Pinatas and the Mission of God | Pastor Mike Holwerda

Psalm 67.

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, oh 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, oh 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.

Well, good morning and welcome to the weekend

gathering of Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Mike, one of our pastors here.

Really great to be with you.

If you here often, you know, regularly Pastor Joe or Pastor

Zach alternate weekends preaching and don't worry,

that's not going anywhere.

But every now and then we have something called staff Pastor Weekend,

where other pastors on staff get a chance to preach.

Same passage, same points.

Same period.

And so, I'm with you this morning.

Really glad to be with you.

And the good news is for you, you have options.

So right now in East

Hall, pastor Mark Lyle is preaching probably the better option.

Certainly the shorter option.

So I won't be offended at all if you head over to see him preach.

Well, I'm really glad, to be with you.

And I have to share. I've developed a bad habit.

In recent months.

I like to maximize my gas tank as much as I can.

I'm not sure if you're like me,

but I'm like a competition I have with myself in a weird way.

How much can I get out of one tank of gas?

And the problem is, well, probably a few problems.

But one problem is my gas gauge doesn't actually work properly.

So I'm driving on E more often than not,

and more often than not, I have no idea how much gas I have left.

So just a word of caution.

If you want to ask me for a ride.

It's so easy for us to fall

into that place with God and His grace.

We think he is running on E, and we have no idea

how much grace that might be left for us in our lives.

And Jesus has come to change our view of God.

Jesus has come to change our view of grace.

Now his grace is not low.

It is not small. But God's grace is high.

It is bigger and greater and grander than you.

And I realize one of the first things, absolute first things said about Jesus

in John chapter one, that in him there is grace upon grace.

So maybe, if nothing else, this morning,

that God would raise our view of his grace through His Son, Jesus.

We're going to need it in our lives and actually

when we need it for this passage, for the only way that Psalm 67

makes sense is if our God is a God of grace upon grace.

So let's get started. Psalm 67.

I invite you.

There's Bibles in the pew.

You can go to page 450.

You can pull up on your phone or the screen behind me.

Three points.

Psalm 67 this morning.

God's people,

God's plan and God's pleasure.

God's people.

God's plan and God's pleasure.

Look with me very first verse.

Let's look at God's people

says, May God be gracious to us

and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.

A couple of observations right off the bat.

You see, the word us is repeated several times.

This is a group prayer, a collective prayer, a prayer for God's people.

And you notice the words of be gracious to us and blessing

make his face to shine upon us.

Words of seeking God's help. Very simply. Verse one.

God's people are seeking the help of God's grace.

God's people are seeking, asking, longing for the help of God's grace.

And I wonder what what the needs were for that.

Right.

It's always a sense of me that drives our ask of God.

What was their sense of need,

what was going on in their lives, in their hearts and their relationships.

Then I started

to think, what are what are the needs in this room?

What are the things going on in your life?

In my life?

In your heart and mind that we say we are seeking.

We are longing for God's grace.

We just finished a four week series, great series

called Good News for Every family, about marriage, about parenting,

messy families and those with no family.

And I have to imagine some of us are sitting here saying,

I could use some grace for my marriage today.

I could use some grace for my parenting.

Let me put my hand up.

I could use some grace.

The family situation is really, really messy.

You know what? I feel really alone.

I have lost those closest to me. I have no family.

God, I need your grace.

What needs do you bring in this morning?

And Psalm 67 is encouraging us,

more than anything else to bring our needs to God.

That's what we do as his people.

Sometimes we need some encouragement.

We just do, right? Two ways to reason.

We get stuck sometimes, and we don't ask for God's grace.

The first is we don't think that we actually need it, right?

We think we are.

We're doing fine on our own.

We're good.

We got it. We don't need his grace.

If that's you this morning, I don't pretend I can convince you.

And 20s of your need.

But I am confident at some point, life will convince you.

I just want you to know when that day happens, God's

grace will be there for you.

We need encouragement

because we don't think that we need God, and we need encouragement

because you don't think God will actually help us.

I've been a pastor here for a little over 11 years and I see it in myself.

I see it in so many people I talk to.

We have this low view of ourselves when it comes to God

and our situations and our needs.

