June 23, 2025 • 39 mins
In this message from NewCity Orlando’s Summer in the Psalms series, Pastor Benjamin Kandt reflects on Psalm 37:3–4, 16, 18–19, 21–22, 25–26, highlighting generosity as a key mark of the righteous life. In a world where the wicked often appear to prosper, God’s people are called to trust in the Lord, do good, and live with open hands. The psalm offers a picture of steady, faithful living rooted not in self-reliance but in the Lord’s sustaining provision.
Pastor Kandt shows how generosity is more than a financial posture—it flows from confidence in God's care and covenant faithfulness. Rather than being anxious about the future, the righteous give freely, knowing they are upheld by the Lord. This sermon invites listeners to embrace a life shaped by trust, gratitude, and the joy of giving as an expression of God’s grace.
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Damien Schitter (00:05):
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Damian.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we believe all ofus need all of Jesus for all of
life.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.
Thanks for listening.
Nadia Chong (00:20):
Church.
Please join me.
Give us understanding that wemay keep your law and observe it
with our whole hearts.
Lead us in the path of yourcommandments, for we delight in
it.
Turn our eyes from looking atworthless things and give us
life in your ways, through JesusChrist, our Lord, amen.
(00:43):
Scripture today is from Psalm 37.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and befriendfaithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lordand he will give you the desires
of your heart.
Better is the little that therighteous has than the abundance
of many wicked.
The Lord knows the days of theblameless and their heritage
(01:05):
will remain forever.
They are not put to shame inevil times.
In the days of famine they haveabundance.
The wicked borrows but does notpay back.
But the righteous is generousand gives, for those blessed by
the law by the Lord shallinherit the land, but those
cursed by him shall be cut off.
(01:25):
I have been young and now I'mold, yet I have not seen the
righteous forsaken or hischildren begging for bread.
He is ever lending generouslyand his children become a
blessing.
This is God's word.
Benjamin Kandt (01:39):
I had a mentor who bought a brand new pickup
truck and it was nice.
It was like the high trim level, four by four leather seats, a
little lift on it, not a Floridaman lift, but like a classy
lift.
And because this dude was afollower of Jesus, he was
generous in his stewardship ofthat truck.
He would let people borrow itall the time to move.
(02:03):
If you have a pickup truck, youknow that's part of the
blessing and the burden ofowning a truck.
And so one time somebodyborrowed his truck, moved,
something brought it back with agigantic dent in the back
bumper.
They felt terrible and theysaid I'm so sorry.
He said, hey, listen, it's okay.
But it was not okay.
(02:23):
You see, it was not okay.
He was so upset and frustratedand angry, but he didn't want to
take it out on them, theydidn't really do it on purpose.
And so what did he do?
He kind of took it out on theLord.
He went and he prayed, and thiswas a version of his prayer,
something like this Lord, whydid you let them dent your truck
?
(02:44):
You see, because in that momenthe was trying to live his
theology, he was trying topractice what he preaches In
that Psalm 24 says the earth isthe Lord's and the fullness
thereof all of the people thatdwell therein.
In other words, everythingbelongs to God.
That's what he was living inlight of when my children went
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through that phase, or when theygo through the phase where they
learn the word mine andeverybody knows this phase, my
wife and I would catechize themWhenever they would say it.
We would say nothing is yours,everything belongs to God.
And it worked until they workedit on us.
And so we would be eating icecream as a family.
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They would devour it and I'dstill have a little bit left,
and one of my kids would saydaddy, can I have some of your
ice cream?
And I'd say no, dude, this ismine, you already ate yours.
And they'd say but, dad,nothing is yours, everything
belongs to God.
Right, and that's true.
It is true, and in fact, whathappens is is that the sin in
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our hearts takes our time andour stuff and our money and
claims it and clings to it as ifit's ours.
But the scriptures actuallydescribe us as simply stewards,
because everything belongs toGod.
And so we're going to look atthat together.
We're going to look at whatdoes it mean that we are simply
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stewards, and I want to pointout this is actually really
important, because everythingthat you have, it's not yours
that's an individualisticapproach but it's also not the
state's that's the socialisticapproach.
But it's also not the statesthat's the socialistic approach.
But it's not even your families.
That's the traditional approach.
It's God's.
It's God's and that's thebiblical approach, that if
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everything belongs to God, thenhe has entrusted the things that
we have to us as stewards.
And so what I want to do is Iwant to ask and answer the
question how do we steward ourlife?
What does it look like to bestewards?
I want to look at Psalm 37together and I want to point out
kind of a theology ofstewardship under three words
simplicity, industry, generosity, simplicity, industry and
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generosity.
Let's look at the text together.
If you have a Bible or a deviceor your worship guide, go ahead
and get Psalm 37 out in frontof you, because we're gonna look
at some of these scripturestogether.
I want you to see thatsimplicity is learning to
steward your heart.
It's stewarding your heart.
Look at verse 16 with me.
Psalm 37, verse 16 says thisbetter is the little that the
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righteous has than the abundanceof many wicked.
How can a little be better thana lot?
How is that possible?
That's what that verse issaying Only if you're free from
wanting more.
That's how Socrates, the ancientphilosopher, believed that a
wise man, a wise woman, wouldlive a simple life.
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But he was also known for doingsomething.
He would go down to themarketplace and he'd spend hours
just looking around, wanderingaround what we would call window
shopping today.
And so one of his friendsactually approached him and said
hey, why is it that you go andlook at all the things and you
seem so intrigued by all thestuff?
To which Socrates replied Ilove to go there to discover how
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many things I am perfectlyhappy without.
That's simplicity.
That's stewarding your heartproperly.
You see, simplicity is aboutstewarding your heart toward
freedom.
It's not necessarily abouthaving less, it's about wanting
less.
That's what simplicity of heartis.
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Richard Foster defines it likethis.
He says simplicity is the quotejoyful unconcern about
possessions in order to seek hiskingdom first.
You see, in Matthew 6, jesustaught us that where your
treasure is there, your heartwill be.
Also.
Another way to say that is isyour heart follows your treasure
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.
Our culture likes to say followyour heart.
The Bible likes to say, yeah,but what's your heart following?
That's your treasure.
That's what your heart followsafter, and so it's important to
understand that your treasure iswhatever you will sacrifice for
.
If you want a little indicatorof that, look at both your
calendar and your bank account.
That's how you find out whereyour treasure is.
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Where do you sacrifice yourtime, where do you sacrifice
your money?
That's your treasure.
And so 10 days ago, I sat downand I journaled, I dated it
that's how I know when it wasand I just simply put at the top
of the paper I said why do welove money?
And I just started journaling.
I have like 20 things.
I'm gonna summarize them.
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These are the things that cameup.
We love money because it's ametric of success.
It's a way of keeping score.
You can tell if you're winningbased on how much money you have
, because it's an agreed uponstatus symbol in our culture.
Again, I'm not saying these aregood things, I'm just saying
these are things.
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Also, money can't buy happinesskind of, because it can buy a
measure of pleasure, that's forsure.
Money can buy experiences andcomfort.
It can buy physicalattractiveness so that you get
more attention from people.
It can buy a modicum ofprotection so you get a sense of
security.
It can buy some favor withother people.
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We call that ingratiation.
Money can buy leverage overother people too.
You see, let me just kind ofsummarize.
Here's the thing.
Money has this ability toactualize many different desires
.
If you want it, if you've gotenough money, a lot of things
you can actually get it.
You can have it.
This is why we love money.
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You're not crazy for lovingmoney, but you are vulnerable.
You're profoundly vulnerable.
The reason why is because, ifmoney is your treasure, you will
never be free.
You will always live in fear.
Rainier Marie Rilke, the famouspoet, said it like this our
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fears are like dragons guardingour deepest treasure.
Where are you afraid?
Where do you feel fear?
Those are dragons guarding yourdeepest treasure.
You want to know what youtreasure.
You want to know what reallyhas captivated your heart.
Right, if simplicity isstewarding your heart, where
does your heart treasure?
Pay attention to your fears.
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What are you afraid of?
