WEBVTT 00:00:05.631 --> 00:00:06.232 Hello everyone. 00:00:06.232 --> 00:00:07.233 This is Pastor Damian. 00:00:07.233 --> 00:00:10.228 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. 00:00:10.228 --> 00:00:14.791 At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. 00:00:14.791 --> 00:00:18.809 For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. 00:00:18.809 --> 00:00:19.711 Thanks for listening. 00:00:20.179 --> 00:00:20.420 Church. 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:21.125 Please join me. 00:00:21.125 --> 00:00:28.073 Give us understanding that we may keep your law and observe it with our whole hearts. 00:00:28.073 --> 00:00:32.871 Lead us in the path of your commandments, for we delight in it. 00:00:32.871 --> 00:00:41.709 Turn our eyes from looking at worthless things and give us life in your ways, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. 00:00:43.381 --> 00:00:45.384 Scripture today is from Psalm 37. 00:00:45.384 --> 00:00:48.210 Trust in the Lord and do good. 00:00:48.210 --> 00:00:51.143 Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 00:00:51.143 --> 00:00:55.661 Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. 00:00:55.661 --> 00:01:00.933 Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. 00:01:00.933 --> 00:01:06.432 The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their heritage will remain forever. 00:01:06.432 --> 00:01:10.867 They are not put to shame in evil times. 00:01:10.867 --> 00:01:13.013 In the days of famine they have abundance. 00:01:13.013 --> 00:01:15.805 The wicked borrows but does not pay back. 00:01:15.805 --> 00:01:25.653 But the righteous is generous and gives, for those blessed by the law by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. 00:01:25.653 --> 00:01:33.042 I have been young and now I'm old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. 00:01:33.042 --> 00:01:37.131 He is ever lending generously and his children become a blessing. 00:01:37.131 --> 00:01:38.620 This is God's word. 00:01:39.822 --> 00:01:44.572 I had a mentor who bought a brand new pickup truck and it was nice. 00:01:44.572 --> 00:01:54.060 It was like the high trim level, four by four leather seats, a little lift on it, not a Florida man lift, but like a classy lift. 00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:59.593 And because this dude was a follower of Jesus, he was generous in his stewardship of that truck. 00:01:59.593 --> 00:02:03.010 He would let people borrow it all the time to move. 00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:08.128 If you have a pickup truck, you know that's part of the blessing and the burden of owning a truck. 00:02:08.128 --> 00:02:15.828 And so one time somebody borrowed his truck, moved, something brought it back with a gigantic dent in the back bumper. 00:02:15.828 --> 00:02:20.021 They felt terrible and they said I'm so sorry. 00:02:20.021 --> 00:02:21.665 He said, hey, listen, it's okay. 00:02:21.665 --> 00:02:23.650 But it was not okay. 00:02:23.650 --> 00:02:25.633 You see, it was not okay. 00:02:25.633 --> 00:02:32.427 He was so upset and frustrated and angry, but he didn't want to take it out on them, they didn't really do it on purpose. 00:02:32.427 --> 00:02:33.805 And so what did he do? 00:02:33.805 --> 00:02:35.205 He kind of took it out on the Lord. 00:02:35.205 --> 00:02:41.681 He went and he prayed, and this was a version of his prayer, something like this Lord, why did you let them dent your truck? 00:02:44.623 --> 00:02:59.615 You see, because in that moment he was trying to live his theology, he was trying to practice what he preaches In that Psalm 24 says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof all of the people that dwell therein. 00:02:59.615 --> 00:03:02.276 In other words, everything belongs to God. 00:03:02.276 --> 00:03:17.853 That's what he was living in light of when my children went through that phase, or when they go through the phase where they learn the word mine and everybody knows this phase, my wife and I would catechize them Whenever they would say it. 00:03:17.853 --> 00:03:20.943 We would say nothing is yours, everything belongs to God. 00:03:20.943 --> 00:03:25.689 And it worked until they worked it on us. 00:03:25.689 --> 00:03:30.501 And so we would be eating ice cream as a family. 00:03:30.501 --> 00:03:35.909 They would devour it and I'd still have a little bit left, and one of my kids would say daddy, can I have some of your ice cream? 00:03:35.909 --> 00:03:38.221 And I'd say no, dude, this is mine, you already ate yours. 00:03:38.221 --> 00:03:45.890 And they'd say but, dad, nothing is yours, everything belongs to God. 00:03:45.890 --> 00:03:48.294 Right, and that's true. 00:03:48.294 --> 00:04:00.727 It is true, and in fact, what happens is is that the sin in our hearts takes our time and our stuff and our money and claims it and clings to it as if it's ours. 00:04:02.670 --> 00:04:08.561 But the scriptures actually describe us as simply stewards, because everything belongs to God. 00:04:08.561 --> 00:04:10.828 And so we're going to look at that together. 00:04:10.828 --> 00:04:24.048 We're going to look at what does it mean that we are simply stewards, and I want to point out this is actually really important, because everything that you have, it's not yours that's an individualistic approach but it's also not the state's that's the socialistic approach. 00:04:24.048 --> 00:04:26.821 But it's also not the states that's the socialistic approach. 