Well, it's great to be here. It's certainly been
on my list to get out to Fairview. I just want
to express my gratitude for your church supporting
us generously during our time at Wofford. We
really, RUF could not exist without so many churches
sacrificially and generously giving and individuals
as well. So just thank you for that. And again,
as I mentioned, I got to share this morning in
more detail about this new call that the Lord
has laid on our family and has really captured
our hearts. It's amazing that RUF is at 180 campuses
all over this country. And that is a beautiful
thing. We've seen how that's helped contribute
to the growth of the PCA. But as I look at Europe
and see there's right now only one ministry,
one RUF global ministry there actually in Ukraine
and yet there are twice as many students. It's
just the fields are white for harvest and the
Lord has laid on our hearts to go out there.
So we appreciate your prayers. I would love to
share more. I will be hanging out, sticking around
after the service. I can go in more detail. For
those of you who weren't there this morning at
Sunday School, if you're curious about what God's
doing in our lives and calling us there and what
it might look like to help us along there. But
with that in mind, we're going to be looking
at a text this morning that Troy said earlier.
You guys are a missionary church. This is a great
text to go to, to return to, to answer the question,
why are we a missionary church? Why are we outward
focused? Why is that the way God has called us
to live? And why is that actually a good thing
for our own hearts and our own joy. So if you
want to look in your own Bibles this morning
and read along with me Psalm 67, I'll read that
for us and then pray for the Lord's blessing
on the preaching of His Word. So Psalm 67, a
psalm, a song. Give you guys a moment. You're
in some rustling. So 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, O 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, O God, let all the peoples praise
you. The earth has yielded its increased God,
Our God shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let
all the ends of the earth fear Him. Join me as
we pray the preaching of God's Word. Father in
heaven, we thank you for this day that you give
us every week to come and to rest, to come and
to be in your presence together with your people.
And we know many of us are coming to this service
this morning with all kinds of baggage, with
really hard things that we have had to go through,
with tiring weeks, maybe with joyful weeks on
the other hand. And yet we praise you, we thank
you that we know that you will meet us with what
we need in your word that you have promised to
be. especially active by your spirit there and
so we ask that that you might illuminate our
minds that you might open our hearts by your
spirit that you might refresh us that you might
help us to pay attention to your word and to
receive the truth of it with faith and love and
humility so that it would bear fruit in our daily
lives. We ask most of all that you would help
us to see the beauty and the glory of your son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.
Amen. Well, if you are a human being here this
morning, I can guess that you've had some version
of this kind of experience. You've come across
something in your life. It could be a musician.
It could be a book. It could be some new hobby.
It could be a place you went to on vacation.
It could be a restaurant. It could be something
even as simple as some video, funny video you
saw online. Whatever it is, it's so interesting,
it's so compelling, it's so beautiful, it's so
funny that you just have to go talk to other
people about it. And maybe it's not a thing,
maybe it's even a person that you met. Many years
ago when I was on a hike in the Nashville area,
I went to undergraduate in Middle Tennessee State.
And I was out hiking and suddenly I turn a corner
and I never would have guessed what I was going
to see. I saw the front man from one of my favorite
bands at the time, the band Wilco, and his name
is Jeff Tweedy, the lead guitarist and songwriter
and singer. just walking along the path in the
forest. It was such a surreal experience. I didn't
want to bother him as a fellow introvert. I knew
he probably didn't want to be talking with one
of his fans on the hike, but this was a once
-in -a -lifetime thing, so I had to go talk to
him. He was very gracious with me. He even let
me do what so many of us do if we meet someone
famous. Got to take a selfie with them. Why?
Because we want to go show it to people we want
to prove that we had this experience that we
met this amazing Person and that's what I did.
I went home to the house I lived at with five
other guys and showed all my roommates regardless
of whether or not they cared about the band Wilco
or even knew What that band was I had to share
we can't help but share about the things or the
people that really excite us When our hearts
are truly thrilled with something We don't keep
that inside. It inevitably overflows. And that's
what we see in this psalm. The psalmist has experienced
a blessing, is longing for more of a blessing
that he is too thrilled with to keep to himself.
And so as we think through, consider this psalm
this morning, I hope that we can see that this
same overflowing blessing that the psalmist has
received We can experience it too, and it can
have the same effect in our lives and overflow
to those around us as well. And that's what our
three points are going to be. We're going to
look at what is this blessing? Why is it overflowing?
