Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone, this is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to the Sermon Audio from New City Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Evan Pederson: If you would please stand with me for the prayer of illumination.
Evan Pederson: Almighty God, you are the great provider.
Evan Pederson: May your Holy Spirit open our hearts and our minds to the truth and beauty of your life-giving word.
Evan Pederson: Through Christ we pray.
Evan Pederson: Amen.
Evan Pederson: Today's scripture reading comes from Psalm 67.
Evan Pederson: May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us.
Evan Pederson: That your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
Evan Pederson: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Evan Pederson: Let all the peoples praise you.
Evan Pederson: Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.
Evan Pederson: For you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.
Evan Pederson: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Evan Pederson: Let all the peoples praise you.
Evan Pederson: The earth has yielded its increase.
Evan Pederson: God shall bless us.
Evan Pederson: Let all the ends of the earth fear him.
Evan Pederson: This is God's word.
Evan Pederson: You may be seated.
Justin Grimm: Some of the greatest joy that you will ever experience won't come from something that happens to you, but from something that God does through you.
Justin Grimm: A couple years ago, I was pastoring a small church in Westerville, Ohio, and it was seemingly an ordinary Sunday when a new family walked in.
Justin Grimm: Now, when this new family walked into worship with us, it's somewhat hard to describe, but they were putting off a little bit of a nervous energy, a little bit of an anxious energy, maybe if I'm honest, a little bit of an angry energy.
Justin Grimm: And I couldn't quite figure it out.
Justin Grimm: So I walked up to them, I introduced myself, I let them know as the pastor and welcomed them to church.
Justin Grimm: And uh right away they open up and they say, Hey, we just want you to know that we have no understanding how, in a modern day, in modern times, anybody could believe these ancient fables and follow through on this.
Justin Grimm: But we have two young children, and our oldest son, he really wants to be here this morning, and they're the and he is the only reason that we are gathering with you.
Justin Grimm: Without skipping a beat, I looked at him and I said, Well, may the peace of Christ be with you.
Justin Grimm: I let them know how welcome they were uh with us, and I said, This is okay.
Justin Grimm: We're glad for you to uh experience what it's like uh to belong if this is something you are interested in.
Justin Grimm: But there's no pressure uh to see what this is like for you.
Justin Grimm: For the next two months, this family continues to attend worship every single Sunday.
Justin Grimm: So I said, I want to meet with them.
Justin Grimm: Uh the parents' names are Dan and Allie.
Justin Grimm: And I said, Dan and Allie, can we meet and can we talk?
Justin Grimm: This time the conversation went a little more smoothly.
Justin Grimm: They said, Listen, for two months we have been with you guys and we have become endeared to this community.
Justin Grimm: You guys are kind, you love each other, you love the people of Westerville.
Justin Grimm: We still believe everything that we believe.
Justin Grimm: That is, you guys are crazy uh to believe in this Jesus, to follow him in all this way.
Justin Grimm: But at the end of the day, we think if we stick around, at least our kids will pick up some good morals.
Justin Grimm: So we're in for a little while.
Justin Grimm: I let them know one more time.
Justin Grimm: Dan and Allie, you are welcome to be long before you ever believe.
Justin Grimm: But I want you to know I'm going to be praying that one day you indeed will believe in the same Jesus that we do.
Justin Grimm: For one year, Dan and Allie became a part of our community.
Justin Grimm: That is, they attended worship on Sunday, they attended community group throughout the week, and they even jumped in and began to serve on some of the serve teams that we had.
Justin Grimm: After one year, I get a call from Allie, and she says, Justin, we need to meet.
Justin Grimm: We go to a coffee shop on State Street in Westerville, Ohio, known as Java Central.
Justin Grimm: And Allie says, Justin, one year ago we became enthralled with this small little community.
Justin Grimm: One year later, I don't know what is going on, but I am captivated by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Justin Grimm: What do I do?
Justin Grimm: I said, Ali, this is so good.
Justin Grimm: What do you do?
Justin Grimm: You can receive the blessing that God has on offer for you now by responding in um repentance and faith.
Justin Grimm: In a small little coffee shop in a small little town in Northeast Columbus, Ohio, Ali Gerritsen prayed to become a follower of Jesus.
Justin Grimm: And it was a holy and glorious moment.
Justin Grimm: At the end of this moment, Allie said, Justin, this is going to be so disruptive to my family.