00:04:26.821 --> 00:04:28.685 But it's not even your families. 00:04:28.685 --> 00:04:30.569 That's the traditional approach. 00:04:30.569 --> 00:04:31.771 It's God's. 00:04:31.771 --> 00:04:40.932 It's God's and that's the biblical approach, that if everything belongs to God, then he has entrusted the things that we have to us as stewards. 00:04:40.971 --> 00:04:44.987 And so what I want to do is I want to ask and answer the question how do we steward our life? 00:04:44.987 --> 00:04:46.632 What does it look like to be stewards? 00:04:46.632 --> 00:04:59.411 I want to look at Psalm 37 together and I want to point out kind of a theology of stewardship under three words simplicity, industry, generosity, simplicity, industry and generosity. 00:04:59.411 --> 00:05:01.242 Let's look at the text together. 00:05:01.242 --> 00:05:09.250 If you have a Bible or a device or your worship guide, go ahead and get Psalm 37 out in front of you, because we're gonna look at some of these scriptures together. 00:05:09.250 --> 00:05:13.425 I want you to see that simplicity is learning to steward your heart. 00:05:13.425 --> 00:05:14.810 It's stewarding your heart. 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:15.985 Look at verse 16 with me. 00:05:15.985 --> 00:05:25.509 Psalm 37, verse 16 says this better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. 00:05:25.509 --> 00:05:29.286 How can a little be better than a lot? 00:05:29.286 --> 00:05:30.168 How is that possible? 00:05:30.168 --> 00:05:35.565 That's what that verse is saying Only if you're free from wanting more. 00:05:36.447 --> 00:05:44.387 That's how Socrates, the ancient philosopher, believed that a wise man, a wise woman, would live a simple life. 00:05:44.387 --> 00:05:47.374 But he was also known for doing something. 00:05:47.374 --> 00:05:54.906 He would go down to the marketplace and he'd spend hours just looking around, wandering around what we would call window shopping today. 00:05:54.906 --> 00:06:03.281 And so one of his friends actually approached him and said hey, why is it that you go and look at all the things and you seem so intrigued by all the stuff? 00:06:03.281 --> 00:06:08.713 To which Socrates replied I love to go there to discover how many things I am perfectly happy without. 00:06:08.713 --> 00:06:10.802 That's simplicity. 00:06:10.802 --> 00:06:13.767 That's stewarding your heart properly. 00:06:13.767 --> 00:06:18.144 You see, simplicity is about stewarding your heart toward freedom. 00:06:18.144 --> 00:06:23.274 It's not necessarily about having less, it's about wanting less. 00:06:23.274 --> 00:06:25.750 That's what simplicity of heart is. 00:06:26.776 --> 00:06:28.142 Richard Foster defines it like this. 00:06:28.142 --> 00:06:36.665 He says simplicity is the quote joyful unconcern about possessions in order to seek his kingdom first. 00:06:36.665 --> 00:06:43.505 You see, in Matthew 6, jesus taught us that where your treasure is there, your heart will be. 00:06:43.505 --> 00:06:43.887 Also. 00:06:43.887 --> 00:06:47.944 Another way to say that is is your heart follows your treasure. 00:06:47.944 --> 00:06:49.488 Our culture likes to say follow your heart. 00:06:49.488 --> 00:06:52.824 The Bible likes to say, yeah, but what's your heart following? 00:06:52.824 --> 00:06:54.610 That's your treasure. 00:06:54.610 --> 00:07:01.021 That's what your heart follows after, and so it's important to understand that your treasure is whatever you will sacrifice for. 00:07:01.021 --> 00:07:05.940 If you want a little indicator of that, look at both your calendar and your bank account. 00:07:05.940 --> 00:07:08.427 That's how you find out where your treasure is. 00:07:08.427 --> 00:07:11.562 Where do you sacrifice your time, where do you sacrifice your money? 00:07:11.562 --> 00:07:13.365 That's your treasure. 00:07:14.608 --> 00:07:25.088 And so 10 days ago, I sat down and I journaled, I dated it that's how I know when it was and I just simply put at the top of the paper I said why do we love money? 00:07:25.088 --> 00:07:26.884 And I just started journaling. 00:07:26.884 --> 00:07:27.906 I have like 20 things. 00:07:27.906 --> 00:07:28.709 I'm gonna summarize them. 00:07:28.709 --> 00:07:31.086 These are the things that came up. 00:07:31.086 --> 00:07:35.230 We love money because it's a metric of success. 00:07:35.230 --> 00:07:37.646 It's a way of keeping score. 00:07:37.646 --> 00:07:44.990 You can tell if you're winning based on how much money you have, because it's an agreed upon status symbol in our culture. 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:48.286 Again, I'm not saying these are good things, I'm just saying these are things. 00:07:50.261 --> 00:07:57.290 Also, money can't buy happiness kind of, because it can buy a measure of pleasure, that's for sure. 00:07:57.290 --> 00:08:01.048 Money can buy experiences and comfort. 00:08:01.048 --> 00:08:05.367 It can buy physical attractiveness so that you get more attention from people. 00:08:05.367 --> 00:08:09.930 It can buy a modicum of protection so you get a sense of security. 00:08:09.930 --> 00:08:12.362 It can buy some favor with other people. 00:08:12.362 --> 00:08:13.826 We call that ingratiation. 00:08:13.826 --> 00:08:17.653 Money can buy leverage over other people too. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:19.723 You see, let me just kind of summarize. 00:08:19.723 --> 00:08:20.264 Here's the thing. 