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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
Psalm 67.
May God be gracious to us and bless
us, and make his face to shine upon us.
That your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, oh God.
Let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations
be glad and sing for joy for you.
Judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you,
oh God, let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase.
God, our God shall bless us.
God shall bless us.
Let all the ends of the earth fear him.
Well,
good morning and welcome to the weekend
gathering of Christ Community Chapel.
My name is Mike, one of our pastors here.
Really great to be with you.
If you here often,
you know, regularly Pastor Joe or Pastor
Zach alternate weekends
preaching and don't worry,
that's not going anywhere.
But every now and then we have something
called staff Pastor Weekend,
where other pastors on staff
get a chance to preach.
Same passage, same points.
Same period.
And so, I'm with you this morning.
Really glad to be with you.
And the good news is for you,
you have options.
So right now in East
Hall, pastor Mark Lyle is preaching
probably the better option.
Certainly the shorter option.
So I won't be offended at all
if you head over to see him preach.
Well, I'm really glad, to be with you.
And I have to share.
I've developed a bad habit.
In recent months.
I like to maximize
my gas tank as much as I can.
I'm not sure if you're like me,
but I'm like a competition
I have with myself in a weird way.
How much can I get out of one tank of gas?
And the problem
is, well, probably a few problems.
But one problem is my gas gauge
doesn't actually work properly.
So I'm driving on E more often than not,
and more often than not,
I have no idea how much gas I have left.
So just a word of caution.
If you want to ask me for a ride.
It's so easy for us to fall
into that place with God and His grace.
We think he is running on E,
and we have no idea
how much grace
that might be left for us in our lives.
And Jesus has come to change
our view of God.
Jesus
has come to change our view of grace.
Now his grace is not low.
It is not small. But God's grace is high.
It is bigger
and greater and grander than you.
And I realize one of the first things,
absolute first things said about Jesus
in John chapter one, that in him
there is grace upon grace.
So maybe, if nothing else, this morning,
that God would raise our view of his grace
through His Son, Jesus.
We're going to need it in our lives
and actually
when we need it for this passage,
for the only way that Psalm 67
makes sense is
if our God is a God of grace upon grace.
So let's get started. Psalm 67.
I invite you.
There's Bibles in the pew.
You can go to page 450.
You can pull up on your phone
or the screen behind me.
Three points.
Psalm 67 this morning.
God's people,
God's plan and God's pleasure.
God's people.
God's plan and God's pleasure.
Look with me very first verse.
Let's look at God's people
says, May God be gracious to us
and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us.
A couple of observations
right off the bat.
You see, the word us is repeated
several times.
This is a group prayer, a collective
prayer, a prayer for God's people.
And you notice the words of be
gracious to us and blessing
make his face to shine upon us.
Words of seeking
God's help. Very simply. Verse one.
God's people are seeking
the help of God's grace.
God's people are seeking, asking,
longing for the help of God's grace.
And I wonder what what the needs were for
that.
Right.
It's always a sense of me
that drives our ask of God.
What was their sense of need,
what was going on in their lives,
in their hearts and their relationships.
Then I started
to think, what are
what are the needs in this room?
What are the things going on in your life?
In my life?
In your heart
and mind that we say we are seeking.
We are longing for God's grace.
We just finished a four week series,
great series
called Good News for Every family,
about marriage, about parenting,
messy families and those with no family.
And I have to imagine
some of us are sitting here saying,
I could use some grace for my marriage
today.
I could use some grace for my parenting.
Let me put my hand up.
I could use some grace.
The family situation is really,
really messy.
You know what? I feel really alone.
I have lost those closest
to me. I have no family.
God, I need your grace.
What needs do you bring in this morning?
And Psalm 67 is encouraging us,
more than anything else
to bring our needs to God.
That's what we do as his people.
Sometimes we need some encouragement.
We just do, right? Two ways to reason.
We get stuck sometimes,
and we don't ask for God's grace.
The first is we don't think
that we actually need it, right?
We think we are.
We're doing fine on our own.
We're good.
We got it. We don't need his grace.
If that's you this morning,
I don't pretend I can convince you.
And 20s of your need.
But I am confident at some point,
life will convince you.
I just want you to know
when that day happens, God's
grace will be there for you.
We need encouragement
because we don't think that we need God,
and we need encouragement
because you don't think God
will actually help us.
I've been a pastor here for a little over
11 years and I see it in myself.
