My Cup Overflows

The Lord is my shepherd.

I like nothing.

He makes me lie down in Green Pastures.

Elite me beside Quiet Waters. He refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his namesake. I know, I walk through the darkest Valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me.

You're right and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen. Well, good morning. Everyone is so wonderful to have you in church. I never get tired of that video. It's just powerful if I we haven't met yet. My name is John and what a wonderful introduction from Pastor, Rob. I'm so glad that you are worshipping with us today. And I were going to Jump Right In. We're going to continue in our series of this morning and a Psalm 23. And this is the song. It's a song written by King David and and he is writing about God and he is writing to God. In the verse chapter 1, we're going to jump right in together. It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, he makes me lie down in Green Pastures, he leads me beside Quiet Waters, he restores my soul, he guides me in Paths of righteousness for his name's sake and then in inverse for he Transitions and he begins to talk to God. Cuz even though I walk through the valley, Play of the shadow of death. I will fear. No evil. Why for you are with me? Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil and then at the end of verse 5 we see a wonderful expression of praise and thanksgiving from David when he says my cup overflows. David was saying the original Hebrew word here, for overflows is revia, and what it literally means is saturated with physical example, of this can be seen with a sponge and a sponge will when introduced with to liquid, it will absorb the, the material until it reaches its saturation point and it and it's there that it cannot contain any more liquid and it begins to spill over when it comes to spilling over and overflowing every parent in here. Knows all of There's there's there's no mystery there. I had a, there's an awesome slide there and it'll come up here. I promise it is overflowing David when he says my cup overflows here in Psalm 23, what he saying. Essentially is God, I'm saturated. I'm spilling over because you're in my life, he's saying my heart is completely full faith in you. I found everything I need and more what a wonderful prayer and front end of a of praise and thanksgiving. David didn't say this because life was easy, he didn't say this because he had a Carefree trouble-free Life. As we read about David, we know that he, he understood firsthand. What profound pain was he knew about personal tragedy and loss, David understood of personal failure, he knew what it meant to say. Betrayal and persecution at the hands of others. And yet, he lived with a heart that was full of gratitude. He overcame a discouragement, he overcame two feet and he live with joy in his heart. And I'm here to tell you that through Jesus Christ, you and I can do the very same thing if you believe that, say men, There are three truths, three principles that we're going to focus on here together. And I want to share these to help help us to live with two overflow with a heart of gratitude as we walk with Jesus Christ. The first thing I want to send her stand is at the most significant blessings that we received as God's children are our spiritual blessings. You see, the Bible teaches. That God is a god of blessing. I'm glad God the god of blessing, I'm all for receiving and enjoying his blessings. And as we sang this morning the greatest blessing that we received is God himself a man. In God is a god of blessing in Romans 10:12. Paul writes, there's no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and bless and richly, blesses, all who call on him, James 1:17 says every good and perfect. Gift is from above coming down from the father of heavenly lights. God's blessing is coming, many, many forms. We received a mental. Emotional, physical material blessings but the most important blessings that we received from God, our spiritual blessings. Now, it's important that you understand. I'm not communicating, and the Bible certainly doesn't teach that God has some kind of a Genie in a Bottle that he's ready and willing to Grant every wish every desire. That's not biblical, it's not accurate. But the Bible does teach and I'm so glad that God is a good god. He's a generous, God, he's a Loving God. How many of you have found that to be true? We he's a God that invites us to walk with him to know him to lift up all of our needs to him. You know, all of your life matters to God. And we are to lift up our knees to him and to trust him to answer in his way, in his time and according to his wisdom, doesn't always make sense. I don't know about you, but I don't always understand how God answers prayers. I don't know understand his timing but the reality is God loves us completely and eternally. He's he listens to every prayer that God Delights in answering the prayers of his people. When we don't understand what God's doing, Pastor Robinson, many times. Maybe you're praying. Maybe you're crying out to God. Maybe you're asking him to intervene in a certain situation and you just don't see you don't understand what's happening. You do. Understand where he is, and what's going on? Pastor, Rob is shared many times. When you don't understand what God is doing focus on who he is. And there's nowhere that we see the heart of God more clearly than at the cross of Jesus Christ. It's there that we see the heart of God, the sacrificial. Love. That is H in Jesus Christ name of water here.