You see, simplicity is aboutfreedom, setting you free from
fear.
How do we gain this?
How do we get this simplicity?
Look at verse four.
Verse four says delightyourself in the Lord and he will
give you the desires of yourheart.
The way you get set free, theway you steward your heart, the
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way you learn simplicity ofheart, is by learning to
treasure the one who treasuresyou.
It's by learning to tell himall of your desires.
If it's true that moneyactually is potent in our lives
because it can pay for what wewant, if that's true, one of the
ways to deal with that is tojust simply tell the Lord what
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your desires are.
Lord, I want security,significance and satisfaction.
I want those things.
Let me just let you in on asecret.
You are made to want thosethings.
You have creational desiresthat evil comes in and perverts
and distorts and warps.
But the desire to be secure andsatisfied and significant is
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something God put in you andevil comes along and distorts it
, misdirects it, and so we go tothe Lord.
We say Lord, I want security.
Teach me what that looks like.
To find security in you.
What are you doing in thatmoment?
You're delighting yourself inthe Lord.
Delight yourself.
That's a reflexive action.
It's something you do to you.
That's the command there.
(10:39):
Do this to yourself, delightyourself.
So if you're right here nowgoing, I don't really delight in
the Lord.
I'm saying yeah, and theBible's commanding you to do
this action, to learn thepractice of reflexively
delighting, cultivating acertain amount of delight in the
Lord, and that's actually whatwill set you free the freedom of
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simplicity.
Aw Tozer, in a phenomenal bookcalled the Pursuit of God it's
worth reading says it like thisthe man who has God for his
treasure has all things in one.
Many ordinary treasures may bedenied him, or, if he is allowed
to have them, the enjoyment ofthem will be so tempered that
they will never be necessary tohis happiness.
What if you could be set freesuch that having certain things
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were not necessary to yourhappiness?
He, if you could be set freesuch that having certain things
were not necessary to yourhappiness.
He goes on, he says this or ifhe must see them go one after
one, he will scarcely feel asense of loss for having the
source of all things he has inone all satisfaction, all
pleasure, all delight.
Whatever he may lose, he hasactually lost nothing, for he
now has it all in one, and hehas it purely legitimately and
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forever.
That's the freedom ofsimplicity.
Have you touched that Like?
Have you touched that in yourlived experience as a disciple
of Jesus.
I have, but then it fades awaypretty quickly.
I return back to finding mysecurity, significance and
satisfaction other places.
But here's the thing the timeswhen I've touched it, the times
when I can truly honestly,sincerely, say to the Lord take
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what you want, just leave meyourself and I'll have enough.
When I can say that prayer, it'susually in times of peak
experiences, high points of joyor low points of pain.
Why both of those?
Well, because when you havepeak experiences, high points of
joy or low points of pain, whyboth of those?
Well, because when you havepeak experiences, you recognize
that it's still not enough tosatisfy your soul.
(12:31):
Like if you could just haveeverything you ever wanted,
you'd realize it's still notenough.
So in those peak experiences, Irecognize that those are simply
beams coming down from the sun.
Capital S, the one who isworthy of all of my desire.
But in those moments of painyou realize, when everything's
stripped away, what do I have?
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What do I have if I don't havethe Lord?
And so the Lord invites us,will walk with us through peaks
and valleys in order to inviteus into recognizing better is
the little that the righteoushas than the abundance of many
wicked.
So not only do we steward ourhearts through simplicity, we
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steward our hands throughindustry.
Point two look at verse threewith me.
It says this trust in the Lordand do good, dwell in the land
and befriend faithfulness.
Look down a little further atverse 27.
It says this turn away fromevil and do good, so shall you
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dwell forever.
Two times in this psal Psalm itjust simply says do good.
Simple, clear Christians aredoers.
We are people who are active inthe world.
We are actually working thingsout.
We believe we can contribute tothe betterment of our society.
And so we've been known fordoing good throughout the
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history of humanity.
And a lot of that is because inEphesians 2.10, it says that we
are God's workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus for good works
which God prepared beforehandthat we should walk in them.
Now I just want to be.
We define a disciple as someone.
A disciple is united to Jesus,in communion with God, community
with one another, co-missionfor the world.
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And we double click onco-mission.
We say your mission with Godand others in this world is your
work and your witness.
When we say work, we mean goodworks, like Ephesians 2.10, but
we also mean your work, youroccupation, your vocation.
You see, the reason why isbecause I believe most of the
good works God ordained for youare actually worked out through
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your daily work.
That's where you most of thegood works God ordained for you
are actually worked out, throughyour daily work.
That's where you're doing thegood works that God intends for
you to do in the world.
You see, this has actuallymarked Protestantism in
particular.
This has been a truth that'sbeen core to who we are, as
children of the Reformation, ifyou will.
Max Weber is the one who kindof popularized this phrase, the
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Protestant work ethic, and whathe pointed out was that,
essentially, we have a valueattached to our work, that work
really matters and it's a partof your calling.
And the thing I'm just going togo real nerdy, real quick.
Historically, what happened isin the Reformation.
The Reformation recovered alost doctrine called the
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priesthood of all believers.
You see, the Catholic churchhad made it seem as if the
highest order vocations arepriests, monks, missionaries,
the type people like me Some ofyou still believe that that's
okay.
Lord's still at work in yourlife.
You see, the ProtestantReformation said actually no,
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the priesthood of all believersmeans that it doesn't matter
what your particular work is.
It's a calling from God to dothe works that he prepared
beforehand, that you should walkin them and by so doing,
sanctified, made holy every typeof work, every type of work
that's according to his will,and so in doing that, actually
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it inspired and invigorated anindustry that Protestants
changed the face of the worldthrough.
By industry, I just mean acommitment to hard work.
Now, here's the thing.
There's other historians andscholars, social scientists, who
will point out that we'veactually lived in the last 300
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years in the United States ofAmerica.
We've lived in a secularizedversion of the Protestant work
ethic, and really what's beingpointed out there is that no
longer do we work because webelieve it's a calling from god.
Now we work in order to findour worth, and so work still has
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religious significance, but nowit's a salvation scheme.
You see, in in this worldthere's there's a problem
because, um, ephesians 2.10follows right after Ephesians
2.8 and 9, because that's hownumbers work Eight, then nine,
then 10.
And so this is what Ephesians2.8 says.
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It says this for, by grace, youhave been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of work, so that no one
may boast.
So the hard, full court pressagainst thinking your works
contribute anything to yoursalvation or your standing
before God Ephesians 2, 8, 9,and then seamlessly shift to and
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yet God's prepared good worksfor you to walk in, be
industrious, and so only when wehold that tension we realize
that Protestants didn't justrecover the priesthood of all
believers, but alsojustification by faith alone.
In other words, you work fromacceptance with God, not for
acceptance with God.
You work from status, worth,dignity, identity, not for those
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things.
When you secularize theProtestant work ethic, you find,
actually, our work is where wefind all of our worth, and when
that's the case, what ends uphappening is that you, you find
yourself living in such a waywhere busyness is a status
symbol.
Um, I heard a man recently sayit like this.
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He said hey, there's, there'stwo things that I really like
but need to repent of.
First, I really like beingexhausted because of how busy I
am.
Second, I really like tellingyou about it.
What is that?
That's a cultural status symbol, isn't it?
How are you?
You know, I'm just really busyand exhausted.
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That should be like oh wow,you're failing at life.
You don't know how to manageyour time well.
You don't know how to actuallygive your best time, energy and
attention to the things thatmatter most.
That's what that should soundlike, but we all know it doesn't
.
That's why you're laughingright now.
And so here's the thingSimultaneously, the Christian
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gospel removes the need to proveyourself from work by your work
, through your work, and alsomakes your work profoundly
meaningful.
It does both of those together,but only when the Christian
gospel sets you free from havingto earn favor, earn status,
earn worth, justify yourexistence through your work,
because if you live like that,time management becomes time
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enslavement.
But actually God is invitingyou out of the idolatry of
industry to work and to restwith him.