That God can't be bothered.

God isn't interested.

Not in in our needs.

Like the old, Seinfeld episode came to my mind.

I'm not a big Seinfeld fan.

Sorry, but,

the episode came to my mind where Jerry and his girlfriend are going to get soup.

They go into the soup kitchen, and there's a famous line with the soup owner.

What does he say?

No soup for you.

Thank you.

I'm terrible at impersonation, so that saved us all some embarrassment.

But no soup for you.

And I wonder how many of us expect God to say the same thing.

No grace for you.

No grace for you.

No grace for you.

Let me show you something.

Let's go back a few chapters in the Bible Numbers chapter six.

Hang with me here.

If you go back in the Bible, we're going to see that the Bible.

I love the Bible for a lot of reasons, but the Bible is consistently telling us

one story about one God

who is full of grace upon grace.

And the encouragement for the people of Psalm 67 comes from this passage.

Right?

So what we're going to see here is the conversation between the Lord

and the leaders of his people,

Moses and Aaron, the Lord and the leaders of his people, Moses and Aaron.

And the thing to keep in mind is God is driving this conversation.

He's leading it. He's initiating this conversation.

And this is what he says, God to his leaders, to his people.

The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron

and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites.

Say to them, verse 24, the Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

That sound familiar?

Where

did the encouragement for the people in Psalm 67 come from?

It came from number six.

But more than that, the encouragement

for God's people to seek God's grace comes from God Himself.

He is driving the conversation, leading the conversation.

And the reason they seek God's grace is because God has told them to.

He's encouraging them to.

Earlier this summer, my nine year old son had a birthday party.

And, of course, the nine year old birthday party.

You have to have a pinata. What better idea?

Blindfold, kids, give them a bat and tell him to swing as hard

as you can for sugar. Okay.

Anyways, we did it.

And there was this moment, right?

Almost like slow motion moment where the pinata broke, right?

And opened up. And the candy came pouring out.

And the kids are sprinting and diving and they're just gathering up

all the candy that they can.

That is a

really great picture for what it means to be God's people,

that God is opening up his grace to us, and we sprint and we run

and we gather and we collect and we gather all the candy, all his grace,

all the blessings that we can.

And for God's people.

In Psalm 67, it was their leader, Moses, encouraging them and for us.

Now we have a new and greater Moses encouraging us, telling

us, come, receive grace, come gather all that you can.

You see, Jesus is known as the Greater Moses, the perfect leader of God's people.

And at the cross of Christ, the pinata was broken.

And grace is just spilling out everywhere because Jesus, the Son of God,

endured the curse of God instead of us.

So now we could receive blessing.

Jesus endured the judgment of God so that we could experience grace.

The father's face literally turned against his son.

So now

he could shine upon us.

The pinata has been opened up,

which means to be a Christian, fundamentally.

If you're here and you're not a Christian, I hope you hear and see this.

To be a Christian is be a little kid at a birthday party.

And God's grace is spilling out.

And we sprint and we dive and we gather as much as we can.

I don't know your need today.

I don't know your struggle today, but I do know that in

God there is grace upon grace for you.

That's God's people.

Second is God's plan.

And remember, our view of God's grace is not a low view.

We have a high view, a great a grand view of God's grace.

So that's going to mean something that God's grace isn't just for us.

God's plan. Let me show you. Look with me.

Verse two.

Psalm 67, verse two.

That your way may be known on earth.

Your saving power among all nations.

One of the most important words in this whole psalm

is that word that you see at the very beginning of verse two,

that is that of purpose, that God has a plan.

God is up to something.

He is doing something by giving us grace.

And fundamentally, the plan for God

is to give grace to his people so that we would give grace to others.

Do you see that? Verse one we gather.

Verse two we give.

Verse one, we seek his grace. Verse two.

Then we share God's grace.

Grace isn't meant to be this, like pool of standing water, right?

God's grace is a stream that flows to us and then through us,

so that God's way may be known among the earth.

God's saving power among all nations.

Almost all the kids at the birthday party

did the same thing that you and I would do when the pinata broke.

Almost all the kids, they they sprinted, they di, they elbow,

they did everything they could.