00:08:20.264 --> 00:08:24.322 Money has this ability to actualize many different desires. 00:08:24.322 --> 00:08:30.406 If you want it, if you've got enough money, a lot of things you can actually get it. 00:08:30.406 --> 00:08:31.329 You can have it. 00:08:31.329 --> 00:08:32.812 This is why we love money. 00:08:33.961 --> 00:08:37.889 You're not crazy for loving money, but you are vulnerable. 00:08:37.889 --> 00:08:40.234 You're profoundly vulnerable. 00:08:40.234 --> 00:08:46.331 The reason why is because, if money is your treasure, you will never be free. 00:08:46.331 --> 00:08:48.222 You will always live in fear. 00:08:48.222 --> 00:08:56.849 Rainier Marie Rilke, the famous poet, said it like this our fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasure. 00:08:56.849 --> 00:08:59.135 Where are you afraid? 00:08:59.135 --> 00:09:01.081 Where do you feel fear? 00:09:01.081 --> 00:09:04.769 Those are dragons guarding your deepest treasure. 00:09:04.769 --> 00:09:05.753 You want to know what you treasure. 00:09:05.753 --> 00:09:09.048 You want to know what really has captivated your heart. 00:09:09.048 --> 00:09:13.424 Right, if simplicity is stewarding your heart, where does your heart treasure? 00:09:13.424 --> 00:09:15.169 Pay attention to your fears. 00:09:15.169 --> 00:09:15.951 What are you afraid of? 00:09:15.951 --> 00:09:21.225 You see, simplicity is about freedom, setting you free from fear. 00:09:21.225 --> 00:09:22.610 How do we gain this? 00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:24.265 How do we get this simplicity? 00:09:24.346 --> 00:09:25.188 Look at verse four. 00:09:25.188 --> 00:09:31.952 Verse four says delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. 00:09:31.952 --> 00:09:41.424 The way you get set free, the way you steward your heart, the way you learn simplicity of heart, is by learning to treasure the one who treasures you. 00:09:41.424 --> 00:09:45.774 It's by learning to tell him all of your desires. 00:09:45.774 --> 00:09:57.541 If it's true that money actually is potent in our lives because it can pay for what we want, if that's true, one of the ways to deal with that is to just simply tell the Lord what your desires are. 00:09:59.202 --> 00:10:02.690 Lord, I want security, significance and satisfaction. 00:10:02.690 --> 00:10:03.591 I want those things. 00:10:03.591 --> 00:10:05.759 Let me just let you in on a secret. 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:07.583 You are made to want those things. 00:10:07.583 --> 00:10:14.144 You have creational desires that evil comes in and perverts and distorts and warps. 00:10:14.144 --> 00:10:26.109 But the desire to be secure and satisfied and significant is something God put in you and evil comes along and distorts it, misdirects it, and so we go to the Lord. 00:10:26.109 --> 00:10:28.392 We say Lord, I want security. 00:10:28.392 --> 00:10:29.493 Teach me what that looks like. 00:10:29.493 --> 00:10:30.654 To find security in you. 00:10:30.654 --> 00:10:31.755 What are you doing in that moment? 00:10:31.755 --> 00:10:34.380 You're delighting yourself in the Lord. 00:10:34.380 --> 00:10:35.360 Delight yourself. 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:36.682 That's a reflexive action. 00:10:36.682 --> 00:10:38.062 It's something you do to you. 00:10:38.062 --> 00:10:39.683 That's the command there. 00:10:39.683 --> 00:10:43.787 Do this to yourself, delight yourself. 00:10:43.787 --> 00:10:47.048 So if you're right here now going, I don't really delight in the Lord. 00:10:47.048 --> 00:11:02.958 I'm saying yeah, and the Bible's commanding you to do this action, to learn the practice of reflexively delighting, cultivating a certain amount of delight in the Lord, and that's actually what will set you free the freedom of simplicity. 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:11.193 Aw Tozer, in a phenomenal book called the Pursuit of God it's worth reading says it like this the man who has God for his treasure has all things in one. 00:11:11.193 --> 00:11:21.888 Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or, if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. 00:11:21.888 --> 00:11:25.652 What if you could be set free such that having certain things were not necessary to your happiness? 00:11:25.652 --> 00:11:27.302 He, if you could be set free such that having certain things were not necessary to your happiness. 00:11:27.302 --> 00:11:40.644 He goes on, he says this or if he must see them go one after one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss for having the source of all things he has in one all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. 00:11:40.644 --> 00:11:50.167 Whatever he may lose, he has actually lost nothing, for he now has it all in one, and he has it purely legitimately and forever. 00:11:50.167 --> 00:11:52.491 That's the freedom of simplicity. 00:11:52.552 --> 00:11:54.019 Have you touched that Like? 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:56.947 Have you touched that in your lived experience as a disciple of Jesus. 00:11:56.947 --> 00:12:00.245 I have, but then it fades away pretty quickly. 00:12:00.245 --> 00:12:05.427 I return back to finding my security, significance and satisfaction other places. 00:12:05.427 --> 00:12:15.113 But here's the thing the times when I've touched it, the times when I can truly honestly, sincerely, say to the Lord take what you want, just leave me yourself and I'll have enough. 