee you it's not going to happen if you do not believe that the Lord Himself is your inheritance. The boundary lines are pleasant because He is our portion and our cup. He is our inheritance. We're always left to our own devices. We're always going to want more. But because He is our inheritance, we can know that those boundary lines are good. We even have a lot of freedom in those boundary lines. You know, whatever's in here is free game. But sometimes all we can think about is what we're missing out on, what's out there. But He says the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance because it's the Lord. This week I heard a story about a pastor who visited one of the underground churches in another country. The underground church is what we refer to as the church who meets in secret in countries where it is illegal to worship Jesus and to be a Christian. And he said that everyone who was at this service left at different times and came in different directions so they couldn't be followed or found out. And they met in secret. And because they were meeting in secret, they couldn't worship with song out loud. So everyone was handed a piece of paper with the worship lyrics on. And the pastor of their church would just say, "Paragraph one." And they would silently read those lyrics to themselves. And then he would say, "Paragraph two." And they would read the lyrics to themselves. And the pastor that was visiting said, "I have never experienced a more sacred, worshipful time than worshiping with these believers who were literally risking their life." The thing is, they have the same Bible we do. Their Bible in Psalm 16 also says that the boundary lines have fallen for them in pleasant places. So while I do often struggle with discontent, I have to wonder about myself: how dare I? How dare I believe anything except that the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places and that I have a delightful inheritance? Because if these believers in underground churches also know and believe that to be true, then certainly I can believe that too. He is a delightful inheritance.

Moving on to the next section, verse 7. David, again, is preaching to himself. He says, "I will praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken." I found this verse kind of interesting because often at night I find that my heart does not instruct me well. My mind will often spiral. And I'm sure that is the case for many of you. Either maybe you have a hard time falling asleep, or if you wake up, you have a hard time going back to sleep because your mind just starts going. The anxiety ramps up, the stressors, the to-do lists. So I had to stop and think, how is my heart instructing me here? But David knew that the night or the quiet was a secret place. It was one of those hidden places. It's a time when everything is still and quiet. But the heart, in order for it to instruct us well, we have to be in the Word. We have to know what God says. We have to place our heart and our mind on Him. Hide His Word in our heart, as Psalm 119 says. We have to allow Him to transform or renew our mind, like Romans 12 says, so that at night our heart will instruct us well. Because we've filled our heart with good things. We've filled our heart with His Word. So that's what David is helping us understand: we need to seek the Lord's counsel in the secret place. Now we can hear God anytime and anywhere. He is capable of breaking through the noise. But it's a lot easier if we're quiet and we're still long enough to listen. And we can take advantage of this natural rhythm of night or early morning to hear Him more clearly. I'm learning that nighttime and early morning, like when you first wake up, that time between sleep and wakefulness—I call it like a thin space—where the divider between heaven and earth is just so thin, you can hear the Lord more clearly. Where you're not quite conscious enough for the to-do list and the stressors of the day to kick in, but you're aware enough to hear the voice of the Lord. I recently heard author Adrian Bevere explain why this is so important to take advantage of this time. And he recommends staying off your phone for 30 to 60 minutes of your day because science is showing this. Stay off your phone for 30 to 60 minutes of your day because you are cutting off that thin space the moment you get on a device, the moment you turn on social media or news or text messages. You interrupt that time, that quality thin space time. There've actually been multiple times recently where I've been woken up by a kid or go to the bathroom and the Lord just like drops something in my brain. And I know it's the Lord because it's usually like some sort of correction or conviction, something I would not want to hear. Or maybe it's an answer to a problem I've been trying to solve in my own power. And I know it is Him speaking to me in that quiet place because I'm not distracted. I'm half asleep. But He's able to speak to me more clearly because I'm quiet enough to hear Him. So we must know His Word and we must keep our eyes on Him in order for our hearts to instruct us well. But we also get to take advantage and seek His counsel in the secret place. Protect that time. Maybe for you it's before you go to bed. Maybe it's on a lunch break at work. Whatever that is, get still. Find your secret place. Your time where you can be still and distraction-free enough to hear Him, to listen for His voice.

The final section in this passage starts in verse 9. It says, "Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful ones see decay. You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Verse 9 starts off with the word "therefore," which means everything that came before it informs everything that's coming after it. So we got to pay attention to that. But if we think about what came before this, it requires us to count the cost of following Jesus. We must count the cost because essentially following Jesus requires us to surrender everything outside of the boundary lines. Even the things we love or that feel good, if they are outside those boundary lines that the Lord has set in place, we have to surrender those to Him. And it's good. If you are not yet a follower of Jesus, it's good to count the cost so you know what you're signing up for. And if you have already decided to follow Jesus, it's good to be reminded of what you have committed to. Because let me tell you, sometimes we want to pick those things back up. The things we've already surrendered, we want to grab them back. The sins that we have found freedom from, we want to pick them back up. The habits that maybe aren't sinful, but are not good for us, we want to take them back. We have to count the cost. We have to surrender what is outside of those boundary lines. But the thing is, the cost is worth it. The benefits far outweigh the cost. The benefit of following Jesus is that we get to experience the goodness of God. We get to actually do that in tangible ways in the here and now. It says our heart is glad and our tongue rejoices. If we are constantly comparing ourselves to everyone who is not a believer or we are constantly looking at everything outside of the boundary lines that we can't have, we will not be glad. We will not be rejoicing. But if we live within the freedom that the Lord has given us, our hearts will be glad. It says there is rest for our bodies, our physical bodies. You know how you feel when you're tense or you're anxious and your shoulders are like up to your ears and your stomach is in knots? It says you get rest for your bodies. It says there is eternal life. There is hope of heaven and eternal life.

Verse 10, David writes, "because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay." Now, David is talking about himself here. He's saying that he is the faithful one in this instance. And we all know that David died and was buried in his body. It was decayed. But David knew. Maybe he didn't know all the details yet because Jesus hadn't come. But he knew there was eternal life with God. He understood that. So he had that hope. He knew that that was for him and that was coming. Some translations have, instead of "faithful one," it says "holy one," and it's capitalized. And some scholars believe that David was inadvertently prophesying the coming of Jesus. That He would have His death and resurrection and that His body would not see decay. And that we as believers would follow suit. And that we would get to experience that eternal life as well. Another benefit is that there is the fullness of joy in His presence. Now I believe that will come to fullness and completeness in heaven. But we get to experience that now. We have His presence with us now. We are filled with the Holy Spirit now. So we get to experience the joy of His presence here and now, this side of eternity. And it says, "with eternal pleasures at your right hand." The place to the right of the person of honor was a place of honor. The Bible says that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. That is the place of honor. And it says that we get to have pleasures at His right hand. We get to be in the place of honor. One translation says, "pleasures forevermore." That's a long time. Pleasures forevermore because of Him. And we get to experience some of those now, but we also get to look forward to them in eternity. If we are willing to receive His gift, if we are willing to surrender everything outside of those boundary lines, when we acknowledge that the boundary lines have fallen for us in pleasant places and believe that God is our portion and we seek His counsel in this secret place, then we get to know that these benefits are ours. This is our reality. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. There's no good thing apart from God. And when we know and believe that He is our portion, He is our cup, He is our inheritance, He makes our lot secure. We can say with conviction that the boundary lines have in fact fallen for us in pleasant places and then we can go out and live like it.

We're gonna have a time of prayer. The worship team is gonna play one more song. Pastor Andre and I will be in the back at the prayer table. If you want to have someone pray over you, pray for you, we try to have this as a monthly rhythm where you can come, share your praises, share your prayer requests, we would love to pray with you. Or you can sit in your seat and worship and pray on your own, that's fine too. We just wanna offer that to you as a time set aside specifically for prayer. Let's pray together as we head into this time. Jesus, we thank you for your word. We thank you that we get to learn more about who you are and our response to you. God, help us when we struggle to believe that the boundary lines have fallen for us in pleasant places. Help us to remember that you are our inheritance and that it is delightful. Thank you for the freedom we have to worship you, for the freedom we have to come together as a church body. You are so good to us. You are with us no matter what we are going through, no matter what we are facing. We thank you that we get to experience the goodness of God right here in the land of the living. We love you, Jesus. In your name, Amen.

Summer of Psalms: Part 1

Summer of Psalms: Part 1 - From Confusion to Clarity

PSALM 73

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

So happy to be here today. When they asked me what Psalm I wanted, you might've thought this was an odd choice, right? When we started reading it, were you like, "Oh no, what is this?" It's really long. It's bizarre. I don't get it. But this is one of my favorite Psalms, and I'm going to tell you why. There are so many great Psalms. I never really had much use for the Psalms when I was younger. I kind of liked the stories of the Old Testament. Then I'd skip through and read the New Testament, the poetry, and all that stuff. I just didn't really have time for it until I got to a really dark season in my life, and nothing else spoke to me. The writings of everyone else—I mean, I'd flip from the Old, I'd flip to the New. I couldn't relate to anything. And then I found the Psalms again, and found that the people who recorded these things had very human emotions, very much like I did. And they said things out loud that I was either ashamed or embarrassed to say out loud, or didn't have words to say out loud, or didn't want to admit I felt. And Psalm 73 is one of those for me. I love it because the psalmist is just gut-level honest; he just cuts to the chase.

So I have a handout that I made for you. If you don't have one, would you slip your hand up? I know the guys will get you one. On the front, I'm going to read these things to you. If you're a fill-in-the-blanker, I'm going to give them all three right now. It's the silent contract. Silent contract. It's a sobering confrontation. And it's a sure conclusion. So contract, confrontation, conclusion. That's how this psalm reads to me, and that's kind of the outline, I would say, of the psalm. And then as we read through, the bullet points are kind of going to be on the inside, the way I see it and the way God shows it to me. So you can follow along with that. All right, here we go.

This psalmist, Asaph, starts out with his main truth. All right. And this verse is his main truth: "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." And we hear that and we're like, yes, God is good. God's good to Israel. God's good to those who are pure in heart. Okay. So he's got agreement, general agreement from his readers on that. And then he goes into, "But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold." Now this can be much less like a sermon and much more like a Bible study because I want you to think through what he's saying here. What kind of journey are you on if you're worried about your feet slipping and losing your foothold? Where are you? When I think about losing my foothold, I think of being on kind of a steep path or even maybe rock climbing, where you have to watch it like every second and you do not want to slip, not even a little bit, and you certainly don't want to lose your foothold, right? He's telling us this main truth up here that God is good. I almost stopped believing that. And here's why. And I love verse three because he's kind of slipping into like, "Gather round, children. Let me tell you about my story, right?" In this part, he's reflecting back on what happened to him. So verse three, he diagnoses his problem: "I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." I was jealous. I was envious. These wicked people are doing whatever they care to do, and they're doing great, and I'm keeping the rules, and I'm doing terrible, and I'm jealous. I love that he has the guts to admit that, and it's written down in the Bible, like it's going to happen to us. They put it in their songbook so they could sing about it. It's such a universal truth.

So I put in your handout the wicked; these first bullets. These are the first few things that he notices about the wicked. We'll start with verse four. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens. They're not plagued by human ills. Don't we think that sometimes? We watch the news. We watch social media. We see people out there who have complete disregard. They have no problems because they can buy their way out of anything. It seems like their lives and our lives are not parallel. They have such advantage. Therefore, pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence. Because they can. They can act like they have it all because they do. They can be violent because who's going to stop them? From their callous hearts come iniquity. Their evil imaginations have no limits. They scoff, speak with malice. With arrogance, they threaten oppression. That bullet point, I just said, they talk tough. They talk down. They speak to hurt others. They use their strength to threaten others. Don't we see this? We see it in our government. We see it in world governments. We see it everywhere that people who have no regard for God are just out there grabbing and doing it with no consequence, and it can rankle us, right? And you would think if someone had a heart like that, if someone was talking like that, people would be like, "Hey, we don't need association." But you know what happens? Instead, they gather others who are just like them, right? Their mouths lay claim to heaven and their tongues take possession of the earth. "I'll go grab whatever I want." Therefore, their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, "How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?" This is what the wicked are like. Always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Have you ever looked at people and made that judgment? You're pretty quiet, so probably not. Well, I'm a little more sinful than y'all. I'm a little less holy. I'm so sorry to let you know that before you stand, it's a big, fat sinner. And there are all kinds of feelings I have, and there are all kinds of times where I'm just fed up. I am fed up. I am freaked out. I need to put my phone away for 100 years and never look at it again. There are just a lot of times where I go through this very same emotion. And especially this hits me in verse 13: "Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence." You know the way that that reads in The Message? It says, "I've been stupid to play by the rules. What has it gotten me?" You cannot tell me as a Christian you have not thought that from time to time. You have not. You cannot tell me that you haven't thought, "I'm trying to do everything right. I'm trying to be faithful. I'm trying to raise my kids right. I'm trying to do the good things. I'm trying to stop the bad things. I'm trying, God. I'm trying." Verse 14: "And all day long I've been afflicted. Every morning brings new punishment." It's like, if it's not one thing, it's another. This stuff just keeps happening to me. I don't understand it, God. I don't understand it.

That's what the silent contract is all about. This first part of this passage, that's what the silent contract is all about. You know, when we get saved, we give our lives to the Lord. We're so grateful. He really does so much work in us. He forgives us. He justifies us. He makes us stand guiltless before God. He's sanctifying us. He's actually changing us day by day, bit by bit. Our character, he's trying to grow it. He's given us spiritual gifts. He's preparing a place in heaven for us. He's giving us spiritual gifts. He's set us apart for a calling and a purpose. He gives us a reason to get up in the morning. But man, after you're climbing that rock face for a while, you get tired. And you get weak. And you start to look around at where is everybody else and what are they doing? And how come their lives look better than mine? And this is not where I expected to be at this point in my life. I thought by now I would have [blank]. I thought by now I would be somewhere different. I thought by now I'd be married. I never thought I'd be divorced. I never thought I'd have a health issue that was debilitating and it was going to change my life. I didn't realize the economy was going to go crooked. On and on and on. We start looking at our lives and we all of a sudden pull out this contract that we made with God. And we said, "Hey, look, this is the things I've been doing for you. And you owe me." None of us would ever think that we have that contract with God. Like, because I'm doing this, you owe me this. But let me ask you a question. The last time something terrible happened to you or to someone you love, what was one of your first questions? Why? Why? How? How could you allow this? And there's something in us that thinks like, "You're supposed to be protecting me. You're supposed to be... I'm not supposed to go through this. I thought these problems that happen to everyone else... I thought we had a deal. Like I'm trying to be a good person, so you need to be good to me." We have a silent contract with God whether we realize it or not, and it comes out in times of trouble. So now the narrator, there's a question to ask ourselves right there too. I think it's a good time to ask like, is there something that's making me lose my foothold right now in my life? Like, is there something that makes it harder for me to believe that God is good and that he's being good to me? That's a good thing to think about, good thing to answer.

