The Blessing Beyond Us | Jay Greer

Good morning, church. You may have a seat. While

you're taking a seat, go ahead and grab a paper

or digital Bible and navigate over to Psalm 67,

right in the middle of the Bible. If you crack

it open right in the middle, you'll probably

get there. That's where we'll be today. My name

is Jay. I am one of your global mission partners.

I am incredibly thankful for the way that Heights

Church has partnered with us. My wife, Caitlin,

and I have worked over in Japan doing disciple

making and church planting. We've been there

for 18 years now, and we're incredibly thankful

that you guys come alongside us in that ministry.

We are living right now in Tokyo, but we didn't

start in Tokyo. We started in the city of Nagoya.

Nagoya is a city of 9 million people. We were

part of a church planting team there for a couple

of years and then moved to Osaka, a larger city,

19 million people. And we're part of planting

a church there, worked there for eight years,

wonderful city. And then in 2019, handed that

church over, moved to Tokyo, launched the church

in Tokyo in 2020. large city. And God has been

incredibly gracious to us to take our team that

we moved across the world with and turn the team

into a church. And when you think church, you

can think of things like baptisms and weddings

and prayer and children and worship, just like

we just experienced. And then God took our church

and turned it into a network of churches. And

our ministry now has 11 church plants and one

church revitalization project. And those churches

are gathering across Japan in various cities.

And Lord willing, in the future, we'll be talking

about two more church plants and another revitalization

project on the way. God has been incredibly gracious

to allow us to also begin working with other

churches and other mission groups across Japan

to try to serve the broader body of Christ. And

so a few years ago, we started a youth conference

called Renew, and that is to invest in the next

generation in Japan. Last year, we launched a

school called Tokyo Keiruso School of Theology.

Keiruso is the Greek word for to preach. to proclaim,

and that is a school where we're trying to raise

up more leaders, more preachers to serve churches

in Japan. So why in the world are we over there?

What are we doing spending so much time in Japan?

Well, Japan is a country where 99 % of the people

do not have faith in Jesus. Every week, it's

only 0 .2, catch the 0 .2 % of people are in

church in Japan. The average church size is 35

people. 15 % of churches are without a pastor,

and that number is going up. In the history of

Japan, we've never had as many as 2 % of the

population worshiping Jesus. And right now, Heights

Church, you are having this global... month where

you're focusing on the globe and the needs, the

gospel needs across the world. And that's a very

important thing to do, not just to think about

Japan, but other countries with huge needs in

the world. If you think about Bangladesh, the

largest unreached people group in the world is

in Bangladesh. Think about North Korea, the Islamic

North of Africa, other countries in the Islamic

world. There are huge needs for the good news

of Jesus. And it's a good thing to think about

the world because As troubles multiply or intensify

at home, the temptation can be to then forget

about the rest of the world. And it's important

that for us as Christians, we always think about

the whole globe. Here in the United States, we've

experienced so much blessing from God. There

are many Christians. There are many churches.

Statistics tell us that about 30 % of the population

of the United States will gather today in a church

to worship Jesus. That's a really high percentage

compared to other countries. That is incredibly

high. And in fact, people are talking about a

revival in the Western world that's taking place

right now, not just in the US, but in all of

the Western world. However, we have to remember.

that the United States accounts for only 4 %

of the world's population. And the Western world,

when we talk about the West, it's talking about

17 % of the world's population, meaning 83 %

of the world lives outside of what we consider

the West. The world is a big place. And that

takes us to Psalm 67. Psalm 67 answers a really

big, important question. Is Christianity only...

