Good morning, Mercy Hill Church. It is great to see you all. Hey, I know I have not had the chance to meet all of you. My name is Seth Brown. I also want to greet our Clifton campus.
Welcome to The Ridge. We are so glad that you guys are here today, and I'm excited to share God's words with you this morning. You know, I've been here for just under a year, so I've gotten to see a lot of you around at various events. We've had a lot of firsts at our church over the last year, which has been awesome. To be a part of.
So, Katie and I, my wife, we have just loved seeing what God is doing here. And one of those firsts that we've never done as a church before is actually coming up on September 13th. It's called Church at the Ballpark. This is going to be an incredible event that's actually going to set the tone for the rest of our fall. We believe there's going to be lots of people there who wouldn't normally attend a church in a church building.
We believe there's going to be many, many people who are baptized. And here's what we're asking you to do. We're asking you to actually be a part of Church of the Ballpark by jumping onto one of our serve teams. Actually be a part of owning this event because it's going to be such a high impact event. We're going to need an army, not an audience, to help make this thing a reality.
So go ahead, scan that QR code behind me and go ahead and get registered for that and actually jump in to serve because it's going to be an incredible event. And then another thing that I'm really excited about. Is next week Pastor Andrew is going to be back with us, and he is going to be kicking off a new sermon series called Built.
Now here's the thing, this sermon series is actually geared towards men, covering the five temptations that men often struggle with and what the Bible says to those temptations and what to do about it. But it's gonna have principles for everybody, all right? But we believe that men set the temperature in their homes. And so we wanna kick this fall off strong, talking through those things. And so Pastor Andrew will be back, and we're excited to have him.
With us. But in the meantime, I'm here with you.
So if you would, at Clifton and then here at the Ridge, go ahead and turn to Psalm 49 with me. Turn to Psalm 49. I'll meet you there in just a moment, but as you turn there, let me tell you about a guy named Brian Johnson. All right, Brian Johnson.
Some of you may have heard of him, some of you maybe haven't heard of him. Out there on the internet, you know, a big social media personality, and this is his stated goal, okay? Brian Johnson wants to achieve immortality by 2039. And it sounds kind of crazy. But he's Putting his money where his mouth is, literally.
So he has this very, very intense regimen that he follows, and he claims to be the healthiest person alive. He claims to be the most studied person alive biologically. This is what he does.
So first of all, he puts about. $2 million, give or take, into his health every single year. He gets eight and a half hours of sleep. Per night with a perfect sleep score, whatever that is. I don't have a sleep tracker because it would stress me out to see how poorly I actually sleep, okay?
He eats 1,977 precisely calculated vegan calories every single day. And some of you guys are like, I would rather die. didn't have to do that.
Okay. He even, this is one of the weird things he does. He grows clones. Of his own organs in labs and then tests supplements and drugs on them before he puts them in his own body.
Okay. So In 2039, this guy's gonna be 61 years old. And the way he defines immortality is he wants to stop the aging process. He either wants to start reversing the aging process or stop it by the time. He's 61 years old.
And it's a pretty wild thing. And I'll just, you know, I do have to admit.
Social media does not throw me his stuff very much. It does not, the algorithm does not think I'm healthy enough or ready enough. For that level of discipline, I get like: do you have low testosterone? Try, you know, this. I got an ad for.
This one was more offensive than the low testosterone assumption, honestly. I got an ad for Taco Bell. This week. After all that they've been through with the lettuce stuff, I just, you know. I'm not doing Taco Bell.
Here's a twist. in Brian's story though.
Okay, so this summer He was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease. Where his body is literally attacking his stomach lining. And now Well, he just sees this as an obstacle that he's going to overcome, right? And so he's going to keep. Keep on with this goal to actually achieve immortality by 2039.
But the reason I bring him up is not to scoff at him, because I think we do have to admit the discipline is very, very impressive. I think we just should acknowledge that. But what I the reason I bring him up is because we look at where he spends his time and his money. and his effort and his attention. And it's very clear that he has misplaced his trust in an idea and a goal.
That is not going to deliver what it promises. He's not Facing the inevitability of his own death, and he's putting his trust in his money. His discipline, his will to be able to measure his metrics into do all of these crazy things and structure his life in a crazy way, okay?