Justin Grimm: Dan hasn't budged.
Justin Grimm: Dan is not captivated by Jesus.
Justin Grimm: Would you join me in praying?
Justin Grimm: And I said, Allie, every Friday we are going to start fasting and we are going to start praying that Dan would come to know Jesus as Lord.
Justin Grimm: Fast forward one year, it's the spring of 2024.
Justin Grimm: I get a phone call from Dan.
Justin Grimm: He says, Justin, we need to meet.
Justin Grimm: Allie, we went to the coffee shop, Java Central.
Justin Grimm: Dan, we went to the cigar lounge on College Street.
Justin Grimm: As we smoke some cigars, Dan is saying, Justin, I can't believe that these words are about to come out of my mouth.
Justin Grimm: But after two years of being a part of this community, I am uh enthralled with Jesus.
Justin Grimm: He's calling me to something I don't know what it is.
Justin Grimm: Can you help me out?
Justin Grimm: I said, Dan, yes, I can.
Justin Grimm: What do you need to do?
Justin Grimm: You need to receive the blessing that God has on offer in and through Jesus Christ by responding to him in repentance and faith.
Justin Grimm: And on a small little cigar lounge on College Street in Westerville, Ohio, Dan prayed to become a follower of Jesus.
Justin Grimm: Yeah, we can we can clap on this.
Justin Grimm: You see, unlike Allie, Dan had no exposure to the church, so he was never baptized.
Justin Grimm: And Dan said, Justin, it's spring.
Justin Grimm: Easter's coming up.
Justin Grimm: Would you baptize me on Easter Sunday?
Justin Grimm: And I said, Of course, we're going to make this happen.
Justin Grimm: So Easter Sunday, 2024, I turned to my friend Dan and I asked him this question before our church.
Justin Grimm: Dan, who is Jesus to you?
Justin Grimm: And I still have his unedited written response.
Justin Grimm: These were the very words that he read before our church.
Justin Grimm: Jesus is the Son of the Living God, who was crucified for my sin, conquering death to redeem me from my sin.
Justin Grimm: I am his child, and I am forgiven, and I will follow him.
Justin Grimm: Jesus is important to me because through his life, death, atonement, and teachings, I have hope, peace.
Justin Grimm: He helps me and my family live full lives.
Justin Grimm: He guides us through trials and temptations, and I believe by his spirit he will grow us in our faith with him.
Justin Grimm: This was Dan's confession before our church.
Justin Grimm: In many ways, that story, I think that is what Psalm 67 is actually about.
Justin Grimm: Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Justin Grimm: Let the nations be glad.
Justin Grimm: Let the peoples praise you.
Justin Grimm: You see, whether it's the peoples and nations that are gathered together in Westerville, Ohio, or the peoples and nations gathered in West Orange, in Conway, in Longwood, in Waterford, or right here in Central Orlando, there is a call that is on display that the people would respond and know who God is.
Justin Grimm: This is a celebratory psalm.
Justin Grimm: This is a vision and mission-oriented psalm.
Justin Grimm: But can I say this is also a little bit of a tragic psalm?
Justin Grimm: Why would I say that?
Justin Grimm: Because at least for the original uh hearers of this psalm, it was only ever aspirational.
Justin Grimm: You see, if we were to go through the entire story of the Old Testament, for the many sins and struggles and faults that the ancient people of God had, one of them was this.
Justin Grimm: They were content in receiving the comfort that comes from being blessed by God, but they did not respond to the calling that God gave them to be a blessing.
Justin Grimm: They were content with receiving blessing, but not being obedient to extend that blessing.
Justin Grimm: And I wonder if we too are tempted by these very things.
Justin Grimm: And if we are, if we're content with merely receiving blessing, but not extending blessing, what is really on the line?
Justin Grimm: What can we miss out on if we do not participate in this calling that I believe that God gives to his ancient people and to us?
Justin Grimm: One word, joy.
Justin Grimm: I believe God's ancient people left joy on the table.
Justin Grimm: And I believe if we don't extend this calling to others, we too are leaving joy on the table.
Justin Grimm: So what do we learn here in Psalm 67?
Justin Grimm: And what do I believe God would have us talk about this morning?
Justin Grimm: I believe it is this.
Justin Grimm: True joy is found not in merely receiving blessing, but in becoming one.
