Here's a weak record for you. If we can all be excited about the Gospel and sharing Jesus with people like the Vri kid was about talking about Mario, I think, I think that would be very effective, right, in the kingdom of God.
So thank you so much for that video. Our kids are awesome. And Jack, I love playing baseball with you too.
We continue our sermon series in the summer of Psalms looking at God's faithfulness. We've done this now and we'll do this through the month of July as well.
In July we have some new guest preachers that will be coming in to share some Psalms with us as well.
But today we're looking at what does it mean to find security in God's faithfulness.
And so I want to start by asking a question. When you think of the word security, what comes to mind? The word security.
Safety. A safe, an actual safe, absolutely. Police, okay.
Parents, assets, okay. So we've got the front of the church, alright, you guys are good. Back of the church and balcony. I can see a hand in the balcony.
The army, sure, okay. Others? Protection.
What about peace and comfort?
And I think a lot of times we go to defending things or locking things up and those are all right definitions.
But what I think we're going to find in this Psalm is that God is faithful in the security he gives us from the hard things that happen in life,
but also of the hard things that happen in here and the hard things that happen in here.
That there are times our security or our need for security comes when the anxious times come or the fear comes or the bank balance gets low
or you get called into the HR office or any kind of practical things too where all of a sudden our anxieties, our worry, our stress goes one, two, ten.
Now for all of you that can temper that and you never really get to ten, I want to learn your secret.
Because I am someone that all of a sudden I will be doing fine, something will come onto the plate and it will just start to rise.
And that's something I need to work on. God gave me a wonderful partner in care who, unless it's something I did, she doesn't get past four and that's really helpful.
Unfortunately things I do get her to ten, but you know it's just a good balance.
But that's the security and the peace of God's faithfulness.
And so like I said what we are going to do this summer is we are going to look at our confessions.
And I got asked why this past week, why am I looking to the confessions?
Because I think the confessions are a great help in helping me in my fallible dumb mind to figure out what the scriptures are saying.
That the confessions based on scripture help us kind of guide our thoughts into all of these different questions and answers we have in life.
And so we are going to look at that this summer and if we are going to continually look at them that is something that you guys can pick up on that it's real good to read those things.
I have a great book by Kevin DeYoung where he goes through in very short chapters of the entire Heideberg Catechism that is a great daily devotional.
They make those for the Belgian Confession and the Cansons of Dort as well.
Those are good things to go back to to remind ourselves of the truth of God's Word.
But again we also know and we recognize that they all stand on God's Word.
Without God's Word the confessions would not be written.
So understand it's not trying to lead you one way or the other.
It doesn't have any kind of agenda.
What it does it illuminates the scriptures for us in a very practical way.
So we're going to jump in to Psalm 16 and point one I have is God's faithfulness as our refuge and provider.
So we're going to read the first two verses.
Preserve me O God in you for in you I take refuge.
I say the Lord you are my Lord.
I have no good apart from you.
Couple key words there.
If you look in verse one preserve me O God for in you I find or I take refuge.
That God's refuge God that is part of who God is.
That God is our strong tower.
He is our safe place even if he's correcting us.
Even if he's shining light on our darkness.
He is our refuge and strength.
Then at the end it says you are my Lord I have no good apart from you.
And I wrestled with that this week.
I have no good apart from you.
That I think in the world we live in we try to or we put the word good on a lot of different things.
And not all of it's bad.
To look at things in your life maybe marriage kids and ability to play a sport or to think differently about certain things.
These are good things.
God has created things good in you.
And you know how I know that is because there are bad things in the world that want you to not be good.
Satan his minions all of those kind of things.
The evil and sin in the world does not want you to be good.
Or sin wants you to believe that it is good.
And so I think this statement right off the bat preserve me.
Meaning God keep me in the good.
Keep me in your life.
Keep me in those things of you.
Allow me not to follow my desire to go to the dark.
To go to the bad.
The second half of the Belgian Confession Article 13 helps us kind of understand some of this.
We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what God does that surpasses human understanding.
And is beyond our ability to comprehend.
But in all humanity and reverence we adore the just judgments of God.
Which are hidden from us.
Being content to be Christ's disciples.
So as we learn only what God shows us in his word without going beyond those limits.
This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort.
Since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance.
But only by the arrangement of our gracious heavenly father.
Who watches over us with fatherly care.
Sustaining all creatures under his lordship.
So that not one of the hairs on our head, for they are all numbered.
