How We Pay God Back

Introduction:

I've been really getting into WWII recently. I've been watching a lot of documentaries and movies. I watched movie recently that I don't think I could recommend. I don't even know if it was right for me to watch the movie honestly, it's very gruesome. But what I saw in this WWII movie was a incredible depiction of how many people view the Christian life.

The movie is all about a mission to save a solider Private Ryan. The movie starts with the news that all three of Ryan's brothers were killed in the war in the same week. They realized this when they were about to mail their mother all three letters at the same time.

Desiring to save this poor mother from losing all four of her sons they send in a team to save Ryan who has parachuted behind enemy lines in Germany controlled France.

So they send a team of eight men to find Ryan and bring him back home. As you can imagine this is hard for the eight men to wrap their minds around. They are soldiers too. They all have mothers too. Why should the eight of them risk their lives to save one man. It would make sense for one man to risk his life to save eight lives but why should eight men risk their lives to save one life. Ryan isn't particularly important. He's only a private after all.

So as these men are walking through France they say things like, "Ryan better be worth it. He better be one incredible private. He better get home and discover the cure for cancer." That was the only way they could wrap their minds around the sacrifice they were making.

They knew it was worth it to fight for their country's freedom. They had no problem making that sacrifice. But eight men for one guy. That made no sense to them.

As the movie progresses and they continue to look for Ryan one by one the eight men are killed in battle which only further infuriates the men.

Until they finally find Ryan protecting a bridge from the Germans. So the men agree to help Ryan until back up arrives and then they will take him home.

But the battle doesn't go their way. They are overrun by Germans until the very last moment when the backup comes and every man sent to save Ryan has been killed.

And as Ryan holds the hand of one of the dying men who came to save him. The dying man whispers into Ryan's ear and says, "make our sacrifice worth it." Make our sacrifice worth it. He's essentially saying what all the guys have been saying the whole film. Eight men have sacrificed their lives for you. Now go home and make it worth it.

Can you imagine having that kind of burden laid on your shoulders? Can you imagine going through life wondering if you have done enough to make their sacrifice worth it?

The movie ends with Ryan as an old man looking at the graves of the men who saved him. He starts to sob and his wife comes up to him with his kids and grandkids in the background. And though his tears he asks his wife. "Am I good man? Have I lived a good life?"

All of his life he carried this burden. This burden to be a good man. This burden to make the sacrifice of these men worth it. What an exhausting life that must have been. What an overwhelming burden he must have carried.

How exhausting it must have been to go through life with that constant thought in the back of your head, “have I done enough?” “What else should I do?” “Have I made their sacrifice worth it?”

Then it dawned on me. This is how most Christians live their lives. God sent His one and only Son to die on the cross to save you from your sins. He sacrificed everything for you. He bankrupt the heavens so you could have life.

Jesus endured more pain and heartache than we could possibly imagine. He endured the full weight of God’s wrath. The wrath that we deserved. The wrath that we were owed because of our sin.

And we live with the burden to make God's sacrifice worth it.

We live our lives with that question in the back of our head, “Have we done enough?” Are we good men and woman? Have we lived good lives? We carry around this impossible burden of making the sacrifice of God's Son worth it.

And It's overwhelming. It's suffocating. It's exhausting. It's anxiety inducing. It's joy stealing. It's shame filling, It's a horrible way to live!

We would never say this but we wonder if we have to pay God back for what He’s done.

We do say things like because of all that God has done for us we should out of thankfulness give Him back our lives.

Is this the way the Christian life is supposed to feel like? Must we caring around the burden of making God’s sacrifice worth it? When Jesus took His last breathe did He whisper into our ears, “make my sacrifice worth it?”

Must we go through life wondering if we have been thankful enough? If we have served enough? Sacrificed enough? Worshipped enough? Shared the gospel enough?

But I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. In fact I think that’s exactly the opposite of how God calls us to think and to live.

But let’s not take my word for it. Let’s look at what God has to say this morning. We are going to be reading from Psalm 116. I am going to start in verse 1 in order to get the context but we are going to be narrowing in on verses 12-14.

Psalm 116:1–14 ESV

1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. 2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. 7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; 11 I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.” 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

Let’s quickly run through the first part of this Psalm. It starts by saying that David loves the Lord. Why? Because the Lord has listened to his call for help. He has listened to David’s pleas for mercy.

Even when the snares of death had encompassed and hell had laid hold of him. Hd called to the Lord and God heard his call and delivered David from death and hell.