God is a good god. He's a generous. God, we're going to, we're going to look at a fusions 13 together and infusions 13 says, praise be to the God and father of our Lord. Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the Heavenly Realms. With every spiritual blessing. Say that would be every spiritual blessing in. Jesus Christ, you are blessed beyond measure. We're going to look at what are the spiritual blessings? What is Paul referring to in Verses 4 through 14? And I'm just going to kind of give him over the surface. But what I really would encourage you to do, is in your own time slowly and prayerfully focus on the spiritual blessings this week. It'll bless you. It'll encourage you, I promised but God is a god of blessing, David lived with a heart that was filled with gratitude because he knew who God was and he knew he knew who God was in his life and it ended and how rich he was because of God Presence. So, we're going to look at these spiritual blessings a little bit together. The first spiritual blessing we received, as children of God. The Bible says that we are chosen. I want you to know that before the foundation of the world, God shows you. He chose you individually, and he chose you personally to know him to walk with him and to spend eternity with him. Let that sink in again today, let that encourage you again today and John chapter 15. Jesus said you didn't shows me, but I chose you the second spiritual blessing. The Paul writes about here. He says that we have been declared holy and blameless Before the Throne of God, when Jesus died on the cross, he did that for you. You did that for me. He took all of our sins upon himself. And when you, and I choose Jesus Christ. When we accept him into our hearts, he exchanges. his Holiness for all of our sins and through that through faith in Christ, you and I are declared Before, the Throne of God to be holy and blameless is that good news this morning 2nd Corinthians 5:21 says that he who had no sin became sin for us. So that in here we might become the righteousness of God. God has blessed you in Christ by declaring you, holy and blameless before his throne of the next spiritual blessing that Paul writes about his adoption and I wanted to share with you. One of the great joys of my life is being a data. Always wanted to be a dad and God has blessed me with four children who I love two pieces and two, grandchildren, my youngest daughter. Her name is Mia some of, you know, her and Mia is from Guatemala. And my wife, and I had the privilege and the black God brought her into our lives into our hearts when she, when she was just 3 months old. And you know, I've learned so much about God's love through being a dad, threw up through having my Children after I've learned about that the more about the heart of God and when when some of the things that God has taught me through a, the privilege of being me is Dad. You see, the thing is, I could never. I mean, I going to do everything I can to communicate how much I love her and how much she means to me how deep God is planted her in my heart. But you know, words fall short, I can never fully communicate how deep she is in my heart. I can never fully communicate the links that I would go to protect her. How, how much I desire and want to bless her. What it, how much joy. It brings to my heart, just to watch her live, her life in the grow and to be everything that God has called her to be one of the great joys of my life. I'd do anything for her and here's the thing. I'm a sinful man, I'm falling if I if God can give me the ability to love my children to love Mia in that way. How much more does God love you? How much more, you know, you are not a stranger. You're not an outsider through Jesus Christ. You've been adopted into the family of God. You're not a distant relative, you are a dearly-loved child of God. What a my favorite verses in the Bible? Is that first John 316? How great is the love? The father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. You're a child of God, through faith in Christ. Don't let anybody take that away from you a man? The next spiritual blessing. That Paul shares with us, his grace of the reason that we can enjoy God's presence in our lives right here. Today, right now. And every day, the reason we can enjoy that is because of God's grace. The reason that the Bible says that the riches of Christ Our hours. And that's because of God's grace. The reason that we can experience his work and his power in our life, every single day is because of his grace. We are children of grace, through faith in Christ, 1st Corinthians 15:10. Paul says by the grace of God, I am what I am Romans 3:24 says were justified by his grace as a gift, the next spiritual blessing, I know we're moving through these but the next spiritual blessing that Paul shares with us. And that I wanted that we're going to talk about his Redemption. What is Redemption. What does it mean? It means to be made new, the Bible teaches that through faith in Jesus Christ because you belong to Jesus, it isn't just some things that have been made. New. Everything is been made new in your life because you have accepted Christ. You're a new creation, you got new in eternal life, God's giving you a new heart and a new mind, you're on your way to a new Heaven and a new Earth. Is this good news this morning, you're going to live with God. You're going to see his face. You're going to dwell with him forever and ever and ever. In a place called The New Jerusalem. If you've accepted Jesus Christ into your heart, everything is new. 2nd Corinthians 5:17, says if anyone is in Christ, he's what a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come the next spiritual blessing. That Paul shares. Is forgiveness. How many of you are thankful for forgiveness? 