So here's something that maybea tool, maybe a metric how well
do you keep the Sabbath day?
How many times, how many24-hour blocks in seven days?
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Do you do nothing that you knowto be work?
It's an indicator.
It's an indicator of how wellyou really believe that your
status and value and worth isreceived, not achieved.
But listen, some of you in theroom today, you need to hear
that when God created the world,he created it in six days and
rested on the seventh, and thenhe commanded humanity to do the
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same.
He said this work six, rest one.
Some of you in here actuallyneed to hear work six, like stop
being lazy, get after it.
Have some holy ambition tobring goodness, beauty and truth
into the world.
Some of you need to hear that,but I think a lot of you need to
hear rest one, rest.
(20:24):
Let yourself be refreshed as ahuman being, not a human doing.
For once.
Don't live under Pharaoh'sregime anymore.
You think Pharaoh died inancient Egypt.
Pharaoh's alive and well,ruling over you, saying more
bricks, less straw.
It just happens through youremail inbox now, and so one of
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the ways we can be set free fromindustry idolatry is by resting
, keeping the Sabbath day holy.
But here's another way we canrecognize that, in the end, all
that we will receive will besimply an inheritance.
Look with me back at the text.
Six times Psalm 37 talks aboutland, the land, and five of
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those times it uses the wordinherit.
Look at verse nine.
It says this those who wait forthe Lord shall inherit the land
.
Verse 11,.
The meek shall inherit the landand delight themselves in
abundant peace.
Verse 22,.
Those blessed by the Lord shallinherit the land.
Verse 29,.
The righteous shall inherit theland and dwell upon it forever.
Verse 34, wait for the Lord andkeep his way, and he will exalt
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you to inherit the land.
What's the big deal?
Why keep talking about thisover and over and over again?
Why the land?
Deuteronomy 8, which we justread recently in the McShane
Bible reading plan, says thisthis is the most beautiful
description of the land I knowin the scriptures.
It says this the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good
land, a land of brooks of water,of fountains and springs
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flowing out in the valleys andhills.
A land of wheat and barley, ofvines and fig trees and
pomegranates.
A land of olive trees and honey.
A land in which you will eatbread without scarcity what a
beautiful word without scarcity.
Eat bread without scarcity, inwhich you will lack nothing.
A land whose stones are ironand out of whose hills you can
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dig copper and you shall eat andbe full, and you shall bless
the Lord, your God, for the goodland he has given you.
That's why the land is such abig deal.
That's why I can sayunequivocally that security,
significance and satisfactionwere God's idea because he
provides for it for his peoplein the land.
But here's the thing the landwas a gift from God but
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simultaneously always belongedto God.
His people were simply stewards.
That's why they got kicked outof the land.
They refused to steward theland that God intended.
Now let me just do a littleexcursus here on what's called
hermeneutics, the study of howyou read scripture.
Okay, in reading the Bible, anypromise or prophecy always has
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an immediate, intermediate andultimate fulfillment.
Promises and prophecies, likethe land promises here, have
immediate, intermediate andultimate fulfillment.
Okay, so the land in scripture,the immediate fulfillment is
the geography in the Middle East.
That's the immediatefulfillment.
God's giving them actual land,real boundaries.
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Okay, that's the immediatefulfillment in Psalm 37.
That's important.
But here's the thing even inthe Hebrew Bible, where those
promises are made five times,the dimensions of the land are
given and they're differentevery time.
So what's the boundaries ofthis land?
You see, what I think ishappening is the Lord is sowing,
even into the Hebrew Bible.
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He's sowing some idea thatthere's something bigger
happening here than simply achunk of land the size of New
Jersey, and that's theintermediate fulfillment.
The intermediate fulfillment ofthe land is the Lord Jesus
himself.
It's Jesus himself, and this iswhat I mean by this.
All of the promises of God findtheir yes in Jesus Christ.
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That's what 2 Corinthians 1.20says.
And so when the New Testamentsays that we who believe in
Jesus are, that's what 2Corinthians 1.20 says.
And so when the New Testamentsays that we who believe in
Jesus are in Christ, that is alocative meaning of that word.
This is what that means.
It means that you, if youbelong to Jesus, simultaneously
are a you're a resident ofOrlando and a resident of Jesus.
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That's what that means.
Some of you are like I live inOviedo, it still counts, oviedo,
okay.
It means that you are bothsimultaneously right here, right
now, a Floridian and aChristian, because you live in
Jesus Christ.
He is the location, he is theland, he is the ultimate or he
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is this intermediate fulfillmentof what it means to inherit the
land from God.
The Lord has given him to youand so, listen, the geographical
locus of God's blessing is nolonger a place in the Middle
East, but a person in heaven,the man, christ Jesus.
This is essential to know.
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Ephesians 1.11 says this in him, that is Jesus.
In him, we have obtained aninheritance.
Do you see that All of thepromises in Psalm 37, five times
, you will inherit the land,inherit the land, inherit the
land.
It's found in Jesus, but that'snot the ultimate fulfillment of
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this promise.
Look at verse 11, it says thisbut the meek shall inherit the
land.
Does that sound familiar?
Jesus quotes this in Matthew 5in his great sermon on the Mount
, and awkwardly, jesus gets itwrong because he says blessed
are the meek, for they shallinherit the earth.
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It's like oops, jesus, youshould have read your Bible, or
maybe not?
Maybe Jesus knew that theimmediate and intermediate and
ultimate fulfillment of thepromise of the land was that the
meek shall inherit the earth.
We preached on meekness lastyear and simply put the meek.
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Meekness is love-constrainedpower.
It's people who have power, butit's constrained by love, the
love of God and the love ofneighbor.
So why is it that the meekinherit the earth?
They're the only ones God canentrust it to.
They're the only ones who wouldbe trustworthy stewards of the
entire earth.
That's why the meek inherit theearth, and so the whole, entire
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cosmos is the fulfillment ofthis promise for the land.
You see, the land promises fromGenesis to Revelation, the land
promises are alwaysmulti-layered and in their
prophetic fulfillment, what doesthis all mean for you and me?
So what is another way to askthat question?
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Well, there's a place calledMount Morgan in Queensland,
australia, and the people wholived on this mountain owned
this mountain.
They toiled arduously for yearson its barren slopes, just
trying to eke out some sort ofan existence.
What they didn't know until thelate 1800s was that under their
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feet was one of the richestsources of gold the world has
ever known.
They produced over 225 tons ofgold, along with copper and
silver.
It was now, mind you, it wastechnically theirs, and yet not
experienced, not accessed andnot enjoyed.
Brothers and sisters, those ofyou who belong to Jesus, you
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toil anxiously, day and night.
You work so hard, not realizingthat you already have an
inheritance in Jesus Christ, agreater treasure than you could
ever earn or work for on yourown, and it's been given to you.
And so we cling to scraps ofsecurity and we think that we
can kind of have this man-madeexistence.
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But if you belong to Jesus,then what Paul calls the
unsearchable riches of Christare already yours.
You just get to inherit it byfaith and patience.
And so, if you believe this,you can begin to steward your
heart through simplicity.
You can steward your handsthrough industry and then,
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finally, you can steward theresults through generosity.
Look with me at verse 21.
Verse 21 says this the wickedborrows but does not pay back.
But the righteous is generousand gives, for those blessed by
the Lord shall inherit the land,but those cursed by him shall
be cut off.
(28:53):
It just says really simply herethe righteous is generous and
gives.
Why?
One of my favorite OldTestament scholars is a guy
named Bruce Walkie, and Walkiesays this famous quote.
He says the unrighteousdisadvantage others to advantage
themselves.
The righteous disadvantagethemselves to advantage others.
(29:17):
That's what it means when itsays the righteous is generous
and gives.
It's been said that obedience toGod in this area, in this area
of your life, obedience to Godrequires you to use your money,
to quote, procure, preserve andfurther the wealth of others as
well as your own.
So obedience to God, your ownwealth and other people.
(29:40):
Wait, what?
Like?
Which social justice warriorsaid that the Westminster
Assembly in 1643, when theywrote our catechism, the larger
catechism?