Now, Asaph's going to interrupt his own story with like a little reflection. And he says in verse 15, "If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children." I think what he means by that is this was all going on in my own head. I never said anything to anybody. But this is what I'm dealing with on the inside of my mind. These are the thoughts and questions I'm having on the inside of my mind. And I couldn't even say that kind of stuff out loud because it doesn't sound right. It might not be accepted. People might think, like, what would people think? Right? I think it's so important when we're struggling with a big concept like the goodness of God. Is God good? That's a big question. And if we are struggling with that question, man, we need to get in the Word, and we also need to talk about it with a trusted counselor or friend or pastor. Like, "Here's where I'm struggling. Help me see. Help me see." Okay, now he's back in the story. "When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply." And of course it did. You know what rumination is, right? Where you just kind of your thoughts are in this loop and they just kind of, you only have to start right here and then you know where it's going to go. And then all day long, you're kind of thinking the same old thing. You're just thinking the same old thing. And we're not going to think our way out of this. As human beings, we're not going to think our way out of it. You're still going to have that financial issue. You're still going to have that problem tomorrow if you have a health issue, most likely. You're going to have that relational issue that's been difficult for you. Whatever it is, we can't think our way out of it. So he was very troubled. Verse 17: "Until I entered the sanctuary of God." I had to get in God's very, very presence to get this thing figured out. That's what he's saying here. It wasn't, "And then I went to church and all was well. The end." Don't we kind of treat it like that sometimes? Like, "I'm really having a tough week. I'm really struggling with this issue. I'm really having a problem, but I'll just go to church and get my spirits lifted a little, and then I'll go out and try to fight it all over again." It's great to come to church. I'm glad you're here; you should come to church. All the time. You should come. But coming to church is one thing. Entering God's presence is another. If we come to church with closed hearts, if we even do our devotions at home, if we're even reading the Bible with a closed heart, I don't know about you. I really believe in holy habits. And sometimes my holy habits come back to me. Because I have read a whole portion of Scripture and I shut my book. And if you asked me what I just read, I could not tell you. Because I wasn't doing it to connect with God. I was sort of doing it to check it off my list and move on with my day. Right? Totally different. Totally different approach than the days where I go in and I'm like, "Okay, God, I am poor and needy. I'm going to be searching this thing to find out what you have for me in this reading today. I'm ready for it. Let me know what it is, and I'll think about it." Right? There's a huge difference there. So anyway, "I didn't understand until I entered the sanctuary of God, and then I understood their final destiny." This is where the sober confrontation happens, is in the presence of God. Sometimes we don't want to get in the presence of God because we don't want him to know how ugly we are on the inside. Or that we are doubting him or that we're not the good girl, the good guy that he thinks we are. I don't know if anyone's told you this, but he already knows. It's pretty obvious to him, right? It's pretty obvious to him. So we have to have this sober confrontation.

Now, on the inside, we're going to show how God sees the wicked. We're looking at the outward stuff. We're like, "Yeah, and you went on that great vacation, and you bought that yacht, and you're problem-free, and you grab that business, and you squash this thing, and you're rising in power and in status, and I'm over here suffering and having all these problems." That's kind of how our minds said it is. Now look at how God sees them. "Surely you place them on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin." All of a sudden, if I shift to an eternal perspective, everything changes. Everything changes. What I think is important changes. What I want for my life changes. What I want for my kids' lives changes. It goes from possessions and position and power to you. I mean, ultimately, God is saying, "You're not the one on slippery ground. It's over here. It's the people who think this is all there is, and they're grabbing all of it while they can." I have news for you. This is all the goodness they're ever going to get. "How suddenly they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. They're like a dream when one awakes. When you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies." That means their lives amount to nothing and they disappear like this and be done. Right? Again, now he's going back into narrator mode, these next two verses. After he's realized, like, "What do I want all this for? It's going to burn up." How many of you are old enough to remember when Star Wars, the movie, came out, the first one? So young people over here, sorry, you're probably not born. It was pretty amazing for that time. It still is pretty amazing. But now they're making the prequels, right? They've been making the prequels, the story before the story that we all know. You guys, we're living in the prequel. We're in the prequel of the epic story. This life is just this life. It has a finite beginning. It has a finite ending, and it is done. And whatever you accumulate, whatever power you get, whatever position you get, however comfortable you want to live, however hard you climb that ladder to scratch and claw and get what's yours, it's gone. It's done. In a heartbeat, in a moment, in an instant. When you receive Christ Jesus as your Lord, your real life started at that moment, at that instant. And you have to live through the prequel, but then you get to go live the real story. That is our life. And that is where we fix our eyes. And that's where our hope is found. And that is what the Lord who sees everything looks at. That's how he's looking at the wicked. That's how he's looking at us. He's like, "Think for a second about what I'm giving you. That's going to go far, far beyond this little thing we're experiencing now." So he says, "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant." He's realizing. He's realizing. I'm sorry, God, I forgot. I forgot. I forgot what you've done for me. I forgot that I was a dead man walking and you brought me to life. I forgot. I forgot that I was headed toward hell, and you reached out and you snatched me out of the fire. I forgot. I forgot how good you've been to me. I forgot the things you've given me. I forgot that you're speaking to me. I forgot that you're leading me. I forgot that we're on this journey together. I started to feel like it was just me. But even then, even when I was senseless and ignorant and acting like a fool, "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand." You ever had a child you had to drag out of Disneyland? I mean, it's that kind of thing. You're like, you've got this screaming child, and you love them with all your heart, even though you sort of... I'm not going to say what you'd like to do, but you want this to stop. But you've got them by the right hand, or you're not going to let them go. And you know, in the ancient world, the right hand is your fighting hand. It's the hand you have your sword in. So if God's got your right hand, he's got the sword in his. So he's the one that's fighting our battles when we're out here acting a fool, embittered, with our hearts grieved.

All right, well, the simple conclusion. Where do I need to keep my focus? What keeps me content despite what I'm going through? We're shifting to the eternal perspective here; that's what's doing it. "You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory." On here, you're always with me. You hold me by my right hand. You're guiding me with your wise words and your personal advice. There is so much in the Scripture. When I was... I could have made this message six hours long. You're welcome that I didn't. Because I had so... there's so many Scriptures to bring in and to show you like, "Oh, here's how Jesus was speaking about what our life is going to look like once... Oh, here's how the disciples... here's what they're like... Oh, here's the whole book of Acts and what was going on with the early church and the trials and tribulations that they went through... Oh, here's Paul's letter from prison encouraging us to fight the good fight and do all this..." Here's all of these things that we have forgotten because we live in such a cushy American world and we want what everybody else has. And if we don't have it, by goodness, right? No, no, no, no, no. Look at how God is good to us. He's always with us. He's holding me by my right hand. He's guiding me with his wise words and advice. "Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you." That should be circled in our Bibles with a little star and an arrow next to it. God, give me this attitude that you're enough for me. That you're enough for me. That if I lose everything, and I might. I might. And if I do, you're still enough for me. "My flesh and my heart may fail. Yes, it may. First we had a fire, now we have a pickup." All right. My flesh and my heart may fail. You know, I may be back here again next week, honestly. I may be back in this position. I can't always keep, I don't always stay aligned where God wants me to stay aligned. Left to my own devices, the road gets a little slippery, and I can lose my way. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is a strength in my heart. Guess what? He's not going to let me. He's not even going to leave me when I act the fool and accuse him of things that aren't his problem. God is the strength of my heart and he's my portion forever. You know, when they wrote "my portion," do you guys remember when God was giving out land to the Israelites after they crossed into the promised land? Moses is telling the 12 tribes, God said, "You guys get from this river to that mountain range, and you guys get from here to there, and you guys get there to there," and he's going through all the tribes, right? And he gets to the Levites, who are the keepers of the temple and the people who work and do all the temple service, and he said, "You guys don't get any land. I'm your portion." What if that's what God is saying? Can we handle that? Even if we don't get what we think we need and deserve and require? If God says, "You know what? I've settled my heart on this matter. And you're not going to get that. But you are going to get me." Would that be enough for us? Verse 27, we're wrapping up here. He's just reiterating, like, "Okay, you showed me all this stuff. I'm going to boil it down." "Those who are far from you will perish. You're going to destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it's good to be near God. It's good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge." That's where I'm going to run. That's where I'm going to turn. That's what I'm going to trust. And I'm going to tell people about it. I'm going to tell people of your good deeds. For them and for me.

So I just want to run you through these questions again. Just give us a few minutes of quiet to just ask yourselves, what, if anything, is making me or almost about to make me lose my foothold right now? Is there a situation at work that's just so unfair and they're not going to change it? Ever? Is there financial difficulties that just get harder and harder as the months go by? And you're tired of it and you're stretched thin and you're at your wit's end. Is there relational difficulty? What is it? What is making me lose my foothold? What's making me doubt God's goodness? Is there something that is? If there is, you could write your own psalm. And you should. You should have it out with God because he can take it, and when you're honest with him, he's honest with you, and it's a good thing, sometimes a humbling thing, but it's a good thing. Always have that confrontation. I think one of the toughest things is to figure out what works for you to move into the presence of God to get your heart really ready to hear. It's probably not Fox News or CNN; that's just a tip. It's probably not you know those guys at the office or on the job who always have terrible things to say. It's probably not there. But where is it for you? Can you get away? Can you go to a park? Can you sit and look at a sunset for a minute? Can you talk to God and can you just say like, "I need to know you're here. I need it. I need to know. Help me in the next few days to find you wherever you are. I'll be looking. I'll be looking." And then the sure conclusion: where must I keep my focus? Man, if we don't keep our focus on eternity and what's coming, we're going to be blown about like waves in the wind. We're going to have so many ups and so many downs. We're going to feel like we're in a hurricane that we can't get out of. And I'm not saying don't know what's going on in the world. I'm not saying disregard all the problems in your life. You just suck it up and think about eternity. I'm not saying that. You have to figure stuff out. I'm saying, go to the Lord about it. Seek his face. He loves you. He's good to you. He has good plans for you. He's got your hand, holding you through whatever you're going through. He's not letting go. He'll never let go. I wrote down a few of my favorite scriptures. These were all the ones I was going to print and try to insert in here somewhere. If you need help with this this week, look some of these up. Just look some of these scriptures up and give them a read.

Let's bow our heads. Lord, surely you are good. Surely you are good to Israel. Surely you're good to your people. Surely you've been good to us. God, we can get so caught up in our problems that we lose complete perspective. And it doesn't take much. Doesn't take much time connecting with you to start to see our perspective shift a little bit, and see that we have to make the most of this short time you've given us to become more and more like Jesus, because we're going to enjoy you forever. We're going to be with you. We're going to have everything we need. No more problems, no more tears, no more struggles. But until that time, God, we've got to get through this. And this can be really hard. So I just ask that you would help us remember that you're here, that you're present, that you're holding us, that you're encouraging us, that you're leading us, that you're for us, not against us. Help us not to judge ourselves too harshly. We are fallible, frail human beings. But help us cling to our faith, and help us to grow more and more like you. All God's people said, Amen.

The Great Commission: Part 3

The Great Commission: Part 3 - Living On Mission

Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 1 Peter 2:9

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Excited to be with you guys this morning. We are going to be wrapping up our Great Commission series. If you have been with us the last few weeks, we have been able to share interviews with some of our missionaries who are associated with our church and are doing God's work around the globe. We have another one of those to share with you this morning. But I want to kind of just remind us of where we are and what we've been talking about. We've been talking about this thing called the Great Commission. It's something that is specifically given to us from Jesus—some of His last words that He gave us before He left earth and went back to heaven. He commanded us to go and make disciples. That's part of our vision and mission here as a church: to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life.

Jesus was incredible at this. He had a core group of people, the disciples, that followed Him, but He had an even larger gathering that followed Him regularly. He would just do life with them. He would teach them His truth, teach them God's Word, and teach them who God was and His character as He went through life. Jesus would often be found just teaching, maybe alongside a field, and then even using the field as an illustration to teach. He just went through life with His people. So, we have a heart here at Spring Valley Church to do the same. But it says this in Matthew chapter 28: "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"

Pastor Lauren last week focused in on this scripture and said, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations." What's awesome about the word "go" is that, as you look at the original Greek writing, it actually meant "as you are going." So, as you are going to the grocery store, as you are going to your neighbors, as you are going to work, as you are at work, as you are going to school—wherever you are going—we are called to give and show Jesus to everybody. And it says there, "to all the nations." God is doing some incredible work around the globe. In these interviews, we have only seen a snippet of what is happening in the Lord's kingdom around the world. Our calling is to go. I'm going to talk about that a little bit after the video. But it also says in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, which Pastor Andre dug into a little bit in week one. If you know the region of where this was written during Jesus' time in Israel, these are larger, circling areas of influence. So Jesus says, not only here in Jerusalem, this city—so maybe not only in Rocklin and Roseville—but also in Judea or Placer County, and all the way to Samaria, California, Northern California, the West Coast, and then to the ends of the earth, the entire globe. This is our calling: to spread the word and love of Jesus everywhere that we go.

Maybe that means you're leaving the States. Maybe that means you have to go two doors down to that neighbor. Maybe it means caring for and loving on that family member who might have a little different view of life than you. Maybe it means that person in class with you that nobody talks to. Maybe it means that person who cut you off this morning on the way to church. But our calling is to go, and with the power of the Holy Spirit, to be witnesses in all of these places. So this morning, we're going to show another video. This is another one of those missionaries where we can't really share specifically where they are at. This is Cory and Jennifer. Cory actually grew up at the church that I did—the church that planted this church. So there's a connection there, and he and his wife have been where they are for quite a few years. But what's cool with them is their missions work is a little bit different. They're doing and supporting local pastors on the ground through caring for, teaching, and raising them up. So we're gonna hear a little bit more of those stories, but I'd love for us to turn to the screen.

Well, it's pretty amazing and humbling, right? To hear some of the ways and conditions that some of the missionaries are working in around the world. I mean, I'm still baffled. I've watched this video, I don't know how many times—obviously, I was in the conversation. But to hear, "We just need heat, not even plumbing," it's like, whew. You know, sometimes we come into church and the AC might not have kicked on early enough. But it's running. It's just a little warm in here, and we're like, "Oh man, I can't. Whew, hard Sunday." And it's just like, man, hard Sunday of sleeping on the floor, no plumbing, and just praying to stay warm. That's incredible.

Well, I'd love to share a couple of thoughts as we wrap up our series this morning and focus in on what Jesus might be calling us to do. I love what we've heard through all of these stories of missionaries. We've heard stories of the power of prayer. Cory was talking about the shaman who went and just did a prayer walk, and then the shaman was like, "What's your deal? When you show up, I can't—my stuff isn't working. There's something more powerful happening here. I want to know more." How incredible is that? We've heard stories of the power of people's lives and witness. This girl who gave up her job and went against family cultural norms and said, "No, I got a greater calling in life from Jesus to do something different." And she was beaten. She was abused—physical, verbal, emotional abuse. And yet she stayed faithful to that call. Because of that, her actions spoke louder than any words that she could have said to her family. Because of that, there are more people who are going to heaven for Jesus because of it.

