Why is there so much emphasis on where the blessings come from? Perhaps it's because of our natural tendency to look for blessings in all the wrong places. True blessing is not the things that you think you can tangibly grab. But true blessing, according to Psalm 67, is a personal relationship with God and knowing and experiencing His presence and His favor in our lives. We are a blessed people.
We know God and we have been reconciled to Him. As a blessed people, what should be our response? Welcome to the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and today you'll hear from one of our newest teaching fellows at Legion Air Ministries, Joel Kim. Today's message was recorded at Ligoneer's first ever conference in Southeast Asia. Christians truly from around the world, the United States, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other countries gathered together for several days of teaching and fellowship.
It was a warm and joy-filled conference and it felt like a glimpse of heaven.
So many nations represented. If you'd like to join us for an upcoming conference, you can find all future events at ligoneer.org/slash events.
Well, today only, when you respond with a donation in support of Ligonier's global outreach, we'll unlock Joel Kim's new teaching series on Colossians, Everything in Christ, and its study guide. We'll send you a copy of R. C. Sproll's title, What is the Great Commission? Simply give your gift at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight.
Well, as a blessed people, what should be our response? Here's Reverend Kim. This afternoon, I want to approach Matthew 28. Through Psalm 67.
So, that all of us can recognize that the great commission is not a new command given to us. But an old one that displays the heartbeat of God in Christ Jesus from the beginning of time, even to all of us who belong to Him in the present day.
So turn with me to Psalm 67. A short one. And here now The word of the Lord. 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 increase. God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth Fear him.
One of the theological disputes we had in our family when I was a teenager was the importance of benediction in worship. Benediction is that prayer at the end, the good word declared to the congregation by the pastor, usually with his hands up. Declare for the church members to hear the blessings of God, oftentimes as a young man, simply a time that indicates to us when the worship had come to an end. Here, his argument that is my father's was that benediction is an essential part of worship. My argument was skipping benediction to get to the parking lot earlier was not a bad thing for us to do.
Over time, you've come to realize that your parents are probably right. And I've come to recognize the importance of the good word, the benediction prayed at the end of worship, because there's much meaning behind the benediction delivered. Benedictions remind the worshipers that God has the first word in worship when He calls us to worship, and also the last word in worship. That's the first thing you hear, and the last thing you hear. The benediction reinforces the truth that God is the main message and also the main messenger in worship.
Not only do we hear him declare, what he declares is about himself. The benediction declares the reign of God as a present reality and a promise of future reality. Not only is the blessings of God present with you in worship, but as you disperse from the church, The blessings of God go with you, and the promises are there for you. Lastly, the benediction reminds the church of the church's blessings. that the church has received from the Lord and her mission.
It declares without hesitation to whom we belong and to where we are sent. reminding the church of its mission of being a witness and lied onto the world. A dying world that needs to hear and know Jesus Christ and to hear his name lifted on high. As we hear the words of Psalm 67, and in these words of benediction in our text, we are reminded of our blessings. and our responsibility to bless in grateful response.
We are blessed. Too blessed Perhaps many of you are familiar with the words of the blessing recorded in Psalm 67. Often pastors use this blessing of Aaron, found in the book of Numbers, as the final word in worship and benediction that brings worship to a close. Numbers chapter 6, verse 24 through 26 declare, The Lord bless you and keep you. They're the words.
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. Psalm 67 echoes these words. Whenever the psalm is sung, the hearers cannot help but remember the words of blessings from the book of Numbers. This is where we pause for a sec and ask the question: what do these words of Psalm 67, these words of blessing, teach us?
Well, it begins by teaching us that all blessings come from the Lord. God, the Creator and Redeemer, is the one from whom all blessings flow. Notice the emphasis here and the repetition. May God be gracious to us. May God bless us.
And may God make his face to be known on earth. Just in case you missed the point, the passage in Numbers that records this blessing ends with the Lord summing up the blessings by simply saying, Will bless my people. Actually, the text is even more emphatic. If you look at the original, what it says is, I Myself will bless them. And the question for us is: why is there so much emphasis on where the blessings come from?
Perhaps it's because of our natural tendency to look for blessings in all the wrong places. Whether it's in relationships and the perfections of marriage or singleness, whether it's financial security and the zeros in our account, whether it's status, whether it be our workplaces or in our church, whether it be education and the letters behind our name, whether it's any form of success, however you form them, we desire to feel blessed from having and owning these things without recognizing that they're merely spiritual illusions. They have no meaning. This is where we have to hear again what James says in 1:17: every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Coming from the Father of Lights we're told.
But this is where we come to recognize not only that all blessings come from the Lord. Here we get to ask the question, what is true blessing? What is true blessing? Here, blessing according to Psalm 67 can be summarized this way: where we're told: true blessing comes from a Face-to-face relationship with God. Experiencing his presence and favor in our lives.
