Untitled Sermon (6)

Good evening I am glad that we can be here together. It is always a joy to share with you in this time as we continue to look at the Psalms. Tonight we are going to be looking at Psalm 112. This is an interesting one. One of the big reasons is because we have a bad understanding in our culture what this psalm is talking about.

Prosperity Gospel

The Problem we have that has run rampant across American culture is the idea of Prosperity Gospel. That if you do good by God then you will be prosperous. IF you aren’t you won’t. Particularly in the area of material wealth. It is always challenge to refute this understanding because I don’t want to make it look like God doesn’t bless people and/or that he doesn’t care about us and our well being.

The truth is does God care about us deeply. Yes. My argument moves beyond the simplistic approach that God only blesses us with material wealth and good health. Blessings come in many forms and are not limited to those standards. It is important for us to talk this because too many people look at hardship and only see it as punishment and not as opportunity for faith. Too many people see success and over inflate their spiritual egos. With all that let’s look at this Psalm together.

Psalm 112 NIV

1 Praise the Lord. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands. 2 Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever. 4 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. 5 Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. 6 Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. 7 They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. 8 Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. 9 They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor. 10 The wicked will see and be vexed, they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

Blessed are those who Fear the Lord

The first line stands out because it reminds us of the importance of a healthy fear of the Lord. This is not to say that we should be afraid of God but we should respect that he is the creator of the universe. This is a reminder that the power and justice of God is beyond anything we could begin to understand. This is also healthy for us to be reminded of in our culture today because so much of our faith and the church today only wants to view God as a god of Love and not as a God of Justice, mercy, compassion, judgement and so many other aspects.

However we are to praise God and be reminded that there are a lot of blessings that come from respecting and recognizing the authority of God.

Wealth and Riches

Verse 3 presents us iwth the idea that wealth and riches are a blessing. To be honest they are a blessing. We can’t get away from that fact. They are gifts that we must recognize and honor. God does bless some with wealth and riches. Others he doesn’t. The question always comes why?

Well there is some other passages that might help us understand it.

Proverbs 12:27 NIV

27 The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.

The truth is that a lot of wealth in our world is earned.

Some interesting info about the rich. This is from a guy who interviewed over 200 wealthy people and he found some interesting infromation

13% were salesmen/saleswomen

28% had some professional designation; some worked for big companies, others in a small business

63% took a personal financial risk in search of wealth

41% were "B" students

29% were "C" students

68% had a college degree

25% had a postgraduate degree

86% worked more than 50 hours a week

There is a lot in there that shares with us that a lot of what makes some one rich is their effort and their knowledge base not necessarily their education but their drive and knowledge that they gain from their field.

The article also share 4 ways that all these people became rich. A note some of these categories cross over each other.

49% of the people were saver investors

18% big company senior executives

7% were viruosos, or top experts int heir field

51% were dreamer-entrepreneurs (27% of these failed at least once in business)

The point of all this is hard work and discipline can get you a long way.

When it comes to our faith we need to be reminded that God calls us to these kinds of attitudes and to be dilegnt and that is why some people are blessed with wealth. For some of us we may want wealth but we also value other things that we don’t want to put forth the specific effort that might be required for us to become that.

What do we do with wealth

While it would be easy to look at this passage and think its about how we can get wealthy or that we are for some reason blessed if we are wealthy. IT isn’t about that. It is what do we do in times of being blessed.

How do we respond when we are blessed greatly. Remember that Blessings are more than material things.

Psalm 112:4–5 NIV

4 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. 5 Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.

Our world view is changed. See even wealthy people have hardship and pain and struggles. I am reminded of my dad right now. For those that don’t know or if you haven’t heard me share this i grew up very well. I was blessed as a child to grow up with a dad who worked a job that paid him very well. My dad was an actuary. Not many people know what that is and i am not going to begin to say i can fully explain it. I know that at one point my Dad was in charge of the Pensions plans for the entirety of the University of Pittsburgh Medical center. That’s the largest hospital group in Pittsburgh. They are world renowned for their cancer research and treatment. He had a lot of responsibility. In fact there was a time in our life i remember my dad being super stressed and i didn’t know why. We had money we were blessed why would we be stressed. The problem was in order to get to the point my dad was at he worked long hours. He would often go to work in the dark and he would come home when ti was dark. He didn’t have an office with a window at a time so he would often barely see daylight. He broke. It broke him. That was a dark time in my families history.

Yet in this dark time the light shown. We were blessed by people in teh church. We were blessed by friends and family who helped us in my dads breakdown. He saw great blessings and we all saw that blessings are more than just money. The ligght dawned.

The strength that comes from being right with God isn’t in our blessings or wealth it is in knowning who holds us in their hands. It is in the confidencce that he has us. That no matter how good or bad things might go that he is there for us. The rightious person knows that God has them that he is the center of who they are and they gain strength from that.

I remember later in life this is what i saw reflected in my Dad. His faith had changed from when i was younger. He was confident of who he was not because of what he had but becasue of who had him.

He lived by this hymn and and i am so thankful for it.

1 My faith has found a resting place,

from guilt my soul is freed;

I trust the ever-living One,

his wounds for me shall plead.

Refrain:

I need no other argument,

I need no other plea,

it is enough that Jesus died,

and that he died for me.

2 Enough for me that Jesus saves,

this ends my fear and doubt;

a sinful soul, I come to him,

he’ll never cast me out. [Refrain]

3 My heart is leaning on the Word,

the written Word of God,

salvation by my Savior’s name,

salvation thro' his blood. [Refrain]

4 My great Physician heals the sick,

the lost he came to save;

for me his precious blood he shed,

for me his life he gave. [Refrain]

Faith’s resting place

It was amazing me to think of this hymn and than think of these verses.

Psalm 112:6–8 NIV

6 Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. 7 They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. 8 Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.

Our faith makes us secure it is what creates our blessings that we see that our blessing is found in our faith in God. That no matter what comes or goes we will be safe and secure in him. That is why we can be confident.

In a way this is a prosperity message.

If we have faith we will be Prosperous not in material things but in faith and its blessings. We will be wealthy in spiritual ways and that is all we truly need.

Let’s Pray.