Justin Grimm: And so this morning I want to unpack that for us by asking three questions.
Justin Grimm: Why does God bless his people?
Justin Grimm: What does this blessing produce, and can we trust God to do it?
Justin Grimm: Why does God bless his people?
Justin Grimm: What does this blessing produce, and can we trust God to do it?
Justin Grimm: Those are the three things we'll look at this morning.
Justin Grimm: So, why does God bless his people?
Justin Grimm: Well, the answer is right here in the text, so that his saving power may be known among all nations.
Justin Grimm: Let's look at the petition and the purpose.
Justin Grimm: First, the psalm begins with a petition.
Justin Grimm: It's the very first word in verse one.
Justin Grimm: May.
Justin Grimm: May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.
Justin Grimm: Does this sound familiar to you, New City?
Justin Grimm: I hope it does, because if you've been with us for any little bit of time, this is the blessing that we pronounce over you after we wrap up every worship service.
Justin Grimm: But this blessing, obviously, it's not original or unique to us.
Justin Grimm: It's not even original to the psalmist.
Justin Grimm: In fact, what is he doing?
Justin Grimm: He's looking back in the story of Scripture to Numbers chapter 26, where, or excuse me, number six, verses 24 through 26.
Justin Grimm: And this is known as the Aaronic Blessing.
Justin Grimm: Now, if you were with us last fall, Pastor Ben, he preached, in my opinion, one of the best sermons that I've ever heard in my life.
Justin Grimm: And I actually drew upon some of his content from that sermon.
Justin Grimm: I commend it to you, encourage you to give it a listen again if you haven't heard it yet.
Justin Grimm: What is God's blessing?
Justin Grimm: Blessing is God's gracious declaration and gift of his covenant favor, his personal presence, and his life-giving goodness upon his people.
Justin Grimm: Why do we need God's blessing?
Justin Grimm: We need God's blessing because we were created to live in his favorable presence.
Justin Grimm: And apart from it, we spend our lives searching elsewhere for security, significance, and satisfaction that only he can give.
Justin Grimm: And if you know anything about Presbyterian and Reformed theology, the theologian John Owen has this statement: the indicatives come before the imperatives.
Justin Grimm: And what does that even mean?
Justin Grimm: Well, we see it actually right here in verses one or two.
Justin Grimm: God blesses his people before he ever calls them to respond.
Justin Grimm: At New City, how do we explain that?
Justin Grimm: How do we describe that?
Justin Grimm: Usually every single week, we receive from God, and then we respond out of what we've received from him.
Justin Grimm: What do we receive from God?
Justin Grimm: The blessing that we need from a heavenly Father that only he can give to us, that leads to a flourishing and beautiful life.
Justin Grimm: But we don't merely receive, we respond to that blessing.
Justin Grimm: Blessing comes before mission, but being blessed by God should always lead to mission.
Justin Grimm: And so we see that's exactly what happens here.
Justin Grimm: May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.
Justin Grimm: That there is the petition.
Justin Grimm: Now here's the purpose.
Justin Grimm: That your bless uh that the nations that your way would be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
Justin Grimm: You see, what is the psalmist doing here?
Justin Grimm: He's actually just taking us on a trip back in time.
Justin Grimm: First, he went back to Numbers 6 with uh the Iranic blessing.
Justin Grimm: Now he goes even further back in time to Genesis chapter 12, to the Abrahamic blessing.
Justin Grimm: God blesses Abraham and he says, What?
Justin Grimm: I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.
Justin Grimm: The psalmist knows his Old Testament.
Justin Grimm: We need to first receive this blessing, but then what do we do with it?
Justin Grimm: We extend this blessing to the nations.
Justin Grimm: That was the call of Abraham, who would, his family would grow and become Israel.
Justin Grimm: And this was the call of Israel.
Justin Grimm: And if we keep reading the story, we see this is the call of the church.
Justin Grimm: Theologian Leslie Nubigan says it like this the church is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave, but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's mission.
Justin Grimm: Why does God bless his people?
Justin Grimm: So that his saving power may be known among all nations.
Justin Grimm: So what do we first learn here in Psalm 67?
Justin Grimm: New city.
Justin Grimm: Don't you see?
Justin Grimm: You were made to receive God's blessing that you might personally flourish.
Justin Grimm: But you were also made to respond to God's blessing so that the nations may flourish.