So, where do we go from here? Well, first thought is we are all called to share. We're all called to share. Cory talked about this, and in his conversations he has with other faculty at the college and other students, I think sometimes we go, "Well, I don't know what to say." Well, sometimes it isn't knowing what to say; it's just showing up and letting them ask the questions. And going, "You know what? I might know that..." Cory and I talked offline that some of the conversations he has, he's had to go back and say, "You know, I don't know. Let me go do some research, let me study, but I want to come back and give you the answers." We freak out and think, "I don't have all the answers." It's okay to not have all the answers, but it's about continuing to show up in people's lives. We're all called to pray. This has been a theme all throughout these interviews, if you guys haven't noticed. And specifically, Darla last week, in her and her husband's ministry, she even said on the call, "Sometimes it's not the financial part that we need, it's the prayers. We need the prayers." And Cory was a witness to that—the power of prayer to go out to those villages. Sometimes you go, "Well, you know, I don't have the money to be able to give to these missions, but we can pray." We can take time every single day to pray over these workers who are on the front lines. And then we are all called to go. This might be uncomfortable for us. This might mean, for Darla, it started as short-term missions and then it turned to long-term missions. Sometimes it's just going to our neighbors. Sometimes it's going to our family. But mostly, honestly, it's to continue to be faithful where we are. Tomas talked about the story of the two ladies, about how she just started inviting people into her home to just have tea and to just talk about life. And when those spiritual conversations or questions came up, or the open door opportunity, she wasn't afraid to take those. Sometimes we think going means, "Well, I got to leave the United States." I don't know if you've noticed, but the world is a much smaller place than it used to be. And we live in a very diverse location here in California. Guys, the nations are here. The nations are among us. The nations are around us. We don't have to necessarily... I mean, Cory was talking about how he's doing work with people in California that are from his nation that are doing work here. Missionaries are coming to the States because the people have gathered here in these locations. There are people in your life that God has given you relationship with for the sole, number one purpose of sharing His love with them. We've thought about that. You guys have people in your life that I will never know. And sometimes we think, "Oh, well, the pastor's gonna be the one who's gonna lead them to Jesus." No, you're the one that's gonna lead them to Jesus. You're the one that's gonna show up in their life. You're the one that's gonna pray for them. You're the one that... Another translation says this: "But you are God's chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests, a holy nation. God has brought you out of the darkness into His marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that He has done."

We are called to share. We are called to pray. And we are called to go. So how are you going to live intentionally as a missionary in your life where you live, learn, work, and play? We're all called to this. So how will we show that love to the world around us? Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, we are super grateful for people like Cory and Jen, God, who are on the front lines in a place where they really can't be open about you. But God, you've given them favor and opportunities, even within that country. God, to talk to friends, to talk to coworkers, to talk to students, to talk to those in their lives, God, that they have been specifically placed near to share that love. And so God, I pray that we would go intentionally, focused, thinking about, Jesus, who have you placed in my life that needs to know Jesus? And how do I need to start praying and showing up and showing them the love? God, we thank you for this calling. We pray for your kingdom work around the globe. We love you, Jesus. We thank you. Amen.

The Great Commission: Part 2

The Great Commission: Part 2 - How We Go

Matthew 28:18-20

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, yes, we are on week two of our Great Commission series, "The Hope for the Whole World." We want all the world to know about Jesus. I have been loving, I guess we only have one week, but I've got a preview of today. So I've been loving watching these videos of the missionaries that we are in contact with, and I'm excited for you to hear today from another one. But it's really about not only hearing their stories, but then taking that and asking, how can we apply it to our own context? How can we live out the Great Commission? How can we go and make disciples, as Jesus calls us to, in our own context, in our own everyday lives?

Last week, we heard from Tomás in the Czech Republic and the stories that he shared of what his family is doing and what their ministry is doing. It was so encouraging to get to hear from him and what God is doing in their area of the kingdom. And today, we're going to go to South Asia, and we're going to hear from some missionaries and what God is doing through them, their family, and their ministry there. So I'm really looking forward to hearing that. But what I want us to do is, as we are hearing their stories, not only become more aware of the global impact that we can have, but also ask how we can apply this to our own lives. How can we live out the Great Commission in our own lives? So we're going to take a minute, well, a few, and we're going to watch the video, and then we'll come back and talk about more for us in our context.

I love hearing from these missionaries around the globe. And if you want, this week you'll get an email with all of their information. You should have gotten one about Tomás last week, but you'll get that email. So if you want to commit with us to signing up for their newsletter and to praying for them, you can check that box on your program and drop that in the back today. But it's just the last year to a year and a half I've really felt just more aware of the global church and how significant and kind of just cool it is that we are all worshiping the same God together. Czech Republic, South Asia, Europe, Australia. It can feel so far away geographically, but we are all so connected because we are all part of the same kingdom. We serve the same God. We worship the same God and celebrate Christian holidays like Easter, Christmas, and Pentecost. And so to just be reminded, to put names with faces and stories with real people, makes it more tangible and reminds us that we are the body and we all have a role to play.

It's all going to look different for each of us. For some of us, like your pastors, it's full-time vocational ministry. But for most believers, it looks different. It's serving in your local church or in your community at parachurch organizations. So maybe it's more of a local focus. Or maybe it's more regional. Maybe you are helping with educating pastors or those who are training up to be ministry leaders. Maybe you're working with something across the state or North America. You're serving in a regional capacity. Maybe you're going on short-term missions, just like she did, to get started—a week here, a couple weeks there. Or maybe it is, for some of you, a more long-term missions situation. Maybe it is a summer, or half a year, or full-time. But it's going to look different for all of us, whether it's locally, regionally, or globally.

Last week, Pastor Andre talked about our passage in Matthew, and this is really our theme verse for this series, which is what we call the Great Commission. It's Matthew 28:18 through 20. I'm going to read it for us. It says, "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"

Two things I want to pull out of that passage today, real quick, in the time that we have left. Go and make disciples. We're going to go backwards though. We're going to start with the making disciples part, okay? We are all commanded to make disciples, every single one of us. If we are a follower of Jesus, if we have surrendered our life to him and made him the Lord of our life, we are all commanded to go and make disciples. How do I know this? Because in this passage, Jesus is talking to the 11 remaining disciples, right? He is speaking to the 11. So how do I know this is for all of us? Well, I know this because discipleship, making disciples, is not a one-time thing. Salvation is a one-time decision. You do it, you've done it. Discipleship is a process. It is an ongoing process. We call it sanctification. It is becoming more and more like Jesus. And so that was going to go beyond the disciples' lifetime. So the disciples went out and they started the church and they made disciples. And then those disciples made disciples. And then those disciples made disciples, all the way down through church history. So we too are part of this command. We too are called to make disciples.

I also know that this is true because it was not commanded to be done in the disciples' power. It says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," Jesus. Jesus is saying that. The authority has been given to him. So this was not done in the power of the disciples. This was not done by their authority and power. It was done by the power of Jesus. And last I checked, we all have the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead because we have the Holy Spirit living in us. So we too have that same power to go and to make disciples. So we are all commanded to go and make disciples.

Secondly, going back to that word "go," we are to make disciples as we are going. The Greek word here for "go" is to pursue the journey on which one has entered, to continue on one's journey. So as you are going, you have started this journey as a disciple of Jesus. So as you are becoming more like Jesus, as you are going in your life, being discipled, becoming more like him, you make disciples. You do it in the everyday stuff of life. This is a lot of what she was talking about. On the way to the market, to pay a bill, cooking food, eating around the dinner table, in their home. This is where we make disciples.

I know that we live in a very individualized culture. You have your house, I have mine. You have your family, I have mine. You do things your way, I have mine. But why can't it look different for believers? Shouldn't it? Shouldn't we be up in each other's business a little bit more? Shouldn't we maybe intrude just a little bit, or at the very least, invite them into our space? Invite them into our home. Live together. Because honestly, for some of us, if you went to some friends or some family or some coworkers and you invited them to church, it would be weird. It would be awkward. They'd be like, "You don't know my last name. Why are you inviting me to church?" So start with getting to know them. Invite them to coffee or grab lunch together when you're on your lunch break. Talk to them. Ask them about their family, their struggles, their hobbies outside of where you guys are together normally, what they love to do, who they are. And then eventually, hopefully that door can open that you can have spiritual conversations.

It is as you are going, as you live your life, as you become a disciple of Jesus. Because discipleship, it happens at church. It happens in kids ministry. It happens at youth group. It happens in the Bible studies and the more formal, traditional things that we have going on. But it also happens on trips to Costco, and coffee, and cooking dinner, and inviting people over to your home. And I would argue that that happens more naturally in those settings. Discipleship, you have so much influence when you're doing things shoulder to shoulder with people, when you are living life with them. So what if instead of putting a ton of pressure on ourselves to convince people to follow Jesus or to convert someone, we just do life with them? One really practical way that I would encourage you to take with you is to ask people a natural question you can ask is, "Do you have any sort of spiritual faith or practices?" People, especially in the West, I feel like are very open to just spirituality. Not everyone, but a lot of people are open to spiritual things. Whether it's the universe or some just general God, they're open to that. So it's not out of the blue or totally weird for you to ask them about what they believe. And then that can often open the door for you to share what you believe, what God is doing in your life, that you serve the one true God who loves you and wants a relationship with you.

You don't have to word vomit everything you know about the Bible or Jesus. We say we want to saturate the community. We don't mean drown them, okay? We're saturating the community because we are all going out at the same time, and we are all dripping Jesus as we go. That's how we saturate it. Not by dumping it all on one person. But as we are going, as we are living our life, as we are looking different than the world, because we are trying every day to look more and more like Jesus. That's how we saturate our communities. That's how we go and make disciples. We're going to go and we're going to have spiritual conversations. We're going to meet people with their tangible needs. And yes, we may even overtly ask someone if they want a relationship with Jesus Christ or if they want to come to church with us. That is good. But it's also doing life, meeting people where they are, having just general spiritual conversations that as you do that, as you are going, you can be making disciples. We don't have to overcomplicate it. Sometimes it literally is just having people in your home, cooking a meal together, opening up that door for conversation. But we are all commanded to make disciples, and we are gonna do that best as we are going.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for today. We thank you for the ministry they have. We pray over them again, Father, that you would just bless what they are doing, the work that you have them doing there. We thank you for this church building that is underway. God, we just pray favor over that, that it would just be a light in their community, that it would be used for your glory and for the furthering of your kingdom. God, I pray for our people here at Spring Valley. I pray that they would take this command seriously of going and making disciples, that is not just for pastors or ministry leaders or super Christians, but it is for them. God, help us to remember as we are going to make disciples, to be aware of the people around us. Open our eyes to see them. To not just keep our head down in our individualized culture, but to look up. Make us aware. Help us to be open and vulnerable. Open our eyes to see those that you want us to see. Give us boldness where we need boldness. Give us vulnerability where we need vulnerability. God, we thank you for who you are. We thank you that you are using us to build your kingdom. God, may your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Great Commission: Part 1

The Great Commission: Part 1 - Local Missions

Matthew 28:18-20 ; Acts 1:8

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are starting a new series today called The Great Commission, and we are excited about diving into missions. Pastor Chris gave a preview of this last week, but we are just going to dive into missions for three weeks. So let me go ahead and pray one more time. Sorry, I know we just prayed, but I need prayer right now, and then we'll start our sermon. Heavenly Father, again, thank you. Be with me right now. Give me the words to say. I just pray that this Sunday will continue to be an expression of worship to You in all ways: through the singing, through the hearing of Your Word, and also through the fellowship with each other. So we pray this in Your name. Amen.

One of the main tenets of church is to preach the gospel and to make disciples of Jesus. We have ours on the side: to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. And every church has some kind of mission or vision statement that pretty much says that. This comes from Jesus giving the explicit instruction to His disciples while He was with them. The disciples, the twelve, would be crucial in the early church and were tasked with continuing the work of Jesus, continuing to build His heavenly kingdom throughout all the earth. Matthew 28:18 says, 'Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.' Make disciples of every nation. He's speaking this to a group of Jews, and He's reminding them to go beyond just their people group, their friends, the people that they know, that they grew up with. This is going to be for people beyond that group. And He says, baptize them, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Jesus is saying, bring them to a place where they're living in the will of God, walking in the way of God's wisdom, living a righteous life according to God's truth. And that instruction that Jesus gives His disciples is still true for us today. For every believer, every follower, everyone who considers themselves a disciple of Jesus, this Great Commission is for you.

If we flip over to Acts chapter 1, verse 8, we get Luke's retelling of Jesus' final moments. And what does He say? What does He prioritize telling the disciples? It's not about the hierarchy of the organization, which apostle is number one, number two, number three. It's not about the finances of the ministry. No, He says this: 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.' Dr. John Berry, a theologian, says the locations mentioned in this verse represent a geographical broadening in scope of the apostles' mission from Israel's capital to the land of Israel to the entire world. So Jesus reveals His plan, His hope, and His will for the church to spread the gospel, to spread the good news, starting with their immediate surroundings and working their way out. Today, to contextualize that, since we don't live in Jerusalem, we might say local to regional to international. Jesus' instructions for us today is to take His gospel to people in our area, in our region, and around the world.

Mission throughout the Bible is about God's will being fully realized in a specific location with a specific people. And in Scripture, God invited His people, the Israelites, to participate in that mission. Today, missions is about God's will being realized and lived out all around the world. And missions work is accepting God's gracious invitation to us to actively participate in that realization. So this morning, we're going to focus on the local aspect of this commissioning mandate and how it pertains to us here at Spring Valley Church. What is our local impact in our community, in our neighborhoods, in our cities? And our prayer is that our heart as a church would grow for fulfilling and carrying out the Great Commission, and to taking the gospel locally, regionally, and internationally.

And what I love about missions is that we as a church are all different, and some of us have a deep passion for different areas of missions. So some of us love local missions. We care about those in our neighborhoods and our cities, as Jesus would describe the widow and the orphan in our communities, and that is beautiful. And if that is you, if you have a heart for local missions, we need you at this church. Some of us have a heart for our region, maybe that's defined as California or Northern California, or maybe as broad as the West Coast, and we want people to know Jesus and we want people in that region to come to know and love God. And if that's you, then we need you at this church. Some of us have a heart for people around the world, and maybe that compassion comes from your own travels, seeing people around the world who are hurting, who are in despair, and seeing them live an unfulfilled life because they don't know God. Or maybe your heart for international missions comes from your own ethnicity and your family and your people who do not yet know God. And if that's you, that's so important, and we need you here at this church. We want people here at Spring Valley who have a heart for all of God's people all around the world, near and far.