So it's easy to kind of make fun of him, but let's be real. If somebody were to look at where you spend your money and your time and your attention, what would they say you have placed your trust in? If somebody looked at your time and your attention and your money and where it goes, what would they say that you trust in? way to think about this. would be to ask When you are on your deathbed, what do you want people to say your life was all about?
You know, you've got what some have called resume virtues, and some that have called this eulogy virtues. A resume virtue is where you worked. the positions you held, the experience you have, eulogy virtue. That's who you were as a person, who you became. What do they talk about at your funeral?
If they Don't have a lot to say on the who you are as a person side, then they talk about your resume because that might be the only good thing about you. And that's not what we want at the end of our day. That is not what we want. We want to be people who live for the right things and place our trust in the right things. And that's really what Psalm 49 is all about.
So it is about money, it's about death, all your favorite things, okay? But it's really about where we put our faith, where we put our trust.
So before you check out. This is something that we need to lean into because we all have a tendency to drift towards trusting in the wrong things. We all have a tendency So With all that said. I believe God is trying to For some of us, Pour some cold water. On our head.
And wake us up to think about the things that matter most. And so let's go ahead and dive into Psalm 49. I'm going to read the whole thing. It is going to be pretty heavy, just to give you a heads up, but we're going to work back through and we're going to make sense of it. After we read the whole thing, so let's dive into God's word: Psalm 49.
Pick it up in verse 1. This is what it says. Hear this, all peoples, give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor, together. My mouth shall speak wisdom. The meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre. Why should I fear in times of trouble? When the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me. Those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches.
Truly no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life. for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice. that he should live on forever and never see the pit. For he sees that even the wise die, the fool and the stupid alike must perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever.
their dwelling places to all generations. Though they called lands by their own names, man in his pomp will not remain. He is like the beasts that perish. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence, yet after them, people approve of their boasts. Like sheep.
They are appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol. With no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will.
Receive me. I would guess that you probably have not seen Psalm forty nine on one of your grandma's quilts. At her house. And There's a lot of reasons for it, but that doesn't mean it's not important, and that doesn't mean that there's not something in this for us. Because this is right in your face, it's pretty heavy.
But it's actually good for us to wake up to the things that are most important at times.
So, Psalm 49, it's called a wisdom psalm, which means it's more about instruction to men rather than worship to God.
So it's unfolding this issue in the world that we see, this issue of trusting in our own wealth and thinking it's going to promise and deliver something that it promises. And that's really what the psalm is about. And I know money is always a sensitive topic, and it's always been a sensitive topic. That's what's awesome about the Bible, guys. It is timeless.
It's timeless. I mean, this was so far before your time, and we still see the grip that stuff can have on our hearts. Humans have always been like this. And so here's. The big idea for the day as we start working back through this passage.
The big idea is this: wealth promises. what only Jesus can provide. Wealth promises. Would only Jesus Can provide.
Now The temptation. Anytime you're talking about money. Is You kind of start to check out.
Sometimes, because you think about this and you're like, I am not the audience for this sermon. I don't have money, or I'm doing good with money, or what have you. I hear you. Let's see what the psalmist Who the psalmist thinks the audience is to this problem that he's going to unfold? Read the first four verses with me again.
He says, Hear this, all peoples. Give ear, all inhabitants of the world. both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom. The meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre. It's very clear. He is talking to a universal audience about a universal human problem. And a lot of us struggle to have self-awareness around our relationship to money, I'll admit.
Even I have that issue at times. Even this morning, it was funny, I was sitting in a chair. And my youngest daughter was sitting across from me, and there was a closet in the same room that was open, and in the closet, there was a jar full of pennies. And Sometimes my daughter's soft-spoken, so and I'm an old man at heart and can't hear much.
So she had to say this like three times. But what she was trying to tell me was she was pointing at this jar. And she s she was trying to say, Dad, we're money rich. We're money rich because we have a jar of pennies, right?
So and to her that actually is a lot of money. It's about perspective. But it really doesn't matter how much money you have or don't have. We all have a tendency To have an unhealthy relationship with it or to drift towards that, right? If we don't have a lot of money, we tend to desire it and think it's going to solve our biggest issues.