I see it in so many people I talk to.
We have this low view of ourselves
when it comes to God
and our situations and our needs.
That God can't be bothered.
God isn't interested.
Not in in our needs.
Like the old, Seinfeld
episode came to my mind.
I'm not a big Seinfeld fan.
Sorry, but,
the episode came to my mind where Jerry
and his girlfriend are going to get soup.
They go into the soup kitchen, and there's
a famous line with the soup owner.
What does he say?
No soup for you.
Thank you.
I'm terrible at impersonation,
so that saved us all some embarrassment.
But no soup for you.
And I wonder how many of us expect
God to say the same thing.
No grace for you.
No grace for you.
No grace for you.
Let me show you something.
Let's go back a few chapters in the Bible
Numbers chapter six.
Hang with me here.
If you go back in the
Bible, we're going to see that the Bible.
I love the Bible for a lot of reasons,
but the Bible is consistently telling us
one story about one God
who is full of grace upon grace.
And the encouragement for the people
of Psalm 67 comes from this passage.
Right?
So what we're going to see here
is the conversation between the Lord
and the leaders of his people,
Moses and Aaron, the Lord and the leaders
of his people, Moses and Aaron.
And the thing to keep in mind is
God is driving this conversation.
He's leading it. He's
initiating this conversation.
And this is what he says, God
to his leaders, to his people.
The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron
and his sons, this is how you are to bless
the Israelites.
Say to them, verse 24,
the Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon
you and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
That sound familiar?
Where
did the encouragement
for the people in Psalm 67 come from?
It came from number six.
But more than that, the encouragement
for God's people to seek
God's grace comes from God Himself.
He is driving the conversation,
leading the conversation.
And the reason they seek God's grace
is because God has told them to.
He's encouraging them to.
Earlier this summer, my nine year
old son had a birthday party.
And, of course, the nine year
old birthday party.
You have to have a pinata.
What better idea?
Blindfold, kids, give them a bat
and tell him to swing as hard
as you can for sugar. Okay.
Anyways, we did it.
And there was this moment, right?
Almost like slow motion moment
where the pinata broke, right?
And opened up.
And the candy came pouring out.
And the kids are sprinting and diving
and they're just gathering up
all the candy that they can.
That is a
really great picture
for what it means to be God's people,
that God is opening up his grace to us,
and we sprint and we run
and we gather and we collect and we gather
all the candy, all his grace,
all the blessings that we can.
And for God's people.
In Psalm 67, it was their leader, Moses,
encouraging them and for us.
Now we have a new and greater Moses
encouraging us, telling
us, come, receive grace, come gather
all that you can.
You see, Jesus is known as the Greater
Moses, the perfect leader of God's people.
And at the cross of Christ,
the pinata was broken.
And grace is just spilling out everywhere
because Jesus, the Son of God,
endured the curse of God instead of us.
So now we could receive blessing.
Jesus endured the judgment of God
so that we could experience grace.
The father's face
literally turned against his son.
So now
he could shine upon us.
The pinata has been opened up,
which means to be
a Christian, fundamentally.
If you're here and you're not a Christian,
I hope you hear and see this.
To be a Christian is be a little kid
at a birthday party.
And God's grace is spilling out.
And we sprint and we dive
and we gather as much as we can.
I don't know your need today.
I don't know your struggle today,
but I do know that in
God there is grace upon grace for you.
That's God's people.
Second is God's plan.
And remember, our view of God's
grace is not a low view.
We have a high view,
a great a grand view of God's grace.
So that's going to mean something
that God's grace isn't just for us.
God's plan. Let me show you. Look with me.
Verse two.
Psalm 67, verse two.
That your way may be known on earth.
Your saving power among all nations.
One of the most important words
in this whole psalm
is that word that you see
at the very beginning of verse two,
that is that of purpose,
that God has a plan.
God is up to something.
He is doing something by giving us grace.
And fundamentally, the plan for God
is to give grace to his people
so that we would give grace to others.
Do you see that? Verse one we gather.
Verse two we give.
Verse one, we seek his grace. Verse two.
Then we share God's grace.
Grace isn't meant to be this,
like pool of standing water, right?
God's grace is a stream that flows to us
and then through us,
so that God's way
may be known among the earth.
God's saving power among all nations.
Almost all the kids at the birthday party
did the same thing that you and I would do
when the pinata broke.
Almost all the kids, they they sprinted,
they di, they elbow,
they did everything they could.