And we formed this series to encourage a muscle in our church that hasn't been used in quite some time. As you know, COVID changed a lot of life, and it changed church life as well. This church, Spring Valley, has a rich history of missions, going on missions trips, supporting missionaries. And while a few of you are still familiar with some of those missionaries, we wanted to spend some time reconnecting with them, reestablishing our connection with missionaries around the world. In an ideal world, we would have flown them out. We would have had them right here in person, and they would be sharing their heart with you. We could not do that. And so we did the next best thing, which is each week, this week and the next two weeks, we're going to watch a video of the missionaries, interviewing them and finding out more about them and their heart for missions. So without further ado, let's turn our attention to the screens again.

Well, hey, Spring Valley Church, so excited. Pastor Chris here, and I would love to introduce you to who I would call a friend of mine, Tomas, who is doing some amazing work around the globe for Jesus and for the kingdom. And this is part of our mission series, and each week we're going to have an interview coming to you where we're going to kind of get you to get to know somebody who is doing real missions work around the world. And Tomas, you're going to be here. You're going to kick us off and welcome. Tell us maybe a little bit about you and the family, where you're serving at, and how long you've been there.

All right. Hey, guys. It's wonderful to be there. I wish I could be there in person. California was a place where I used to live, and that's my district. And I love people there and connecting with people. I am right now in the Czech Republic. My name is Tomas Moises, which actually means Moses in the Czech language. And I'm serving in the Czech Republic, actually the most atheist country in the world. And it is not easy. And we've been here for the last 15 years, I think, if I'm counting correctly.

That's awesome, man. Wow. That's some tough ministry, man, of working with. Oh, man. So kind of tell us a little bit, what are some things that are actively happening in your ministry, things that you're facing, maybe an area of physical, maybe spiritual, emotional, mental, like how are you connecting with people? How are you helping them? What's kind of going on with your work right now?

Wow. So I think I'd have to start in the beginning because for the last 15 years, the ministry has developed and changed. And I think we really have to be adaptable when we do ministry, where we go, being sensitive to the leading of the Spirit and just keep saying like, Lord, lead me. Lord, lead us. Lord, show us. Be in prayer and prayer in specifics and over people, knowing the people that you are reaching, connecting with the people you are reaching, because although they might be from the same nation, they are different people, just like Americans. And so when we came to Czech Republic, we started actually with the youth. I used to be a youth pastor in California, and I loved it. And I thought, I'm getting away from that. I'm starting to get gray a little bit. And the Lord said, no, you're going to be doing that. So we started with the youth because they are very open. A lot of them do speak English. So English was one of the tools we used to connect with people. We would go to local schools and have conversations in their English classes. And afterwards, we would invite them to English club, conversation club, and we would just talk with them, hang out with them. And it actually became a counseling session for some of them. So that was great.

From that, then from there, we started youth club. And basically, we would just meet with these students. They would come over, hang out, eat food, play video games, play games, do fun stuff, a lot like a youth group. And they don't have youth groups here, so they don't experience that. So we had a blast. And every single time we would talk about a topic like love, forgiveness, family, relationships, and we would always bring in the Bible, not really pressuring them because all of them were atheists, all of them. And we would have anywhere from 20 to up to maybe 70 people that would come and hang out with us. And it was great. We would talk about the Bible and the wisdom of God and what He says. And eventually they started catching on. They started regarding the Bible as an amazing source of wisdom. So you got these atheists that love the Bible. That was a great thing.

From there, God led us to start a Q&A club. Because for Czech people, really the discipleship and coming to Christ starts way ahead of the curve than maybe in the United States or other places because they don't believe there is God. They have no concept of God and history, whether it's the history of the church here in Europe or whether it's the Age of Enlightenment and communism, that really eradicated faith for most people. And so we're sort of coming back to it, sort of postmodern, post-church, post-communist country. And so we did this Q&A club where we used a lot of apologetics, you know, defending faith with science, defending faith with history, with philosophy and all these maybe ways of venues of really breaking down the barriers, because this is where the barriers are. Once you get through those barriers, Czech people are pretty open. So they're hard on the outside but very soft on the inside. So we did that for quite a while. We would have up to 30 students sitting in one room asking about God. They were all atheists, and we would talk for hours, and they loved it. And we did that for years. So over 10 years, we had about 700 students come through this ministry in a town of 14,000. So that's been pretty amazing.

So many of them accepted Christ, were baptized. Unfortunately, they like went into the world. So we only got to keep some of them. And actually, what's amazing about it, we planted a church and these high school students are now our elders in the church. So our elders are under 30 leading people in their 50s, 60s, you know, because we now have adult believers coming to Christ. And so the youngest people in our church are actually leading the church, and they're the most faithful ones. They're the ones that understand the word. They preach. We switch off in preaching. We switch off in teaching. They're the ones doing baptisms and stuff like that. So it's pretty amazing how God has moved these high school students to be the leaders of the church. And it's such a privilege. I feel so privileged to be part of something like that, you know, because I don't take it for granted, especially here in the most atheist country in the world.

That's crazy. Dude, that is so cool to hear the stories of the students you had that you brought them in and then you raised, God raised them up. You were there with them and now they're doing ministry. That's so cool. Amen. Is there a story or something of a recent ministry win or something you want to share with us that happened just really recently in your ministry?

Oh, there's so many wins and so many drawbacks that I could think of. And I don't want to say you win some, you lose some, but the reality is that you want to see people saved and you want to see people grow in Christ. It never happens as we want it to. It always happens as God allows it and leads people to. Prayer is so powerful. It's unimaginably powerful. I think underestimating prayer is the weakest thing we can do. So really, we need to focus on prayer. Amazing thing. We, for example, just recently, well, probably about a year ago, and this is something that I would want to encourage you maybe in doing. So we pray. We say, God, bring somebody today that needs you. Show us. Whenever we remember, whenever we can, we pray that prayer. And one time, my wife and I do Wednesday morning dates. We try to have a date once a week. If it works out with kids, it doesn't always work out. But we were in a coffee shop, and we were talking to each other. And I overheard these two ladies talking, and they used the word God, which nobody ever uses in their conversation in Czech Republic. Wow, okay. So I had to plug my computer in and the outlet was right next to them. Perfect, perfect excuse. I'm like, hey, I'm sorry, guys. Can I just plug my computer here? They said, fine. And I said, I wasn't trying to listen into your conversation, but I heard the word God. And they said, oh, yes. Do you believe? And come to find out, there were two very esoteric women, very open to the spiritual, but definitely not Jesus, definitely not God even naming him. And so we started talking and eventually one thing led to another and we ended up having a discovery Bible study at one of the ladies house. And she, she is a person that sort of helps people with traumas.

And so she invited all these people to her house to have this Bible study. And so we sat there in the most atheist country in the world, reading the Bible with these esoteric people. And they loved it so much. They said, when can we meet next. And this lady became what we know from the Bible as a person of peace. She's the person that opens the doors, that serves as the connection to her community. And it's been incredible because she has been growing by leaps and bounds and she has been leaving so many things behind. She still has some ways to go, but she says, I love Jesus. And I know this might be strange to some people, but when I came to her house, she's got this Buddha and she's got this, I don't know, like mandalas, and she's got all this stuff in her house. So we're doing a Bible study there. And, you know, after a couple of times, I came over, and she's got the big statue of Rio de Janeiro Jesus standing over all these idols. And she says, I bought Jesus the biggest because he's the best. That's awesome. So we're working out the kinks, you know, and she's still not completely there. But it was amazing. And she actually bought herself a ring. She said, I am married to Jesus now. I don't want anybody else. I don't want any other thing, any other person that is going to be more important. And she reads the Bible all the time, every day. So cool. She invites people to read with her even when I'm not there. So that has been, and this is just a recent thing. So unfortunately, that friend we met her with just separated from her and said, I'm basically just cut off the relationship because she's being grown in Christ. And the other friend cannot handle this new person she's becoming. So that's just one. There are so many stories like that. But that's just one of the stories that we experienced recently.

Oh, that's amazing, dude. I love to hear that. That is so cool. That is so awesome. Hallelujah. Well, I got a question I kind of want to ask everybody we interview. And that is if somebody in our church either wanted to look into what it means more to be a missionary, maybe God is calling them to the mission field or to a specific group of people. But then also, too, part of what we want our people to understand in the series is that God has calling all of us to be missionaries where we live, where we learn, where we work, where we play. And so what would be an encouragement for our people, for them to be a missionary where they are right now, where God has them where they are?

Absolutely. I think it is so important and sometimes underrated the fact that people need to be missionaries where they are. You know, in the early church, that was the case. I mean, we hear of Paul going out, but the fact was that he was one of the not so many people that were going out necessarily. More people were staying where they were and reaching out to their neighbors. And that's how the church really grew the most, according to my opinion, as I read the Bible. And so the mission field doesn't need to be complicated and complex. It's like it's all about just praying, God, bring me somebody or bring me to somebody. And it doesn't, another thing I would say, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will come to church. You know, they might not want to come to church. You will have to go to them and spend time with them over coffee or helping them out with stuff in life, listening to them. You know, I'm praying for them all along and it might take some time. It's a thing of patience and it's a thing of mercy and love. And that's how God works.

But I would definitely encourage you to do that first because I think sometimes we love the sense of adventure. We want to go out and we want to do all this ministry and go somewhere different than where we grew up and we want to reach people there. But the fact is that if we're not doing it at home, it's probably not going to be a good experience for us and for anybody else if we go out with that attitude. I've seen too many people go into a mission field and turn it into this glorified vacation where they come in and then eventually they just kind of burn out or they don't feel successful. So they just kind of sit it out or live it out in some form or fashion. But really the preparation starts at home. And I definitely don't want to discourage you from going to the mission field. It's an amazing thing. If you are called, you better answer that call because you're not going to be comfortable or happy anywhere else but where God is calling you. But that call might be to your neighbor. So it's really important not to get overtaken by emotions or by these ideas of grandeur, how we're going to go out and save the world somewhere else. The grind really starts at home, where you are reaching out to people around you, taking that time, and that will prepare you and shape you to be the person that God is calling into a different country, different place, different culture.

That's awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for the time today. I'd love to pray over you as we go. But what's something specific that our church can be praying about for you? And how can they get to know more about your ministry? What's going on and how can they support you?

I think right now, the biggest thing is we have a church with a lot of young families because all these young people that are now our leaders and elders, they got married and we have so many little kids. I mean, our church is just booming with little kids. And we really don't have the physical capacity within our church to meet there anymore. So we are praying for a place. We're looking for a place, but there's nothing coming up. It's really hard to find a place even to rent or to buy or anything like that. So we would say pray. Pray for us that God brings that, that God opens those doors and pray that God opens doors to people around us. You know, I think we've been we've proven to the people in our community that we are serious about being here. We are serious about, you know, shining the light of Christ and and helping them out in any way and in a form of fashion. And so pray that God would also open up the hearts of the people here and that he would send his workers because the harvest is ready. But we need workers here. We need people, especially working with these young people. As you see, I'm getting gray. I'm not as relevant as I used to be with them. So if you know a young person who wants to serve overseas and has been faithful in serving Jesus where they're at, we would love to talk with them, connect with them. Obviously, pray for us. If you want to support us, we were on the GP site, too. We'll give you more information about that. But like I said, you cannot underestimate prayer. And that is really, really, really, really important, especially in a place like this, where it's dry, where it's hard, and where we feel so alone sometimes.

I'd love to pray for you right now. Thank you. Heavenly Father, God, we just thank you for my brother Tomas. God, just his heart that he has for the place of the people that you've placed him at. God, to hear these incredible stories, God, of what you're doing with so many young people and young families in a small town. God, just how incredibly amazing that is, Jesus. You are moving in such powerful ways. And so, God, I pray that you would just continue to create opportunities for coffee shop conversations, for conversations to happen in the grocery store or with friends. I pray, God, for the people in the church, God, that they would just continue to have a boldness to speak the name of Jesus in such a place that is so pushed away from God and any thought of there being a creator and a savior out there for them, Jesus. And so, God, I pray that you would just continue to break down doors and break down barriers, God, that people would have an open heart to hear about you and to hear about the truth of the Bible and the gospel and just that they have a Savior who deeply loves them more than they could ever dream or imagine. And so, God, I pray, too, for opportunities with a facility, Jesus, that they would find a place to call home that would be able to have the capacity for these families and the little ones and the kids, God, that are continuing to come to you and finding you for the very first time.

And so, God, I pray for a blessing over their family. God, you would protect them, protect their marriage. God, keep them safe as they're out every single day, just saying, God, what do you have for me today? And that they would just stay attuned to the Holy Spirit every single step of the way with whatever they do. God, direct his path, direct his words. Jesus, continue to allow them to be a light in a dark place. Jesus says they go out and they sow seeds. God, may they be encouraged, Jesus, even today that you are moving it. And it may be something where they're not seeing any seeds take root, Jesus, but sometimes we don't see what's happening under the ground, God, even before it springs up. Jesus, just encourage them today. Jesus, bring the people that they need to continue the ministry, to continue to reach more and more people for you. Jesus, we thank you for their faithfulness. God, to shepherd these people. God, continue to just bless them with strength and endurance. God, to just bring them encouragement. I pray even this day, Jesus, we thank you for your calling on our lives. And we thank you for the truth and the reminder that you're with us every single step of the way. We don't have to do this alone. And so, Jesus, we thank you for that. God, give us the strength we need to face today. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. Cool. And we pray that the Lord blesses Spring Valley. And we have a longstanding relationship. It's been a while, but we just pray that the Lord blesses you guys in every way and that he uses you where you guys are at. Cool. Thank you. Appreciate the time today. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for the prayer and thanks for the time as well.

I really appreciate those words from Tomas, his insight about local mission. If you want to watch that again, we're going to send every Monday of this series, you're going to get a recap email with the video and also links on how to support them. So it'll include, if you want to sign up for their monthly newsletter, they will give out updates. They send those out. And then we'll also have information about if you would like to partner with him and give to him being there. I just heard from him this morning via email, and he's saying that they could use prayers. Their monthly donations have dropped significantly in the last six months. And so they are really praying that people would come and support them. So if God has impressed that upon your heart, we will give you all that information come tomorrow. So I just want to close with this. We should all have a heart to reach people for Jesus. I love that he said it. It doesn't necessarily mean bringing them to church. It may just mean having them over, having a conversation with them, inviting them out to coffee. And it can be a slow work. I think sometimes we do have visions of grandeur, say, I'm going to reach this person, and within a week, they're going to be a Christian, and their lives are changed. And God can do that. That is possible, but it also may be years in the making. He's been there for 15 years, chipping away, grinding away, presenting the gospel over and over. And so that's the encouragement for us. It takes intentionality. It means that we're going to be open to conversation and interactions with people around us that maybe God brought into our lives for a reason. It means taking a prayerful approach, praying like he does with his wife every day, hey, God, bring someone along. Use me today. Bring someone along that I can share an encouragement, your truth, your love to. And local missions means being open and willing to interact with people that maybe you wouldn't normally interact with. Now, whether that's volunteering at a local organization, Loaves and Fishes, a local food bank, a halfway house, all those are great options, but it may simply mean talking to a neighbor, like he said. It may just mean having a conversation with someone.