If we do have a lot of money, we tend to depend on it. And we depend on it knowing we've got money to solve most of the problems in our life, so why do I need God? And we didn't maybe wouldn't say it like that. But functionally, that can be how we live. And so that's why this psalm is talking to everybody.
And I want to just say this, guys, on the front end.
Some of you in here, there's two types of people in here, some of you are genuine followers of Jesus. Who you do tend to drift towards worshiping things that aren't going to deliver what they promise. And of course, ultimately, your faith and your hope is in Jesus, but you still need to learn to functionally trust him more. Others of you in here, I think. You Actually, trust your own power, your own ability, and your own money.
And what you may be, the way that you live life potentially. Is rather than trusting God and using wealth. You use God and trust wealth. As your ultimate source of hope.
So If you're sitting in this room, no matter where you're at on that spectrum, the good news is it's never too late to trust in the right things.
So let's go and look at the root of the problem in verses five and six, when the psalmist writes, Why should I fear in times of trouble? When the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me. Those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches. So, again, guys, I'm going to hit this nail 100 times in this sermon. The issue here is not money itself.
or wealth itself. It is misplaced confidence or trust in it.
Okay? God is not mad if you've got a emergency fund. Or a retirement fund. In fact, he gives his people good things to enjoy.
So, I'm not saying money itself is bad. The problem is, for all of human history, we've had a tendency to put our trust in it when it's unstable and it can't deliver what it promises.
So it says in verse five and six: is those who trust and boast, and here's what I know. What you boast about is what you tend to trust in. What you talk about or boast about is what you tend to trust in. The stuff that just spills out of you when you're talking to your friends. And I will also add: you know, some of us, if you're not the boasting type, you know, maybe that's not your thing.
Then think of it this way. The stuff that you think about. And that stirs up a lot of emotions in your heart. Typically what you trust in. The stuff that keeps you up at night, that you ruminate on, okay?
And when I say trust, trust is simply dependence. It's functional dependence. Right now, every person in this room, except for a few, You're trusting in the chair that you're sitting in. You're trusting that it'll hold you up. I'll tell you, these are nice chairs, especially those.
Y'all need to stay awake up there, okay? And Clifton, you got some great chairs too, and you're trusting. In the chair, you're depending on it, okay? We all depend on stuff. Let me tell you a dependent story for me.
So, about 10 years ago, I was going to Southeast Asia with two other people. And we had to fly, once we were in the country we were going to, we had to fly on an airline called Yeti Airlines, okay? And Just by the name, you know this is going to be a great experience.
So. Yeti Airlines, I'll tell you what happened to us and I'll tell you what I'll learn about Yeti. Afterwards, okay?
So it happened to us, this is like a 30 or 40 minute flight, and me and two other people. We get on the flight. The one guy that's with us always falls asleep on an airplane. like as soon as it the engine starts basically. And so he starts falling asleep and I just kind of like get settled in.
and throw my headphones in. And the stewardess comes up to my friend and wakes him up. Like while we're like before we even take off, and then she comes up to me and tells me to take my headphones out that I can't wear them. And we couldn't speak the same language, so I didn't know why, but my assumption is for some reason, if the plane's going down, they want us to be fully aware of what's happening. Which honestly is not my approach.
My approach would be: I want to dull my senses as much as possible if Yeti is going down into these mountains, okay? And so we go and we fly. It's like a 30-minute flight, worst turbulence I ever experienced, man. It felt like we would go from 30,000 feet to like 10,000 feet. I mean, it was.
Crazy. And I learned afterwards, actually, that Yeti Airlines is one of the most notoriously dangerous airlines in the world. And they are not allowed in European airspace. You know, which, if I would have known that ahead of time, I might have been like, God's not calling me in the mission field anymore. I don't know.
So here's the thing. I'm not going to trust Data Airlines again, guys. You know, and you probably wouldn't either. But the honest truth is, it's a lot more dangerous to place your trust in what you have and your stuff. than it is for me to fly Yeti Airlines again.
Like the consequences are much higher if you put your trust in the wrong things rather than if I go on this very scary, unsafe airline. Once again. And here's the thing, guys, when it comes to trust. I'm gonna Tie this into the end, but trust or faith. It is a muscle that you actually can grow.