1st John 1:9 says, if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I want you to know. And the more importantly the Bible wants you to know that in Jesus Christ. Your sin debt has been cancelled completely and eternally. Is that good news. We are forgiven in Jesus Christ but you, you know, as I do, we don't always feel forgiven, do we, but it's not based on God's, forgiveness isn't based on our feelings. It's based on his faithfulness. Sometimes our own Hearts, we can can condemn has, but the Bible says, God is greater than a heart. The reality is we are, we're in the midst of a spiritual battle and just as there's a God who loves you loves me, wants to bless us. There's an enemy that doesn't. And there's an enemy. That sinjon. 10 says he wants to kill. He wants to steal. He wants to destroy one of the things. Some of the things he wants to take is your peace in your joy. The enemy will try to bring up your past, he'll try to condemn you with us the sin in your life and the things you've done wrong. You may have heard this before. When the enemy tries to remind you of your past, remind him of his fee. The thing is, but don't Focus too much on the enemy focus on Jesus Christ because he's our life, he's our joy, he's our strength, and it's what God says, it's what Jesus says that matters. And the Bible says very clearly that. If we have accepted Jesus Christ, we receive the spiritual blessing of forgiveness. Psalm 103 12 says, as far as the East is from the West so far, has he removed our transgressions from us the next spiritual blessing. That Paul talks about his wisdom and understanding, you know, if you've accepted Jesus through faith in Christ, through the word of God, through the holy spirit, in your life, your eyes have been opened. You now know the truth, isn't it? Good to know the truth? You know who God is? You know, who you are in Christ. You are and I can First and what God's will is for our life, no longer do we have to walk around in darkness and confusion, but we've found the truth. And as children of God, we've been blessed with wisdom and understanding says, in that John, Jesus says in John 8:32, you will know the truth and the truth will do. What Set you free. That's exactly right. The next spiritual blessing. That Paul shares with us is an inheritance. You have a Divine inheritance as a follower of Jesus in the Hebrews 9:15, it says Christ as the mediator of a New Covenant that those who are called me receive the promised Eternal inheritance, you're a co-heirs with Christ. You've received a Divine inheritance that in, nobody can take that away from you. And the final the last spiritual blessing that we're going to look at here this morning and that Paul shares in first Ephesians is the spiritual blessing says that when we accepted Christ, we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, I want you to know that if you belong to Christ, there's an identifying mark. It says, you are God's Property? Is that encouraging you belong to Jesus? You are his Property. No one can snatch you from his hand. These are spiritual blessings, you know, we're so rich in Christ. We received everything in Jesus and as we focus on the incredible spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ. We can't help but overflow with gratitude. We can't help it overflow. Like David did with thanks giving you know to live a life filled with gratitude and filled with Thanksgiving. We need to be very aware. We need to focus on God and all of his blessings in our life. And the next point, the next thing I want to share is it we we need to always remember the price that God paid for us, the Apostle, Paul, he never forgot the cost that the father had to give his only son. Jesus Christ had to go to a cross and suffer and die. It was all this was Who is Central de Paul's thinking always Central to his teaching and Galatians 6-14 Paul rights. May I never boast, except in the cross of the Lord, Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, the reality is and none of us deserve God's love. None of us deserve His blessings. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ. We don't deserve God's blessings, we don't deserve his love but it is absolutely hours because God so loved the world that He Sent His only begotten. Son, that whosoever believes in him. Will not perish, but have everlasting life. We can never forget the price that God paid. As you think about the magnet, Dude, of the cross. I want you to think about this. The father know what? No, father has ever loved a son. The way that God, the Father, loves his son Jesus Christ. It's an eternal love. It's a limitless. Love it is a supernatural love. And let me ask you this, what's harder suffering yourself suffering our self or watching a loved one suffer. We need to understand what it cost. The Father the blessings we have the Salvation that we have it cost, God, everything, the father gave his only son to die on a cross. We can never forget the price that Jesus has paid. The cross was an absolutely humiliating Way to Die. The cross was absolutely horrific in terms of the physical suffering. Here's something else that we can never forget. You see? Jesus Christ. Had a perfect ending. Colonel fellowship with with the father and it was at the cross. It was the moment that all the sin of the world was placed on Jesus Christ. That