They were talking about what itmeans not to steal Positively.
What it means is to pursue thewealth of the other people
(30:00):
around you as you do your own.
That's our own denomination.
I actually believe a lot of oursocial justice issues that I
talked about last week would besolved if we would just take our
confessional documents and liveinto them properly.
The larger catechism teaches uswhat justice looks like when it
comes to our money, and some ofyou are like, okay, fine, fine,
(30:21):
fine, I'll give some money, butonly to kind-hearted, upright
people whose poverty came uponthem through no foolishness or
contribution of their own andwho will respond to my aid with
gratitude and joy.
Well, that's something right.
I've moved you a little bit tostart, but problem is is that
almost no one exists?
Who qualifies, then?
(30:42):
And in fact, what if that wasJesus's stance toward you, where
would you be?
Your generosity in thescriptures, especially to the
poor and the undeserving, is agood test of your grasp of the
gospel.
Why is that?
Well, in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, itsays this for you know the
(31:03):
grace of our Lord Jesus ChristPause.
Do you know the grace of ourLord Jesus Christ?
That's the question, because ifyou know it, you would know
this.
He goes on to say this thatthough he was rich, yet for our
(31:24):
sake he became poor so that byhis poverty you may become rich.
You see, paul makes yourgenerosity with your money a
test case of your grasp of grace.
If you're materialistic andungenerous, if the affections of
your heart are clinging tomaterial things, you may have a
superficial intellectual graspof your own undeservedness
before Jesus, but in the endyou're really just middle class
(31:44):
in spirit.
But Jesus says that for thosewho are poor in spirit, those
who are willing to have open andempty hands to receive the
wealth that only he can give,those are the people who then
responsively give generously.
So what's the answer?
(32:05):
How do you become a moregenerous person?
Is this where I crank thescrews down a little bit more
and like burden you with alittle bit more guilt so that
you'll pinch out a penny or two?
No, because 2 Corinthians 9, 7says this each one must give as
he has decided in his heart, notreluctantly or under compulsion
(32:27):
, for God loves a cheerful giver.
That's what it says and what'sgoing on here.
You see, I think what it reallymeans is that God loves a
cheerful giver, because Godhimself is a cheerful giver.
Like I wish I had way more timeto just go into the
intraterritorial life of God,how God doesn't give, because
(32:48):
that's something he does.
God gives because God isself-giving love, father, son,
holy Spirit.
I mean it's amazing, butsuffice it for this.
The most famous verse in all theBible, john 3, 16, says for God
so loved the world that he gaveCore to the heart of who God is
is he's a cheerful giver.
Core to the heart of who God isis he's a cheerful giver.
(33:09):
He just enjoys.
But we don't believe that.
We don't believe that in thevery heart of God there is an
irresistible urge to bestowblessing on his people.
We don't trust that, we don'thave confidence in that kind of
a God, the kind of God whosevery goodness brings him
pleasure.
When he gets to bring pleasureto his people, that he actually
(33:32):
enjoys it.
Like if let me just quote Jesushere If you then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts toyour children, how much more
will your heavenly father givegood things to those who ask him
If we can do that?
How much more the father, whois himself a cheerful giver?
And so we struggle to believePsalm 37, 19, where it says that
(33:56):
we are not put to shame in eviltimes, in the days of famine,
we will have abundance, and Paulknows this.
That's why, in Romans 8, hesays he who did not spare his
own son but gave him up hear theword gave him up for us all.
Will he not also, with him,graciously give us all things?
Will he not provide for us?
(34:18):
You see, god knows that thegospel has gotten into your
heart when it comes through yourwallet, because that's when he
realizes that you've been wooedand won over to a God who is a
cheerful giver.
And so, listen, how do we learnthis, not just intellectually
but experientially, when webegin to give as an act of
(34:39):
worship?
Now, you may or may not knowthis, but we have this big, fat
blue book that nobody likes.
Some people like it, I'msuspect, called the Book of
church order, and it defines alot of things about who we are
and how we function, all thosethings.
In the book of church orderthere's a section about how
we're supposed to worship, andin that section on how we're
supposed to worship, itexplicitly says that giving an
(35:03):
offering is a core part of whatit means to worship the triune
God.
And so we're bringing it back.
We're bringing it back into ourliturgy?
Why Because we're short on cash?
No, that's not why.
Because what you do with yourmoney is it's a thermometer to
your heart and a thermostat toyour heart.
(35:25):
What do I mean?
A thermometer tells you whatthe temperature is right.
Similarly, where your moneygoes.
It tells the temperature ofyour heart.
It tells what you love, whatyou treasure.
Like when you get a raise, doyou raise your standard of
living or your standard ofgiving?
That's a helpful way todiagnose the condition of your
heart.
It's a thermometer in thatsense.
But it's also a thermostatBecause remember I told you
(35:48):
earlier what you treasure iswhat you sacrifice for.
And so when you give, becauseyou believe that God, in his
cheerful generosity, gave JesusChrist to you and that moves you
from the inside out to be acheerful giver, when that's you,
that's a thermostat.
It begins to trend your heartin the direction, stirs the
(36:10):
affections of your heart forJesus, makes your hands cling a
little bit less to yourpossessions and your time and
your money and your stuff andactually open them in
open-handed worship and devotionto the Lord and generosity
towards your neighbor.
And so my hope is that theoutcome of this sermon is not
(36:31):
that anybody would feel a hintof guilt, not a hint or pressure
, because, remember, reluctanceand compulsion mean nothing
before the Lord, Only acheerfulness of heart that
responds in adoration to allthat God is for you, all that
he's done for you.
And so my hope for the outcomeof this sermon is that we will
hear stories, testimonies ofpeople just they'd had some cash
(36:53):
hanging out that they werewaiting to do something with.
They're like.
Oh well, in that sermon Irealized I want to give it to
somebody lavishly as a gift andI want to hear dozens of those
stories.
That's my hope.
My hope is that verse 25 willcome true here in our midst.
Look at it with me.
It says I have been young andnow I'm old, yet I have not seen
the righteous forsaken or hischildren begging for bread.
(37:14):
He is ever lending generouslyand his children become a
blessing.
What a testimony, what a story.
Let me close with a quick story.
In 1684, there was a guy namedRobert Bailey who was sentenced
to death in Scotland for hisconvictions, his strong faith,
(37:34):
in other words, he lived in atime when it was not cool to be
a Presbyterian.
Some of you are like it's stillnot cool dude, I know I
understand.
Bear with me, I'm trying here,okay.
The night before he wasexecuted he told his young boy,
george.
He looked to him and he spokePsalm 37, 25 to him.
He said, son, listen, I havebeen young and now I'm old, and
(38:01):
yet I've not seen the righteousforsaken or his children begging
for bread.
And before he was hanged hebegan a speech and he says my
love for the Christian religionhas brought me to this, but the
officials ordered that drums bebeat so loud that he could not
be heard.
Before his death he had sometime with his wife and kids and
he spoke these words.
He said that I am entrustingyou quote to the compassionate
and merciful heart of my God.
(38:23):
Think about that.
You're about to die and you'reentrusting your children and
your wife to your God.
His son grew up to be asignificant leader after the
revolution and the Bailey familybecame known as having being
one of the most respectedfamilies in the nation.
In other words, bailey diedwith nothing and yet God came
(38:45):
through as a living testimonythat the righteous will not be
forsaken because they trusttheir God.
Let's pray, father, we do.
We look to you now, the God whoso loved that he gave Jesus.
We look to you.
You were the one who gave yourvery life poured out for us.
(39:08):
Holy Spirit, you are the onewho's been given poured out into
our very hearts that we mightbe stirred up to become cheerful
givers like our God, thecheerful giver.
Jesus, would you move?
Would you move us?
Would we, as you said, notserve mammon but serve you?
(39:28):
It's a work of your grace.
We pray for it now in Jesus'name.
Amen.
Hello everyone.
This is Pastor Damian.
You're listening to SermonAudio from New City, orlando.
At New City, we believe all ofus need all of Jesus for all of
life.