I don't want to spell it out too much for you of what local missions looks like for you, because I think I want to encourage all of you to have a conversation with God and say, God, what is it that you want me to do? How do you want me to be involved with what you're doing in my local area? Is there someone that I need to have a conversation with? Is it my neighbors? Is it my coworkers at work? Maybe it's the parents at school drop-off. Who needs to hear your truth, and who can I begin a relationship with? I will say, too, from a church standpoint, coming off these last amazing couple days of Camp Awesome, as a church, we're praying that Camp Awesome will be an annual local mission for us. That we would be, this year we did not really spread the word. It was just our church with a couple other people. But in the years to come, we want to let people know. We want to invite everyone from the community to join Camp Awesome. And so that could be an extension of local missions for us here. But we're taking it one step at a time, prayerfully, to help God's will be realized in our context and in our community and partnering with him to share the good news of salvation that only comes through Christ, that more might belong to the kingdom of God. I want to read these verses for you one more time. Acts 1:8, and this is for you. It says, but you, all of you here in this room, will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, or Rocklin, Roseville, California, America, and the world, and to all the ends of the earth. I want to read Matthew to you again. And Jesus came to you, and he says, And all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to all of you here at Spring Valley Church. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded all of you. And surely Jesus is with you until the very end of the age. Amen?

Let's pray. God, again, thank you for our time this morning. Thank you for all that you're doing through your spirit, the work that you are doing in the lives of kids, in the lives of us, and God, in the lives of those who are not yet in this room, who are not yet believers. But God, we know that you are working in their hearts, and God, we want to partner with you and the work that you are doing. And so, God, I pray that through your spirit, you would prompt us that we would be attuned to your spirit, that we would be ready to have conversations, even if they have nothing to do with church and faith yet, but we just start to build relationships with people, letting them know that we're there for them, that we love them, that they're cared for. And God, when the timing is just right, that we would mention you. And God, that you would be a part of our conversation with everyone around us. So God, give us what we need. Give us strength. Give us the words. Give us wisdom. And God, I pray that through Spring Valley Church and all of us here, that your kingdom would grow. We pray this in your name. Amen.

God's Way - First Things First: Part 4

God’s Way - First Things First: Part 4 - A Cautionary Tale

Genesis 4:2–16; Matthew 23:23; Romans 12:2; Malachi 3:10–12

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, good morning, everybody. If I haven't had a chance to meet you, my name is Pastor Chris, part of the team here, and I have the privilege of leading this church. It's an honor to be able to worship with you this morning and to wrap up our series we've been in now for the last four weeks: "God's Way, First Things First." And if you've been in church for a while, maybe this is the first time in a while, or maybe you're here checking it out for different reasons—yes, we are talking about money today. It has been a journey that we've been on for the last four weeks, just digging into Scripture and asking, "God, what do you have to say about money? What does it matter to us? Why do you care about it? And why is it a thing?"

We started off week one, and I said this, and I'll say it again. I think I've said it every single week that in our lives, there are dark areas. There are places where the light of God has yet to shine. Until we allow God's Word to penetrate those places and shine His perfect light in them, we will continue to be in bondage. A part of this is talking about a larger conversation about discipleship. We've said it before that our vision and mission here is to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. I don't know about you, but for me, the everyday stuff of my life probably includes finances. God has called us to live in a certain way as financial stewards of what He has blessed us with.

In the beginning of humanity, we read in Genesis that a lie was told to Adam and Eve by Satan in the garden. This is the same lie that we believe today. The lie is this: that God is holding out on you. That God does not give you enough. God will not give you enough. And so, in turn, we have to take control. We have to make sure that everything is taken care of, and we have to be the ones making all the calls and decisions in our lives. It's the same lie that was told to Adam and Eve in the garden with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Whether you want to admit it or not, at some level, we all still believe this lie. For the last four weeks, we've been deconstructing that and breaking it down, trying to see where this lie begins. We talked about Abraham and Isaac and how God wants to pour out His blessings on us, but it involves trust. We've talked about so many other ways in life of what Jesus has said about money. If you haven't been around, I encourage you to please go listen to those on our website or podcast. There's really good stuff in there that helps us begin to understand that God is not holding out on us, and that God truly wants to bless us, but it is an act of trust.

Last week, we talked about firstfruits. We talked about the fact that God is actually the one who first gave to us. He gave His first and His best, and His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross for us. So the act of generosity isn't one where God's just up there, the big man upstairs in heaven looking down going, "You mess up, I'm gonna zap you." Rather, He is the one who actually gave first and says, "This is what generosity looks like. This is the way I want you to live." There's a system, a process to all of our lives, and that isn't just how we treat our relationships or our marriages, or how we raise our kids, or what we do with our lives, or the words that come out of our mouths, but it also includes how we spend our money.

Today, I want to talk through a couple of cautionary tales that we see in Scripture. Does anybody know what a cautionary tale is? Hint: the word is in the title. It's a tale of caution. It's okay, you'll get there this morning. Drink some more coffee. But a word of caution, a cautionary tale—what does it do? A cautionary tale has two purposes. The first is to tell us, "Hey, don't do the thing that I'm cautioning you against. Don't do it." And the second is, "If you ignore the teaching I'm giving you, if you ignore the caution, this is what is going to happen. This is going to be the outcome." The outcome, most likely in cautionary tales, is going to be negative. I won't tell you later, "I told you so," because I'm telling you so right now. Cautionary tales equip us to be better decision-makers, revealing clear cause-and-effect truth in our lives.

We're going to talk about a set of brothers who were second-generation humans on this earth: Cain and Abel. They are actually the sons of Adam and Eve. What's interesting here is that we come to this point in Genesis when Adam and Eve had sinned, and they actually got kicked out of the garden because of their sin. They're trying to figure out life, and then they have two sons, Cain and Abel, and they're just trying to figure out this world. But what we do know is that in Scripture, God is still clearly having a relationship with them. Sometimes I think we get caught up in thinking, "Oh, they were in the garden with God, and they got kicked out, so then God doesn't talk to them anymore." But that's actually the opposite effect. God is a very relational God in their lives. He's talking to them. He's telling them how to live. He's giving them direction and instruction on their lives on a regular basis. We see this all the way through Scripture up to the flood. Because the reality was, Noah didn't just wake up one morning and go, "Hey, I wanna build a boat. I don't even know what a boat is. I've never seen a boat. I don't even know that I knew the word boat, but I'm gonna build one." No, God gives very deep instructions. You could read in the Bible down to inches and feet. God gives him a clear blueprint of what to build when He says, "I want you to build a giant boat called an ark." So God is still speaking with His people on a very regular basis, giving them directions for how to worship, how to live their lives, how to conduct themselves, and how to live in relationship with other human beings on this planet.

So we come to Genesis chapter four, where we're going to spend most of our time today. It says, "When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd while Cain cultivated the ground." Now, first off, these are both great professions. These are both good. God loves both of these. These are both very necessary to sustaining life. One is not better than the other, okay? I wanna get that off the front here. "When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs of his flock." Last week, we talked about firstfruits. We talked about why God wants the first things. Why does God want the first? Because the first is the best. Do you know who gets the best pineapples? The first crop. Hawaiians. It never leaves the island. I hear they're magical. I hope one day to taste one. It pales in comparison, I guess, to what we have here in the States. But think of olive oil. The first press of the olives is what? Extra virgin olive oil. It's the best. And then every press after that, it kind of goes down in grade. God wants the best for us, and He gave us the best in His Son, Jesus, and He asks for the best of us as well. The first is the best.

Continue on. "The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but He did not accept Cain and his gift." What a jerk God is, right? Or wait, hold on. There's probably more there. Unless maybe God had, at some point, given instruction to all of humanity about what He wanted in the gift of the harvest. Hmm. God's standard was already clearly communicated. And yet, Cain kind of went rogue. And this was not good. Continue on. "This made Cain very angry. He looked dejected." Here is where the cautionary tale begins. The caution here is that we are to give God what He asks. Plain and simple. And the caution is that giving whatever you want instead causes issues. Growing up as a kid, we had a dog, and one of my weekly chores was to get my butt out into the backyard and pick up all the little and large deposits our dog had made in the grass, the flower beds, and sometimes the brick patio and all over the place, right? And I remember there was one time where my dad was like, "Hey, garbage night, get out there, go pick up the dog poop." And I'm like, "Dad, I don't want to. I've already done my laundry, I unloaded the dishwasher, and I cleaned my room." And my dad went, "Fantastic, that's great. Now you have time to go out and do what I've asked of you." Because doing the laundry, picking up my room, unloading the dishwasher, was not the directive that my father had given me. He said, "Get your butt outside and pick up the dog poop." Now, don't use your hands if you're picking up dog poop. Use like a little pooper scooper. But the principle here is the same. God says, "I want you to give in this way. This is my expectation of you." And yet Cain goes off and does what he wants. And I think he comes with a little bit of an attitude and says, "Hey, God. Like, yeah, here's some of my crop. It's what it is. You're welcome." Cain's got this little bit of an attitude thing going on. And God is like, "Hold up." Cain is choosing independence over obedience to God.

I think maybe this question is close to where we are in our lives: where have we given God something else than what He asked for, the first and the best? And so God, in His graciousness, has a very direct conversation with Cain. He says this: "Why are you so angry?" the Lord asked Cain. "Why do you look dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right." A caveat here: There are times in our life, I've experienced it, and I think many of you have, where God presents two really good options. You could go this way or you could go this way. And in His love and His grace and His care, He says, "You choose. I love you. I'm gonna bless whatever route you wanna go on. You choose." He's great like that. This is not one of those situations. This is not a moment where God says, "Okay, Cain, well, I want this, but you choose, bud." No, He's saying, "You need to choose what I've asked you to choose." And Cain let his brokenness and selfishness make the decision and not be obedient. I think some of us have done that. Cain is not choosing the direct, clearly previously stated obedience. God's saying, "Hey, Cain, bro, what's going on, dude? I told you what's up. You're not doing it. We need to have a conversation." This is Chris's translation, if you didn't know. That's not a biblical quote right there. But hey, Cain, dude, we gotta talk. So He says, "Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right, but you refuse to do what is right. Then watch out. Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master."

I could wrap up today right here and go home. That is such a good bunch of theology right here in this passage. And I think for so many of us, we could take this and immediately apply it like right now, right? But this is a cautionary tale. It's saying, "Hey, Cain, if you keep walking down this path, bro, it's not gonna end well for you. It's not gonna end up in a place where I think you want to be. So you gotta watch out. That sin is crouching. Do what is right. Master it." And what I love here is that God's patience is so huge in this moment. God had already given him direction and he already disobeyed. Like how great is it that God is like, "Hey bud, let's talk about this." I mean, He could have been like, "Zap, you're done, next." Seriously, this isn't a mystery to Cain. Cain's like, "What am I supposed to do?" God's like, "No, this is how you're supposed to do it. Hey, Cain, you're not doing it. We need to talk about this." Because God is like, "Hey, I have a calling. I have a path. I have a way of life for you. And that way is filled with peace. Cain, I made you. I love you. I care so much for you. I have a calling for you. And if you do it my way, 100% of the time, it is going to turn out great. But you got to do it my way." But how many of us are like Cain? I'll admit it. I'll be the first. I want to do it my way the first time. "Me do," as my three-year-old says in our house. "Me do." I'm like, "Baby, you don't know how to mow the lawn. And you're out here going, 'Me do, me do' with the mower. I'm like, no, this is not gonna end well."

Because if you see this outcome that God is saying don't do, there's already anger and dejection from Cain. We're gonna see in a moment, there's violence, there's loss, there's wandering, there's blame. Like Cain's path just compounds into just bad. Have you ever worked with someone who you have to follow to clean up their messes afterwards? Have you? People are saying names. Don't say names. Some of you are like, "I can think of four people right now." Like so much work. You have to follow this person and fix the mess that they are making. It's exhausting. It costs time. It costs resources. It costs money, your energy, your sanity. But God is saying here, do it my way, the right way, the first time, and there won't be anything extra fixing needed. It's easier to keep relationships healthy than it is to repair a broken one, right? It costs time. It costs energy. It costs sometimes counseling to mend broken relationships, and we could have just done it right the first time. God here in His grace is trying to warn Cain, but he's choosing his own path. Verse eight: "One day Cain suggested to his brother, 'Hey bro, let's go out into the fields.' And while they were out in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him." Welcome to church. Maybe you've heard this story before, maybe you haven't, but God literally just told him, "Bro, you go down this path, it's not going to end well." But Cain chooses anger and dejection and then takes it out on his own flesh and blood, his own brother. Guys, there's like, I think, at this point in time, four or maybe five people on planet Earth, and 20% just got killed.

And I think sometimes we can look at this story with Cain and be like, "Man, that's horrible. I'd never do that." But I'll admit, I've had bad days and come home and I wasn't the nicest to my kids. I wasn't the most loving and caring husband that I should have been. And I have to go back. I have to ask forgiveness. I say, "I'm so sorry. I had a horrible day at work. This happened, this happened, this happened. And I just took it out on you guys." And maybe you've done that to people in your family or people that you care about. Or maybe it was done to you. I don't know all of your stories, but I know some, and I know some of you didn't grow up in the best houses with the most loving and caring parents. And dad might come home after a hard day. Or mom. Or maybe a sibling to sibling, like we read in the Bible. Maybe it was a teacher. Maybe it was a coach. Maybe, unfortunately, it happens. Maybe it was a pastor at some point in your life. And I'm so sorry for that. And Cain is continuing to choose to do it his own way rather than choosing to do it God's way. Verse nine: "Afterward, the Lord asked Cain, 'Hey, where's your brother? Where's Abel?' Well, I don't know," Cain responded. "Am I my brother's guardian?" But the Lord said, "What have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother's blood. You will no longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work. From now on, you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth."

There are always results to our actions. Always. There are always results to our actions. Is it God's fault what happened to Cain? No. God warned Cain. He said, "Dude, don't keep going down that path. There's gonna be outcomes. There's gonna be results that you cannot even fathom that you do not want." The fallout wasn't God's cruelty. It was a consequence. Consequence, I think sometimes we hear that word, we think only just bad stuff, right? Just consequences. But here's the definition of consequence: A consequence is the result, outcome, or effect of a prior action, decision, or situation. Consequences can be good. Consequences can be bad. And for Cain, it was a bad consequence. It was a curse. God was trying to present him with good consequences if he chose His way and His path, but Cain decided to do something else. Cain decided to make him and his identity, his outcomes, his crop, his income, his God. Instead of submitting to Yahweh, God Almighty, in saying, "You know what, God? You are right. You are God. I am not. I am submitting to you." And yet I think we do the same at times, right? We make things in our life our gods. Now, are they little carved wooden or metal figures or different things? No, idols throughout culture have looked like all sorts of different things. We talked about the rich young man a couple weeks ago that he had made money his God, and he comes to Jesus and says, "Hey, how do I get into heaven?" God says, "Well, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength, love your neighbor as yourself, honor your mother and father." And he's like, "I've done all those things." And Jesus is like, "Awesome, bro, that's great. But you need to sell your wealth and give it away because that's your God." And he walked away dejected, just like Cain, because he didn't want to surrender what had become his everything, his whole world, the center of his life.