They gathered up
all the candy for themselves.
But there are two kids who were different.
Two kids who responded differently
at the birthday party for my son.
And part of what you need to know
is that we have three kids.
My wife Christine and I,
we have a nine year old, a three year old,
and then a one year old
and two of our three kids.
They have some medical
and social challenges.
And so they weren't participating
in the same way as everybody else.
They weren't getting the candy
like everybody else.
And two kids, they noticed that.
They sprinted,
they dove, they gathered, they got
everything they could for themselves.
But then they saw my kids
and they came over
and they gave the favorite candy to them.
See, that's the plan for God's people.
And that we would gather
all of God's grace.
Then we would look up and see
who was on the outside
looking in, who doesn't have the candy.
And we run to them.
Now, from the very beginning, this is how
God has meant God's people to be.
See, the Bible is telling one story
about one God
who is full of grace upon grace,
and it goes all the way back
to Genesis chapter 12.
Let me show you something.
Genesis chapter 12.
The Lord driving another conversation
says,
now the Lord said to Abraham,
go from your country and your kindred,
and your father's house, to the land
that I will show you,
and I will make of you a great nation.
Notice the language, and I will bless you,
and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you and him
who dishonors you I will curse,
and in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed.
God has a plan for his people,
and it's always been the same plan
that God in his grace he would bless us,
that we would bless others.
He'd be gracious to us and we could be
gracious to those around us.
An Abraham God filled a pinata up,
and now
in Christ the pinata has been broken open.
And there is grace for us
as we experience his grace.
Then we share with others.
We gather to give.
We seek to share. That's the plan.
First people.
That's by the way.
That's why we are the church. That we are.
If you're around here for a while,
you probably know if you're new here,
might not know,
but we've set some pretty big dreams
and some big goals
and some big prayers of the next 30 years
that we are praying, hoping, and dreaming
that God would plant
60 churches in Northeast Ohio
in the next 30 years.
That we would give away
$30 million to global missions
in the next 30 years.
Because our view of
God's grace is not down here.
Our view of God's grace is here.
Jesus has shown us, and he's shown us,
that it's always been the plan of God
to use the people of God to tell the world
about the Son of God.
That's true for our church.
And if I can, that's that's true
for us personally.
That's that's true for you.
I'm not sure if someone has told you yet,
but you are.
You are, as God's people,
a part of God's plan.
Dad's in this room.
God has a plan for you
to be gracious to you so that your grace
within spill over into your kids
wives. God has a plan for you.
The guy would be gracious to you so
that you can be gracious to your husband.
Students in the room.
God has a plan for you
that he would bless you so that you can be
a blessing to your classmates.
Singles. In the room.
God has not forgotten you.
God has a plan to include you,
to be gracious and to bless you.
So his grace and
blessing can go to others.
If you're like me,
sometimes that's simple.
Sometimes it's not.
More often it's not.
I'm a much better gatherer than I am.
Giver.
I'm much better at asking God
for grace for myself
than always giving it to others.
Maybe you're like me.
I've been thinking on this for the last,
really several weeks, and I want to share
one thing that's really helped me.
One thing
that's really changed how I even pray.
Simple. Two words.
Changed my perspective.
Changed my prayer life.
Two words so that.
So that God.
Would you be gracious to me this morning
so that
your grace
would go to the people of this church?
God, would you fill me
with understanding of your word
so that I can teach my kids?
God would you help me to be patient
and kind and gentle
so I can help the parents of my kids
soccer team?
See the truth of who you are.
What would that be like in your life
if you included
two words in your prayer life?
What would happen in your marriage?
What would happening in your parenting?
What would happen to us as a church?
God, would you be gracious to us?
God, would you bless us
so that we can plant churches in Northeast
Ohio so that people around the world
can hear the truth of your son?
God's people, we gather
so that we can give.
It's always been the plan of God
to use the people of God
to tell the world about the Son of God.
And as we do that, as we can learn.
That brings me my third point.
We will sense God's pleasure.
God's pleasure.
I mentioned I have three kids, Braden,
who is nine,
Kason who is three, and Brianna,
she is one.
And people would often
ask in the beginning,
how are the boys
doing with the little sister?
And, our answer would always be the same.
Braden is doing great.
Braden is doing great.
Kason is. He is learning.
If we had to give a dollar to the church
every time we had to remind Kason
to share with his sister,
we probably would have funded
every Minute Matters by now.
