The Value of Righteousness

Open your Bibles to Psalm 37:16

Mute your microphones

Turn off your cameras

And as you are doing these thing, I want to introduce tonight key topic by telling you about a game I played when I was a kid:

The game is called Deserted Island

maybe you’ve played it, maybe you haven’t but regardless let me describe the game for you

Here is the premise of the game:

Your ship is sinking, and there is a deserted island off in the distance, but you’re going to need to swim to get to the island, so you can only bring five three items with you to the island. What would you bring to survive?

If you gone through this activity with friends before, maybe there will be time for you to do this after our small group time:

But the point of the game is to think what items are the most important for your survival.

Anything from things to keep you alive,

be it fishing pole, a water filter, or a way to start a fire

or it can be things to help you keep your sanity

maybe a book, or some sort of game, or even a person is aloud to come with you to the island if that is what you feel you would need most

The point is this, you need to bring only the essentials that will give you the greatest advantage of surviving.

It’s a fun activity that gets you thinking and discussing what is most important and valuable to you!

And maybe as I describe the game it has you thinking about what you would bring if you were deserted on an island

or even what you wish you had now that you are locked in your homes.

The message for tonight is called

The Advantage of Righteousness

and it comes from Psalm 37.16-17

Psalm 37:16–17 ESV

16 Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous.

I have three points I want us to walk through that we can get from this passage.

1) There is an advantage to having less.

Psalm 37:16 ESV

16 Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.

Better is the little… than the abundance

This statement, defies human sensibility

It is the complete opposite of logical thinking

In fact, it is mathematically inaccurate!

it is like saying 3 >10

this is objectively incorrect

If you actually believe that 3>10 and you carry kind of belief and logic into a math test, then you are going to fail not only your test, but your whole math class…

But this isn’t just logic we use in math…

we carry the same logic into our entire life…

we assume more is better

Human wisdom thinks this way:

The one who has is the strongest, is the greatest

The one who has the most food, will survive the longest

Or the one who has the most friends or fame, will experiences the most happiness

And the one who has the most money, has the best life…

This is the way that the world thinks - we have to have more, because the more we have we believe that we will be safer, stronger, and more satisfied…

but this is the same old lie that the enemy has been telling man since the beginning.

Remember God gave Adam and Eve all of the trees in the garden to eat from except for one.

Adam and Eve did not lack anything

God had provided them with all that they ever needed

But the serpent deceived them to believing that God was holding something back from them.

Even though God warned Adam of the danger that would come from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve didn’t realize that more is not always better. In fact they quickly learned that more gaining more, at the expense of obeying God is deadly..

1) There is an advantage to having less.

even though our logic would tell us otherwise

2) There is a danger in seeking abundance.

Now the danger is not the abundance itself…

the danger is not the pantry full of food

or money that you are saving for college

rather the danger comes from means by which one obtains their abundance.

The rest of Ps 37 shows how the wicked acquired their wealth:

Psalm 37:7 ESV

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

The danger is this: That in an effort to have more… one will sin against the righteous… and therefore against God.

This is why Paul writes to Timothy

1 Timothy 6:9–10 ESV

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

It’s no wonder Jesus made the statement:

Matthew 19:24 ESV

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Leading into point 3

...

Now it’s not just having little that… that makes one’s condition better than those who have more.

Rather it is those who have little… but are righteous… are better off than those who are wicked while obtaining an abundance.

Psalm 37:16 ESV

16 Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.

why could that possibly be better?

because of v 17

Psalm 37:17 ESV

17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous.

Leads us to our final point tonight

1) There is an advantage to having less.

2) There is a danger in seeking abundance.

And here is the main point of this whole passage:

3) Righteousness is of far greater value than all other riches combined.

Why is this true?

Because while it might seem like we have a limit in our wealth:

by wich I mean wealth of all things

(Including money, but not limited to money)

We have the greatest wealth of anyone on earth…

that is, we have a heavenly Father who will supply every need that we have!

Or listen to the way Calvin says it

“although (the righteous) live from hand to mouth, yet are they fed from heaven as it were with manna”

Live from hand to mouth - that is to say they don’t have a pantry full of food…

therefore they depend on God for food

Much like the way we ought to pray

‘give us this day our daily bread’

If you have a pantry full of food, it is very very difficult to depend on God for his provision.

And yet, this is how we ought to pray!

We need to see our poverty as a blessing, for by it we cling all the more dearly to God. For it is in our times of poverty that we rightly recognize just how great our need is for his provision.

And yet in all this, the benefit of righteousness… and therefore even the benefit of having less… it is impossible for me to not hear the reverberating theme of the Sermon on the mount…

Matthew 5:3 ESV

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Poor in spirit, means that they are spiritually bankrupt…

That is to say, that their “righteousness” counts for nothing.

And so it is for each of us…

ANY righteousness that we have earned through the works or effort that we have come up with in our own strength…

Paul tells us

is worse even than garbage

Philippians 3:8–9 ESV

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

If you don’t hear it the way Paul says it, then listen to the words of Jesus

Matthew 16:26 ESV

26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Christ’s righteousness, is far greater than anything this world can offer.

So in our small groups here are the questions that we will be discussing:

1) What things in this world are most precious to you?

2) What are the advantages of having less stuff?

3) What are the dangers of having and abundance of stuff?

4) If righteousness is more valuable than anything else, what should pursuing righteousness look like?