Justin Grimm: You see, for us to extend the Abrahamic blessing to the nations, we must first receive it.
Justin Grimm: In the Old Testament, it was the job of a priest to extend the blessing of Yahweh to the people.
Justin Grimm: But in the Old Testament, every priest Israel ever had was ultimately insufficient to carry this blessing all the way to the nations.
Justin Grimm: So which priest can actually qualify to do this?
Justin Grimm: More on that in a moment.
Justin Grimm: Before we answer that question, this takes us to the second idea.
Justin Grimm: Why does God bless his people so that the nations may flourish?
Justin Grimm: What does this blessing produce?
Justin Grimm: This blessing produces hopeful invitation and exponential joy.
Justin Grimm: Hopeful invitation and exponential joy.
Justin Grimm: Look at verses three through five.
Justin Grimm: There's three imperatives.
Justin Grimm: Let the peoples praise, let the nations be glad, let the peoples praise.
Justin Grimm: Now, again, if you would bear with me for a moment before I can go into some Hebrew uh nerdum, uh these commands let, it's actually just the verb for praise, but it comes to us in the Hebrew Jessive form.
Justin Grimm: And what does this actually mean?
Justin Grimm: It means the psalmist gives these commands with a heart of longing.
Justin Grimm: Let please God, let the peoples praise you.
Justin Grimm: Let the nations be glad.
Justin Grimm: Let the peoples praise you.
Justin Grimm: Who does this hopeful invitation go out to here in Psalm 67?
Justin Grimm: The Amim, the peoples, and the Goyim, the nations.
Justin Grimm: The amim is used five times.
Justin Grimm: This is near peoples, this is ethnic groups, tribes, and uh neighbors who are the goim.
Justin Grimm: They're the far-off.
Justin Grimm: This is the broader, more distant nations word.
Justin Grimm: The psalm uses both near peoples and far nations and longs, longs that they would join the song of praise.
Justin Grimm: What a spectacular moment and time and city we live in.
Justin Grimm: You see, for us, I hope we share in this longing, because at least here in Orlando, the here and now, the nations are not necessarily overseas.
Justin Grimm: The nations are in all the places we live, work, and play.
Justin Grimm: The nations are in West Orange, they're in Conway, they're in Longwood.
Justin Grimm: What do we learn?
Justin Grimm: Your neighbors are the nations.
Justin Grimm: There is a hopeful invitation for your neighbors and the nations here in Psalm 67.
Justin Grimm: And what does this invitation lead to?
Justin Grimm: Lord willing, exponential joy.
Justin Grimm: Verses three through five, they have a chiastic structure to them.
Justin Grimm: Look, verse three, let the peoples praise you, O God, let the peoples praise you.
Justin Grimm: Verse five, it repeats it.
Justin Grimm: Let the peoples praise you, O God, let the peoples praise you.
Justin Grimm: Sandwich in between three and five, verse four, let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth.
Justin Grimm: In Hebrew poetry, whatever comes in the middle of a chiastic structure, that's the emphasis.
Justin Grimm: That's the thing we need to put a magnifying glass on.
Justin Grimm: So, Lord willing, if if Israel is extending this hopeful invitation, what does it actually produce?
Justin Grimm: Joy and gladness.
Justin Grimm: You see, in verse 4, the psalmist uses two words.
Justin Grimm: Samak is a deep inner brightening, and Renan is an uncontrollable shout.
Justin Grimm: That's what the psalmist and that's what God wants for your neighbor.
Justin Grimm: Not merely just information about him.
Justin Grimm: He wants them brightened from the inside out until it breaks out of them.
Justin Grimm: You see, this is the motivation underneath the invitation.
Justin Grimm: The nations experience their greatest joy, not in autonomy, but under God's leadership.
Justin Grimm: Verse 4 says, For you judge the peoples with equity.
Justin Grimm: And I know in our modern day and time, and maybe elsewhere even in scripture, judgment can be a bad thing.
Justin Grimm: But what's literally being spoken about here, this word for judgment means leadership.
Justin Grimm: What does this mean?
Justin Grimm: When Israel actually reached out to the nations, when we reach out to our neighbors, what are we inviting them to?
Justin Grimm: Not merely a religion, but we're inviting our neighbors and the nations into the truest flourishing events.
Justin Grimm: Available to a human being.