Nor even a little bird can fall to the ground without the will of our father.
This article affirms God's providence.
Stating that he rules and governs all things.
Well let's time out there. Let's pause.
Because I have a feeling 36% of you in a percentage I just made up.
Take issue with that.
And it's probably one of the most common questions I get as a pastor.
Elders and deacons probably get if people talk to them.
Is why would a good God allow bad things to happen?
And I always kind of go back.
I remember I was, I don't even remember where I was.
When Katrina happened.
But that's one that people bring up all the time.
It's kind of random in my mind.
But people are like, where was God in Katrina?
Pastor, where was God in Katrina?
I mean as a young pastor being asked that when you're in your early 20s.
You're like, he was in heaven. I have no idea. Why are you asking me?
But as I've grown, as I've matured in this.
One of the things I have to understand is A. there is sin in the world.
That sin is raging against, the darkness is raging against the light.
And if the light has been given to all of us, then where is God?
God is found within each and every one of you and me in the church.
That in those times of need, in those times of distress.
Whether global catastrophes or inner turmoils.
God is with his people.
And nowhere in the Bible does it say, you know what?
You guys, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you.
Everything in your life is going to be all good.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that.
Now it does say that God will work things for good.
For those that are called to his purposes.
But again, God's definition of good and our definition of good, rarely the same.
And what we have to understand and take on faith and grace was the promises that we read there.
That God's faithfulness as our refuge and provider is evident in two things.
His sovereign care and his provision.
Everything good in our lives come from his hand.
But we struggle with that.
I struggle with that because I think I can do good things.
I think I can produce good things.
I think I can say good things.
I think I can do good things.
But here's the rub.
We can't have our cake and eat it too.
We can't say, Lord, you are my everything.
But then in some things, I want part of it.
That I want all the glory in life.
But God, you're going to get all the blame.
That is not how it works.
That if you want to be the Lord of your life, then you are the Lord of your life in the good and the bad.
And I guarantee you, you will fall short.
I guarantee you, you will oversell and under deliver because if you are the Lord of your life, then sin has taken over.
The sin of pride has taken over.
And that is not a good thing.
That is wrought with darkness.
And understanding that God in his sovereign care and provision should put the right understanding for when we struggle in life.
We've all struggled in one way or the other.
We could sit and listen to the testimonies of how God has worked through your struggles all day.
But we'd never get to the Father's Day barbecue because it would take forever because God sees, knows, and has been with all of those struggles.
We had the wedding of Kyle and Maddie yesterday.
And I was just in the annex talking to a couple of the groomsmen as they were getting ready.
And I just find myself at time looking at this history strip that was just wonderfully built for the 150th anniversary almost four years ago now, which is insane.
But I look at kind of the faithfulness of God through all of that, not because Munster Church was always good.
Because if Munster Church was always good, right, then we would have a misunderstanding of God's sovereignty.
But how in August in what, a little over two months, this church is going to celebrate 154 years.
That's a long time, right?
That's a long time that God has seen it to make sure even though the church burned down technically twice.
There was one early, early on.
But the big one in 1952, it was rebuilt.
They got it allowed for all of that to happen, that God has been not in a perfect way, but God has been represented by this church for that long.
And now, 2024, you are a part of that legacy.
And I think that we want to be a church that depends on God's sovereign care and provision in everything.
Because even as a church, we can get it twisted and make it about us.
Look at what we're doing.
Look how we're growing.
And then all of a sudden, and for those of you that do it, you do it in comparison to other churches.
Shame on you.
Stop doing that.
It's not like this is the only kingdom at work on earth as it is in heaven at 214 Ridge Road.
I can tell you about 50 churches that are doing really good things.
But what are we emulating as a church?
That we have it all together?
We're going to be insular because we're growing so much?
Or are we going to be outreach oriented, right?
Are we going to go out?
Are we going to teach people what it means to lean on God's sovereign care and provision?
So in this week, I want you to reflect on the ways God has been your refuge and provider in times of uncertainty or need.
And my challenge for all of us, myself included, is to turn to Him in prayer and trust in His provision.
You can pray for His provision, but in some ways that's a short-sighted prayer that He will always give that.
On a more specific level, and I'm going to use me as the first example, that I need to acknowledge and give thanks for the specific ways that He has provided for me.
Whether through physical needs, emotional support, or spiritual sustenance, that I need to rest that God will do that.
Well, how can I stand on that?
How do I know?
Let's jump to verse 5 and 6.
I stand on that because the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.