for one people or one nation? And the resounding

answer that you get coming out of Psalm 67 is

no. So when we look at the Psalms, what we're

dealing with here is a collection of prayers

and songs to God from the Old Testament. So I'm

actually going to read all of Psalm 67. It's

rather short. I'm going to read it. And as I

do, I want you to circle or highlight. Three

different words, two words, and then a set of

words. Okay, here they are. Just say it back

to me real quick so you remember what we're looking

for. Say peoples. Say nations. Say ends of the

earth. Every time it shows up, go ahead and circle

that. Count how many times they show up. There

will be a test. No, I'm not kidding. Here it

comes. Psalm 67. To the choir master with stringed

instruments. A psalm. A song. May God be gracious

to us and bless us and make his face to shine

upon us. Selah. That your way may be known on

earth, your saving power among all nations. Let

the peoples praise you, O 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. Selah. Let

the peoples praise you, O 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. Father

in heaven, we pray along with this psalm that

people would know you, that they would praise

you, and they would be glad in you, Father. Open

our hearts and our minds to your word right now.

I pray, God, that as we look at your word, you

would shape us with your word. We ask this in

the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, Psalm 67 was written

around 2 ,700 years ago, and it has sometimes

been called Israel's missionary psalm. How many

times did you see the word peoples? You can go

ahead and actually shout it out. How many times

did you see the word peoples? What we got? Anybody?

We got five up front. Well done. Very good. Five.

How many times do you see the word nations? We

have three. We have two, depending on your translation,

either two or three times. Well done. How about

ends of the earth? One. Very good. Okay, one.

Ends of the earth, one time. Now, Christianity,

what this all shows us is Christianity is not

just for one nation. The Bible is not just for

one nation. Jesus is not the savior of one people.

God is not the God of one nation, one people,

one skin color, one language, or one group. God

is God over all. This year in Tokyo, we are actually

doing this series, a year -long series, where

we're reading through the whole Bible, Genesis

to Revelation. And in Japan, kind of the business

year and the school year kicks off in April.

So we started this in April. We're going to get

to the New Testament in December. just in time

for Christmas, it's gonna be great. But so far

this year, we've just all Old Testament. So we're

all right here in the Old Testament. As you read

the Old Testament, it's very focused on one nation.

And we're really zooming in on this nation of

Israel, this tiny sliver of land in the Middle

East. And someone could read the Old Testament

and then assume, ah, I guess in the Old Testament

era, God was just only concerned with one nation,

Israel. And then when Jesus came, you know, God

decided, I'm going to go ahead and widen my scope

and I'm going to go global. And now I'm going

to decide to be concerned with the rest of the

world now in the New Testament. And what we see

in Psalm 67, squarely in the Old Testament, is

that idea is totally false. That God has since

the beginning always been concerned with all

nations. In fact, if you look throughout the

Old Testament, you're gonna see God's heart for

the entire globe over and over again. Go to the

12th chapter of the Bible, way back in Genesis

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, where God is dealing with Abraham,

called Abram here. It says, the Lord said to

Abram, 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.

And I will bless you. and make your name great

so that you will be a blessing. I will bless

those who bless you. Him who dishonors you, I

will curse. And in you, all the families of the

earth shall be blessed. So God blesses Abraham.

Abraham right here. God blesses Abraham. We see

that word bless show up also in Psalm 67. So

God's carrying that blessing forward. to the

nations through Israel and specifically through

Abraham's descendant, Jesus Christ. Now, I want

you to go back even further to the very first

sentence of the Bible. So go to Genesis 1 -1,

right after the table of contents, right there,

Genesis 1 -1, where it says, in the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth. Well done.

Anybody ever read the Kojiki? Anybody? Bunch

of readers, all the hands. Not up. Gotcha. I

didn't think so. The Kojiki is the ancient Japanese

text that forms the foundation for Shintoism.

That is the traditional folk religion of Japan

that was in Japan before Buddhism came in. Now,

in the Kojiki, at the very beginning, there's

actually a creation story. And in this creation

story, one of the gods of the thousands of them

in the Kojiki, one of the gods. takes a spear

and is stirring up the ocean with the spear and

kind of, you know, really stirs for a long time

until he kind of makes a foam, kind of a brine

froth there. And he gets it and he takes the

spear and he shakes the foam off the end of the

spear. And when he does, there go the nations,

the islands of Japan. And that's how Japan is

formed. And that's the beginning of Japan. That's

the beginning of the Kojiki. Now, this is a myth.