For more resources, visit ourwebsite at newcityorlandocom.
Thanks for listening.
Nadia Chong (00:20):
Church.
Please join me.
Give us understanding that wemay keep your law and observe it
with our whole hearts.
Lead us in the path of yourcommandments, for we delight in
it.
Turn our eyes from looking atworthless things and give us
life in your ways, through JesusChrist, our Lord, amen.
(00:43):
Scripture today is from Psalm 37.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and befriendfaithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lordand he will give you the desires
of your heart.
Better is the little that therighteous has than the abundance
of many wicked.
The Lord knows the days of theblameless and their heritage
(01:05):
will remain forever.
They are not put to shame inevil times.
In the days of famine they haveabundance.
The wicked borrows but does notpay back.
But the righteous is generousand gives, for those blessed by
the law by the Lord shallinherit the land, but those
cursed by him shall be cut off.
(01:25):
I have been young and now I'mold, yet I have not seen the
righteous forsaken or hischildren begging for bread.
He is ever lending generouslyand his children become a
blessing.
This is God's word.
Benjamin Kandt (01:39):
I had a mentor who bought a brand new pickup
truck and it was nice.
It was like the high trim level, four by four leather seats, a
little lift on it, not a Floridaman lift, but like a classy
lift.
And because this dude was afollower of Jesus, he was
generous in his stewardship ofthat truck.
He would let people borrow itall the time to move.
(02:03):
If you have a pickup truck, youknow that's part of the
blessing and the burden ofowning a truck.
And so one time somebodyborrowed his truck, moved,
something brought it back with agigantic dent in the back
bumper.
They felt terrible and theysaid I'm so sorry.
He said, hey, listen, it's okay.
But it was not okay.
(02:23):
You see, it was not okay.
He was so upset and frustratedand angry, but he didn't want to
take it out on them, theydidn't really do it on purpose.
And so what did he do?
He kind of took it out on theLord.
He went and he prayed, and thiswas a version of his prayer,
something like this Lord, whydid you let them dent your truck
?
(02:44):
You see, because in that momenthe was trying to live his
theology, he was trying topractice what he preaches In
that Psalm 24 says the earth isthe Lord's and the fullness
thereof all of the people thatdwell therein.
In other words, everythingbelongs to God.
That's what he was living inlight of when my children went
(03:07):
through that phase, or when theygo through the phase where they
learn the word mine andeverybody knows this phase, my
wife and I would catechize themWhenever they would say it.
We would say nothing is yours,everything belongs to God.
And it worked until they workedit on us.
And so we would be eating icecream as a family.
(03:30):
They would devour it and I'dstill have a little bit left,
and one of my kids would saydaddy, can I have some of your
ice cream?
And I'd say no, dude, this ismine, you already ate yours.
And they'd say but, dad,nothing is yours, everything
belongs to God.
Right, and that's true.
It is true, and in fact, whathappens is is that the sin in
(03:52):
our hearts takes our time andour stuff and our money and
claims it and clings to it as ifit's ours.
But the scriptures actuallydescribe us as simply stewards,
because everything belongs toGod.
And so we're going to look atthat together.
We're going to look at whatdoes it mean that we are simply
(04:13):
stewards, and I want to pointout this is actually really
important, because everythingthat you have, it's not yours
that's an individualisticapproach but it's also not the
state's that's the socialisticapproach.
But it's also not the statesthat's the socialistic approach.
But it's not even your families.
That's the traditional approach.
It's God's.
It's God's and that's thebiblical approach, that if
(04:35):
everything belongs to God, thenhe has entrusted the things that
we have to us as stewards.
And so what I want to do is Iwant to ask and answer the
question how do we steward ourlife?
What does it look like to bestewards?
I want to look at Psalm 37together and I want to point out
kind of a theology ofstewardship under three words
simplicity, industry, generosity, simplicity, industry and
(04:58):
generosity.
Let's look at the text together.
If you have a Bible or a deviceor your worship guide, go ahead
and get Psalm 37 out in frontof you, because we're gonna look
at some of these scripturestogether.
I want you to see thatsimplicity is learning to
steward your heart.
It's stewarding your heart.
Look at verse 16 with me.
Psalm 37, verse 16 says thisbetter is the little that the
(05:22):
righteous has than the abundanceof many wicked.
How can a little be better thana lot?
How is that possible?
That's what that verse issaying Only if you're free from
wanting more.
That's how Socrates, the ancientphilosopher, believed that a
wise man, a wise woman, wouldlive a simple life.
(05:44):
But he was also known for doingsomething.
He would go down to themarketplace and he'd spend hours
just looking around, wanderingaround what we would call window
shopping today.
And so one of his friendsactually approached him and said
hey, why is it that you go andlook at all the things and you
seem so intrigued by all thestuff?
To which Socrates replied Ilove to go there to discover how
(06:06):
many things I am perfectlyhappy without.
That's simplicity.
That's stewarding your heartproperly.
You see, simplicity is aboutstewarding your heart toward
freedom.
It's not necessarily abouthaving less, it's about wanting
less.
That's what simplicity of heartis.
(06:26):
Richard Foster defines it likethis.
He says simplicity is the quotejoyful unconcern about
possessions in order to seek hiskingdom first.
You see, in Matthew 6, jesustaught us that where your
treasure is there, your heartwill be.
Also.
Another way to say that is isyour heart follows your treasure
(06:47):
.
Our culture likes to say followyour heart.
The Bible likes to say, yeah,but what's your heart following?
That's your treasure.
That's what your heart followsafter, and so it's important to
understand that your treasure iswhatever you will sacrifice for
.
If you want a little indicatorof that, look at both your
calendar and your bank account.
That's how you find out whereyour treasure is.
(07:08):
Where do you sacrifice yourtime, where do you sacrifice
your money?
That's your treasure.
And so 10 days ago, I sat downand I journaled, I dated it
that's how I know when it wasand I just simply put at the top
of the paper I said why do welove money?
And I just started journaling.
I have like 20 things.
I'm gonna summarize them.
(07:28):
These are the things that cameup.
We love money because it's ametric of success.
It's a way of keeping score.
You can tell if you're winningbased on how much money you have
, because it's an agreed uponstatus symbol in our culture.
Again, I'm not saying these aregood things, I'm just saying
these are things.
(07:50):
Also, money can't buy happinesskind of, because it can buy a
measure of pleasure, that's forsure.
Money can buy experiences andcomfort.
It can buy physicalattractiveness so that you get
more attention from people.
It can buy a modicum ofprotection so you get a sense of
security.
It can buy some favor withother people.
(08:12):
We call that ingratiation.
Money can buy leverage overother people too.
You see, let me just kind ofsummarize.
Here's the thing.
Money has this ability toactualize many different desires
.
If you want it, if you've gotenough money, a lot of things
you can actually get it.
You can have it.
This is why we love money.
(08:33):
You're not crazy for lovingmoney, but you are vulnerable.
You're profoundly vulnerable.
The reason why is because, ifmoney is your treasure, you will
never be free.
You will always live in fear.
Rainier Marie Rilke, the famouspoet, said it like this our
(08:54):
fears are like dragons guardingour deepest treasure.
Where are you afraid?
Where do you feel fear?
Those are dragons guarding yourdeepest treasure.
You want to know what youtreasure.
You want to know what reallyhas captivated your heart.
Right, if simplicity isstewarding your heart, where
does your heart treasure?
Pay attention to your fears.
(09:15):
What are you afraid of?
You see, simplicity is aboutfreedom, setting you free from
fear.
How do we gain this?
How do we get this simplicity?
Look at verse four.
Verse four says delightyourself in the Lord and he will
give you the desires of yourheart.
The way you get set free, theway you steward your heart, the
(09:36):
way you learn simplicity ofheart, is by learning to
treasure the one who treasuresyou.
It's by learning to tell himall of your desires.
If it's true that moneyactually is potent in our lives
because it can pay for what wewant, if that's true, one of the
ways to deal with that is tojust simply tell the Lord what
(09:56):
your desires are.