Right? But you have to put yourself in positions to depend on God rather than yourself if you want to grow the trust muscle. But the problem is, a lot of us, the way our lives are structured. is we are put in positions where we Have to trust our stuff and our ability to get things done more than we trust in a God who wants to take care of us, give us enough manna for today, and be our all in all.
Okay? So the problem is misplaced trust. And The reason this is an issue is because if we trust in our stuff, especially our wealth, It is going to make promises that it cannot deliver on. That's what the Psalm says throughout, starting verses 7 through 9, when it says, Truly, no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life. for the ransom of their lives is costly, and can never suffice.
That he should live on forever and never see The pit. Here's the first thing that wealth promises but can't deliver on, okay? Wealth promises. Rescue. Wealth promises rescue.
So you see there this Phrase in verse 7, it says, No man can ransom another. This phrase ransom comes up and Really a ransom is just the idea of you buying something back that is under someone else's. Authority. And The harsh reality that verses 7 through 9 is trying to make. is that Wealth may be able to solve a lot of problems, but there's one problem it cannot solve, and that is you are going to die.
You're gonna die. There's no amount of money that can save you from that. No matter if you're Brian Johnson. It's come it's the one problem. That wealth cannot Fix.
And what's Interesting and sad, in our culture, We have pushed death to the margins, and we don't like to think about it because it's painful. But because we've pushed it to the margins. We've tended to lose sight of what's most important. Because we get distracted by lesser problems. And when you're not thinking about death that much, Smaller problems feel like bigger problems 'cause you're not thinking about the biggest problem of all.
The death that's coming. You know, we Celebrate. Celebrity and youth, and then we kind of scorn at wisdom and experience. And of course, it's going to lead us where we don't want to go. Think about people on their deathbed, right?
Many of you maybe haven't had an experience like this, but. If you're talking to somebody on their deathbed. What do they say? Do they say I wish I would have got that timeshare. I really I should have upgraded my truck 10 years ago.
Of course not. What are they talking about? They're talking about the things that are eternal, their relationships. Their relationships with their family, their relationships with God. They're talking about things that last forever.
They're talking about the treasure in heaven that they did not store up. That's what people talk about when they're dying and you know I I do like random Nerdy history stuff, so If you like this, you might like this illustration, but it. Pre-Civil War in America. Most homes, wealthy and middle class ish homes, would have a parlor room, which is the place where everything happened.
Some people even call these death rooms because if somebody in the family died, they'd keep the person in the parlor room for about three or four days. The family would have to dress them, would have to clean them up. But they would keep them in there.
So if you were in that family, whether you're a child or whether you're an adult. In your front room, You'd walk by somebody who had died and you'd be confronted with it. George Washington wrote his secretary and literally said, Do not bury me for three days after I die, because they were very afraid about being buried alive.
Okay. That's pretty crazy.
So they were confronted with this notion of death way more frequently than we are. And if you read the Founding Fathers, honestly, they were obsessed with their legacy they were leaving behind. They're obsessed with what people would take from their work once they were gone. And I think, in large part, because they were confronted with death so often. That they had to face the reality I'm not going to be here forever.
And what kind of legacy am I Leaving behind. And so I know it's not fun to talk about this stuff. But the reason I bring it up is because we need to to think about what's most important. Nobody came in here thinking they could buy their way out of death. But we probably came in here not thinking about it at all.
or distracted from it. And you know, if you take a second to meditate on this idea of death, you know deep in your bones it was not supposed to be that way. We invited death into this situation. With our decision to define what's right in our own eyes instead of trust a good, loving Father.
So we have brought this problem into the situation. And it's a It's the most painful problem. that you'll experience watching people that you love die. The people that you love watching you die or experiencing your death, it's a problem. A price that you and I can't pay.
And so The reason I hit on this so hard is because we need to think about. I want you to think about this right now. What are you organizing your life around right now? Where's your time, your attention, your money going? And what does it tell us about what you value, what you depend on?
And because you're still taking breaths right now. Thank God it's not too late to change that. Because here's what Here's a point of me Talking about death so much, okay. I'm almost done.