Secondly, and lastly, to what extent does it
overflow? So first, what is this blessing? What
is the psalmist so thrilled with that he has
to share? Look back. those opening words in verse
one, may God be gracious to us and bless us and
make his face to shine upon us. It's a short
verse and it's immediately followed by a say
law, which is a little unusual. This was likely
a deliberate musical pause or just silent pause
that was there for reflection. It was as if the
psalmist said, wait, stop there. There's so much
to reflect about. In this first verse, I have
to make everyone singing, praying this Psalm
stop and think about it. Why? Because he was
probably thinking about a very crucial, very
familiar passage to the Israelites and maybe
to many of you from number six, the Aaronic blessing,
where the Lord told Moses, to tell Aaron and
his sons, this is how you shall bless the people
of Israel. You'll say to them, the Lord bless
you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine
upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift
up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
The psalmist would have heard that again and
again, proclaimed over God's people. And it's
as if he, as he marinated in that promise, It
turned from these dusty formal words into this
living and active reality in his life and he's
overflowing in this song of praise here as he
meditates on it. But what is number six promising?
What is this blessing from the Lord look like?
Is the psalmist thinking, yes, I'm gonna have
this big beautiful brand new house. I'm going
to get that job that I love and also pays really
well. I'm going to have plenty of friends. I'm
going to have a beautiful neighborhood to live
in, healthy kids, a perfect marriage. Those are
blessings from God for sure, and we should thank
God if we have those in our lives. But I don't
think that's what the psalmist is really the
most thrilled with here. The blessing that number
six is really promising is the blessing of God
Himself, His personal presence in our life, the
reality of Emmanuel, God with us. The psalmist
doesn't just want God's gifts. He wants God Himself.
Because He knows that's the greatest thing you
can receive. Every speck of joy and blessing
in our lives comes straight from Him, is tied
to Him. And so the Psalm is asking us this morning
as we reflect, is this what we are seeking? Is
this what we're seeking in the middle of the
week? It's easy to say this is what we're seeking
right now, but what about in the middle of the
week? Maybe we're really, if we're honest, fixated
on other things. Some of those things I mentioned,
on the happiness and success of our children
or our grandchildren, on the next home we might
get, on the next renovation of that on the next
vacation on just having more time to Have what
I want and peace and quiet and comfort But do
those things really give us what we're seeking
Do they deliver I'll be so bold to answer for
all of us by merely looking at my own life that
I know so often I have had something on that
list just getting married, having kids, moving,
buying a house for the first time, getting the
job, buying a new guitar, and I'm always just
moving on to the next thing. It never gives me
deep soul satisfaction. And that's because the
reality is the only thing that's going to give
us that satisfaction, the most fundamental, most
lasting blessing we could receive. is God truly
being deeply present in our lives, in our hearts.
And that's what I hope you're here this morning
seeking. That's why we're here, to sit in God's
means of grace, to have communion with Him, with
His people, to experience more of His face shining
upon us so that we might go out into the week
with that more a reality of our lives. So this
is what the blessing that the psalmist is fixed
on, and in some ways we could just stop there.
That's such a profound reality in its own right.
You know, the psalmist could be like, okay, this
is what I really need. I'm gonna be a monk and
just go off and spend my days in the wilderness
or in the monastery just being with God and being
with His people. But the psalmist doesn't go
that way. He shows us that actually this blessing
has a very different effect in our lives. We're
only on verse 1 and as we go on after that mid
-sentence reflection, if you look back at verse
2, this is what we hear. That your way may be
known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
The peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples
praise you. Let the nations be glad. and sing
for joy. It's as if, as he meditated on that
promise, it suddenly hit him. This is too amazing
to stay to us. This must go out. It's so massive.
It cannot stay in the walls of Jerusalem. It
needs to go to the ends of the earth, to all
the nations. And maybe he was also reflecting
on another crucial passage for the people of
God from Genesis 12, if you remember, where the
Lord tells Abram, 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 and I will bless you and make your name
great so that you will be a blessing. that priestly
blessing that Israel was to hear again and again
and to soak in was not meant to stop with them.
It was meant to become this opening of this great
fountain that would overflow to the ends of the
earth. The people of God from the very beginning
were blessed to be a blessing. Back when I was,
before I was at Wofford, I was actually in Western
Pennsylvania starting an RUF at a school that
actually someone here went to, Indiana University
of Pennsylvania. It's named after the town it
is in, very confusing. But I was up there and
we're always thinking of new events to do with
students and we had heard about this. these falls
that were up in the mountains kind of you had
to go on a hike and there was this deep part
of it where you could actually jump off the waterfalls
into the water and so I went out to scout it
out with another student and when we got up there
there were some locals that were kind of hanging
out and they said hey okay here's here's the
way that you need to jump in the water and I
remember when I jumped into that water It was
so refreshing. I got out and it felt like I had
just taken a shower. I walked back up to the
top of the falls again and was talking to the
locals there and they were like, yeah, this is
fresh mountain water. It's constantly flowing.