They gathered up all the candy for themselves.

But there are two kids who were different.

Two kids who responded differently at the birthday party for my son.

And part of what you need to know is that we have three kids.

My wife Christine and I, we have a nine year old, a three year old,

and then a one year old and two of our three kids.

They have some medical and social challenges.

And so they weren't participating in the same way as everybody else.

They weren't getting the candy like everybody else.

And two kids, they noticed that.

They sprinted,

they dove, they gathered, they got everything they could for themselves.

But then they saw my kids and they came over

and they gave the favorite candy to them.

See, that's the plan for God's people.

And that we would gather all of God's grace.

Then we would look up and see

who was on the outside looking in, who doesn't have the candy.

And we run to them.

Now, from the very beginning, this is how God has meant God's people to be.

See, the Bible is telling one story about one God

who is full of grace upon grace, and it goes all the way back

to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Let me show you something.

Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

The Lord driving another conversation says,

now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred,

and your father's house, to the land that I will show you,

and I will make of you a great nation.

Notice the language, and I will bless you,

and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse,

and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

God has a plan for his people, and it's always been the same plan

that God in his grace he would bless us, that we would bless others.

He'd be gracious to us and we could be gracious to those around us.

An Abraham God filled a pinata up,

and now in Christ the pinata has been broken open.

And there is grace for us as we experience his grace.

Then we share with others.

We gather to give.

We seek to share. That's the plan.

First people.

That's by the way.

That's why we are the church. That we are.

If you're around here for a while, you probably know if you're new here,

might not know, but we've set some pretty big dreams

and some big goals and some big prayers of the next 30 years

that we are praying, hoping, and dreaming that God would plant

60 churches in Northeast Ohio in the next 30 years.

That we would give away $30 million to global missions

in the next 30 years.

Because our view of God's grace is not down here.

Our view of God's grace is here.

Jesus has shown us, and he's shown us, that it's always been the plan of God

to use the people of God to tell the world

about the Son of God.

That's true for our church.

And if I can, that's that's true for us personally.

That's that's true for you.

I'm not sure if someone has told you yet, but you are.

You are, as God's people, a part of God's plan.

Dad's in this room.

God has a plan for you

to be gracious to you so that your grace within spill over into your kids

wives. God has a plan for you.

The guy would be gracious to you so that you can be gracious to your husband.

Students in the room.

God has a plan for you

that he would bless you so that you can be a blessing to your classmates.

Singles. In the room.

God has not forgotten you.

God has a plan to include you, to be gracious and to bless you.

So his grace and blessing can go to others.

If you're like me,

sometimes that's simple.

Sometimes it's not.

More often it's not.

I'm a much better gatherer than I am. Giver.

I'm much better at asking God for grace for myself

than always giving it to others.

Maybe you're like me.

I've been thinking on this for the last,

really several weeks, and I want to share one thing that's really helped me.

One thing that's really changed how I even pray.

Simple. Two words.

Changed my perspective.

Changed my prayer life.

Two words so that.

So that God.

Would you be gracious to me this morning so that

your grace would go to the people of this church?

God, would you fill me with understanding of your word

so that I can teach my kids?

God would you help me to be patient and kind and gentle

so I can help the parents of my kids soccer team?

See the truth of who you are.

What would that be like in your life

if you included two words in your prayer life?

What would happen in your marriage? What would happening in your parenting?

What would happen to us as a church?

God, would you be gracious to us?

God, would you bless us so that we can plant churches in Northeast

Ohio so that people around the world can hear the truth of your son?

God's people, we gather

so that we can give.

It's always been the plan of God to use the people of God

to tell the world about the Son of God.

And as we do that, as we can learn.

That brings me my third point.

We will sense God's pleasure.

God's pleasure.

I mentioned I have three kids, Braden, who is nine,

Kason who is three, and Brianna, she is one.

And people would often ask in the beginning,

how are the boys doing with the little sister?

And, our answer would always be the same.

Braden is doing great.

Braden is doing great.

Kason is. He is learning.

If we had to give a dollar to the church

every time we had to remind Kason to share with his sister,

we probably would have funded every Minute Matters by now.