God, the father had to turn his face. And so, for the first time Jesus new and experienced what it was like to be completely alone, he felt completely and absolutely alone in that moment. And I, and at the same time, bearing the sins of the whole world, we can never forget the price that God has paid for us. Amen. As we as we focus on who God is in our life as we focus on the the blessings that are ours in Christ. As we focus on the extravagant price that God has paid for our Salvation, we can have no other response other than my cup overflows. Say that with me my cup overflows. David was defeated by the pain in the trials in his life. He lived with gratitude. He was Victorious through his relationship with God, which brings us to the third point, the key. And it's this, the key to living of Victorious. Christian Life. In this hour is the same as it has been throughout the church age to focus daily say daily To focus daily on Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12, 12 says, therefore since we're surrounded by such a great, cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. What is this mean? What if what, what what can we what do we need to understand? As we read, this verse is he? We can't fix our our physical Eyes On Jesus, Jesus. After the resurrection, he appeared to the to Thomas and when Thomas saw Jesus after the resurrection, he fell at his feet. He said, my Lord, and my God, and Jesus said to him, you believe, because you seen. But blessed are those who have not seen and yet, believe, and that's where we find ourselves where to walk by faith. And We can't fix our physical Eyes On Jesus yet in this life. But what we can do is we can make him the center of our thoughts and our actions and we can and our decisions we can continually focus on him and make him the center of our life, you know, to overcome to live a life filled with gratitude to have an a heart that's overflowing with Thanksgiving. It's so important. That more and more and more we focus on all that God has given us. We focus on the incredible price, the Jesus Paid for us, and we focus on who he is in our life. David faced incredible hardship, and yet he was an overcomer and you, and I can do the very same thing, because we serve the same, God, Amen. We belong to the same God, you know, so many things can change so fast in this life. We could think so many things that we can, we can lose things so easily we can lose with our health. We can lose, well, jobs can change, positions, can change, things can change so quickly. A speaking of change, I went yesterday and jumped on a ferry to Mukilteo, and I pulled up to the toll booth and the nice lady there looked at me and said, sir, you over 65 And and and I thought about it for a moment and and with the biggest smile that I could muster, I said we'll know, I'm not man, but I'm working on it. I'm doing my best at and got on the ferry, you know, things can change so quickly. But the thing that doesn't change who God is in our life, the things that will never change our His blessings in our life. Nobody can take them. Nobody can steal those from us. God is a good god. He's a generous God, he's a faithful God. He's a god, that is love this completely and sacrificially as you focus on who Jesus Christ is in your life, as you focus on his word as you focus on your identity in Christ and all and everything that you have in Christ, you will have a heart of gratitude. You will you? And I will be overflowing with Thanksgiving and that's how we want to live our life. Isn't it? We live in a world that desperately needs to know the love of God. We live in a world that desperately needs to understand who Jesus is and, and God wants to flow over out of our Lives. God wants to spill over. He wants his love to spillover out of us in and the world needs to know Jesus and you know, we Bethany Compassion Center as you heard. We've got to, we've got an incredible event that's coming up and the summer bash. We invite you all to be a part of that it. Why do we do this? It's a it's a huge community outreach and that we do all kinds of things, we provide food at throughout the year. We do we provide food we provide resources. We provide emergency assistance for people. We do a lot of different things in the whole point is to spill over with God's love. It's not just about a backpack, it's not just a, it's a, it's an open door, it's not just a bag of groceries. It's a bridge to be able to share the good news of Jesus Christ. We want to take the message of hope, the message of Christ to our entire community. That Jesus, that our Jesus that fills our hearts. That sustains us that satisfies us. We don't want to keep him to our just to RC All right. We want to share him with the world and that's why we have a Compassion Center. That's why we do all the things that we do is a church because we want the world to know that there's hope in Jesus Christ for anyone anywhere. Amen. So you know what, I preach a message like this and I talked about overflowing with gratitude and Thanksgiving, I know very well that there are people within the sound of my voice. That would say you know John what I'm going through right now is really hard and in you if you're in that situation and you would say, you know, I don't feel like I'm overflowing with blessings, my cup doesn't feel like it's overflowing. It feels empty right now and and I'm wondering where God is and what he's doing in my life. If that's you and you're struggling with something really hard, I want you to know a few things. I want you to know that God sees you. He