Verse 5 says that the Lord is gracious and merciful.

Verse 6 tells us that the Lord preserves the simple when David was brought low God saved him.

Verse 7 David tells His soul to rest because the Lord has dealt bountifully with him.

For you have delivered my soul from death, David says in verse 8

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling;

I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. because of all that you have done for me David proclaims.

David is recounting all that the Lord has done for him. All of the ways He has saved him from death and heard his call. David is reciting the Old Testament gospel. A salvation from death that could never be achieved through human means.

But then he asks the question in verse 12. He says, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?”

He’s asking the question what should I do in light of all that God has done for me? How do I pay God back? How do I make His sacrifice worth it. He’s asking the same question that private Ryan must have asked His entire life. What must I do to make the sacrifice of these men worth it? And David is asking the same question.

Not what must I do to be saved. But rather since I have been saved what am I supposed to give back to the Lord as a result. How do I pay God back. That’s the question I want us to answer this morning. How do we pay God back? How do we make God’s sacrifice worth it?

That’s a heavy question but by God’s grace David gives us the answer in verses 12-14. Let me read it again.

Psalm 116:12–14 “12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, 14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”

In these verses we see three ways we pay God back. Three ways we make God’s sacrifice worth it.

Way #1

Way #1 is found in verse 13. It says, “I will lift up the cup of salvation.”

The phrase lift up is probably not translated quite right. Commentators and other translations agree It’s not lifting up the cup of salvation but taking in the cup of salvation. David is saying I take in the cup. I hold tight to the cup. I drink in the cup.

What is this a cup of? What cup does David take in and drink? It’s the cup of salvation. It’s the cup of mercy and grace. It’s the cup of deliverance. It’s the cup of forgiveness.

The cup of salvation is intended to be in contrast with the cup of God’s wrath. While the cup of God’s wrath is a never ending, all-consuming, judgment for our sins. The cup of salvation is a never ending, all consuming, love and forgiveness for our sins.

And it’s a cup that never runs out. Remember what Jesus tells the woman at the well? He offers her living water. Water that can quench her eternal thirst. Water that never goes dry. Never runs out.

That’s what this cup is filled with. It’s a cup of salvation. It’s a cup of living water. It’s a cup that will never be empty and never run dry.

You will never see the bottom of this cup because every time you may worry that you’ve used it too much. Every time you wonder if you have drank the last drop. Every time you look inside this cup you will always find it filled with living water. You will always find it filled with love. You will always find it filled with delight.

Remember that poor starving widow in the Old Testament. Israel is in a drought and this starving woman and her son meet Elijah. And Elijah asks her to make him some bread. But she confesses to Elijah that she only has enough flour and oil for one more small meal. She plans on making it and then sitting with her son until they both die.

But Elijah says if you make me some food with your last bit of flour and oil. I promise you that your jar will not run dry and your flour will not be used up until rain comes upon the land.

So the woman goes away and does what Elijah has said and sure enough the scripture tells us that here was food every day for the woman and her son. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry. Can you imagine being this poor woman.

Can you imagine her fear every morning as she peered into the jug of oil and the jar of flour. Wondering if this is the day it runs dry. If this is the day the miracle stops. But every time she went to make a meal. Every time she went to the jug of oil and jar of flour she found it filled. She did not see the bottom of that jar until the day the rain came down and salvation was brought to the land.

That is the same way the cup of our salvation works. We live in fear that one day it will run dry. Every time we go to it we wonder did we use to much of it the day before. Were we too frivolous with the grace God offered us the day before. Have we wasted more than can be refilled. And yet every morning we have the faith to look into the cup we find it full of new morning mercies.

MAYBE JuST MOVE ON HERE

Let me ask you a question.

What is an infinity minus 1? Infinity? Why? Because you cannot take away from infinity.

So what is an infinity minus 10,000? Infinity

What about an infinity minus a billion? It’s still an infinity.

The cup of salvation is filled with infinite mercy and grace. Which means it doesn’t matter how much you subtract or take away it’s still infinite.

Some days we do pretty good. We feel like we’ve only had to ask God for forgiveness in a few ways. We’ve only subtracted 1 or 2 from God’s infinite grace.

But some times we have bad days. We struggle. We bark at our kids or our parents. We sin against our spouse. We are lazy at our jobs. We are rude, we lie, we gossip. We’ve subtracted 10,000 from God’s infinite grace.