00:12:16.341 --> 00:12:24.426 When I can say that prayer, it's usually in times of peak experiences, high points of joy or low points of pain. 00:12:24.426 --> 00:12:24.787 Why both of those? 00:12:24.787 --> 00:12:26.957 Well, because when you have peak experiences, high points of joy or low points of pain, why both of those? 00:12:26.957 --> 00:12:31.796 Well, because when you have peak experiences, you recognize that it's still not enough to satisfy your soul. 00:12:31.796 --> 00:12:37.552 Like if you could just have everything you ever wanted, you'd realize it's still not enough. 00:12:37.552 --> 00:12:43.312 So in those peak experiences, I recognize that those are simply beams coming down from the sun. 00:12:43.312 --> 00:12:47.246 Capital S, the one who is worthy of all of my desire. 00:12:47.246 --> 00:12:52.585 But in those moments of pain you realize, when everything's stripped away, what do I have? 00:12:52.585 --> 00:12:56.032 What do I have if I don't have the Lord? 00:12:56.032 --> 00:13:09.567 And so the Lord invites us, will walk with us through peaks and valleys in order to invite us into recognizing better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. 00:13:09.567 --> 00:13:16.289 So not only do we steward our hearts through simplicity, we steward our hands through industry. 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:19.427 Point two look at verse three with me. 00:13:19.427 --> 00:13:26.297 It says this trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 00:13:26.297 --> 00:13:28.522 Look down a little further at verse 27. 00:13:28.522 --> 00:13:34.854 It says this turn away from evil and do good, so shall you dwell forever. 00:13:34.854 --> 00:13:38.884 Two times in this psal Psalm it just simply says do good. 00:13:39.465 --> 00:13:41.687 Simple, clear Christians are doers. 00:13:41.687 --> 00:13:44.071 We are people who are active in the world. 00:13:44.071 --> 00:13:47.475 We are actually working things out. 00:13:47.475 --> 00:13:50.980 We believe we can contribute to the betterment of our society. 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:54.785 And so we've been known for doing good throughout the history of humanity. 00:13:54.785 --> 00:14:06.644 And a lot of that is because in Ephesians 2.10, it says that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 00:14:06.644 --> 00:14:07.947 Now I just want to be. 00:14:07.947 --> 00:14:10.052 We define a disciple as someone. 00:14:10.052 --> 00:14:15.660 A disciple is united to Jesus, in communion with God, community with one another, co-mission for the world. 00:14:15.660 --> 00:14:17.003 And we double click on co-mission. 00:14:17.003 --> 00:14:23.032 We say your mission with God and others in this world is your work and your witness. 00:14:24.394 --> 00:14:31.332 When we say work, we mean good works, like Ephesians 2.10, but we also mean your work, your occupation, your vocation. 00:14:31.332 --> 00:14:37.522 You see, the reason why is because I believe most of the good works God ordained for you are actually worked out through your daily work. 00:14:37.522 --> 00:14:39.202 That's where you most of the good works God ordained for you are actually worked out, through your daily work. 00:14:39.202 --> 00:14:43.160 That's where you're doing the good works that God intends for you to do in the world. 00:14:43.160 --> 00:14:48.071 You see, this has actually marked Protestantism in particular. 00:14:48.071 --> 00:14:53.809 This has been a truth that's been core to who we are, as children of the Reformation, if you will. 00:14:53.809 --> 00:15:10.668 Max Weber is the one who kind of popularized this phrase, the Protestant work ethic, and what he pointed out was that, essentially, we have a value attached to our work, that work really matters and it's a part of your calling. 00:15:10.668 --> 00:15:14.139 And the thing I'm just going to go real nerdy, real quick. 00:15:15.181 --> 00:15:17.503 Historically, what happened is in the Reformation. 00:15:17.503 --> 00:15:23.027 The Reformation recovered a lost doctrine called the priesthood of all believers. 00:15:23.027 --> 00:15:34.673 You see, the Catholic church had made it seem as if the highest order vocations are priests, monks, missionaries, the type people like me Some of you still believe that that's okay. 00:15:34.673 --> 00:15:36.255 Lord's still at work in your life. 00:15:36.255 --> 00:15:45.370 You see, the Protestant Reformation said actually no, the priesthood of all believers means that it doesn't matter what your particular work is. 00:15:45.370 --> 00:16:09.792 It's a calling from God to do the works that he prepared beforehand, that you should walk in them and by so doing, sanctified, made holy every type of work, every type of work that's according to his will, and so in doing that, actually it inspired and invigorated an industry that Protestants changed the face of the world through. 00:16:09.792 --> 00:16:13.469 By industry, I just mean a commitment to hard work. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:15.946 Now, here's the thing. 00:16:15.946 --> 00:16:25.240 There's other historians and scholars, social scientists, who will point out that we've actually lived in the last 300 years in the United States of America. 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:39.652 We've lived in a secularized version of the Protestant work ethic, and really what's being pointed out there is that no longer do we work because we believe it's a calling from god. 00:16:39.652 --> 00:16:50.270 Now we work in order to find our worth, and so work still has religious significance, but now it's a salvation scheme. 