Justin Grimm: You see, the simple act of invitation, it reframes it from awkward obligation to a genuine gift.
Justin Grimm: Exponential joy is what is on the table.
Justin Grimm: Our joy, their joy, and God's joy.
Justin Grimm: All three are activated by one act, the invitation.
Justin Grimm: For those of you that know me, I didn't grow up going to church.
Justin Grimm: In fact, I didn't grow up in a religious home at all.
Justin Grimm: My junior year of high school, my next door neighbor, her name was Lindsay Dixon, and every single Wednesday night, she would shoot me a text message with a simple invitation.
Justin Grimm: Hey, F3, which was our fun way of describing our little Bible study, F3's meeting at my house and in my basement, would love to have you join us.
Justin Grimm: And this produced such turmoil in my heart.
Justin Grimm: You see, at the time I was like my friend Allie and Dan, and I was very skeptical of the church and church people, but I was totally into Lindsay.
Justin Grimm: So what was I going to do?
Justin Grimm: And uh I slowly but surely responded to the invitation.
Justin Grimm: And much like my friend Allie and Dan, I belonged to that community long before I ever started to believe what that community believed.
Justin Grimm: Eventually, through a crisis in my life, I came to know the Lord Jesus.
Justin Grimm: And that's a story for next time.
Justin Grimm: Hopeful invitation leads to exponential joy.
Justin Grimm: And would you bear with me for a moment?
Justin Grimm: It started with a 16-year-old girl in high school who extended an invitation to me, which led to my joy, to her joy, our youth pastor's joy.
Justin Grimm: But dare I say, the Lord, not because of anything in me, but because of his goodness and grace, has used me to extend this joy, maybe even here and now in this room.
Justin Grimm: And do you see this is how the kingdom of God works?
Justin Grimm: Who extended the invitation to you?
Justin Grimm: How has joy been multiplied and uh gone forth in your life through your work, through your witness?
Justin Grimm: What is the mission we have at New City to call, form, and send disciple makers?
Justin Grimm: Psalm 67 gives the instruction.
Justin Grimm: It leads with, it begins with invitation.
Justin Grimm: Hey, we worship this really good God on Sunday.
Justin Grimm: And even if you are if you are curious in the slightest, we'd love to have you join.
Justin Grimm: Or hey, if that's too much, there's this community, and we meet every other week, and we would love to have you be with us.
Justin Grimm: Just just come check it out.
Justin Grimm: And do you see how this multiplies and grows?
Justin Grimm: Lord willing, as we head into the spring, we'll be sending out a new congregation up into North Orlando so that what the joy might be multiplied.
Justin Grimm: Why does God bless his people that the nations might be glad?
Justin Grimm: What does this blessing produce?
Justin Grimm: Hopeful invitation and exponential joy.
Justin Grimm: And can we trust God to do it?
Justin Grimm: The answer is of course.
Justin Grimm: You see, that's where this psalm ultimately wraps up.
Justin Grimm: It wraps up with an assured confidence.
Justin Grimm: Verses six and seven.
Justin Grimm: God shall bless us.
Justin Grimm: Let the ends of the earth fear him.
Justin Grimm: Can we trust God to do this?
Justin Grimm: Of course.
Justin Grimm: Look at the harvest and the horizon.
Justin Grimm: You see, remember back in verse one, it started with petition.
Justin Grimm: May God bless us.
Justin Grimm: Do you see how the petition has evolved by the time we get here to verse six and seven?
Justin Grimm: No longer is it a petition, it is a declaration.
Justin Grimm: God shall bless us.
Justin Grimm: You see, at this point here in the Psalm, it's aspirational once again, but aspirational in the best of senses.
Justin Grimm: Why?
Justin Grimm: Because what God began in Genesis 1, remember, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, is clarified in Genesis 12, send this blessing out to all of the nations, is personalized in Deuteronomy 6.
Justin Grimm: May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Justin Grimm: Sung about here in Psalm 67, is commissioned in Matthew 28, go out into all the world and make disciples, is ratified in Acts 2 as this exponential joy starts to spread throughout the work, the world, and continues today through the work and witness of the people of New City.
Justin Grimm: What does verse what is verse 6 talking about?
Justin Grimm: The earth has yielded its increase, an assurity, a guarantee that your work and your witness matters.