You hold my lot.
We'll get back to that.
The lines have fallen for me in the pleasant places.
Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Ah, inheritances.
How many of you have inherited things from a loved one after they've died?
Raise your hand.
Does anyone want to tell us about one, something that maybe you inherited?
And don't tell me like, I inherited their eyes.
I'm talking more like physical things, okay?
More possessional things.
Even I guess eyes are possessional and physical, but you know what I mean.
Any stories of things that you've inherited?
Yeah.
Creepy dolls from Grandma.
Yep, and they are.
Especially when she has them just like up on the nightstand staring at me when I walk into the room.
She's never done that.
Others.
Who can beat creepy dolls?
Half of you rose your hand.
Nothing of note, okay?
Careful, your mom's sitting right next to you.
Oh, you're talking about somebody else.
That's true, you are still alive.
That is true, even though the last couple months you've tried hard.
So Andy's mom, what?
A coin collection?
What are we talking?
Yes, I know coins are money.
No, they're doubloons.
Never mind.
Okay, a coin collection.
Interesting.
Anyone else?
We go from creepy dolls to coins.
Yeah.
A Bible.
That's a beautiful gift, right?
Were there notes written in it in different things?
Yeah, that's special, absolutely.
That definitely beats coins and creepy dolls, that's for sure.
Now, I mean, Marilyn went to Bible, so I think that's kind of the trump card of examples.
Because I can't say anyone can beat Bible.
I probably shouldn't say that from the stage.
But anyone else?
Inheritances?
Jewelry, sure, absolutely.
My dad had four diamonds on his wedding ring.
And my mom gave that to me as an inheritance when I was getting ready to propose to Carrie.
And I actually got to use those diamonds on her engagement ring.
So thanks, Dad, you saved me about two grand.
Any others?
Inheritance means something.
Because someone was thinking about you, per se, before they went to glory.
That inheritances are actually a very meaningful thing, which why in my almost 18 years,
I've sat in three different rooms where inheritances became such contention in a family
because pride, greed, and desire came over it.
Because they knew that loved one so-and-so that went to be with the Lord had something.
And at the end of the day, instead of mourning or instead of grieving or in their mourning
and in their grieving, they said, I want, I demand that.
And I have seen families go to war with each other over it.
But that's not what the Psalmist is talking about.
What the Psalmist is talking about is not only the Lord is my chosen portion,
and again, we'll get to that in a second, but the lines have fallen for me.
Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Friends, do we stand and live in the light of the fact that we have an inheritance coming to us.
Psalm 23, you've prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
That is our inheritance for those in Christ.
The question I have, is that enough while we're on this side of glory?
Because for some of us, we go, how can I quantify that here?
You can't.
But it's something that we strive for, and if the Lord is our chosen portion,
then we should be okay with it.
How many people have picky eaters in their family?
It's time to get it out.
It's time to confess.
Yeah, picky eaters in our family.
Thank you for pointing to mom and keeping her honest, Joey.
Thank you, yes.
Yeah, that picky eaters, they're the best and the worst when it comes to trying to find something to eat.
But we can be picky about certain things, right?
And again, my oldest, I love him to death, but you tend to be picky, right?
Kind of, right?
I mean, you want sushi and seafood every day, and I'm like, we're born in the wrong family
because that stuff's not cheap.
But when we have these kind of picky people in our family, what ends up happening?
When you have picky eaters, what ends up happening when it comes to what you eat in the house?
What?
A lot of leftovers.
Fair enough.
Holly?
Arguing.
Okay, fair enough.
They what?
They dictate the meal plan, right?
So then all of a sudden, we, everything gets kind of put through the pickiness of these people.
And one of my boys, I think he'd be fine with chicken nuggets every day.
That understand that when we offer that, then it becomes about what we want.
But if the Lord is our chosen portion and our cup, one of the things we need to do when we surrender our lives to Jesus,
when we recognize Jesus is Lord, is that Jesus' portion for our life and the cup that he gives us every day is exactly what we need.
And that's hard.
Because for some of you today, you're sitting looking at the portion of your life or the cup that you have to drink,
whether it's a job, a relationship, family, you're a quote unquote lot in life.
And all you can do is look over to somebody else and go, I wish I had that one.
I don't want my portion.
My cup is too hard.
I don't know if I can do it.
But friends, the truth of the word is that God knows you, God loves you, and this is where you are.
This is what he's offered you.
This is what your lot and your portion is.
But pastor, I don't want that.