But at one or two points in all of our lives we screw up so bad. We fall so hard. We make such a horrible mistake that we don’t think we can ever come back from. We fear that we have made irreparable damage to those around us. We’ve subtracted a billion from God’s infinite grace.

But don’t you see that whether you’ve screwed up a little or bigger than you knew possible. Whether you have subtracted one or a billion from God’s grace HIs grace is still infinite. Because you cannot take away from infinity. You cannot subtract from God’s grace.

The cup of salvation that God offers you is eternal, it’s infinite, it never runs dry.

Ahh but we have gotten away from the point of the message this morning. David is asking how do we repay God for all that He has done for us. How do we repay God for the salvation he has offered us.

How does David say we do it? By taking in the cup of salvation and taking another drink. How do we repay God for his forgiveness? We ask Him to forgive us again?

That doesn’t make any natural human sense does it? It would be like if you went to a local coffee shop and ordered a cup of coffee and then asked the barista, “How do I pay you back for serving me this cup of coffee” and they responded “drink it and then ask for another cup.” This is what God is telling us in this Psalm.

How do we repay God for all that He has done. We drink down His cup of salvation again and again and again. How do we pay God back for the gift we have received from Him? We receive it again and again. Year after year, day after day, hour after hour, moment after moment. We receive the gift of salvation again.

If you feel forgiven this morning. If you feel loved this morning and you want to do something for God. The best thing you could do for Him the thing He would appreciate the most would be to come to him again and again for his forgiveness. If you want to repay God for the love He has shown you. Then open yourself up and allow Him to love you even more and give Him more of your heart.

Way #2

Way number 2 is very similar to way number one.

Psalm 116:1 ESV

1 I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.

Psalm 116:3–4 (ESV)

3 The snares of death encompassed me;

the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

I suffered distress and anguish.

4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:

David asks the question how do I repay God for answering my calls of distress. How do I repay God for delivering me when I called on His name.

David says, “I will call on the name of the Lord.” It’s that wild?? How do I repay you for answering my call? I will call you again.

Imagine driving on the interstate in the middle of nowhere. You are completely lost and without hope and you blow a tire. No one is around. No one is driving by. You are utterly alone and your car is broken down and you have no way to fix it. But you manage to find a tow company. You call the guy up and he drives to your location and saves you from your predicament.

In your thankfulness you ask the man how can I ever repay you for what you’ve done for me and you reach into your wallet to pay him and he just says, “No thank you. The only thing I want from you is this.” Next time you need help call me again.

You might be thinking but that’s not how this works. That’s not a very good business model. I have to pay you something for all that you’ve done for me. But he refuses and insists that the best way. In reality the only way to repay Him is the next time your in trouble is to simply call on Him again.

That makes no sense to our human mind. But that’s what God is telling us in this Psalm.

I can’t wrap my head around someone who would love like that. I can’t grasp the idea that someone would care for me like that.

In every other relationship there is always some amount of give and take. Even in the most loving of relationships there is some amount of give and take.

The week between Christmas and New Years was interesting in our home. My wonderful wife got sick and at times it wasn’t pretty. So I had the opportunity to step up. I was taking care of her. I was switching out vomit buckets and cleaning up messes running to the store for sprite, saltines, and chicken noodle soup. I was taking care of Suzy making her meals, doing a little laundry, trying to spend quality time with her. I was watching Lena, changing diapers, cleaning up pee soaked sheets when she soaked through her diaper. I was cleaning the house, doing the dishes, trying to do some laundry.

I was doing it all. In fact I half expected to get a knock at the door and for someone to let me know that I had actually won the husband and father of the year award. I was incredible. My head was growing but that was to be expected after all.

My wife of course was very thankful. She had told me several times how grateful she was for all that I had done.

But then on Friday night she did something that you wouldn’t believe. She was starting to feel better and I was sitting in my chair a little tired after a week of crushing it. Abby however, is just now starting to feel normal again. SO she starts picking up the house a little bit. It had started to get a little messy (maybe I hadn’t done as good of a job as I thought) and she then had the audacity to call on me for more help. She asked if I could help her finish cleaning up the house.

I couldn’t believe it. After all I had done. After all the ways I had helped her she still called on me to help her more.

So I made some snarky comment about all that I had already done that week. And in a moment I had tainted all of the love I had shown her that week. Because I showed her with that one comment that the love I showed her wasn’t free but came at a price.