The reality is that God is the one who brings the provision. It's nothing that we do. Cain gave such value to his crop, it became his idol. And I find it interesting that this is a similar curse that his parents had felt and walked through. Because in the garden, it was this perfect, immaculate place where they had to work for nothing. God created an environment that things just grew. Food was available. It was there. They didn't have to water. They didn't have to fertilize. They didn't have to weed. They didn't have to plant. They didn't have to grow. Man, that sounds like a great place. My garden gives you some of that. But then Adam and Eve, they get kicked out. And now part of their curse, because of their sin, they have to work the ground. But God still allows things to grow. And now Cain gets removed a degree further from that, that it says that the ground will not produce for him. His idol he once had is now completely gone. And a curse is put on him because he broke the relationship with God. Even after God said, "Hey, here's how to live your life. Hey, here's a warning, you're not going right. Hey, buddy, get back in line, it's not going good." Boom, murder. And for some, that kind of sounds extreme. I don't think anybody in this room has ever killed anybody before. But all of us have sin in our lives. And all of us at time, from time to time, choose our way, our selfish, our own way, our own path. And then Cain kind of has a little bit of a four-year-old temper tantrum. Cain replies to the Lord, "My punishment is too great for me to bear." I find it interesting sometimes that when we get caught in something that we know we did wrong, we have justified our actions so far gone that we can't even understand what fair is. We're at such a far, sinful, broken place that we can't even see clearly because we're so burning with selfishness inside of us. Cain's acting like a little child right here. Then Cain goes on to say some things that God did not say. He says this: "You have banished me from the land and from your presence." Did God ever say Cain was banished? No. But Cain knew his consequences. He knew what it meant for his punishment that was coming because he had chosen himself over God rather than allowing God to come in and to be the choice that he selected. It was Cain's choice, not God's.

Continues on: "You have made me a homeless wanderer." Cain, I tried to tell you, man, I really did. "But that warning I gave you about those things tempting you, they became your master rather than you mastering those temptations. These are the results." He says, "Anyone who finds me will kill me," Cain said. "Nope," the Lord replied. "For I will give a sevenfold punishment to anyone who kills you. Then the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who might try to kill him. So Cain left the Lord's presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden." We don't know what this mark was. We have no idea what it is. There's some bad theology in church that gets thrown around that some people say this is where darker-skinned people came from. And that's a lie. That's not true. It's a lie from the church to manipulate, to control, to degrade people that are created. All people are created in God's image. And so if you've been told that lie or you've heard that lie, like put that away. That is not from God, okay? We don't know what this mark was. We have no idea. But all we know is that whatever it was, it was clear as day: "Hey, do not touch that, bro. He messed up with God. You don't wanna get pulled into that garbage. Stay away." This is the cautionary tale from the Old Testament. Now I wanna talk about a cautionary tale from the New Testament. These are words of Jesus in Matthew 23:23. Jesus says this: "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law, which are justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things."

What is Jesus saying here? Jesus is saying, yes, you should tithe. That's what you should do. But see, if Cain was over here going, "Whatever, God, you take this," the Pharisees over here were so high and mighty, they're like, "I'm gonna even tithe my herb garden. Here's 10% of my basil, 10% of my rosemary, 10% of whatever." Okay, side note: please don't bring me your garden tithes to the church, okay? I have my own garden I'm struggling with, okay? I don't need your garden too. But Jesus here is saying, "You're doing it your own way." Huh. Is there a story from the Old Testament of someone who was trying to be tithing and giving and worship in their own way? Oh yeah, we just talked about Cain. And here's the opposite of the Pharisees saying, "We are following every aspect of the law. We are so high and mighty." And Jesus is like, "Okay, cool. But what about justice and mercy and my grace and my love and my faith and my hope? Like, what about that?" Jesus here isn't saying not to tithe. He's actually affirming the Old Testament principle of tithing. And He's actually kicking it up a notch and saying, "Hey, there's more to it than that. Tithing is the foundation, not the ceiling. Like there's more to it." And we've talked about that. We talked about in the Word, we said the term extravagant generosity is what God desires of our hearts and our lives. "Well, pastor, you know I'm tithing. And so like, God, He doesn't care about these little sins in my life. I'm doing the big one. I'm doing the 10%." Wait, sorry, excuse me. What? We don't get to just pick and choose what's kind of nice for us, or what's okay in our eyes, because we selfishly say, "I'll do it." Do we? We see the world through our own eyes, right? We see the world through our perspective, and when we think we see what is good and pleasing and all that, we say, "Perfect. I'll just do that. That's exactly." No, no, no, no. God wants all of you. And that includes your finances. The Pharisees were giving themselves permission to ignore God's heart of justice, mercy, and faith. "We're going to do it how we want to do it, Jesus. We got this law thing figured out. Don't worry about us. You need to go look at those sinners over there." And Jesus is like, "Are you just pointing at yourself? Because I'm here talking to a sinner right now."

But it's hard, right? It's hard. And it's uncomfortable sometimes to walk through these things. And I've learned in my life, I know that there's times where I have to say, "Hey, search me, God. I'm blind in areas. I need you to open up my eyes. I need your perspective. I need to change who I am. I need you to put your new spirit in me so I can see my blind spots in my life." And God will come in and He'll work in your life and He'll soften your heart and He will give you new desires for His will and His way. Because the reality is, this is a discipline of discernment. We're out here having to filter through what is God's will and what is my will? "Well, God put that thought into my head, so that must be God's will." No. I've heard Christians come and say, "Well, God wants me to get a divorce." Nope. I think you're leaning a little bit too much on your will and not looking into and trying to discern God's will. But it's difficult. Discernment isn't guessing, guys. Okay, isn't just like poking in the dark going, "Okay, maybe here, maybe there." Discernment is a transformation process. It requires humility and Scripture and Christian community. That's why we gather here. It takes a commitment, a daily commitment to waking up saying, "Jesus, I am yours today. What do you will for my life?" Scripture calls this a renewing of our mind. Romans 12:2: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think. Then you will learn, you will know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." Cain and the Pharisees chose a way that was sinful, selfish, and full of hatred. But God's desire for our hearts is good, pleasing, and perfect. And it requires an obedience shift to begin to walk in God's way. We have to change our mind. Our mind has to be renewed into who Jesus wants us to be. It's a practice of obedience. Obedience. God's law is not a cage to control us. God's law is a compass for us to navigate this world. And we have to step into obedience with His guardrails for our lives.

So what does this look like when it specifically comes to finances? Well, it looks like this. If you have given nothing to the church, you've given nothing back to God. We talked about the storehouses last week. If you have given nothing to God, I wholeheartedly believe that He has a heart of generosity He has put within you when you've accepted Jesus Christ into your life through the power of the Holy Spirit, and has a calling for our lives to be generous. Maybe you've started giving, and that's awesome, but maybe it's inconsistent. It's kind of here and there. It's your choice. Maybe kind of like Cain's choice. He gave what he wanted to give. Maybe you haven't stepped into full obedience to Him because you're just going, "I'm just gonna give this right now, God." But God is saying, "Step in obedience. I want you to trust me. And I am going to give you my first and my best in Jesus. And I ask of you to do the same to me." Maybe you've stepped into practicing consistent obedience with a tithe or a percentage when it comes to your finances. A tithe is 10% of your total income back to God. It's what He asks of us in Scripture. And so if you're in that place, praise God. That's amazing. You've worked to get to that place. It takes time. It is hard. It is not easy. But maybe God is asking you to step out into more generosity beside that. To order your finances in your life, to live in a way that says, "I need less because I want to be God's light in this world. I want to give out of His immense generosity that He's blessed me with." This happened recently with Lauren and I. It was really interesting. God put on my heart for about a week, and I wrestled with it, that I needed to be generous to someone in our lives and to give them a few hundred dollars. And I wrestled and I wrestled and I wrestled. I went back and forth. I go, "Well, what about just 100, God? Can we just do 100?" God's like, "That's obedience. I want the two. I want the full amount. I want all of it. Because I want your trust. I want your obedience." I'm like, "God, I'm tithing right now. This money's really tight. I got bills coming up." God's like, "No, you need to be obedient." And so I wrestled and I wrestled and I said, "Okay, fine, God. You're right." And I've been preaching this series. This was like week one. And I was talking about how God has everything to give to us and provide and pour out of storehouses. And I'm like, "Okay." So we gave it. About a month later, just a few weeks ago, I got all that money back when someone blessed our family. And God goes, "Do you trust me? Do you trust me enough that I have enough that I wanna just blow your mind? But you gotta trust. You gotta step out. You gotta walk in generosity."

So wherever you are in this process, I'm not asking you to do what you want. I'm asking you to have a conversation with God. Talk with Him, search His Scriptures, and ask, "God, what do you desire for me? How do you want me to be obedient when it comes to this financial discipleship and this obedience?" And then I want you to step into that and to trust God. Malachi chapter three says, "Bring all the tithes in the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. If you do, says the Lord of heaven's armies, I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in. Try it. Put me to the test. Your crops will be abundant for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe, says the Lord of heaven's armies. Then all the nations will call you blessed for your land will be such a delight, says the Lord of heaven's armies." I want that second final part to be true for each and every one of our lives. I'm gonna ask the ushers to pass out a card this morning to you. And I want you to take a look at this and begin to pray about what God wants you to do. Because the reality is that we cannot have the latter without the former. We don't get to have God's poured out heavenly blessing in our lives in the way that He asked us to without the obedience. And I want you to not give yourself the excuse or a pass or permission and say, "Ah, God, yeah, I know this just doesn't apply to me." I want you to push back against the lie of Satan in the garden. Maybe you're just gonna look at this card. Maybe you're just gonna take it and you're gonna take it home and you're gonna pray about it. Maybe you'll throw it away on the way out. I don't know. But what I want you to do is I want you to have a conversation with God and to say, "God, where do you want me to step up? Where do you want me to begin to trust you to push back against that lie in the garden that you are not gonna provide if I say yes to one of these things?" God's Scripture is very clear there in Malachi. Test me. It's the only place in Scripture where God says, "Put me to the test. See what happens. See that I will not just give you everything that you dream or imagine or hope to have in life."

Now is it always going to be financial? No. Lauren reminded me of a story of the church that we were in previously, of there was a challenge that we did in the church. And there was a couple who had been trying to get pregnant for a really long time. And they signed up and felt like God was asking them to step into this 90-day challenge or three months. And they did, and they started tithing faithfully. And then soon after that, they got pregnant. The blessing may not come in the ways that it might not be financial. It's not going to be always my story where God asked me to give, and then He just returned it back to me. That might not be it. But what God is asking us is to step up into this and to trust in Him. So the first part of the card says, "I have no income and I need some help." God is not asking you to tithe out of finances that you are not bringing in. But maybe if you are bringing in finances, maybe that is retirement. Maybe that's investments. Maybe that's through different benefits. Maybe that's through, I don't know, a side hustle. Maybe that's through your full-time job. Whatever that looks like for you, if you don't have any of that, mark that first block because we wanna be praying with you to say, "We wanna come alongside of you. Maybe we can help try to figure out how to get you a job. We know different people. We're gonna put feelers out. But we wanna be praying with you because I don't believe that God doesn't want you to live in a space of not having income." Maybe you're the first box after that that says, "I am stepping up and giving for the first time in the amount of blank." You fill in the blank. Maybe this is for you to step up for the very first time and God, I've been listening to you for these four weeks, I don't know how it's all going to work out but I feel like I'm supposed to do this, and that's that first step into obedience into God. Maybe you've been talking and praying about you're the third box as I am stepping up and accepting the 90-day challenge to give regular in the amount of blank every how often. I want you to kind of put some rubber to the road here of how often, whether that's whenever you get paid. We talked about that firstfruits of when we get paid. So maybe you get paid weekly. Maybe it's twice a month. Maybe it's once a month. Maybe it's quarterly. I don't know how your income works. We all have kind of different. But whatever that looks like, you are saying, "I'm going to put God to the test. I'm going to step up and I'm going to give this amount every this time." Maybe you're the third box and saying, "You know what? I've been giving. It's been here or there, but it's only like maybe 20, 50 bucks a week, or maybe it's 100 bucks a month. That's just kind of where you are. But God says, that's great, and I love you in that, but I have a calling for you to step up into a tithe, and a tithe is the 10%." Maybe that's you. You're going to check that box, say, "I am stepping up and accepting the 90-day tithe, 10% challenge, to give in obedience to God's instruction in the amount of blank, every blank." You fill in the timeline. Maybe you are the fourth group or the final group and you're like, "I am already a biblical tither. Praise God, that is amazing. And I am committing towards extravagant generosity. I am giving and stepping up and wanting to give extravagantly in the amount of fill in the blank." And then yes, we want your contact info because we want to be praying alongside of you for these next 90 days. We wanna be walking with you, want to be encouraging you. We want to be helping you. You might need to get some financial resources in your life like Pastor Andre talked about to get finances in order. You might have to reevaluate your entire budget of where you spend your money and realize, "Man, I'm going to Starbucks seven times a week. It's probably not the best. Or I'm eating out all the time. I'm DoorDashing. I'm Ubering food to my house because I just didn't wanna go buy groceries and cook something." You might have to reorder some things in your life to begin to have a place of space and margin for generosity with God. And so I want you to ask, "God, where are you calling me? Not where am I comfortable, but God, where are you leading me to trust and have faith in you."

And so we're gonna have a moment here. The worship team's gonna come up. And we typically don't do stuff like this, but I wrestled with God again this week. He keeps doing this to me. And I was like, "Okay, God, I'm gonna have him fill out the card and then I'm just gonna like, just leave it on the seats. Just leave it on the seat, just let them walk out, go on with their lives and do that." But God's like, "No, I want them to step forward in obedience." And I'm like, "God, this isn't who our church is. Like people don't come forward for prayer, let alone a commitment to give money to the church. Like, God, that's not going to happen." He says, "You need to trust me. You need to trust me in what's going to happen next." And so I have no idea what's gonna happen, but this is what God's asked me to do. So I'm being obedient. So I wanna put out a bucket here. And I want whatever God is pulling on your heart right now to come forward and to do. There may be nobody that comes up, but God's calling me to be obedient in this moment. So I'm being obedient to Him. My obedience isn't contingent on your response. And maybe two people come up, maybe one person, I don't know. But maybe the reality is you need to go home and you gotta talk with your spouse. You haven't had the conversation I've told you to have for the last three weeks. You've been ignoring it. You've been skirting it. You've been, "Oh, we're too busy." And so you can't actually come and put a card in right now. We will continue to have this going forward. We will provide cards next week. So if you go home and then you forget it on the way back to church, we'll have more cards next week. But I want you to come in obedience. God asks us to come and bring our worship to Him. I think we get caught up and think worship is just music, this, the band, right? No, no, no. Worship is actually our entire lives that we're called to give. And every act of obedience is worship. And so we're going to sing this final song. We're going to worship God. And I want you to continue to pray about this card. And I want you to come in obedience to trust to Him. Only if He is asking and calling you to step forward, okay? Don't come grumpy. Don't come angry. Don't come mad at God. "Fine, whatever, dude, here." Don't want that. He doesn't want that. Only come if He's actually truly leading you in obedience in this to say, "This is what I'm asking you to do." Eyes are gonna be on you. It's gonna be awkward. Let's just call it what it is, okay? "Well, I wonder what they're gonna give." Nobody gives a crap because everybody's sitting in that chair and they're wrestling with God themselves right now too, okay?