Lord, I want security,significance and satisfaction.
I want those things.
Let me just let you in on asecret.
You are made to want thosethings.
You have creational desiresthat evil comes in and perverts
and distorts and warps.
But the desire to be secure andsatisfied and significant is
(10:18):
something God put in you andevil comes along and distorts it
, misdirects it, and so we go tothe Lord.
We say Lord, I want security.
Teach me what that looks like.
To find security in you.
What are you doing in thatmoment?
You're delighting yourself inthe Lord.
Delight yourself.
That's a reflexive action.
It's something you do to you.
That's the command there.
(10:39):
Do this to yourself, delightyourself.
So if you're right here nowgoing, I don't really delight in
the Lord.
I'm saying yeah, and theBible's commanding you to do
this action, to learn thepractice of reflexively
delighting, cultivating acertain amount of delight in the
Lord, and that's actually whatwill set you free the freedom of
(11:02):
simplicity.
Aw Tozer, in a phenomenal bookcalled the Pursuit of God it's
worth reading says it like thisthe man who has God for his
treasure has all things in one.
Many ordinary treasures may bedenied him, or, if he is allowed
to have them, the enjoyment ofthem will be so tempered that
they will never be necessary tohis happiness.
What if you could be set freesuch that having certain things
(11:24):
were not necessary to yourhappiness?
He, if you could be set freesuch that having certain things
were not necessary to yourhappiness.
He goes on, he says this or ifhe must see them go one after
one, he will scarcely feel asense of loss for having the
source of all things he has inone all satisfaction, all
pleasure, all delight.
Whatever he may lose, he hasactually lost nothing, for he
now has it all in one, and hehas it purely legitimately and
(11:49):
forever.
That's the freedom ofsimplicity.
Have you touched that Like?
Have you touched that in yourlived experience as a disciple
of Jesus.
I have, but then it fades awaypretty quickly.
I return back to finding mysecurity, significance and
satisfaction other places.
But here's the thing the timeswhen I've touched it, the times
when I can truly honestly,sincerely, say to the Lord take
(12:11):
what you want, just leave meyourself and I'll have enough.
When I can say that prayer, it'susually in times of peak
experiences, high points of joyor low points of pain.
Why both of those?
Well, because when you havepeak experiences, high points of
joy or low points of pain, whyboth of those?
Well, because when you havepeak experiences, you recognize
that it's still not enough tosatisfy your soul.
(12:31):
Like if you could just haveeverything you ever wanted,
you'd realize it's still notenough.
So in those peak experiences, Irecognize that those are simply
beams coming down from the sun.
Capital S, the one who isworthy of all of my desire.
But in those moments of painyou realize, when everything's
stripped away, what do I have?
(12:52):
What do I have if I don't havethe Lord?
And so the Lord invites us,will walk with us through peaks
and valleys in order to inviteus into recognizing better is
the little that the righteoushas than the abundance of many
wicked.
So not only do we steward ourhearts through simplicity, we
(13:13):
steward our hands throughindustry.
Point two look at verse threewith me.
It says this trust in the Lordand do good, dwell in the land
and befriend faithfulness.
Look down a little further atverse 27.
It says this turn away fromevil and do good, so shall you
(13:34):
dwell forever.
Two times in this psal Psalm itjust simply says do good.
Simple, clear Christians aredoers.
We are people who are active inthe world.
We are actually working thingsout.
We believe we can contribute tothe betterment of our society.
And so we've been known fordoing good throughout the
(13:54):
history of humanity.
And a lot of that is because inEphesians 2.10, it says that we
are God's workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus for good works
which God prepared beforehandthat we should walk in them.
Now I just want to be.
We define a disciple as someone.
A disciple is united to Jesus,in communion with God, community
with one another, co-missionfor the world.
(14:15):
And we double click onco-mission.
We say your mission with Godand others in this world is your
work and your witness.
When we say work, we mean goodworks, like Ephesians 2.10, but
we also mean your work, youroccupation, your vocation.
You see, the reason why isbecause I believe most of the
good works God ordained for youare actually worked out through
(14:37):
your daily work.
That's where you most of thegood works God ordained for you
are actually worked out, throughyour daily work.
That's where you're doing thegood works that God intends for
you to do in the world.
You see, this has actuallymarked Protestantism in
particular.
This has been a truth that'sbeen core to who we are, as
children of the Reformation, ifyou will.
Max Weber is the one who kindof popularized this phrase, the
(14:57):
Protestant work ethic, and whathe pointed out was that,
essentially, we have a valueattached to our work, that work
really matters and it's a partof your calling.
And the thing I'm just going togo real nerdy, real quick.
Historically, what happened isin the Reformation.
The Reformation recovered alost doctrine called the
(15:21):
priesthood of all believers.
You see, the Catholic churchhad made it seem as if the
highest order vocations arepriests, monks, missionaries,
the type people like me Some ofyou still believe that that's
okay.
Lord's still at work in yourlife.
You see, the ProtestantReformation said actually no,
(15:42):
the priesthood of all believersmeans that it doesn't matter
what your particular work is.
It's a calling from God to dothe works that he prepared
beforehand, that you should walkin them and by so doing,
sanctified, made holy every typeof work, every type of work
that's according to his will,and so in doing that, actually
(16:03):
it inspired and invigorated anindustry that Protestants
changed the face of the worldthrough.
By industry, I just mean acommitment to hard work.
Now, here's the thing.
There's other historians andscholars, social scientists, who
will point out that we'veactually lived in the last 300
(16:24):
years in the United States ofAmerica.
We've lived in a secularizedversion of the Protestant work
ethic, and really what's beingpointed out there is that no
longer do we work because webelieve it's a calling from god.
Now we work in order to findour worth, and so work still has
(16:46):
religious significance, but nowit's a salvation scheme.
You see, in in this worldthere's there's a problem
because, um, ephesians 2.10follows right after Ephesians
2.8 and 9, because that's hownumbers work Eight, then nine,
then 10.
And so this is what Ephesians2.8 says.
(17:06):
It says this for, by grace, youhave been saved through faith,
and this is not your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not aresult of work, so that no one
may boast.
So the hard, full court pressagainst thinking your works
contribute anything to yoursalvation or your standing
before God Ephesians 2, 8, 9,and then seamlessly shift to and
(17:28):
yet God's prepared good worksfor you to walk in, be
industrious, and so only when wehold that tension we realize
that Protestants didn't justrecover the priesthood of all
believers, but alsojustification by faith alone.
In other words, you work fromacceptance with God, not for
acceptance with God.
You work from status, worth,dignity, identity, not for those
(17:52):
things.
When you secularize theProtestant work ethic, you find,
actually, our work is where wefind all of our worth, and when
that's the case, what ends uphappening is that you, you find
yourself living in such a waywhere busyness is a status
symbol.
Um, I heard a man recently sayit like this.
(18:14):
He said hey, there's, there'stwo things that I really like
but need to repent of.
First, I really like beingexhausted because of how busy I
am.
Second, I really like tellingyou about it.
What is that?
That's a cultural status symbol, isn't it?
How are you?
You know, I'm just really busyand exhausted.
(18:35):
That should be like oh wow,you're failing at life.
You don't know how to manageyour time well.
You don't know how to actuallygive your best time, energy and
attention to the things thatmatter most.
That's what that should soundlike, but we all know it doesn't
.
That's why you're laughingright now.
And so here's the thingSimultaneously, the Christian
(18:57):
gospel removes the need to proveyourself from work by your work
, through your work, and alsomakes your work profoundly
meaningful.
It does both of those together,but only when the Christian
gospel sets you free from havingto earn favor, earn status,
earn worth, justify yourexistence through your work,
because if you live like that,time management becomes time
(19:18):
enslavement.
But actually God is invitingyou out of the idolatry of
industry to work and to restwith him.
So here's something that maybea tool, maybe a metric how well
do you keep the Sabbath day?
How many times, how many24-hour blocks in seven days?
(19:40):
Do you do nothing that you knowto be work?
It's an indicator.