I want something different.
There's not much I can say to that as your pastor.
What I can tell you is what we have in God's word is where you are, what you're now.
If you are, if all of a sudden there's active sin in your life, yeah, that probably needs to be changed.
That needs to be confessed and turned away from.
But understand, where you are in life, what you see as a want, want, God goes, I have put you here for a reason and a purpose.
You need to strive for that.
But what does that look like when you have a family member that's sick?
Why in the world would God give cancer to this person?
Why in the world would a fire happen that would consume a child?
Why all of a sudden, now we go back to the first, see how they build on each other?
Why would bad things happen if God is so good?
Because our lot and our portion was never going to be easy.
When there is an active force in the world today, you know, Satan and his minions, right, when there's active sin in the world,
guys, it's not always going to be good in our definition of it.
That our portion and our lot are set by a sovereign God.
And what it really is doing, and this may, oh, this may hurt, is that we don't trust that God's sovereign.
This is my inheritance.
What I'm going through right now is my inheritance on earth.
No, you misread it.
The inheritance is coming.
As Debbie pointed out, she doesn't need to give inheritance.
She's still alive.
But when we all go, right, then we will receive our inheritance.
The heart of our catechism, Lord's Day 22, helps us understand, and this is the section of breaking down the Lord's Prayer,
when we talk about life everlasting in the Lord's Prayer, the question is, how does the article concerning life everlasting comfort you?
Answer, even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy,
so after this life I will have perfect blessedness, such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human heart has ever imagined,
a blessedness in which to praise God forever.
Leave that up.
This question affirms joy and comfort in the hope we have of everlasting life.
We struggle with the here and now.
It's because we think in some ways that's all we have.
We don't.
The here and now is but a blip on the radar of what eternity is going to be with God,
in a way that no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, no human heart has ever imagined,
a blessedness in which to praise God forever.
Well then let's just go there now.
No, because the greatest gift you can give, outside of laying down your life for a friend, as the Bible says,
is to bring people to that understanding.
In a world that is filled with darkness, a world that's only getting darker, this is good news.
This, pointing to this, is part of the cup that you have in life and the portion of where you find yourself.
That when we make the cup and the lot and the portion of where we are now, so wah-wah, we forget we have a job to do.
We forget that we should be emulating this because we should be finding comfort in it.
But what happens, Jim, when we don't?
What happens when we can't find that comfort in life?
This question affirms the joy and comfort we have in a hope of everlasting life.
When we experience complete blessedness with God forever, God's faithfulness is seen in securing our eternal inheritance with Christ.
We have a secure and delightful inheritance that cannot be taken away.
But what happens when I'm not feeling it here on earth?
This is not going to come out as super compassionate and I think there's a reason for it because it's not about you.
It's not about me.
It's not about me getting all the comforts in life.
It's not about me having everything I need to fulfill whatever carnal desires I have.
Because let's call a spade a spade.
Am I going to do that if I'm going to meet all of those carnal desires and needs? Am I really going to need God?
My wife struggles with this when gift giving because I found Teemu.
How many people have ever found Teemu?
Yeah, I'm a Teemu addict and I'm here to confess.
No, I'm really not.
But the minute that came out at the Super Bowl, Carrie looked at me with a lot of concern.
But she struggles to buy gifts for me because if there's something I like, I buy it.
Well, then she can't gift it.
And so I use this analogy in a way that if I'm always doing that for myself,
A, how can I allow my wife to bless me in that way when she wants to?
But when we flip side to it to kind of our spiritual and we try to meet all of our own spiritual needs on our own,
what we're saying, God, is God, I don't need you to gift me.
God, I got this. God, everything you can do, I can do for myself.
And we all know that that's a bunch of junk. We can't do that.
Because can we have eternal comfort and security in all things?
No. And if she was here, I'd ask her.
But Ali, your mom, that was part of our conversation a couple of months ago, wasn't it?
96 years old, Nuria White did not have a piece inside of her as she's watching all of her friends pass away.
There was some conflict going on, something that in her 96 years of traveling this globe,
she was not able to find herself.
There was a restlessness there.
Sitting down and talking with her and Ali and Jess, Kathy Sleekers, Ellie Besine,
trying to have her understand this void can be filled by the person of Jesus Christ.
And Mother's Day, this year we saw that as she was baptized.
That we need to understand and find that comfort and that joy of the salvation we have as our inheritance.
In moments of doubt and fear about our future, remember that ultimate inheritance is in Christ.