00:16:50.270 --> 00:17:03.326 You see, in in this world there's there's a problem because, um, ephesians 2.10 follows right after Ephesians 2.8 and 9, because that's how numbers work Eight, then nine, then 10. 00:17:05.163 --> 00:17:06.848 And so this is what Ephesians 2.8 says. 00:17:06.848 --> 00:17:13.287 It says this for, by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. 00:17:13.287 --> 00:17:17.269 It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast. 00:17:17.269 --> 00:17:41.131 So the hard, full court press against thinking your works contribute anything to your salvation or your standing before God Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and then seamlessly shift to and yet God's prepared good works for you to walk in, be industrious, and so only when we hold that tension we realize that Protestants didn't just recover the priesthood of all believers, but also justification by faith alone. 00:17:41.131 --> 00:17:46.112 In other words, you work from acceptance with God, not for acceptance with God. 00:17:46.112 --> 00:17:52.692 You work from status, worth, dignity, identity, not for those things. 00:17:52.692 --> 00:18:10.666 When you secularize the Protestant work ethic, you find, actually, our work is where we find all of our worth, and when that's the case, what ends up happening is that you, you find yourself living in such a way where busyness is a status symbol. 00:18:12.352 --> 00:18:14.317 Um, I heard a man recently say it like this. 00:18:14.317 --> 00:18:18.671 He said hey, there's, there's two things that I really like but need to repent of. 00:18:18.671 --> 00:18:23.526 First, I really like being exhausted because of how busy I am. 00:18:23.526 --> 00:18:25.585 Second, I really like telling you about it. 00:18:25.585 --> 00:18:28.612 What is that? 00:18:28.612 --> 00:18:31.847 That's a cultural status symbol, isn't it? 00:18:31.847 --> 00:18:33.652 How are you? 00:18:33.652 --> 00:18:35.727 You know, I'm just really busy and exhausted. 00:18:35.727 --> 00:18:38.624 That should be like oh wow, you're failing at life. 00:18:38.624 --> 00:18:42.191 You don't know how to manage your time well. 00:18:42.191 --> 00:18:47.230 You don't know how to actually give your best time, energy and attention to the things that matter most. 00:18:47.230 --> 00:18:49.854 That's what that should sound like, but we all know it doesn't. 00:18:49.854 --> 00:18:51.039 That's why you're laughing right now. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:19:04.531 And so here's the thing Simultaneously, the Christian gospel removes the need to prove yourself from work by your work, through your work, and also makes your work profoundly meaningful. 00:19:05.461 --> 00:19:19.630 It does both of those together, but only when the Christian gospel sets you free from having to earn favor, earn status, earn worth, justify your existence through your work, because if you live like that, time management becomes time enslavement. 00:19:19.630 --> 00:19:27.848 But actually God is inviting you out of the idolatry of industry to work and to rest with him. 00:19:27.848 --> 00:19:34.788 So here's something that maybe a tool, maybe a metric how well do you keep the Sabbath day? 00:19:34.788 --> 00:19:40.791 How many times, how many 24-hour blocks in seven days? 00:19:40.791 --> 00:19:42.826 Do you do nothing that you know to be work? 00:19:42.826 --> 00:19:44.892 It's an indicator. 00:19:44.892 --> 00:19:51.968 It's an indicator of how well you really believe that your status and value and worth is received, not achieved. 00:19:53.320 --> 00:20:02.941 But listen, some of you in the room today, you need to hear that when God created the world, he created it in six days and rested on the seventh, and then he commanded humanity to do the same. 00:20:02.941 --> 00:20:05.165 He said this work six, rest one. 00:20:05.165 --> 00:20:13.647 Some of you in here actually need to hear work six, like stop being lazy, get after it. 00:20:13.647 --> 00:20:17.604 Have some holy ambition to bring goodness, beauty and truth into the world. 00:20:17.604 --> 00:20:24.332 Some of you need to hear that, but I think a lot of you need to hear rest one, rest. 00:20:24.332 --> 00:20:28.690 Let yourself be refreshed as a human being, not a human doing. 00:20:28.690 --> 00:20:29.191 For once. 00:20:29.191 --> 00:20:32.608 Don't live under Pharaoh's regime anymore. 00:20:32.608 --> 00:20:35.327 You think Pharaoh died in ancient Egypt. 00:20:35.327 --> 00:20:40.490 Pharaoh's alive and well, ruling over you, saying more bricks, less straw. 00:20:40.490 --> 00:20:54.224 It just happens through your email inbox now, and so one of the ways we can be set free from industry idolatry is by resting, keeping the Sabbath day holy. 00:20:54.224 --> 00:21:00.490 But here's another way we can recognize that, in the end, all that we will receive will be simply an inheritance. 00:21:01.601 --> 00:21:02.987 Look with me back at the text. 00:21:02.987 --> 00:21:11.288 Six times Psalm 37 talks about land, the land, and five of those times it uses the word inherit. 00:21:11.288 --> 00:21:12.002 Look at verse nine. 00:21:12.002 --> 00:21:15.588 It says this those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. 00:21:15.588 --> 00:21:16.682 Verse 11,. 00:21:16.682 --> 00:21:19.946 The meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. 