It's an indicator of how wellyou really believe that your
status and value and worth isreceived, not achieved.
But listen, some of you in theroom today, you need to hear
that when God created the world,he created it in six days and
rested on the seventh, and thenhe commanded humanity to do the
(20:02):
same.
He said this work six, rest one.
Some of you in here actuallyneed to hear work six, like stop
being lazy, get after it.
Have some holy ambition tobring goodness, beauty and truth
into the world.
Some of you need to hear that,but I think a lot of you need to
hear rest one, rest.
(20:24):
Let yourself be refreshed as ahuman being, not a human doing.
For once.
Don't live under Pharaoh'sregime anymore.
You think Pharaoh died inancient Egypt.
Pharaoh's alive and well,ruling over you, saying more
bricks, less straw.
It just happens through youremail inbox now, and so one of
(20:49):
the ways we can be set free fromindustry idolatry is by resting
, keeping the Sabbath day holy.
But here's another way we canrecognize that, in the end, all
that we will receive will besimply an inheritance.
Look with me back at the text.
Six times Psalm 37 talks aboutland, the land, and five of
(21:09):
those times it uses the wordinherit.
Look at verse nine.
It says this those who wait forthe Lord shall inherit the land
.
Verse 11,.
The meek shall inherit the landand delight themselves in
abundant peace.
Verse 22,.
Those blessed by the Lord shallinherit the land.
Verse 29,.
The righteous shall inherit theland and dwell upon it forever.
Verse 34, wait for the Lord andkeep his way, and he will exalt
(21:31):
you to inherit the land.
What's the big deal?
Why keep talking about thisover and over and over again?
Why the land?
Deuteronomy 8, which we justread recently in the McShane
Bible reading plan, says thisthis is the most beautiful
description of the land I knowin the scriptures.
It says this the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good
land, a land of brooks of water,of fountains and springs
(21:55):
flowing out in the valleys andhills.
A land of wheat and barley, ofvines and fig trees and
pomegranates.
A land of olive trees and honey.
A land in which you will eatbread without scarcity what a
beautiful word without scarcity.
Eat bread without scarcity, inwhich you will lack nothing.
A land whose stones are ironand out of whose hills you can
(22:18):
dig copper and you shall eat andbe full, and you shall bless
the Lord, your God, for the goodland he has given you.
That's why the land is such abig deal.
That's why I can sayunequivocally that security,
significance and satisfactionwere God's idea because he
provides for it for his peoplein the land.
But here's the thing the landwas a gift from God but
(22:41):
simultaneously always belongedto God.
His people were simply stewards.
That's why they got kicked outof the land.
They refused to steward theland that God intended.
Now let me just do a littleexcursus here on what's called
hermeneutics, the study of howyou read scripture.
Okay, in reading the Bible, anypromise or prophecy always has
(23:06):
an immediate, intermediate andultimate fulfillment.
Promises and prophecies, likethe land promises here, have
immediate, intermediate andultimate fulfillment.
Okay, so the land in scripture,the immediate fulfillment is
the geography in the Middle East.
That's the immediatefulfillment.
God's giving them actual land,real boundaries.
(23:28):
Okay, that's the immediatefulfillment in Psalm 37.
That's important.
But here's the thing even inthe Hebrew Bible, where those
promises are made five times,the dimensions of the land are
given and they're differentevery time.
So what's the boundaries ofthis land?
You see, what I think ishappening is the Lord is sowing,
even into the Hebrew Bible.
(23:50):
He's sowing some idea thatthere's something bigger
happening here than simply achunk of land the size of New
Jersey, and that's theintermediate fulfillment.
The intermediate fulfillment ofthe land is the Lord Jesus
himself.
It's Jesus himself, and this iswhat I mean by this.
All of the promises of God findtheir yes in Jesus Christ.
(24:14):
That's what 2 Corinthians 1.20says.
And so when the New Testamentsays that we who believe in
Jesus are, that's what 2Corinthians 1.20 says.
And so when the New Testamentsays that we who believe in
Jesus are in Christ, that is alocative meaning of that word.
This is what that means.
It means that you, if youbelong to Jesus, simultaneously
are a you're a resident ofOrlando and a resident of Jesus.
(24:37):
That's what that means.
Some of you are like I live inOviedo, it still counts, oviedo,
okay.
It means that you are bothsimultaneously right here, right
now, a Floridian and aChristian, because you live in
Jesus Christ.
He is the location, he is theland, he is the ultimate or he
(24:59):
is this intermediate fulfillmentof what it means to inherit the
land from God.
The Lord has given him to youand so, listen, the geographical
locus of God's blessing is nolonger a place in the Middle
East, but a person in heaven,the man, christ Jesus.
This is essential to know.
(25:20):
Ephesians 1.11 says this in him, that is Jesus.
In him, we have obtained aninheritance.
Do you see that All of thepromises in Psalm 37, five times
, you will inherit the land,inherit the land, inherit the
land.
It's found in Jesus, but that'snot the ultimate fulfillment of
(25:40):
this promise.
Look at verse 11, it says thisbut the meek shall inherit the
land.
Does that sound familiar?
Jesus quotes this in Matthew 5in his great sermon on the Mount
, and awkwardly, jesus gets itwrong because he says blessed
are the meek, for they shallinherit the earth.
(26:02):
It's like oops, jesus, youshould have read your Bible, or
maybe not?
Maybe Jesus knew that theimmediate and intermediate and
ultimate fulfillment of thepromise of the land was that the
meek shall inherit the earth.
We preached on meekness lastyear and simply put the meek.
(26:22):
Meekness is love-constrainedpower.
It's people who have power, butit's constrained by love, the
love of God and the love ofneighbor.
So why is it that the meekinherit the earth?
They're the only ones God canentrust it to.
They're the only ones who wouldbe trustworthy stewards of the
entire earth.
That's why the meek inherit theearth, and so the whole, entire
(26:45):
cosmos is the fulfillment ofthis promise for the land.
You see, the land promises fromGenesis to Revelation, the land
promises are alwaysmulti-layered and in their
prophetic fulfillment, what doesthis all mean for you and me?
So what is another way to askthat question?
(27:05):
Well, there's a place calledMount Morgan in Queensland,
australia, and the people wholived on this mountain owned
this mountain.
They toiled arduously for yearson its barren slopes, just
trying to eke out some sort ofan existence.
What they didn't know until thelate 1800s was that under their
(27:27):
feet was one of the richestsources of gold the world has
ever known.
They produced over 225 tons ofgold, along with copper and
silver.
It was now, mind you, it wastechnically theirs, and yet not
experienced, not accessed andnot enjoyed.
Brothers and sisters, those ofyou who belong to Jesus, you
(27:49):
toil anxiously, day and night.
You work so hard, not realizingthat you already have an
inheritance in Jesus Christ, agreater treasure than you could
ever earn or work for on yourown, and it's been given to you.
And so we cling to scraps ofsecurity and we think that we
can kind of have this man-madeexistence.
(28:10):
But if you belong to Jesus,then what Paul calls the
unsearchable riches of Christare already yours.
You just get to inherit it byfaith and patience.
And so, if you believe this,you can begin to steward your
heart through simplicity.
You can steward your handsthrough industry and then,
(28:33):
finally, you can steward theresults through generosity.
Look with me at verse 21.
Verse 21 says this the wickedborrows but does not pay back.
But the righteous is generousand gives, for those blessed by
the Lord shall inherit the land,but those cursed by him shall
be cut off.
(28:53):
It just says really simply herethe righteous is generous and
gives.
Why?
One of my favorite OldTestament scholars is a guy
named Bruce Walkie, and Walkiesays this famous quote.
He says the unrighteousdisadvantage others to advantage
themselves.
The righteous disadvantagethemselves to advantage others.
(29:17):
That's what it means when itsays the righteous is generous
and gives.
It's been said that obedience toGod in this area, in this area
of your life, obedience to Godrequires you to use your money,
to quote, procure, preserve andfurther the wealth of others as
well as your own.
So obedience to God, your ownwealth and other people.
(29:40):
Wait, what?
Like?