Well, even though I'll talk about it a little bit more later, okay. Wealth provides temporary relief, but not eternal rescue. It provides temporary relief, but not eternal rescue. There's a guy named Dan Sullivan who says If you have enough money to solve a problem, you don't have a problem. That's the truth.
There's so many. obstacles or inconveniences in life that honestly we fix with money. But we get in a big tizzy about it. Or I know I do. But we gotta realize wealth Again, it's not bad in and of itself.
You just gotta realize It fixes temporary problems, not eternal ones. That's what wealth does. Couple years ago? I try to fix stuff around my house, even though my knowledge is not extensive at all. Basically, I turn it on, turn it off, turn it back on, give it a few kicks.
If that doesn't work, then I call somebody. But I will try that every time. My air conditioner went out. I go outside and I do my tricks. Surprisingly, it doesn't work.
I decide I'm going to humble myself and call the HVAC person. I'm not going to start ripping wires out of this thing, okay?
So I go inside through my garage. I close the garage door. The garage door goes buck wild off the tracks. I didn't even know garage doors had all those parts beforehand. You don't ever think about it.
There's springs, there's coils, there's oil, there's everything. I try to force the door back on, I make it 10 times worse.
Okay. I go inside. I'm a great leader of my home.
So I text my wife and I say, everything's broken with very little context. Can't wait for next week's series, you know, on manhood. I need it. Here's the thing. I I threw myself Into this Kind of frantic mode, honestly.
I was very anxious. I was thinking about the money. I didn't even know, who do I call for? At that time, I was like, are there garage door people out there? Is this a general handyman thing?
There are garage door people out there. I did learn.
Okay. So I make the calls. After I calm down, talk to Katie about it, think about it a little more, I realize. You know what, this problem I'm facing, even though it's going to cost money. It is something I'm not going to care about probably.
A week from now. Definitely not a month from now. Definitely not a year from now. And when you face inconvenient things, sometimes you just need to ask yourself, give yourself a perspective. Is this something I'm going to care about in a year?
Is this something I'm going to care about in a month, a week, a day from now? Because sometimes, guys, we spend so much energy and emotions on stuff that actually isn't a problem.
So wealth does have a pl part to play. And my question before we talk about the second thing it promises but doesn't deliver is: are you depending on the quick fix or the eternal fix? Are you depending on the quick fix or the eternal fix? Let's look at the second thing it promises but doesn't deliver. For he sees that even the wise die, the fool and the stupid alike must perish.
and leave their wealth to others. Their graves are their homes forever, their dwelling places to all generations. Though they called lands by their own names, Man in his pomp will not remain. He is like. the beasts that perish.
Here's the second promise that wealth makes but can't deliver on. Wealth promises status. It promises status. Here's What I mean by status, okay, 'cause sometimes we This is another blind saw for us. Status is, I want other people to see me a certain way, but status can also be, I want to see myself a certain way.
Right. And we'll get to that in a moment, but here's what I gotta. Share to set the table. All I know for sure is that we all have a lot of stuff. And we have so much stuff that we don't know what to do with it.
And so we're obviously looking for some sort of feeling. From the things that we buy. There are more self-storage facilities in this country than McDonald's. That's actually a true statistic. And I'm not hating on you if you've got a self-storage facility.
But the reality is We try to we put assign meaning or value to things that we buy. We think it's gonna deliver something for us, and it might. Do so in a fleeting moment, but then eventually it ends up either in the garbage or in a storage unit.
Somewhere. And so I don't know where you're at. I don't know where your bigger struggle is. For some of us, it's like verse 12: man in his pomp. will not remain.
I like people to think something about me. I drive the car because I want people to think something about me. You know, some of us might be there. Others of us, especially if you didn't grow up with a lot, You said to yourself when you were coming of age, you were like, if I could just have. that thing, I would know I was doing pretty good, okay?
Embarrassing example for me. For me, that thing that I wanted, I was like, I know I'll be doing pretty good if I have that. is a riding lawmower. People did always tell me that I was a dreamer.
Okay. So that really was it. I'm not gonna push mow my lawn. That's for the birds, man. I'm not doing that.
Problem is, I've never really had a yard big enough to justify it. I bought the wimpiest, lamest riding lawnmower possible.
So I bought. The Craftsman version of the snapper lawn mower with the engine in the rear. Right. Have you seen an has anybody ever looked like confident and manly riding one of those? I never feel that way.