00:21:19.946 --> 00:21:21.142 Verse 22,. 00:21:21.142 --> 00:21:23.630 Those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land. 00:21:23.630 --> 00:21:24.785 Verse 29,. 00:21:24.785 --> 00:21:27.826 The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. 00:21:27.826 --> 00:21:33.868 Verse 34, wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. 00:21:33.929 --> 00:21:34.810 What's the big deal? 00:21:34.810 --> 00:21:38.169 Why keep talking about this over and over and over again? 00:21:38.169 --> 00:21:38.961 Why the land? 00:21:38.961 --> 00:21:47.729 Deuteronomy 8, which we just read recently in the McShane Bible reading plan, says this this is the most beautiful description of the land I know in the scriptures. 00:21:47.729 --> 00:21:57.781 It says this the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and hills. 00:21:57.781 --> 00:22:01.766 A land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates. 00:22:01.766 --> 00:22:03.586 A land of olive trees and honey. 00:22:03.586 --> 00:22:09.333 A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity what a beautiful word without scarcity. 00:22:09.333 --> 00:22:13.696 Eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. 00:22:13.696 --> 00:22:24.412 A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord, your God, for the good land he has given you. 00:22:24.412 --> 00:22:26.983 That's why the land is such a big deal. 00:22:26.983 --> 00:22:36.730 That's why I can say unequivocally that security, significance and satisfaction were God's idea because he provides for it for his people in the land. 00:22:36.730 --> 00:22:43.730 But here's the thing the land was a gift from God but simultaneously always belonged to God. 00:22:43.730 --> 00:22:46.086 His people were simply stewards. 00:22:46.086 --> 00:22:48.346 That's why they got kicked out of the land. 00:22:48.346 --> 00:22:52.029 They refused to steward the land that God intended. 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:58.201 Now let me just do a little excursus here on what's called hermeneutics, the study of how you read scripture. 00:22:58.201 --> 00:23:10.625 Okay, in reading the Bible, any promise or prophecy always has an immediate, intermediate and ultimate fulfillment. 00:23:10.625 --> 00:23:17.628 Promises and prophecies, like the land promises here, have immediate, intermediate and ultimate fulfillment. 00:23:17.628 --> 00:23:23.712 Okay, so the land in scripture, the immediate fulfillment is the geography in the Middle East. 00:23:23.712 --> 00:23:25.403 That's the immediate fulfillment. 00:23:25.403 --> 00:23:28.650 God's giving them actual land, real boundaries. 00:23:28.650 --> 00:23:31.765 Okay, that's the immediate fulfillment in Psalm 37. 00:23:31.765 --> 00:23:32.467 That's important. 00:23:32.467 --> 00:23:41.345 But here's the thing even in the Hebrew Bible, where those promises are made five times, the dimensions of the land are given and they're different every time. 00:23:41.345 --> 00:23:44.492 So what's the boundaries of this land? 00:23:44.492 --> 00:23:50.712 You see, what I think is happening is the Lord is sowing, even into the Hebrew Bible. 00:23:50.712 --> 00:24:00.310 He's sowing some idea that there's something bigger happening here than simply a chunk of land the size of New Jersey, and that's the intermediate fulfillment. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:05.968 The intermediate fulfillment of the land is the Lord Jesus himself. 00:24:05.968 --> 00:24:09.325 It's Jesus himself, and this is what I mean by this. 00:24:09.325 --> 00:24:14.339 All of the promises of God find their yes in Jesus Christ. 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:17.088 That's what 2 Corinthians 1.20 says. 00:24:17.088 --> 00:24:19.842 And so when the New Testament says that we who believe in Jesus are, that's what 2 Corinthians 1.20 says. 00:24:19.782 --> 00:24:27.333 And so when the New Testament says that we who believe in Jesus are in Christ, that is a locative meaning of that word. 00:24:27.333 --> 00:24:28.221 This is what that means. 00:24:28.221 --> 00:24:37.423 It means that you, if you belong to Jesus, simultaneously are a you're a resident of Orlando and a resident of Jesus. 00:24:37.423 --> 00:24:39.930 That's what that means. 00:24:39.930 --> 00:24:45.193 Some of you are like I live in Oviedo, it still counts, oviedo, okay. 00:24:45.193 --> 00:24:55.251 It means that you are both simultaneously right here, right now, a Floridian and a Christian, because you live in Jesus Christ. 00:24:55.901 --> 00:25:05.095 He is the location, he is the land, he is the ultimate or he is this intermediate fulfillment of what it means to inherit the land from God. 00:25:05.095 --> 00:25:17.969 The Lord has given him to you and so, listen, the geographical locus of God's blessing is no longer a place in the Middle East, but a person in heaven, the man, christ Jesus. 00:25:17.969 --> 00:25:20.273 This is essential to know. 00:25:20.273 --> 00:25:24.806 Ephesians 1.11 says this in him, that is Jesus. 00:25:24.806 --> 00:25:28.173 In him, we have obtained an inheritance. 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:35.202 Do you see that All of the promises in Psalm 37, five times, you will inherit the land, inherit the land, inherit the land. 00:25:35.202 --> 00:25:41.373 It's found in Jesus, but that's not the ultimate fulfillment of this promise. 00:25:41.373 --> 00:25:47.729 Look at verse 11, it says this but the meek shall inherit the land. 00:25:47.729 --> 00:25:52.353 Does that sound familiar? 