Jesus, we thank you for who you are, God. You're amazing, you're incredible, you're generous, you're gracious. You gave first, Jesus. And so God, you are asking us to step in obedience with you. So Lord, as we sing this song, I pray for our people. Lord, I pray over their hearts right now as they sit and they wrestle. And you're gonna call some, maybe, God, hopefully, into obedience to step forward. But maybe some aren't gonna step into the obedience this week, but that's okay. You have grace for them. You love them. You hear them. You see them. You know where you are. And so you see into their hearts and you're gonna continue to stir and you're gonna continue to work and you're gonna continue to draw and you're gonna continue to pull them closer to you in every aspect of their lives. And this includes finances at this moment. And so Jesus, in the song that we sing, God, we trust you. We worship you. We thank you. God, I pray for those who are checking that first box, say, "I don't have a job. I got nothing. I am so lost right now." God, I pray a prayer of provision and blessing over them in ways that they cannot dream or imagine right now what you're gonna do in their life and how you're gonna rock their world and say, "Here I am." So Jesus, we trust you this morning. We praise you. We worship you.

God's Way - First Things First: Part 3

God’s Way - First Things First: Part 3 - Financial Discipleship Q&A

1 Corinthians 16:1-2; Malachi 3:6-10; Proverbs 22:1-7; 1 Timothy 6:6-10; Deuteronomy 14:22-23

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing in our God's Way First Things First series. And if you haven't been around maybe the last couple of weeks, we've been diving into and understanding what it means to put God first in everything in our lives. And that until we let God's glory and His goodness shine into all the dark areas of our lives, we will continue to be in bondage in those places. And if you've been with us, we've been talking about and processing this foundational lie that began in humanity all the way back in the garden in the beginning of the Bible in the book called Genesis. And this was the lie that the serpent told Adam and Eve in that garden: that God is holding out on you. That you don't have enough, so you have to look out for yourself. You have to control everything. You have to say, "Hey, God, you're not providing, so I'm going to do it my way."

We've walked through maybe what it looks like, how we live this lie out today. We live this lie out in how panic drives who we are. Our anxiety and our worry—the stats as of late, they are through the roof in society. That we over-schedule ourselves, running here and there, everywhere, to make sure everything gets done. We focus on being self-providers to make sure that we have enough. But we know that this lie, that we don't have enough, that God is holding back on us, is truly that: a lie.

And then it comes down to a point of real trust. And we talked about Abram, who then became Abraham. He had all this wealth in the world, but he had no heirs. He had no children to pass that wealth on to, and he was angry with God. He was frustrated. He's like, "God, how could you even let this happen?" And God goes, "Let's go outside, buddy. Let's look up at the stars. See all those? Try to count them." Abraham ran out of fingers and toes real quick trying to count stars. And God said, "Those stars represent the descendants that you are going to have." And Abraham's like, "We don't have any descendants." And God goes, "I know. I got a plan." He's like, "Well, but what about this? And my wife and I, we are way past those days of when that is to biologically happen." Sarah, even at one point, laughs at God.

I had a frustrating conversation with God two weeks ago in the middle kid's room down in this hallway. And I found myself going, "I am no different than Abraham and Sarah." And I have personally been on a journey along with you guys in this of what does it mean to be truly obedient to God in everything that we are and everything that we have. And I love it because I'm having conversation with you guys as well. Many of you have been hearing from God. You've been having the conversations. You've been praying. You've been saying, "Okay, God, well, I don't know what this fully looks like, but I'm here and I'm listening. God, speak to me." Many of you are stepping into financial discipleship and biblical stewardship. And I love this because honestly, I have just been asking you to have a conversation. I haven't even put a challenge in front of you guys yet. But you're being intentional with this. You're hearing from God.

And we too, as a staff, we've been having conversations of, "Hey, maybe how we have gotten in the way." The first of which is, I haven't really ever talked this bold about money in the church before. Hi, my name is Chris. I'm your friend. And you guys have been so receptive. You've been so gracious. I thought by week three, there'd be like two of you right here. That would be it. But you're here and you knew it was coming. Maybe not all of you, but.

And today I want to kind of walk through maybe a little bit different of a talk this morning, but some Q&A to maybe answer the why behind why we live the way that we live and why God calls us to live this way. And so the reality is that when we look at money, we look at how we spend our money, how we save our money, how we use our money, it reveals who we are at our core. And that this relationship with money has instructions given to us by God in His word.

And we're going to be in a few different scriptures this morning, but the first of which is going to come from First Corinthians chapter 16. And this here is Paul writing a letter to the church in Corinth, which is another small church that started around the Mediterranean area. And he's telling them, kind of giving them some instruction when it comes to finance. He says this: "Now regarding your question about the money being collected for God's people in Jerusalem, you should follow the same procedure I gave the churches in Galatia. On the first day of each week, you should put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don't wait until I get there and try to collect it all at once." So Paul here is talking about this idea of don't wait to the last minute to try to figure all this stuff out. And Paul isn't necessarily talking about what the Old Testament talks about—we're going to say, walk through in a minute—of this principle of first fruits. I don't know if you guys have heard that before. But Paul is echoing this idea of when you put your finances together in order, there is a system in which you should do that. And he is echoing this idea of honoring God with every single aspect of our lives.

No different than maybe when you get to work and you pray, "God, I am your servant here at work. Use me how you desire." Or maybe at home, you come home and you go, "God, use me in this place how you wish. I am your servant." Maybe in parenting, for me as a father, I pray regularly, "Lord Jesus, give me your strength. Give me your hope. Give me your help. I am your servant in this place as I father the children that you have steward to me. My children are not my own. I just have them for a certain amount of time. They're God's. But I am called to lead them and to instruct them and to teach them into God's word."

And so a theological posture for us would be that honoring God in every single sphere of our lives begins with what we do first. And that this idea of first fruits is about not a transaction. It's not a transaction, but it's about worship. We talked about that week one. It's about trust. We talked about that last week. And it's about priority realignment. We're going to dig into that a little bit more.

But the first question that I commonly get when talking about money and finances is this in the Bible: Why does it have to be first? What matters for these things to be first? Does it matter if it's in the middle? Does it matter if it's the end? Like if it comes from the same pot, why does it matter? And I, honestly, that's a legitimate question. And I think it's something that for us to think about and to discuss. The logistic reality is what matters most receives our first attention in our lives.

If you are married and you have a spouse, my spouse is right here. This is Lauren. As an earthly relationship here on this planet, she is my number one. God is my ultimate number one. But as an earthly relationship, she is my number one priority. And so she deserves the best of me. She doesn't deserve my tiredness. She doesn't deserve my leftovers. She doesn't deserve my second best. She deserves my number one. And so as we would say, I think, in here, those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus and Christians, God deserves our number one, right? And things in our life are really important. They become a top priority. And so this also carries into our other relationships and our other things in our life. They are set in a certain particular order. And so we will carry this into our whole lives.

Side note, if you're in here and you are unmarried, I want to encourage you: make God number one in your life right now. Because it is only going to carry into your future marriage and relationships in a way that is going to be a solid rock foundation in ways you can't even imagine. And it's just going to set everything in order, perfect the way that God instructed. But when we think about our finances, the biggest chunks take priority and get to the front of line, right? I think for most of us, that would probably be a mortgage or a rent, right? Probably our largest expense we have on a regular basis. Now, if you own your home, I'm very jealous of you. But when you were paying that baby off, okay, that was your largest thing. And then that brings the largest thing, then puts other things in order and perspective, right? And so as an order, this top thing, everything else just kind of slides into place as you go through your finances.

This is about priority realignment and putting God first in our finances reorders our priority with everything else. Because God is in first place, then that puts everything else in their right place. I think I got a slide for that. I want to put that up on the screen. When we put God in first place, it puts everything else in right place. See, our financial world falls in the right place when God leads.

We talked about this a few weeks ago, the different levels of financial engagement with the church. Maybe you never have given before, and that's fine. That's okay. Maybe you've given one time to something like our Operation Christmas Child, where we send shoeboxes with practical gifts and toys in the gospel around the globe for kids to hear about Jesus for the first time, and you gave to that. Awesome. Thank you so much. Maybe you have a monthly thing where you are regularly giving. Maybe it's $20, $50, $100 a month. Maybe you're putting something in on the regular saying, "God, I want to be in a relationship of financial discipleship with you." I know some of you others have stepped up into tithing regularly. And we're going to talk about what a tithe means. But you look at your whole sum that comes in, you get, "God, I'm going to give 1% of all of this back to you." And then maybe 2%, 3%, growing in that, in your generosity. And then you have tithing, which is 10% of that. And then it stops right there, right? No. God asks for extravagant generosity. And I've said for the last few weeks, and I'm gonna say it again: you are a recipient of extravagant generosity.

This space, this facility, this building would not have happened without extravagant generosity. There are people, a part of this church and others who are no longer with us, that sacrificed big time for us to be able to purchase this facility and to move here to have a place to call home. Because we were just bouncing around before that. We started in a school in 1999. Set up and tear down. There was no home for us. But God opened up doors for rental facilities. They were a place, but they really weren't our place. And then God allowed a place like this for 24-7 ministry to happen. For youth group during the week. For children's ministry. For Bible studies. For events. For weddings. For funerals, for things that we can call home and a place to take a foothold in the community for the kingdom of God.

So however you are regularly paid, maybe that's weekly, twice a month, monthly, quarterly, however you get that income, you give God the best and the first and this puts everything in order. And when we do that, put God first, we have our fixed expenses, then everything else kind of falls in line. And you may come to a point where you get to the end of the month and there isn't another trip to TJ Maxx in store. Sorry, ladies, I just stepped on some toes. I apologize. Man, we can't go back to Bass Pro or Home Depot or, I don't know, where are guys spending money these days? Golf. There you go. Golf. There's not another round at the end of the month. But when we put this in order, everything orders out the rest. And when we are intentional about something, it orders our priorities.

Now, sometimes there may be a situation where you don't get the tithe to be like the first thing, auto-pay bills. They'll sneak in there on you sometimes. But it's a personal practice of worship. For my wife and I, we get paid around the 15th and the end of the month. And I will intentionally that morning when I wake up and my phone says, "You got money, a direct deposit," I try to take a moment and to worship God and literally write the check right there to say, "God, this is the absolute first thing that is coming out of this blessing that you have given." I know some of you will take a moment and utilize our online giving portal and you will set up a moment. You will sit down, you will pause, you maybe turn on some worship music, maybe you sing a song to God and then you click the button and you give the tithe. Others of you, you write the check during week, you come in, that is the first stop that you do and you go to that drop. You will not talk to anybody else. You're like, "I am going to worship and you walk in, you drop, and you're like, hello, I can talk to you now." But it's a priority. It's your first thing that you do.

And when we put God first in things, the other things that kind of just suck up our finances become less of a priority. "Ah, you know what, Pastor? There was a lot of stuff that happened this month and just, we got to the end and it just, there just wasn't enough." Okay, it happens. But maybe you need to reorder some of those things so that it is a priority, is a first thing, it is something that is done at the beginning. Now I'm not saying this: get this right, you have to pay your mortgage and rent, that's just reality of life, okay? I wish it wasn't the case, it is, and in California stupid expensive, let's be honest, we just call it what it is, so that is a big chunk. All right. I realize you have that. I realize you have to put food on your table. Okay. You have to provide maybe for your family, for your kids. You have to take care of them. I get that. I don't think anybody came in here this morning hungry intentionally because you did not have enough. So I know if you did come in this morning and you don't have enough and you're hungry, please come talk to me. We have people in this church who have asked, "Pastor, when someone comes in, they are hungry, send them my way. God has blessed me and called me to take care of them." That is the purpose of the church. Okay?

But when we prioritize, what gets cut at the end of the month isn't God. It's what's less essential. The less over becomes less and even less wasted if you want to talk about it. Last two weeks, I've asked you to go home and have a conversation with God, if your spouse, if you have them, with your family, maybe even with your kids, about what this means. This week I want you to begin to maybe pull out your bank statement and begin to evaluate where you are spending your money. And then just let the Holy Spirit speak.

Because I know for me, I am the first, things can just slip in. I've been trying to make iced coffee on my own during the week. I love me some cold brew. Okay, I have some like right here in front row. And I've been trying to make it at home because it's now stupid expensive, but we went on vacation and we came home and I got out of routine and then I didn't have this and I was out of beans and all this stuff. Like a week has come by and I've gone to Starbucks like four times. Don't tell my wife, okay? And I'm literally going order and I'm like, because I know it's not, I'm not being wise there. There's better ways to do things and it might take us some time to sit down, and it's not going to be fun. It's not going to be comfortable, okay? I'm telling you that. But on the other side of that, oh, guys, let me tell you what that is. It is amazing. So ask ourselves, is this honoring God with the provision that He has given us, or are we feeding extra just stuff?

Question two, I get asked: how much should I give? What is tithing? Great questions. I get asked this lot as a pastor and people come to me. And I want to go to a scripture in Deuteronomy chapter 14. And it says this, it says, "You must set aside a tithe of your crops, one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship, the place the Lord our God chooses for His name to be honored. This applies to the tithes of your grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of all your flocks and herds." Anybody a farmer or cattle or rancher in this room? No, this makes no sense to us, right? Let me translate this a little bit. This was their currency, their grain, their crops, their wine that they would grow their grapes and turn into wine, the olive oil they would get from their trees to press out, the firstborn males of their flocks and their herds. This was all their money. And God is saying here, I want you to set aside a tithe of all of that, a tenth of what you bring in.

Did you know that we don't get the best pineapples? Did you know that? A couple of people have been to Hawaii here lately. The best pineapples stay on the island and they are the first crop. I think that's called a plant crop, I think is the correct term, you guys will correct me later. But this is the initial pineapples that are grown on the plant and I guess they will just, you can see the future if you eat them. I've never had one personally, I hope and dream and wish one day I can, but they are the first pineapples. Hard because they are the main one off the plant and then everything that grows is kind of an uproot sprout outside of that. It's secondary and that plant puts everything into that first pineapple that it grows and they will just, they will blow your mind. You guys ever thought about extra virgin olive oil? It's the first press, right? Oh, it's the best. I don't know how or why they came up with that name, whatever. But then you have like extra virgin and the next press is virgin and then after that it's just like it just gets like blended up, I guess. I don't know how it works. But when we go to the store and we're like, "I'm gonna buy olive oil, what you got?" Extra virgin? I'm not going to muscle anything else. It's the first. It's the best. You guys have had like, we had friends who went to Italy and came back and brought us like true extra virgin all the way from Italy. Oh my gosh, guys. I want to just like spoonfuls of this stuff. It is amazing. But it's the first. It's the best.