It's perfectly fine to drink. Now there was another
body of water that those falls eventually flowed
into that was down the way called Yellow Creek
or crick as they call it in western, Pennsylvania
I need people would fish there there be boats
people kayaking But very few people were swimming
in it. No one would dare drink from it. It was
stagnant and gross and you'd see those large
bodies of algae everywhere floating around That
is the difference between having God's blessing
flowing through us and us just stockpiling it
up for ourselves. When we just keep it there
and stock it up, it gets stagnant, it begins
to rot, it grows the algae. That's not how God
designed his blessing to work. The blessing that
we experience in knowing Jesus through the gospel
is meant to transform us into the stream of water
that's constantly fresh. Because it's flowing
into the lives of other people around us There
was actually a study that was done a while ago
that looked at families that were really well
-to -do White -collar professionals and they
watched what happened to the kids over a 20 -year
period in these families and the surprising thing
they saw was just these escalating problems with
mental health and Even teen suicides had doubled
in that group And they concluded in that study,
complete financial security, excessive freedom
to learn and explore, provision of very wide
opportunities for entertainment, recreation,
and education. Good things. Things I think I'd
want for my kids that I'm often striving for
them. These things have been discovered to lead
to apathy, laziness, inability to commit to goals,
attitudes of entitlement, indecisiveness, moodiness,
irritability, low self -confidence, and insecurity.
What? What in the world? What is that showing
us? It's saying when we make all the blessings
that God gives us about us, about just our most
intimate circle, it doesn't work. it backfires.
The waters of blessings become a curse. And this
is the case not because God just wanted to make
the world this way, this is the case because
it is his very nature as this overflowing triune
God. I love what the Puritan Richard Sibbes says
about this reality and God, he says the father
the Son and the Holy Spirit, were happy in themselves,
by themselves, and enjoyed one another before
the world was created, but that God delights
to communicate and spread his goodness, there
would have never been a creation or a redemption.
The blessings that we have just been singing
and praising God for, His beauty in creation,
His beauty in redeeming us in Christ, they're
not there because God had to love us, He had
to create us. They're merely because He is an
overflowing God, that it's not in His nature
to keep His blessedness to Himself. He's not
this stagnant pond. He's this infinitely pure
flowing stream going outward. And so when we
think of our call as a missionary church, a missionary
people, we're really imitating the God who created
us and redeemed us. We're designed to do this.
That's what I was hitting at the beginning. When
we delight in something, We want to share it
with other people. That's really what evangelism,
what missionary work is all about. We're all
already evangelists and missionaries. It just
happens to be for whatever you're really worshiping
at the moment, what you're really thrilled with.
Maybe it is what's going on with your family,
some amazing thing your kid or grandkids did.
You've got to post it on Facebook. You got to
tell people about it. Maybe it is the vacation.
or even something as silly as just a football
game or a play that you saw. We have no problem
sharing about the things that we love. But why
then can it feel strange or not natural to share
about Jesus with others? Why do we often as Christians
feel faked and forced when we think about evangelism
and trying to do that. Maybe we do need to think
about how we do that, how we communicate, think
about things from a practical, technical perspective,
but I think, again and again, the most, the biggest
problem when the church becomes not a missionary
church, when we move away from an evangelistic
posture, it's because we've stopped delighting
in God and resting in his presence. How could
we sell a product, to say it crassly, that we're
not buying, that we don't want, that we're not
delighting in? And so I know when I have found
myself slipping into passivity, it is so often
rooted in this. And what I need to do is to go
back into prayer, into God's word, into relationship
with God's people, and ask God to renew my heart."
That's what Jesus does. In Matthew 9, when he
sees that there's such a need for workers to
go in the harvest, he doesn't just say, you guys
get out there, do that, work harder. What are
you doing? No, he says pray. Pray that God would
send workers out into the harvest. So the blessing
of God, when we truly experience it, it should
flow out. to those around us. But what does it
look like when it flows out and how far does
it flow out? And that's what the psalmist gives
us, the tail end of the psalm, a little glimpse
of what this blessing looks like. That it is
actually a very earthy blessing. God gets his
hands dirty in blessing us. You see that in verses
six through seven. The earth has yielded its
increase. God our God shall bless us. God shall
bless us. Let the ends of the earth fear him.
I have to backtrack and actually qualify my very
first earlier point that while the psalmist is
not just seeking God's gifts, but God himself,
God's blessing is connected to the real world,
to material blessing. Maybe that's why it's so
easy to mistake God's gifts for himself. The
imagery here is harvest imagery. That language
of the earth has yielded its increase. You could
translate it, the earth has produced its harvest.
And what the psalmist is showing us is that God
does not show up in this abstract way in our
life. When He shows up, He's not at the door
empty -handed. He's there with a giant bouquet
of flowers and a lavish meal that He's brought
for us to come and enjoy. The God, His presence
in our lives and the world makes the world fruitful.