00:25:52.353 --> 00:26:02.027 Jesus quotes this in Matthew 5 in his great sermon on the Mount, and awkwardly, jesus gets it wrong because he says blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 00:26:02.027 --> 00:26:06.746 It's like oops, jesus, you should have read your Bible, or maybe not? 00:26:06.746 --> 00:26:16.289 Maybe Jesus knew that the immediate and intermediate and ultimate fulfillment of the promise of the land was that the meek shall inherit the earth. 00:26:18.241 --> 00:26:22.364 We preached on meekness last year and simply put the meek. 00:26:22.364 --> 00:26:24.949 Meekness is love-constrained power. 00:26:24.949 --> 00:26:29.391 It's people who have power, but it's constrained by love, the love of God and the love of neighbor. 00:26:29.391 --> 00:26:32.240 So why is it that the meek inherit the earth? 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:35.226 They're the only ones God can entrust it to. 00:26:35.226 --> 00:26:40.194 They're the only ones who would be trustworthy stewards of the entire earth. 00:26:40.194 --> 00:26:49.673 That's why the meek inherit the earth, and so the whole, entire cosmos is the fulfillment of this promise for the land. 00:26:49.740 --> 00:27:02.067 You see, the land promises from Genesis to Revelation, the land promises are always multi-layered and in their prophetic fulfillment, what does this all mean for you and me? 00:27:02.067 --> 00:27:05.568 So what is another way to ask that question? 00:27:05.568 --> 00:27:14.589 Well, there's a place called Mount Morgan in Queensland, australia, and the people who lived on this mountain owned this mountain. 00:27:14.589 --> 00:27:22.965 They toiled arduously for years on its barren slopes, just trying to eke out some sort of an existence. 00:27:22.965 --> 00:27:31.031 What they didn't know until the late 1800s was that under their feet was one of the richest sources of gold the world has ever known. 00:27:31.031 --> 00:27:36.884 They produced over 225 tons of gold, along with copper and silver. 00:27:36.884 --> 00:27:44.114 It was now, mind you, it was technically theirs, and yet not experienced, not accessed and not enjoyed. 00:27:45.997 --> 00:27:52.328 Brothers and sisters, those of you who belong to Jesus, you toil anxiously, day and night. 00:27:52.328 --> 00:28:03.384 You work so hard, not realizing that you already have an inheritance in Jesus Christ, a greater treasure than you could ever earn or work for on your own, and it's been given to you. 00:28:03.384 --> 00:28:10.224 And so we cling to scraps of security and we think that we can kind of have this man-made existence. 00:28:10.224 --> 00:28:17.968 But if you belong to Jesus, then what Paul calls the unsearchable riches of Christ are already yours. 00:28:17.968 --> 00:28:22.023 You just get to inherit it by faith and patience. 00:28:22.023 --> 00:28:29.503 And so, if you believe this, you can begin to steward your heart through simplicity. 00:28:29.503 --> 00:28:37.026 You can steward your hands through industry and then, finally, you can steward the results through generosity. 00:28:37.997 --> 00:28:39.122 Look with me at verse 21. 00:28:39.122 --> 00:28:44.143 Verse 21 says this the wicked borrows but does not pay back. 00:28:44.143 --> 00:28:53.163 But the righteous is generous and gives, for those blessed by the Lord shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. 00:28:53.163 --> 00:28:58.676 It just says really simply here the righteous is generous and gives. 00:28:58.676 --> 00:28:59.519 Why? 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:07.298 One of my favorite Old Testament scholars is a guy named Bruce Walkie, and Walkie says this famous quote. 00:29:07.298 --> 00:29:12.409 He says the unrighteous disadvantage others to advantage themselves. 00:29:12.409 --> 00:29:17.123 The righteous disadvantage themselves to advantage others. 00:29:17.123 --> 00:29:22.661 That's what it means when it says the righteous is generous and gives. 00:29:23.983 --> 00:29:35.750 It's been said that obedience to God in this area, in this area of your life, obedience to God requires you to use your money, to quote, procure, preserve and further the wealth of others as well as your own. 00:29:35.750 --> 00:29:40.163 So obedience to God, your own wealth and other people. 00:29:40.163 --> 00:29:41.968 Wait, what? 00:29:41.968 --> 00:29:43.491 Like? 00:29:43.491 --> 00:29:53.769 Which social justice warrior said that the Westminster Assembly in 1643, when they wrote our catechism, the larger catechism? 00:29:53.769 --> 00:29:57.829 They were talking about what it means not to steal Positively. 00:29:57.829 --> 00:30:02.782 What it means is to pursue the wealth of the other people around you as you do your own. 00:30:02.782 --> 00:30:05.028 That's our own denomination. 00:30:05.028 --> 00:30:13.986 I actually believe a lot of our social justice issues that I talked about last week would be solved if we would just take our confessional documents and live into them properly. 00:30:15.316 --> 00:30:32.067 The larger catechism teaches us what justice looks like when it comes to our money, and some of you are like, okay, fine, fine, fine, I'll give some money, but only to kind-hearted, upright people whose poverty came upon them through no foolishness or contribution of their own and who will respond to my aid with gratitude and joy. 00:30:32.067 --> 00:30:35.833 Well, that's something right. 