Which social justice warriorsaid that the Westminster
Assembly in 1643, when theywrote our catechism, the larger
catechism?
They were talking about what itmeans not to steal Positively.
What it means is to pursue thewealth of the other people
(30:00):
around you as you do your own.
That's our own denomination.
I actually believe a lot of oursocial justice issues that I
talked about last week would besolved if we would just take our
confessional documents and liveinto them properly.
The larger catechism teaches uswhat justice looks like when it
comes to our money, and some ofyou are like, okay, fine, fine,
(30:21):
fine, I'll give some money, butonly to kind-hearted, upright
people whose poverty came uponthem through no foolishness or
contribution of their own andwho will respond to my aid with
gratitude and joy.
Well, that's something right.
I've moved you a little bit tostart, but problem is is that
almost no one exists?
Who qualifies, then?
(30:42):
And in fact, what if that wasJesus's stance toward you, where
would you be?
Your generosity in thescriptures, especially to the
poor and the undeserving, is agood test of your grasp of the
gospel.
Why is that?
Well, in 2 Corinthians 8, 9, itsays this for you know the
(31:03):
grace of our Lord Jesus ChristPause.
Do you know the grace of ourLord Jesus Christ?
That's the question, because ifyou know it, you would know
this.
He goes on to say this thatthough he was rich, yet for our
(31:24):
sake he became poor so that byhis poverty you may become rich.
You see, paul makes yourgenerosity with your money a
test case of your grasp of grace.
If you're materialistic andungenerous, if the affections of
your heart are clinging tomaterial things, you may have a
superficial intellectual graspof your own undeservedness
before Jesus, but in the endyou're really just middle class
(31:44):
in spirit.
But Jesus says that for thosewho are poor in spirit, those
who are willing to have open andempty hands to receive the
wealth that only he can give,those are the people who then
responsively give generously.
So what's the answer?
(32:05):
How do you become a moregenerous person?
Is this where I crank thescrews down a little bit more
and like burden you with alittle bit more guilt so that
you'll pinch out a penny or two?
No, because 2 Corinthians 9, 7says this each one must give as
he has decided in his heart, notreluctantly or under compulsion
(32:27):
, for God loves a cheerful giver.
That's what it says and what'sgoing on here.
You see, I think what it reallymeans is that God loves a
cheerful giver, because Godhimself is a cheerful giver.
Like I wish I had way more timeto just go into the
intraterritorial life of God,how God doesn't give, because
(32:48):
that's something he does.
God gives because God isself-giving love, father, son,
holy Spirit.
I mean it's amazing, butsuffice it for this.
The most famous verse in all theBible, john 3, 16, says for God
so loved the world that he gaveCore to the heart of who God is
is he's a cheerful giver.
Core to the heart of who God isis he's a cheerful giver.
(33:09):
He just enjoys.
But we don't believe that.
We don't believe that in thevery heart of God there is an
irresistible urge to bestowblessing on his people.
We don't trust that, we don'thave confidence in that kind of
a God, the kind of God whosevery goodness brings him
pleasure.
When he gets to bring pleasureto his people, that he actually
(33:32):
enjoys it.
Like if let me just quote Jesushere If you then, who are evil,
know how to give good gifts toyour children, how much more
will your heavenly father givegood things to those who ask him
If we can do that?
How much more the father, whois himself a cheerful giver?
And so we struggle to believePsalm 37, 19, where it says that
(33:56):
we are not put to shame in eviltimes, in the days of famine,
we will have abundance, and Paulknows this.
That's why, in Romans 8, hesays he who did not spare his
own son but gave him up hear theword gave him up for us all.
Will he not also, with him,graciously give us all things?
Will he not provide for us?
(34:18):
You see, god knows that thegospel has gotten into your
heart when it comes through yourwallet, because that's when he
realizes that you've been wooedand won over to a God who is a
cheerful giver.
And so, listen, how do we learnthis, not just intellectually
but experientially, when webegin to give as an act of
(34:39):
worship?
Now, you may or may not knowthis, but we have this big, fat
blue book that nobody likes.
Some people like it, I'msuspect, called the Book of
church order, and it defines alot of things about who we are
and how we function, all thosethings.
In the book of church orderthere's a section about how
we're supposed to worship, andin that section on how we're
supposed to worship, itexplicitly says that giving an
(35:03):
offering is a core part of whatit means to worship the triune
God.
And so we're bringing it back.
We're bringing it back into ourliturgy?
Why Because we're short on cash?
No, that's not why.
Because what you do with yourmoney is it's a thermometer to
your heart and a thermostat toyour heart.
(35:25):
What do I mean?
A thermometer tells you whatthe temperature is right.
Similarly, where your moneygoes.
It tells the temperature ofyour heart.
It tells what you love, whatyou treasure.
Like when you get a raise, doyou raise your standard of
living or your standard ofgiving?
That's a helpful way todiagnose the condition of your
heart.
It's a thermometer in thatsense.
But it's also a thermostatBecause remember I told you
(35:48):
earlier what you treasure iswhat you sacrifice for.
And so when you give, becauseyou believe that God, in his
cheerful generosity, gave JesusChrist to you and that moves you
from the inside out to be acheerful giver, when that's you,
that's a thermostat.
It begins to trend your heartin the direction, stirs the
(36:10):
affections of your heart forJesus, makes your hands cling a
little bit less to yourpossessions and your time and
your money and your stuff andactually open them in
open-handed worship and devotionto the Lord and generosity
towards your neighbor.
And so my hope is that theoutcome of this sermon is not
(36:31):
that anybody would feel a hintof guilt, not a hint or pressure
, because, remember, reluctanceand compulsion mean nothing
before the Lord, Only acheerfulness of heart that
responds in adoration to allthat God is for you, all that
he's done for you.
And so my hope for the outcomeof this sermon is that we will
hear stories, testimonies ofpeople just they'd had some cash
(36:53):
hanging out that they werewaiting to do something with.
They're like.
Oh well, in that sermon Irealized I want to give it to
somebody lavishly as a gift andI want to hear dozens of those
stories.
That's my hope.
My hope is that verse 25 willcome true here in our midst.
Look at it with me.
It says I have been young andnow I'm old, yet I have not seen
the righteous forsaken or hischildren begging for bread.
(37:14):
He is ever lending generouslyand his children become a
blessing.
What a testimony, what a story.
Let me close with a quick story.
In 1684, there was a guy namedRobert Bailey who was sentenced
to death in Scotland for hisconvictions, his strong faith,
(37:34):
in other words, he lived in atime when it was not cool to be
a Presbyterian.
Some of you are like it's stillnot cool dude, I know I
understand.
Bear with me, I'm trying here,okay.
The night before he wasexecuted he told his young boy,
george.
He looked to him and he spokePsalm 37, 25 to him.
He said, son, listen, I havebeen young and now I'm old, and
(38:01):
yet I've not seen the righteousforsaken or his children begging
for bread.
And before he was hanged hebegan a speech and he says my
love for the Christian religionhas brought me to this, but the
officials ordered that drums bebeat so loud that he could not
be heard.
Before his death he had sometime with his wife and kids and
he spoke these words.
He said that I am entrustingyou quote to the compassionate
and merciful heart of my God.
(38:23):
Think about that.
You're about to die and you'reentrusting your children and
your wife to your God.
His son grew up to be asignificant leader after the
revolution and the Bailey familybecame known as having being
one of the most respectedfamilies in the nation.
In other words, bailey diedwith nothing and yet God came
(38:45):
through as a living testimonythat the righteous will not be
forsaken because they trusttheir God.
Let's pray, father, we do.
We look to you now, the God whoso loved that he gave Jesus.
We look to you.
You were the one who gave yourvery life poured out for us.
(39:08):
Holy Spirit, you are the onewho's been given poured out into
our very hearts that we mightbe stirred up to become cheerful
givers like our God, thecheerful giver.
Jesus, would you move?
Would you move us?
Would we, as you said, notserve mammon but serve you?
(39:28):
It's a work of your grace.
We pray for it now in Jesus'name.
Amen.
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