Katie used that to push me around the yard with me just sitting on it because. It's such a weak lawnmower.
Okay. But here's the thing. I know that's goofy, but I assigned this status to this thing because I was like, man, if I have a lawnmower. Private yard. If I have a yard, private house.
If I have a house, private family. And I'll know I'm doing pretty good if that's the case, if all of those things are in order. But we realize when we buy stuff that the feeling Last. Man, it's like a vapor. It bare it barely lasts at all.
And so, before you buy something, if you want to know if you're looking for your wealth or your stuff for status, before you buy something, ask yourself two questions. Before I buy this, who gets the attention if I buy this? Who gets the applause? Who gets the attention? Who gets the applause?
Listen, you can buy something that's nice because you want to enjoy it to the glory of God. There's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes the stuff we buy or the money we have, it's Just so that we feel something. or so that others might feel something. And it promises that, but it doesn't deliver because it's like you're.
Heart is a black hole of desire, and it just keeps wanting more and more and more. And because you're an infinite being with infinite desires, you need an infinite God to satisfy those desires. You can't do it with your stuff.
So Verse twelve again. Just to bring us this point around, man in his pomp will not remain. He is like the beasts that perish. So that word pomp, it's just like outward honor. stuff, you know, you can picture The guy that's, you know.
just decadent and just has all of this dress on and just is doing it for show. That person's not going to remain. It's kind of like you think about. Like Brian Johnson again, bringing it back to him. Immortality by 2039.
What's so ironic about his goal from a Christian worldview. is we believe that humans already are immortal. It's not a matter of if you're mortal, it's a matter of are you going to spend life with God or a life away from God in eternity? And we've got to take an honest look at the stuff that we're trusting in because. Of course.
When you look at the alternative, as laid out in this psalm, we want to be people who spend a life with God, not away from God. And plus, you know, with the Brian Johnson thing, Why would you want to be immortal in this world as we know it? This place is very broken because of our sin. It's very broken. And this is this quote from Randy Alcorn.
I go back to when I think about this reality, and Brian's story made me think of it. But Randy Alcorn said it this way: He said, For Christians, This present life is the closest they will come to hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to heaven. Isn't that sobering to think about? For people that don't know Jesus, have not depended on him and trusted in him.
This broken world is the closest they get to come to heaven. But for the believer, the opposite is true. The hope Of heaven. This is the closer you're gonna get to hell. Two sides of a different coin.
So, wealth promises rescue, it promises status, it cannot deliver either one.
So, we're going to go back to the idea of death, except with a twist. In these last three verses that we're going to cover here, it says this: This is the path of those who have foolish confidence. Yet after them people approve of their boasts. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol, Death shall be their shepherd. and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol. with no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will Receive me.
So again, you see this phrase Foolish confidence. Wealth itself is not bad. You can enjoy your things to the glory of God. You can have a savings account. What are you depending on ultimately for life?
That's what this is all about. And so you've got a Basically two paths laid out here. The self-reliant person. who has foolish confidence in their stuff and what they can do and what they can acquire. And then you've got the person who's dependent on God.
In verse 15, which we'll get to in a second. But Because God is good and He loves us, and He doesn't want us to be the wealthy person that trusts in our stuff. We go back to this concept of death. He talks about Sheol, which is just an Old Testament word for realm of the dead. That's all that means.
But then it paints this very vivid picture of death. It says that death is the shepherd of those who are self-reliant, who trust in themselves. who have foolish confidence. Death is their shepherd. Their form is consumed.
It's described as deformation and. Decay. Listen, I don't think anybody in this room wants that. And praise God you're in here because Verse 15 is the glimmer of hope that we honestly need. As we consider death.
We consider our drift towards trusting in the wrong things. This is what verse 15 says. But God. Will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Man, apart from verse 15, this is a very cynical, depressing song.
Think about the rest of what we've read in light. A verse 15. No man can ransom another. But God. No amount can suffice.
But God. Death shall be your shepherd. But God. But God. Here's the path that you can take.
Simply by trusting in Jesus. Jesus ransoms and receives Those who trust him. He ransoms and receives those who trust him. What that means is he buys you back. By his own death and resurrection.