And this is what God is asking of us is that He has a system and an alignment for us that He wants this best for Him and for us to learn in that. And this tithe piece is the foundational piece of scripture about financial generosity. And it's a process of growth. Talked about all those different phases. Stepping into that next phase, and I trust you, God, more. That next phase, I trust you, God, more. Next step, I trust you got more, to lead us to a place that is ever blessed, that we're going to talk about in a moment here, comes with a promise only found in a certain part of scripture, only about tithing and finances.

So what does that look like practically? Chris, like break it down for me. Well, if you get whatever your paycheck is, $1,000, $2,000, $100, whatever that is, you just move the decimal over one, and that's your amount. So if you made a hundred bucks, you move it over one, it's $10. That's what that breaks down to. And God here isn't saying, "I have to have your money." Okay? That's not what this is. God is greater than all of this. He is beyond that. He has Everything at His disposal. It's a step in relationship with trust with Him. And I will tell you, if you don't want to do it, don't do it. Wait, pastor, you just said, yeah. Don't want to do it? Don't do it. You got free choice. You got free will to be able to do it if you want. And especially don't give grumpy, please. Nobody likes a grumpy face. I'll use other words, positive relationships in church. Don't give grumpy. We're gonna, we're gonna read a scripture on that in a moment. But but the the reality is asking, "Lord, what do you want for me to do? Where do you want me to begin?"

Now people get lost in the weeds: is it pre-tax? Is it post-tax? Is it net? Is it gross? Is it off my retirement, investments, birthday money? Is it over if I get cash back on a return? Is it like people can get so lost on this stuff. I found a quarter on the ground. Now I got to find two and a half pennies to give to Jesus. I can't break a penny in half. Do I round up, round down? I'll just give a whole quarter to God. I don't want to. And that's not what I'm saying here. What I'm saying is a heart posture with Jesus. And I'll tell you, I have some thoughts on it. I have my own personal thoughts. These are Chris's thoughts, not God's thoughts. So if you want to talk, love to talk. And you might have different thoughts than I do. I know some of you in this room have different ideas about some of those little details in that. But it's a heart, a posture, giving that to Jesus, growing in relationship with God.

And here, there is a promise that is given to us out of Malachi chapter 3 and it is an incredible thing and it's only found in that scripture with no other topics besides that one. And that when we step into the tithe there is an incredible blessing and a promise from the Lord that comes with that. And I know some who have stepped into tithing were like, "I couldn't be generous. I stepped into tithing and now I can be generous in ways that I never imagined. I have money to just buy somebody a meal on the street. I have money to be able to..." There was a time when Laura and I were going through a hard time in life. And we had friends who didn't have a whole lot of money. But they were really good about this stuff. And they just sent us like 200 bucks. Blew our minds. I'm like, "I think you guys are actually making less money than we are. How? What the...?" "We want to bless you." And it's an amazing how God works this out. Because I will tell you, one plus one equals infinity with God. The math doesn't math with God. I've tried to figure it out. I carry the one in the movie, He does something just awesome in the middle of it and He just makes it incredible. But it has to start with this: Malachi chapter three.

"I am the Lord, I do not change. This is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me," says the Lord, "and I will return to you," says the Lord of heaven's army. "But you ask, how can we return when we had never gone away? What do you mean? Should God's people cheat you? You have cheated me," says Lord. "But what do you mean? When do we ever cheat you? You have cheated me in the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse for your whole nation has been cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. If you do," says the Lord of heaven's armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great that you won't have enough room to take it in. Try it. Put me to the test."

This tithe is the only time in scripture where God guarantees an outcome when you are obedient to God. He's saying, if you trust me in this, then I will open up the heavens and I will rock your world. Is it always financial? No. Okay? I'm not saying, well, if I start tithing today, then God, you better send me that $20,000 check in the mail. It's not what He's talking about. He's talking about a blessing over your life and your family and your family's family and generational things here, guys, that will change everything about who you are.

But this blessing, this storehouse, heaven, what does that mean? Well, that's a great question. If I remember correctly, from the Bible, in heaven, the streets are made of something that starts with G, ends with old. They're with, okay, that's your part. You say that back to me. I give you a clue and you say, okay, perfect. Okay, so the streets in heaven are made of gold. Guys, they are paving with gold in heaven, paving. What are they making their storehouses out of? And then what are they putting into those storehouses? Like, you guys ever thought about that before? I had this moment of like, what? This week. That's where they keep the good stuff. And God is saying, "Will I not open up the gates of heaven? I will not pour out upon you." Whoa. And the Israelites over here have been stingy with God. "Well, we haven't cheated you." "Yeah, you have." "Well, what do you mean we haven't?" "You're not being generous. You're not tithing." "Oh, yeah. Yeah, sorry, we forgot." God says, "Trust me in this and I will take care of everything. Trust me in this and I will take care of everything."

And there's a discipline piece here that is required of us. And I'm not saying having a lot of money is bad. Do not, I did not say that. Okay? Don't try to go there. I did not say that. And I don't know how it all works. God gives money to some people and less over here. I don't understand. He creates it all. But the obedience principle is exactly the same no matter where you're standing. Honestly, sometimes a lot of money means a lot of tithes. And that might be honestly sometimes even harder than having less in a smaller type. But it's an obedience piece. And it's the same calling that we all have. Asking ourselves, am I honoring God first?

So where do we give? Where do we give? That's a good question. Where do we give? Well, how many are traveling to Jerusalem, to the temple on a regular basis? No? No? Nobody? You're not weekly flying over there and depositing? No? Okay. It's a joke. But what I'm saying here is that today, the modern temple or synagogue is the local church. The storehouse is that piece. And so He's calling us to bring all the tithes into the storehouse. Another translation says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse.

And I've been asked this before, and some people say, "Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris, What if I put like 3% over here into this really good thing, and I give like 5% to Spring Valley, and then like 2% like goes over here." And I will say, I love your heart of generosity. That is phenomenal. Don't stop being generous. But I would like to provide maybe an alternative perspective here from Scripture that says to bring the full tithe, the full 10%, into God's house. And then out of that, live your generous life. Give to missionaries around the world. Give to parachurch organizations. Help pastors plant churches in different places around the world that don't have the gospel accessible to them. Yes, be generous in that. But the way we live our lives, how we live and give, is interpreted of what we do. I've heard it once said, give where you are being spiritually fed. And it's a heart check for us. Because generosity follows God's lead, not our obligation.

All right, I got two more questions. I got to go hurry here first. How should I give? It's a great question. Some people have asked, how should I give? Well, I see three pieces to this. That it's first intentional, it's accountable, and it's accessible. What do I mean by that? Well, intentionally: when when COVID happened we stopped passing the buckets or passing the plates, if you grew up in church or whatever it was called, and we moved to just a drop box because we didn't want to, here you go, here's your COVID, like we didn't want to pass that around, okay. And some of you that was a hard move. You were used to coming in church, worshiping, singing a song, doing the the offering tithing piece during worship, and you just like, we just went to a box. But we've gotten used to the box, right? And it's not necessarily in front of us. Sometimes something that's in front of us reminds us on a regular basis what needs to be important and how we need to live our lives. We are talking about possibly bringing back the buckets because it's an act of worship as a family together rather than just a boop in the back of the room. And we have to be incredibly intentional in that, that we are doing on a regular basis. It's a deliberate choice to honor God so we don't forget and we have to be intentional.

Is it accountable? And this isn't just tax purposes, okay? I'm talking about a financial shift that might happen in our lives when our, and that usually tends to be our giving changes. And this, I will tell you as a pastor and as our team and our pastoral care team, you don't necessarily bring us in on the loop. You don't necessarily tell us. And so when there's some tracking systems of finances in the church, when those things change, that can be an indicator that we need to just touch base. And not in the sense of, "Hey, where'd your tithe go? You're not giving, you're used to." No. "What's going on? Can we help you? How can we come alongside you? You lost a job? Okay, well, we know this person, they're looking to hire over here, and this person over here, how can we connect these things?" It's a family. You'd want to know, I think, as a parent, if your child was struggling through something, right? And so part of tracking that, writing on the envelope, we don't fingerprint the money in the back, guys. So if you're just dropping cash back there, awesome, God bless you. We don't know. And there's another accountable piece in that for you to be able to begin to track of like, "Hey, pastor was challenging me to give and I started giving and I've given this much and like my finances haven't dipped. Like things are still good." And it's a moment to go, "God, you are amazing," but you're not tracking that. You don't know. We don't know. We can't help you in that.

Is it accessible? I talked about this, trying to figure out, do we begin to pass the place? Do we have some sort of other way to do that? We're making sure our online giving is always 100% secure. We are working to make sure that there are easy ways for you. If God prompts you to be able to be generous in things like even Camp Awesome and Operation Christmas Child and being able to have you guys as a stirs in you to be able to have a quick avenue, an easy avenue with no barriers, to be able to engage with that and to be obedient. It says this, 2 Corinthians 9-7. "You must each decide in your heart how much you will give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves a person who is giving cheerfully." God loves a cheerful giver. I said earlier, don't give grumpy. Right here in scripture.

Fifth question, what about debt? What if I have it? Oh, great questions. Love this. I want us to think in this way, okay? Because we probably have it, the reality is. And when I'm talking about unsecured debt, I'm not talking about like housing, like a mortgage. That's more secure because you have the problem. I'm talking about like credit card debt here, okay? Three things I want us to think about this, okay? Think mission possible, not mission impossible. Because sometimes we got debt, it feels impossible, right? It feels impossible to get out from this mound. One, avoid it when possible, okay? There's times it's going to happen. Happens in life. It's happened in our life where you're just like, "Oh, man. Did not see that coming." Life happens. I got to put something on the credit card. Okay. There's grace in that. Okay. But when possible, avoid it. Don't just be like, "Charge it, charge it, charge it, charge it." Like, don't do that. Two, pay it off as quickly as possible. Don't make minimum payments. You will never get out from underneath it. It is set up in a system that is to just destroy your soul. Don't. And then don't take on more debt when possible. Figure out how to realign. It's going to be hard. It's going to take work, I promise you. But it is worth it to get out of that. And we have resources and different things we'd love to connect you with to help you if you are finding yourself in that place right now. God wants you to have freedom from that.

I want you to hear me this morning. God does not want you. But we live in a world, right, where it's like, "I have to have a good credit score and have a good credit score. I've got to have debt. But if you have debt, then you have a bad credit score. But if you don't have debt, then why do you need a good credit score?" Something there going on that's fishy. Proverbs 22. We're going to close with this. "Choose a good reputation over good riches. Being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common. The Lord made them both. A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. A simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. True humility and fear of the Lord lead to riches, honor, and long life. Corrupt people walk a thorny, treacherous road. Whoever values life will avoid it. Direct your children onto the right path, and when they're older, they will not leave it, just as the rich rule the poor so the borrower is servant to the leader. Choose a good reputation over riches."

I don't think we hear that in life very much. But what about the cool dude who has all the stuff and the toys and all that? Yeah, he's probably up to his eyeballs in debt, let's be honest. And one missed payment, all of that fun stuff goes away. Talk about finance with your children. Prepare them. I was a product. I had a grandfather who was so financially sound. And he taught me at an early age. He brought me alongside me and said, "Hey, this is this. And this is what this means. And this is like, it's your tithe. And this is how you got to pay your taxes. And you got to invest." And like he set me up and taught me some core principles I'm so grateful for today. Teach your children about these things. Plan ahead.

I don't know if you guys know when you drive your car, your tires start disappearing. They just poof, go away. And if you bought any lately, you know they're not cheap. Right? So the scripture says a prudent person saves away for the future. Maybe we need to start putting away some money on a regular because you know those tires and those new tires are coming. And if you don't have the money, it's going to get you into a bad place. Think ahead. Plan ahead. How do I set new healthy financial habits? 1 Timothy 6. It says, "Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. Pouring out the riches of heaven, right? Remember that scripture? After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into this world, and we take nothing with us when we leave it. So if you have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The love of money. And some people craving money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows."

That's interesting, pierced. I did a cultural background on this. Did you know when you borrowed money from somebody, you owed somebody, they would pierce you with their name. I owe somebody 20 bucks for both of these. I'm just kidding. But that's what they would do. And to walk around with piercings was actually shameful. You would walk around and you would see a loop maybe in someone's nose and it says, "Doug." Like, "Oh, you owe Doug money." What does that year say? "Susan?" "Susan?" But people would appear, and it would be a cultural shame. We don't have that today, do we? We tout, right? We're like, "Woo, look at us." You don't want to know my credit score. I get emails every month. I'm like, "Delete." I don't care. I'm not buying anything. But it's a cultural shame. Great wealth is actually true godliness and contentment.

So as we close, how or what has God told you today? Maybe there's a question. Maybe you had a question and I gave you an answer today. Maybe you have more questions. Maybe it's about debt. Maybe it's about financial discipleship. Maybe it's about first fruits. Maybe it's about contentment. But what will you do about it this week? And on your card, on your program, you came in your little response card. I want you to check the box. Maybe if God said something to you today about financial changes that may need to happen in your life. And I'd love for you, we're gonna have ushers in the back on the way out. Drop that in there. And we wanna be praying alongside of you. We're not gonna be like, "Hey, what did God tell you you're supposed to start giving?" No, it's between you and God. We are presenting the gospel and the scripture. And it's your choice on how you want to respond to what God is saying to you.

But don't forget, remember, I want to leave you with three things right here. Ask Him, trust Him, and align with Him. That's what it's about. And it's a journey. You're not going to figure this thing out overnight. You never will. It's a journey with Jesus as He leads you deeper into trust and faith and hope and freedom in Him. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this morning, God. We are so grateful for your encouragement, God, for your grace, for your love and care. God, even as we mess up with this stuff, God, you are still there saying, "I love you. You are my child. I have better things for you." And so Jesus, I pray that we would listen to your leading, listen to your calling in our lives. God, maybe we need to have a conversation about our finances, about our budget, maybe where we're spending some things, maybe how to focus in on getting out of debt. But God, at the same time, you don't say, "Hey, if you got debt, make sure you pause that giving. You can get out of that debt first." No, God, you ask us to be obedient in the midst of it all. And so God, I pray that we would step forth and trust and faith in you. God, that we would know who you are and the better calling and the better life that you have for us and the freedom that is on the other side of that. And you want to pour down, God, the blessings of heaven and just blow our minds. God, I pray that you would do that this week. We love you, Jesus. Amen.