It brings a harvest. And we see this in the just
earlier Psalm, Psalm 65. This vivid picture of
God's overflowing presence in the world, where
the psalmist sings, God, you visit the earth
and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river
of God is full of water. You provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows
abundantly. settling its ridges, softening it
with showers, and blessing its growth. The pastures
of the wilderness overflow. The hills gird themselves
with joy. The meadows clothe themselves with
flocks. The valleys deck themselves with grain.
They shout and sing together for joy. And the
significance of this for us is that as we seek
to Be these channels, be God's overflowing presence
in this world out towards others. It's not only
about merely evangelism and what we say to people,
but it's about what we do. It's about how we
use the gifts and talents God has given us. It's
about how we cultivate this earth and serve others
with it. That this adorns this message of the
gospel, our good works. Again with the harvest,
God is not out there picking the grain. Ordinary
people like all of us in this room are doing
that. And so don't undermine the really simple
things, all the simple things that went in this
morning to make this service happen. All the
people that are serving and ways that go unnoticed,
God notices it. And that's you being a part of
this overflowing blessing to others through the
practical things that you do. One of my favorite
aspects of campus ministry so far is hospitality.
That is the heartbeat of our ministry that RUF
does not show up to campus empty -handed. We
show up at the beginning of the semester with
Wofford last year with a huge ice cream social
and a barbecue. With our student leaders, we
have them over every week and we make desserts.
I'm pretty into cooking and always trying to
come up with new desserts. In fact, when I had
to tell them about this news that we're moving
on and taking this new call in Belgium, I looked
up very carefully and tried to make an authentic
Belgian waffle recipe and had a Belgian waffle
bar for them. And one of my, the events that
I look forward to every single year is during
Wofford's interim term in January where a lot
of students are studying abroad and then some
are here in town taking kind of... I call them
kind of joke classes. There's like a class on
coffee or a class on like scuba diving or something,
all kinds of crazy things. They have a lot of
more free time. And so what we do that month
is we have students over every Monday night for
dinner and have 30, 40 students in our house.
And it's this beautiful moment, especially those
on the fringes, those that would never come to
church, would never come to large group. They'll
come over for a free meal. And as we think about
that, how we're going to do that, we could just
be like, OK, how do we do this as quickly and
cheaply as possible? But Kim and I don't do that.
We want this to be a really great meal. That's
a factor. But we want to put some effort and
energy and thought into it. And sure, maybe it
is nice to get some compliments on our cooking
some. But on a deeper level we do this because
that is how our God shows up. He's a lavish,
He's abundant. And that's what we see in the
ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ too. When God
wanted to communicate the blessing of His presence
in the most profound way to send Emmanuel God
with us. He sends his son not only to preach
and to repent, though as central as that was
to his ministry, but to heal the sick, to feed
thousands. What was Jesus' first miracle? It
was turning gallons and gallons of water into
not just okay boxed wine, but fine, expensive
wine. It was better than all the wine they had
had before to keep this wedding party going.
That was the opening miracle of Jesus's ministry.
Jesus is the answer to what this psalmist is
looking for, longing for. He brings God's presence
with this fruitful harvest. It's interesting
in Isaiah's prophecy about the Messiah in Chapter
61, where we hear the voice of Christ, we also
hear harvest imagery. We hear these familiar
words, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because
the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to
the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening
of the prison to those who are bound. As the
earth brings forth its sprouts, And as the garden
causes what is in sown in it to sprout up, so
the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations. And that's
what we see happening in the gospel in Jesus.
That God the Father is pouring out the blessing
of his presence through his spirit on Jesus and
all its fullness. and through him that blessing
is overflowing from God's people to the ends
of the earth. He will cause the earth to yield
its increase but not as just this temporary harvest
but this eternal lasting one through his resurrection
from the dead. Righteousness and praise sprouting
out before all nations in Jesus. That's what
we see at the end of the biblical story in Revelation.
Yet in order for that to happen, the Father had
to turn His face away from His Son. On the cross,
what do we see happening? Jesus is not receiving
the covenantal blessing of God's presence. He's
receiving the answer to this prayer, to this
psalm that we deserve because of our sin. No,
I will not bless you. You are not worthy of my
presence. I will not make my face to shine upon
you. You've rebelled against me. Jesus received
that answer. He was rejected so that we could
actually pray the psalm confidently and just
know, say with the psalmist, God will bless us.
Overflowing curse was poured out on Christ on
the cross so that overflowing blessing might
be poured out. on us when we have faith in him.
And through him, through his death and resurrection,
this promise that Jesus himself gave in John
7 is true. If anyone thirsts, let him come to
me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the
scripture has said, out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water. Psalm 67, that is the
message of it. That is what it is trying to get
us to, that through Jesus we can become these
streams of living water and bless others as we
are blessed ourselves. Let me close as, join
me in prayer.