00:30:35.833 --> 00:30:41.345 I've moved you a little bit to start, but problem is is that almost no one exists? 00:30:41.345 --> 00:30:42.468 Who qualifies, then? 00:30:42.468 --> 00:30:48.521 And in fact, what if that was Jesus's stance toward you, where would you be? 00:30:49.924 --> 00:30:58.164 Your generosity in the scriptures, especially to the poor and the undeserving, is a good test of your grasp of the gospel. 00:30:58.164 --> 00:30:59.949 Why is that? 00:30:59.949 --> 00:31:06.491 Well, in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, it says this for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Pause. 00:31:06.491 --> 00:31:08.917 Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? 00:31:08.917 --> 00:31:12.083 That's the question, because if you know it, you would know this. 00:31:12.083 --> 00:31:26.575 He goes on to say this that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor so that by his poverty you may become rich. 00:31:26.575 --> 00:31:31.508 You see, paul makes your generosity with your money a test case of your grasp of grace. 00:31:31.528 --> 00:31:45.218 If you're materialistic and ungenerous, if the affections of your heart are clinging to material things, you may have a superficial intellectual grasp of your own undeservedness before Jesus, but in the end you're really just middle class in spirit. 00:31:45.218 --> 00:32:00.227 But Jesus says that for those who are poor in spirit, those who are willing to have open and empty hands to receive the wealth that only he can give, those are the people who then responsively give generously. 00:32:00.227 --> 00:32:05.625 So what's the answer? 00:32:05.625 --> 00:32:07.362 How do you become a more generous person? 00:32:07.362 --> 00:32:15.015 Is this where I crank the screws down a little bit more and like burden you with a little bit more guilt so that you'll pinch out a penny or two? 00:32:15.015 --> 00:32:30.565 No, because 2 Corinthians 9, 7 says this each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 00:32:30.565 --> 00:32:34.089 That's what it says and what's going on here. 00:32:34.089 --> 00:32:40.623 You see, I think what it really means is that God loves a cheerful giver, because God himself is a cheerful giver. 00:32:40.623 --> 00:32:49.564 Like I wish I had way more time to just go into the intraterritorial life of God, how God doesn't give, because that's something he does. 00:32:49.564 --> 00:32:54.105 God gives because God is self-giving love, father, son, holy Spirit. 00:32:54.105 --> 00:32:57.557 I mean it's amazing, but suffice it for this. 00:32:58.701 --> 00:33:06.260 The most famous verse in all the Bible, john 3, 16, says for God so loved the world that he gave Core to the heart of who God is is he's a cheerful giver. 00:33:06.260 --> 00:33:09.404 Core to the heart of who God is is he's a cheerful giver. 00:33:09.404 --> 00:33:11.788 He just enjoys. 00:33:11.788 --> 00:33:13.431 But we don't believe that. 00:33:13.431 --> 00:33:21.060 We don't believe that in the very heart of God there is an irresistible urge to bestow blessing on his people. 00:33:21.060 --> 00:33:28.584 We don't trust that, we don't have confidence in that kind of a God, the kind of God whose very goodness brings him pleasure. 00:33:28.584 --> 00:33:33.279 When he gets to bring pleasure to his people, that he actually enjoys it. 00:33:33.320 --> 00:33:45.701 Like if let me just quote Jesus here If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him If we can do that? 00:33:45.701 --> 00:33:50.409 How much more the father, who is himself a cheerful giver? 00:33:50.409 --> 00:34:04.286 And so we struggle to believe Psalm 37, 19, where it says that we are not put to shame in evil times, in the days of famine, we will have abundance, and Paul knows this. 00:34:04.286 --> 00:34:11.967 That's why, in Romans 8, he says he who did not spare his own son but gave him up hear the word gave him up for us all. 00:34:11.967 --> 00:34:15.625 Will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things? 00:34:15.625 --> 00:34:18.242 Will he not provide for us? 00:34:18.242 --> 00:34:31.264 You see, god knows that the gospel has gotten into your heart when it comes through your wallet, because that's when he realizes that you've been wooed and won over to a God who is a cheerful giver. 00:34:31.264 --> 00:34:39.983 And so, listen, how do we learn this, not just intellectually but experientially, when we begin to give as an act of worship? 00:34:41.835 --> 00:34:45.784 Now, you may or may not know this, but we have this big, fat blue book that nobody likes. 00:34:45.784 --> 00:34:54.465 Some people like it, I'm suspect, called the Book of church order, and it defines a lot of things about who we are and how we function, all those things. 00:34:54.465 --> 00:35:07.000 In the book of church order there's a section about how we're supposed to worship, and in that section on how we're supposed to worship, it explicitly says that giving an offering is a core part of what it means to worship the triune God. 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:10.047 And so we're bringing it back. 00:35:10.047 --> 00:35:11.817 We're bringing it back into our liturgy? 00:35:11.817 --> 00:35:14.760 Why Because we're short on cash? 00:35:14.760 --> 00:35:17.306 No, that's not why. 00:35:18.086 --> 00:35:25.485 Because what you do with your money is it's a thermometer to your heart and a thermostat to your heart. 00:35:25.485 --> 00:35:27.155 What do I mean? 00:35:27.155 --> 00:35:29.427