Justin Grimm: The very thing that God created us for, that sent us out to, even before sin ever entered into the story, well, the harvest, it will be reaped.
Justin Grimm: Because God is a good planter, he is a good farmer, he will get what he intends to receive.
Justin Grimm: That is the harvest.
Justin Grimm: And how far does this harvest go?
Justin Grimm: We'll look to the horizon.
Justin Grimm: You see, the scope of God's blessing, it was never merely local.
Justin Grimm: I've already said it, but I think that's one of the things that the ancient people of God most missed out upon.
Justin Grimm: They were content with the comfort that comes from receiving this blessing, but they didn't spread it out.
Justin Grimm: They weren't this blessing to the nations the way that they were called to.
Justin Grimm: They didn't extend this blessing the way that God had called them to.
Justin Grimm: So what do we do with this?
Justin Grimm: How do we go from aspirational, which it was for God's ancient people, to actual?
Justin Grimm: Well, we know the answer.
Justin Grimm: Remember, it was the job of a priest to deliver this blessing to the nations?
Justin Grimm: Well, we know ultimately who the priest is that we and the nations need.
Justin Grimm: His name is Jesus Christ.
Justin Grimm: In Galatians chapter 3, we are told that Jesus received the curse from God that we might receive his blessing.
Justin Grimm: And Galatians 3, 14 says this, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Justin Grimm: Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that it was for the joy set before him that Jesus Christ endured the cross.
Justin Grimm: And what was the joy set before him?
Justin Grimm: It was you, new city.
Justin Grimm: You see, the nations and the peoples, it's not merely just your neighbors who are out there, but it's you.
Justin Grimm: We're the Gentiles, we're the Goyim, we are the far ones who have been reconciled and brought in through Jesus Christ.
Justin Grimm: And one day, this is where the story is going.
Justin Grimm: Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 and 10.
Justin Grimm: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one can number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
Justin Grimm: How do we get from Psalm 67 to Revelation 7?
Justin Grimm: The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Justin Grimm: On the cross, Jesus uttered these words, it is finished.
Justin Grimm: You may now receive the blessing that God has on offer.
Justin Grimm: Your life may flourish as it only can from receiving this blessing, and you might respond by extending this blessing to your neighbors.
Justin Grimm: What do we learn, New City?
Justin Grimm: Our mission matters.
Justin Grimm: We call form and send disciple makers, not just here on Sunday morning, but in all the places we work and witness.
Justin Grimm: We do it at UCF, we do it in West Orange, in Conway, and one more time, Lord willing, very soon in Altamont and Longwood, through the people of Garden City.
Justin Grimm: Go back with me one more time to Easter morning 2024.
Justin Grimm: I know you did because you guys literally bursted into applause.
Justin Grimm: When my friend Dan read his personal confession and was baptized, our congregation burst into uh praise and uh response to God.
Justin Grimm: The joy that you felt when Dan read his confession, that eruption of praise, that's what Psalm 67 is talking about.
Justin Grimm: That is what God is after.
Justin Grimm: It started with a church plan in Westerville that decided their neighbors matter more than their comfort and contentment.
Justin Grimm: This mission continues today when we, New City, decide that our neighbors, our networks, our friends matter more than our comfort and contentment.
Justin Grimm: Do you see the work?
Justin Grimm: It begins in your driveway.
Justin Grimm: True joy isn't found when God's blessing ends with you.
Justin Grimm: True joy is found when God's blessing reaches someone else through you.
Justin Grimm: Let's pray.
Justin Grimm: Oh Lord, we pray that that would be true of us, that we would be people who, not just merely intellectually, but emotionally, spiritually, we know this blessing that you pour upon us, that we are deeply rooted, we are deeply insecure, and the love that you have for us and have lavished on us through the person of Jesus Christ.
Justin Grimm: But Lord, where our fathers and brothers in the past were willing to settle with just merely receiving that blessing, I pray that that will not be true for us here at New City.
Justin Grimm: May this blessing motivate us to love, may this blessing motivate us to invite.
Justin Grimm: May this blessing motivate us to uh have our neighbors, that is, the nations, join in this song of praise.
Justin Grimm: We thank you for all the ways that you have blessed us.
Justin Grimm: We ask that you would continue to do that now, and that we might respond to you.
Justin Grimm: We pray all these things in Jesus' name.
Justin Grimm: Amen.