Let me say that again. True blessing. is not the things that you think you can tangibly grab. But true blessing, according to Psalm 67, is a personal relationship with God and knowing and experiencing His presence and His favor in our lives. Aaron's blessings begin with the words, the Lord bless you and keep you, a promise of God to provide for our daily needs when these daily needs were difficult to come by.
And certainly, the psalmist promises that God does provide for our daily needs. Yet, the focus of the Lord's blessing in Psalm 67 are found in these words in verse 1 when he says, May God be gracious to us. and make his face To shine upon us. Here, what we're told is that the essence of biblical blessing is to have the Lord delight in us so much. That it is as if his face shines whenever he sees us.
He delights in you so much. that he smiles. And delights and seeing the faces of his sons and daughters. You recognize the image of Exodus 33:11. Thus, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
You may recall Genesis 5:24, where we're told Enoch walked with God. I love that phrase. It's such a simple one. It doesn't tell us where they're going, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter how they got there, because it doesn't really matter.
It doesn't tell us what they talked about during that time. It doesn't really matter. It doesn't even matter what they were looking outside the window if they were writing something, because it doesn't matter. The fact that they were together. was sufficient enough blessing and joy.
That you're able to summarize your relationship with God simply by saying, Enoch. Walked with God. Friends, often we find ourselves loving the gift more than the giver. We seek and pray for those gifts. That only the Lord can provide, where we love those gifts and seek those gifts much more than the Giver Himself.
And frankly, we should love the giver. more than the gift that you and I may desire. You know what's amazing when you go back to Numbers chapter 6 again? The Aaronic blessing ends with the benediction with these words that Psalm 67 does not include. It simply says this.
So God says Shall they put my name upon the people of Israel? And I will bless them. We are baptized. Into the name. Of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Whether you're a Kim or a Lee or even a Ferguson. We now bear the name of our Lord and Savior. Who says, I will bless my people. Because of Jesus. We bear his name.
Friends May I just remind you as we think about our identity in Christ Jesus, The point emphasized over and over again. We are blessed. But this is where Psalm takes a turn. The psalmist is clear. That being blessed.
Comes with a purpose and notice the purpose clause in verse two that It's indicating what needs to result from it. Simply says, that your way may be known on earth, the psalmist declares. You're saving power among the nations. Surrounded by blessings, the core of the psalm is found in the refrain of verses 3 to 5. And notice how the psalmist frames the refrain with verse 3 and verse 5 repeating the same thing when it says, Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.
In the middle of these twice-repeated calls for praise, Divine intention can be divined as we understand in verse four. Let the nations be glad. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth. The endings sandwich what's in the middle that ought to be highlighted for us to see. And it simply says, Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth.
And there are two things from here. Blessed people. Praise God. In the three short verses, we are reminded to praise and sing for joy five times. Let the peoples praise you.
Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Let the peoples praise you. Let all the peoples praise you. When you see someone repeat something over and over again, you know what they're trying to do?
Get you to listen. And to tell you, this is incredibly important. Let the nations praise. Friends, even unbelievers thank God and give praise when things are going well. When our bodies are healthy, our bank accounts are full, our churches are full of people on our pews, as well as the future looks bright and clear.
What makes Christians like you and me contrarians in the eyes of the world? You are not normal. We are not normal. Instead of reacting to our circumstances the way we see them, we ought to see with hope what God is doing in the midst of those circumstances. We give praise not because everything is well and swell and everything seems clear and the future seems bright.
We give praise because we hold on to the promise that cannot be held by hands. But founded upon the word of God that in the midst of our tears and trials and persecutions. God is there with you. and he goes before you. And we are able to give praise because his promise does not change and cannot change.
Wherever you go, your location is not a place where God simply says, everywhere but here. No such place exists. For our God, who desires to bless his people through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, does not, cannot change, and his promise is sure. And when this promise is sure, we cannot help but to sing praises. to the Lord, not because things are well.
But because God is there. But there's a secondary element to how we react. to the theological blessing that we are taught and reminded. Blessed people Praise Bless people. Proclaim.
You cannot hide it. I grew up in a family of five kids. Girl, boy, girl, boy, girl is how we are. First boy, second child is who I am.
So we grew up loving children. I mean, they're just amazing as you watch them.
So many wonderful babies and beautiful babies here, too. I remember our kids were growing up. Anna. And Simeon, Whenever one of them hears from us, hey, We bought ice cream for you. You know what they do?
If the other one's not there. Without grabbing their ice cream, they start running. to the other kid. And what they say is, Anna, Simeon, depending on who heard first, mom and dad have ice cream. Come and get it.
Do you remember how that feels and when the kids do that? There's so much excitement. This can't be just something that they enjoy by themselves. It must be shared. And so they start rushing to the people who must hear.
And they bring them to the fount. Because they must receive it too. The community of the saved not only gathered to worship. but also to proclaim. They can't help it.