loves you. He's not forgotten you. He never will. You are in the, in the grasp of his hand. He's with you and he will never ever leave you. I want you to know that you belong. Going to a church that loves you. There's a pastoral staff that loves you and we want to encourage you don't walk through if you're going through a storm, don't walk through it alone. Don't go through it by yourself we're called where the family of God and family sticks together and walks together with care and concern and love for each other. So if you're here today and you're hurting and that describes you, I want to encourage you to reach out to us, reach out to the Pastoral staff and let us walk with you through the storm. If you're here and you would say, I don't know Jesus I don't have this hope. I don't know that I'm forgiven, I don't know that I'm on my way to heaven but you want to receive Christ. You want to receive his love. You can do that today. Right here, right now and I would say don't put it off. The Bible says, today is the day of salvation and I want you to have good news for you. Loves you. He sees you, he's not angry with you, he wants to forgive you, he wants to give you a brand new life in a brand new future. And all you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart to Jesus. I believe in you, I'm a sinner and I accept you as my savior. I want to follow you. If you pray a prayer like that, Jesus will will hear you and he will save you for all of eternity. If you were going to, we're going to say a closing song here in a moment. And we are, we're going to, we're going to spend a little bit of time praying together, but I just want to ask you with a final challenge. Really, what is spilling over out of your life? What is spilling over out of your heart? And I ask myself that question because we live in a world that desperately needs to see the love of Jesus is not right. And have you ever been to a business and there was plastic hanging of dust on the floor and there was a sign that says thank you for your patience during construction. I wonder if every Christian should have a sign like that somewhere, Cuz the thing is we don't get it. Always get it right. We, what we are forgiven, we are say, we are new in Jesus Christ, but the thing is we're under construction. Sometimes we stumble, sometimes we fall. And so I'm not asking you if you're spilling over with God's love perfectly all the time. That's not the question. But the question is, are you doing that more and more? Are you allowing Jesus to change your heart and change your life on a continual basis? So that you can overflow with the love of God. We're going to, we're going to pray here together. I just want to invite you to close your eyes. And if you're here today and you would say, John I I hear about this love. I hear about this Jesus, but I don't know him personally, and I, I want to choose Jesus. I want to invite him into my life today if you, if that's you. And you'd like to receive Christ, would you just slip your hand up? Pray for you today. God bless you. If you're here and you would say, John, I'm on one of those. I'm in a storm, I'm in the greatest greatest storm of my life and I'm going through something that's so hard. Sometimes, I have to remind myself to breathe. I need help. I need God's Comfort. I need his care. If you're here and you're in the one of the greatest storms, if you're going through something hard and you need God's comfort, you need his strength today or invite you to slip up your hand and that we're going to, we're going to pray for you together. A lot of hands. God loves you. He sees you and he's going to walk through this with you. My prayer for all of us my prayer. For the the whole church. Everybody within the sound of my voice is that God would Empower us to focus on Jesus Christ. Like we never have before to enjoy and appreciate. All that is in our lives and then our hearts would be so full of God that we wouldn't be able to contain it. Let's pray together, Heavenly Father, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for who you are in our lives. We thank you for the the reliability of your word and your promise. God for anybody here that choosing to receive price today. I pray your blessing upon them. I thank you Lord that your word is true and anyone that receives you anyone that accepts youth becomes a new creation forever and ever and ever. I pray for anyone that receives Christ in this place today, God, that you would bless them and be with them, I pray, God for those that are struggling and going through something really hard. I just asked through the power of the holy spirit that you would comfort Hearts today. I pray that you and just breathe peace into. Personalized that are that are just really struggling right now. And Lord, we pray for all of us that you would just continually for as we draw near to you, as we sit at your feet, would you continually pour into us and spillover out of us so that those around us can know who you are know or Jesus Empower us today. Phyllis overflowing again today and use us in Mighty ways as we leave this place. We love you. God, we thank you for all that you are in our lives and all of God's people said, amen. Well, the prayer team is going to be up here if there's something that you would like prayer for, we'd like to invite you to come forward. We're going to sing a song. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of this church. Let us know what God's doing in your life. We want to With you, we want to celebrate all that God is in your life. God bless you.