That's no joke.
But things are changing.
He's slowly starting to get it right.
Big moment happened in our house
on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning.
With snack time and,
the snack that is like gold in our house
is go-gurt, right?
I'm not sure how go-gurt
became such a thing, but they are.
And if you're three go-gurt are gold
in case.
And went into the kitchen,
went into the refrigerator,
and he got one go-gurt for himself,
and he got one go-gurt for Ariella.
And as a dad, right may seem small,
but as a dad
I could not have been more proud
and more pleased with Casey.
Why? I've always loved him,
but now I'm starting to be proud and
pleased with how he is becoming a brother.
I'm not sure if you know this, but
God has a category of being pleased
with his people, of being proud.
Jesus tells a story in Matthew chapter 25.
It's called the parable of the talents,
where different people are given different
amounts one, five, and ten talents
and the person with ten talents
who uses it well and faithfully.
Jesus says to him, well done.
He says, well done.
Words of pleasure, words of being proud.
And I want to make a distinction
here, right.
Between God's love and God's pleasure.
Because on some level,
what I need you to hear is God's love
always stays the same for you,
never goes up and down.
God's love is always consistent.
There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God that's found in Christ.
But God,
being the perfect father that he is,
has a sense of seeing how we live, of
seeing how we gather and give and seek
and share, being proud of us.
And how great would it be to hear God say,
well done,
well done.
And every time we add a
so that to our prayer life.
God is pleased.
Every time we give money away
to the global partners around the world,
God is pleased.
Any sort of movement, any sort of growth,
any sort of progress where we as God's
people are participating in God's plan
to tell the world about God's Son.
He's pleased. And two reasons for that.
Two reasons why God is pleased.
First, very simply
because we're getting it.
We're getting it right.
If you're a parent, if you're a teacher,
if you're a coach, right,
you have your kid,
you have your students, your player.
That moment right when something clicks
and they understand, right?
That's
how God feels about us, that he's proud.
He's like, you're getting it.
You're getting
this is what it means to be God's people.
You gather and you give. You seek
and you share.
You're getting it.
So God is pleased when we get it.
He's also pleased when others get him.
He's pleased when we get it,
and he's pleased when others get him.
There's this, chapter in the Bible.
Luke 15 tells the story of the lost
sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.
And the end of every story.
The coin is found, the sheep is found in
the son is found, and God rejoices.
He rejoices like you've never seen
anybody rejoice.
He is full of pleasure.
When people come home and find him,
there's a direct link
to God's pleasure and people's praise.
And that's exactly where this Psalm
has been taking us.
Let me show you a couple of things.
Look at verse three.
Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Let all the peoples praise you.
Same thing in verse five.
Let the peoples praise you, O God,
let all the peoples praise you.
And a similar thing at the very end, God,
our God shall bless us.
God shall bless us.
Let all the ends of the earth fear him.
Praise upon praise upon praise.
We're not just giving
and gathering for our own sake.
We're not just seeking
and sharing for sharing sake.
But there's this end goal.
There's the end movement
where the psalm is taking us,
where the Bible is taking us,
where God's plan is taking us.
There ends in praise
upon praise, up on praise of God.
See, God is pleased with us
when we help the world
and those in our
family start to praise him.
God is a God of the pinata
and Jesus the pinata has been absolutely
broken wide open.
There is grace upon grace upon grace,
blessing upon blessing, upon blessing.
And so as God's people,
may we learn to gather and to gather
and to gather
and then give and give and give.
Let us add two words to our lives,
two words to our prayer life,
so that God's way of grace
may be known among all the earth
in God's saving power in his Son
may be known among all the nations, for
it is the plan of God
to use the people of God
to tell the world about the Son of God.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven,
we thank you for Psalm 67.
Thank you for how it is in reshaping
even my approach to you and to others.
And I pray
that'd be true for everyone in this room.
I pray you convince us of your grace,
that there is
grace upon grace through your son,
and that we would learn to gather
the people in this room
that would move towards you today,
bringing their needs and their sins
and their struggles to you.
And they would find your grace.
God is.
Then, as we gather your grace,
would you use us
uses to spread your grace,
to share your grace
with our family members, with our friends,
their coworkers, their students,
with people around the world?
God, as we learn
that may we maybe for the first time,
experience your pleasure and hear
you say to us, well done,
well done, good and faithful servant,
well done, good and faithful church.
We pray these things in your son's name.
Amen.