The price was simple. I spent all week serving you. Now it’s your turn to serve me. That’s not love. That’s give and take. I give you something and I then expect to take something back. Maybe I didn’t deserve that husband of the year award after all…

I am so glad that God loves my wife and children better than I do.

But this is the problem. We assume God loves us the way we love others. We assume that God has the same kind of give and take relationship that we have with others. We assume God’s love for us comes with a price tag.

But that is why God’s Word is so important. Because left to ourselves we construct a God of our own imgination and we construct a God that loves like we love. But God’s love is different.

How does God want you to repay Him for all the ways He has answered your call? He wants you to call on Him again. He wants you to trust in Him again. He does not grow tired of hearing your calls for help. He does not grow weary in answering your calls for mercy.

Way #3

Way number 3 to repay the Lord for all that He has done is in reality just a retelling of the first two ways. It says in, Psalm 116:14 “14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” To pay a vow is to perform or execute a promise that you have made. So David is saying that we will come through on His vows he will preform them. But where and what are the vows that He has made?

The verse says in the presence of all God’s people. David plans on making these vow payment in public where people can see. But what is the vow He was promised to keep. It’s verse 13. David says I will or I vow to take in the cup of salvation and to call again on the name of the Lord.

David is doubling down on what He has just said. He vows to drink in the cup of salvation to open himself up to be loved by God and to call on the name of the Lord again and again and again and he promises to do this in public.

This is what the church should look like. It should look like a group of people week after week publicly embracing our salvation and forgiveness and publicly call on the Lord for deliverance.

We are not a group of people who have our lives together. We are all a mess. We are all hopeless without Christ. Together we need to embrace the gift God has given us. We need to be a group of people who are not afraid to call on God for help again. Who are not afraid to take another drink from the cup of salvation.

This is why Christianity is different than any other religion in the world. Every other religion in the world says do this or do that. Put love and good back out into the world. Do enough good things and you can climb that mountain and get to God. Christianity says don’t do, don’t try, but receive. Accept. Enjoy. And then receive it again. Accept it again. Enjoy it again and again and again. And what a gift that we get to do it together.

But you may be thinking doesn’t Jesus tell us to give Him our lives. He does say take up your cross and follow me.

God’s commands are a gift

END OF ILLUSTRATION POSSIBLY AT END OF SERMON

But listen to me church as Jesus took his last breathe He did not whisper into your ear and say make it worth it. He shouted, he declared from the cross. That is finished. It is paid in full. It was worth it.

Before you ever did a single good work for God His sacrifice was already worth it. Before you ever tried to live a good life HIs sacrifice was enough.

You don't have to pay God back. You don't have to make His sacrifice worth it. His love for you doesn't come with strings. His sacrifice doesn't come with a requirement.

You can't pay God back. You can't make it worth it. You can only accept it. You can only live with the joy of knowing you are eternally loved by God.

Yes God desires for you to live a good life. Yes you have been saved for good works as Ephesians says. But you cannot make His sacrifice worth it. You cannot pay God back. He wouldn't want you too if you could.

Oh how badly I wish you would believe that. Oh how badly I wish I would believe that. Maturing in Christ comes from having the strength to understand that kind of love. That's why Paul prays that we would be strengthen with the power of God to understand the heights and the depths and the width of God's love for you.

RANDOM NOTES

if GOd’s grace was a credit card he wouldn’t want you to pay the debt back He’d want you to swipe the card again and spend even more.

Notice the way the context uses the phrase call on the Lord. It’s a call for help. What shall I render to the Lord for all the ways he has answered my calls? Call on the Lord again

We sang the song Come Thou Fount this morning and there is a line that I think needs explaining.

O to grace how great a debtor

Are we in debt to grace? Jesus taught us to pray “forgive us our debts” and he’s called us debtors because of our sin. But when the Bible talks about being in debt to God it seems to be in reference to, as John Piper has said, our sins that need to be forgiven not our obedience that needs to be paid.

We are in debt to God’s justice and it’s a debt that could never be repaid which is why we need God because His grace does not create debt it pays debts.

That’s why when Jesus hung on the cross he cried out it is finished. It’s been paid in full. We no longer owe a debt to God’s justice because God’s grace has paid the price.

We don’t pay God back for his grace we continue to receive God’s grace. The only debt we owe to grace is to continue to depend on the grace offered to us.

So when we sing the words oh to grace how great a debtor we must not think we owe grace our obedience but only our dependence.

Daily I’m constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; Seal it for Thy courts above.