And you know what? You would think he would demand a ransom, but he is the ransom. He didn't ask you to pay your way out of death. He is the payment. And it's free.
It costs you nothing except to put your dependence and trust into it. And the price he paid is so high. But a few things. Nothing you could do could ever pay him back anyways.
So, the Christian life is not about following rules or paying him back. It's about responding to the love that he's shown you. But also, the price he paid is so high that nothing can snatch you out of his hand. Romans 8. 38 and 39, it tells us confidently, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There's no better time than right now to evaluate. what you're putting your trust in.
Now, listen, I think there's two types of people in the room. There's believers in the room who, if you look at your life, you realize I have drifted towards functionally depending on things that don't deliver.
Okay. We can repent, we can take some steps, or we'll talk about that in a moment.
Some of you guys in here You really are trusting in your own ability and your own power. And what you can do. And so for you, your next step is to repent and trust Jesus. You can pray that in your own words. After the service is over, we'll have elders down front.
You can come and talk to. But that's your next step. But the application for us today It's simple. This is for everybody. Trust God.
and use wealth. Trust God and use wealth. And let me just tell you. I want to get practical about how you actually cultivate trust. In God.
There's really two ways you do it, okay? The first thing you do if you want to cultivate a life of trust. Act in your real life on God. is you need to put yourself in positions to depend on him. Put yourself in positions to depend on him.
When it comes to giving, When Katie, my wife, was growing up, she heard her dad say, When we give, we should give. Until it at least hurts a little. It's just like exercise. Everybody wants to be strong, but nobody wants to be sore. If you want to grow in your generosity, in your giving, in any part of your Journey?
When it comes to giving, you give until it hurts a little because that puts you in a position of dependence on God. That's why we do it. And if money is the thing that's convicting your heart today, then that's your next step: you give consistently and you give generously. If money is not the thing. Right?
Then, to put yourself in a position to depend on God, this is what you do: you take God-centered risks. Take God-centered risks. What does that mean? That means. Move you and your family to the 8 a.m.
service. That means start an adoption process or become A rope holder. That means jump on a serve team, get in a group. It means wherever you're at spiritually, you take the next step, the next risk. And depend on God, and that will cultivate trust.
The second thing you do, if you want to cultivate trust in God. Is simply through prayer, communicating with them, but let me get specific. When I say prayer and developing a trust in God through prayer. A prayer where you're thanking God for every possible thing as often as you can. My wife's grandmother passed away this year.
She had Alzheimer's, very, very sweet lady. We found a thank you God list that she had. And what was crazy about her life is, even as her faculties were going, she would go from. Saying the ABCs To then just quoting Psalm 23, it would just spill out of her. Towards the end of her life.
And this thank you, God list. Had stuff from her children, her grandchildren, her husband, to popcorn and trees and the rabbits she saw in the car. You can do that. And when you Thank God for every possible thing that you can think of in your life. What it does is you remember that all your stuff is from him anyway.
And if it's from him, then you can give it away. And you don't have to sink your teeth into it. And then, this is, let me actually give you a prayer that I personally pray this when I feel insecure. When I feel anxious, when I feel unsure. For about ten years I'll go back to this prayer while I'll say...
I have nothing to possess. I have nothing to protect. And I've got nothing to prove. I have all I need in Jesus. I have nothing to possess, I have nothing to protect, I have nothing to prove.
Any time your flesh Rears up. It's because you're trying to possess, protect, or prove something. That If you trust Jesus. All of those things have already been taken care of for you.
So here's Our response, what I what I want us to do. Uh In just a moment, the altar's gonna be open. And you have a chance. to come and pray. Maybe it's thanking God for everything that you possibly can think of.
Maybe it's committing to that God-centered risk that's gonna put you in a position of dependence. But if you don't want to drift or trusting in the wrong things, and you've got to cultivate a life where you. Trust God. Through your position and through Prayer. Let's pray.
Father. Thank you for the price that you paid to buy us back. Thank you for the warnings you give us in your word, that is good. that sober us up and remind us of what's most important. And I pray there be many people in this room.
Who first turn and trust you but also organize their lives around the things that matter most. We need you, God. We pray these things all in Jesus' name. Amen.