The joy cannot be contained. It must be shared. It must be proclaimed. We are called to this. We're told in Psalm 67: Your way may be known on earth.
your saving power among all nations. There are no boundaries. The psalmist repeated all peoples and all the nations, ending with the call in verse 7: let all the ends of the earth. Fear him. I feel like I get a glimpse of this here, watching us.
Let the ends of the earth. Fear him. I heard that one of our brothers on this panel here, Pastor Linus, was RP, Reformed Presbyterian. That's not common, let me just say. And part of the reason I bring that up is because I was at the RPTS seminary recently, speaking there, and I found out that RPs, Reformed Presbyterians, were in China a century ago.
And because of the revolutions taking place there, the missionaries were kicked out. and no communication took place for decades. And only in the last 10 or 20 years, many in the RP churches in America found out that the RP churches in China continue to grow. And in fact, now it's bigger than the RP churches in the U.S. If that's not the gospel, I'm not sure what is.
The Lord breaks down barriers that you and I have built in our sinfulness. And his gospel message transcends All nations All languages are all tongues and to the ends of the earth we are called to declare. This is where the psalmist is reminding us, friends. You are blessed. In order to bless.
To proclaim his name. As people blessed by God through Jesus Christ, we gather to worship. Lifting up our praises and thanksgiving. To the Lord. You know, there aren't that many images of the end times in terms of what happens in heaven, apart from a banqueting table for which I'm very thankful.
And also Worship. That is 24-7. I wonder for my younger friends who are here. If an hour and a half of worship on a Sunday morning seems long to you, I got news for you. When you get to heaven, Twenty four seven.
Is what you're going to get in heaven. My suggestion? is that you enjoy worship. Worship is where you are heading into a worship, practicing what that wedding day will be like. One day we will join all the saints of all generations in worship and praising His name.
And on any given Sunday throughout the whole world, we get to taste and foretaste a glimpse of that heavenly reality upon the earth for which we give praise. for we are blessed people who are called to praise and worship. We Gather to fellowship. blessing others by our thankfulness and our generosity. To whom much has been given, we are told even in these lectures, we have the opportunity and the joy of being able to serve and give with generosity.
And we are moved to proclaim. Hereafter, this conference, you will be scattered throughout the world. I love saying that. Because in this case, it's actually real. You'll be scattered by the Lord, launched throughout the world to declare the name of Jesus loudly and lift up the name of Christ Jesus on high.
Simply, Him we proclaim, we are told, and we want Jesus' name to be known on our lips as well as in our lives. And we want all. To come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. To know and receive the blessings. that only Christ can lead us to.
As we approach the throne of God's grace. Are we surprised then? That the last command to his disciples, Jesus left, was simply this. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, he says. Go therefore.
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold I am with you always. To the close. of the age. I know. All of you Are here, myself included, because at some point, someone heard the call.
and whence. And that's what happened in Korea since 1880s. Where my parents and the parents before, three generations before, came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and here I am. And I know here you are. Because someone went and declared And lift up the name of Jesus.
And this is what he says: go therefore. Proclaim the name of Jesus, but not without a promise. The promise is simply this. I am with you always. To the close of the age.
I am with you always. Until the close of the age. I am with you always, Jesus said. until world comes to an end. I heard that when Dr.
Ferguson retired from his church, He preached from Hebrews 13, where the reminder is Jesus Christ. Is the same yesterday? Today And forevermore. And so when he says, I am with you forever. That promise is not just to the disciples gathered then, the promise is to us, and this promise cannot change.
I am with you. Until the end. Because Jesus Christ Is the same yesterday? Today And forevermore. You and I?
In Jesus are blessed. And as people who are blessed. We are proclaimed and declared and sent. to bless others. whom we see.
As people who are blessed, we are sent to bless others. That was Joel Kim, and this is Renewing Your Mind. Joel Kim is a Ligner Ministries Teaching Fellow, and he also serves as President and Assistant Professor of New Testament at Westminster Seminary, California in Escondido, California. If you'd like to watch all of the messages from Ligoneer's first ever conference in Southeast Asia, they are all available for free. on ligoneer.org.
in the Ligonier app and on Ligonier's YouTube channel. Reverend Kim recently completed a study on the book of Colossians. It's called Everything in Christ. We'll unlock that series for you and its study guide when you give a donation before midnight tonight at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. In addition to access to that study, we'll send you a copy of R.
C. Sproll's title, What Is The Great Commission? This offer does end today, so be sure to respond at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes while there's still time. And if you live outside of the US and Canada, a digital edition of this resource offer is waiting for you at renewingyourmind.org/slash global. As John tells us in 1 John 4.19, we love because He first loved us.
We are indeed chosen by God. And next week, we'll be featuring messages from that classic series from RC Sprawl.
So be sure to join us beginning Monday here on Renewing Your Mind.