So really what that should do is give meaning to our suffering, give meaning to the hard times we go through in life,
the dry spells of faith that we all will go through.
That friend, God is playing the long game with you.
So give yourself some grace and understand that God is at work.
Why? Because God's faithfulness preserves our life.
This is 7 through 11.
And in your presence there is a fullness of joy at your right hand are our pleasures forever more.
When God is preserving you, he preserves your life.
He preserves your coming and your going.
He preserves the highs and lows.
When things are high and everything's great and we don't acknowledge God, it's not like he goes,
fine, you don't need me, I don't need you.
No, he's still there because he knows all of us in our kind of fallibility, if you will,
that when we are in our lowest points we will then reach out to him.
I've used this analogy before growing up and even now we pray for God to give us safe travel as we go to Kalamazoo to see my grandma.
And then every time we go we don't stop and say thank God for giving us safe travel.
It's the same thing.
When life's going great, the bank account is flush, relationship seems to be good, your marriage seems to be healthy,
all of these things, are we thanking God for that or are we saying, I kind of did it myself.
I figured it out.
I know the secrets to this life.
But inevitably when the coin flips and we know it does and it will, then we're crying out to God.
What kind of game are we playing with God?
Yet what this tells us and what the Canons of Dort, Head 5, Article 8, the certainty of preservation tells us,
so it is not by their own merits or strength or our own merits or strength,
but by God's undeserved mercy that we neither forfeit faith and grace totally nor remain in their downfalls to the end and are lost.
With respect to themselves, this not only easily could happen, but also undoubtedly would happen,
but with respect to God, it cannot possibly happen.
That's a lot.
God's plan cannot be changed.
God's promises cannot fail.
The calling according to God's purposes cannot be revoked.
The merit of Christ as well as the interceding and preserving cannot be nullified.
The seeding of the Holy Spirit can neither be invalidated nor wiped out.
What does this mean?
That outside of the denial of the Holy Spirit that we see in the Scriptures,
what you do in life does not cancel God's sovereignty.
And I don't know, maybe some of us needed to hear that today.
And maybe some of you, you're trying really hard to cancel God's sovereignty in your life.
Time out.
Pause.
Why?
Why would you want to do that?
Why would we want to even have that mentality?
Or for some of us, we're going to ride that line of grace where Paul already has said,
should we continue to sin that grace may abound?
Surely not.
But for some of us, we like to pray for the grace and the forgiveness of what we're going to do on the weekend on Monday.
Friends, Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls that cheap grace.
And what this article speaks to is not only the assurance of our perseverance,
but affirming that God preserves His chosen ones in faith,
ensuring that they remain steadfast until the end.
A note that I made is that God's faithfulness is evident in the preservation of life.
He guides, protects, and ensures that He will not abandon, but will enjoy eternal life with Him.
The key point in that, that we will enjoy eternal life with Him.
Which is exactly why Adam and Eve were not allowed to stay in the garden.
Because what was the tree that they would have been into?
The tree of everlasting life.
And then with sin, wrought with sin, they would be in eternity as sinful with no atoning sacrifice.
That's why the cherubim was there.
That's why they were not allowed to go back in.
Yet in our minds, we try to go back to Eden all the time.
Friends, that is not for us.
Eden is not for us.
Heaven is for us.
Trying to get all of that glory here on earth will never happen.
Yet we try.
And when we do that, in some ways we make a fool of God's faithfulness.
So what do we need to do here?
The great hymn has it already set up.
Trust and obey, for there is no other way.
Friends, as we go from our place today, we need to trust in God's preserving power.
When you face trials or fears about your future, remember that God is with you and will not abandon you.
Rest in His security of His faithful presence and His guidance.
But sometimes that's hard. I get it.
But we need to trust and obey because that is recognizing that God's way is the best way.
Why we test that, I don't know.
And I'm speaking to myself first.
Why there are times I think my sermon on the Mount makes a lot more sense than Jesus's,
I will never know why I'm a fool like that.
But wherever that is for you, wherever you need to re-trust that God's always got you,
God has you now and God will have you until you're with Him,
may you work in your week to learn and grow how we can trust God better.
Please stand if you are able.
And let us pray this prayer together.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your unwavering faithfulness.
You are our refuge and provider, the guarantor of our inheritance,
the preserver of our lives.
Help us trust You more deeply and to live in the security of Your faithful care.
Fill our hearts with joy and peace, knowing that we are safe in Your hands.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.