That's no joke.

But things are changing.

He's slowly starting to get it right.

Big moment happened in our house on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning.

With snack time and,

the snack that is like gold in our house is go-gurt, right?

I'm not sure how go-gurt became such a thing, but they are.

And if you're three go-gurt are gold in case.

And went into the kitchen, went into the refrigerator,

and he got one go-gurt for himself, and he got one go-gurt for Ariella.

And as a dad, right may seem small, but as a dad

I could not have been more proud and more pleased with Casey.

Why? I've always loved him,

but now I'm starting to be proud and pleased with how he is becoming a brother.

I'm not sure if you know this, but

God has a category of being pleased with his people, of being proud.

Jesus tells a story in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

It's called the parable of the talents,

where different people are given different amounts one, five, and ten talents

and the person with ten talents who uses it well and faithfully.

Jesus says to him, well done.

He says, well done.

Words of pleasure, words of being proud.

And I want to make a distinction here, right.

Between God's love and God's pleasure.

Because on some level,

what I need you to hear is God's love always stays the same for you,

never goes up and down.

God's love is always consistent.

There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God that's found in Christ.

But God,

being the perfect father that he is, has a sense of seeing how we live, of

seeing how we gather and give and seek and share, being proud of us.

And how great would it be to hear God say, well done,

well done.

And every time we add a so that to our prayer life.

God is pleased.

Every time we give money away to the global partners around the world,

God is pleased.

Any sort of movement, any sort of growth, any sort of progress where we as God's

people are participating in God's plan to tell the world about God's Son.

He's pleased. And two reasons for that.

Two reasons why God is pleased.

First, very simply because we're getting it.

We're getting it right.

If you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're a coach, right,

you have your kid, you have your students, your player.

That moment right when something clicks and they understand, right?

That's how God feels about us, that he's proud.

He's like, you're getting it.

You're getting this is what it means to be God's people.

You gather and you give. You seek and you share.

You're getting it.

So God is pleased when we get it.

He's also pleased when others get him.

He's pleased when we get it, and he's pleased when others get him.

There's this, chapter in the Bible.

Luke 15 tells the story of the lost

sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

And the end of every story.

The coin is found, the sheep is found in the son is found, and God rejoices.

He rejoices like you've never seen anybody rejoice.

He is full of pleasure.

When people come home and find him, there's a direct link

to God's pleasure and people's praise.

And that's exactly where this Psalm has been taking us.

Let me show you a couple of things.

Look at verse three.

Let the peoples praise you, O God.

Let all the peoples praise you.

Same thing in verse five.

Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.

And a similar thing at the very end, God, our God shall bless us.

God shall bless us.

Let all the ends of the earth fear him.

Praise upon praise upon praise.

We're not just giving and gathering for our own sake.

We're not just seeking and sharing for sharing sake.

But there's this end goal.

There's the end movement where the psalm is taking us,

where the Bible is taking us, where God's plan is taking us.

There ends in praise upon praise, up on praise of God.

See, God is pleased with us when we help the world

and those in our family start to praise him.

God is a God of the pinata

and Jesus the pinata has been absolutely broken wide open.

There is grace upon grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing, upon blessing.

And so as God's people, may we learn to gather and to gather

and to gather and then give and give and give.

Let us add two words to our lives, two words to our prayer life,

so that God's way of grace may be known among all the earth

in God's saving power in his Son may be known among all the nations, for

it is the plan of God

to use the people of God to tell the world about the Son of God.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for Psalm 67.

Thank you for how it is in reshaping even my approach to you and to others.

And I pray that'd be true for everyone in this room.

I pray you convince us of your grace,

that there is

grace upon grace through your son,

and that we would learn to gather

the people in this room that would move towards you today,

bringing their needs and their sins and their struggles to you.

And they would find your grace.

God is.

Then, as we gather your grace, would you use us

uses to spread your grace, to share your grace

with our family members, with our friends,

their coworkers, their students, with people around the world?

God, as we learn that may we maybe for the first time,

experience your pleasure and hear you say to us, well done,

well done, good and faithful servant, well done, good and faithful church.

We pray these things in your son's name.

Amen.