Everyone knows this is a myth. I've not met a

single Japanese person in 18 years who actually

thinks that's how Japan was created. So everyone

knows it's a myth. However, what I want you to

pay attention to about the myth is that it is

incredibly Japan -centric. It is about the creation

of Japan. Resultantly, Shintoism is a religion

for one nation, Japan. It's not the only religion

like that. You could think of Hinduism being

for India. But unlike the Kojiki for Shintoism,

in Genesis 1 .1, what we just saw at the beginning

of the Bible is that God does not make one nation,

does he? It says that God created the heavens

and the earth. The whole earth. So someone could

read that and then go, I see what we're doing.

I understand. You're saying that God is bigger

than one nation. God is the God of all the earth.

Yes, true. But God is actually bigger than that

because it also says that he created the heavens,

referring to space. Look at Hebrews chapter 11,

Hebrews 11:3

verse 3. It says, by faith, we understand that

the... universe was created by the word of God.

Now, that Greek word for universe is eon, referring

to past, eternity, era, age to come, the world.

So we're translating it universe, but it's saying

to us, God is the creator of space and time.

So someone might go, okay, I get it. God is not

just the creator of the earth. He's the creator

of the universe and everything that can be observed

with our eyes. Yes, but he's actually also bigger

than that because look over at Colossians 1 .16.

It says, for by him, all things were created

in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

all things were created through him and for him.

Not only, is the world and the universe and all

that is seen created by God, but even the things

that we cannot see that exist in the unseen spiritual

realm, they too were created by God. With that

in mind, do you see how silly is this idea of,

well, maybe Christianity is just kind of a Western

thing? No, God is the God of all that exists.

And Christianity started in the Middle East,

that's Asia. The gospel went to Africa and India

before it got to England. God is the creator

of space and time and the ruler of everything

visible and invisible. So is God the God of Japan

and China and Fiji and Norway? Of course, yes,

he's the God overall. Now, if we asked an atheist,

and you might be one right now, we're glad you're

here. If we asked an atheist, why does the world

exist? They might start to give you an answer

of how the world came to exist, but they would

not tell you why everything came to exist. In

fact, they would say that science does not give

you a why or a purpose and that science does

not owe you a purpose or a why for everything

existing. But I want you to go back and look

at Colossians 1 .16. And look at the last two

words, for him. Isn't it nice to know why? All

things exist for God and his glory. We exist

for him. And in the Old Testament, Israel had

tasted God's blessings. They were blessed by

God. And now this psalm is a prayer for other

nations to also be glad in God. So I want you

to look back at Psalm 67 now, get out the magnifying

glass. We're going to go through this and examine

the Psalm for the rest of our time together.

And the first thing that I want you to see is

that the Psalm has a, here's the big word of

the day, the Psalm has a chiastic structure.

A chiasm is a Hebrew literary structure that

was used when the Psalm was written in Hebrew

over 2 ,600 years ago. It was put in this structure

to communicate a point. And the point that this

structure communicates is that the center, which

is C here, verse 4, is the heart of the psalm.

It's the main point that everything is driving

at. So if this helps, we can illustrate this

with a hamburger, okay? First, you have for A,

right there, you have the... The buns right there.

And then B, you got the toppings. In the center,

there's the C. That's the juicy meat patty, right?

And then that's what we're after. We're after

the big meat patty in the middle. That's what

we want, okay? That's the most important part.

That's C, that's verse four. So here it is. The

heart of this is, let the nations be glad and

sing for joy. For you judge the peoples with

equity and guide the nations upon the earth.

And then we have this musical term, Selah. So

the goal of the prayer is that the nations would

be glad in God. Why do we want people to become

Christians? Why are we trying to make disciples

of Jesus over in Japan? Why do we want people

to worship God? So they would be glad in God.

God is the source of ultimate gladness. And so

we pray for all nations to know and praise God.

If you are a note taker, that's the main point.

If you like main point, thesis, statement, there

it is. That's what we're driving at today. God

is the source of ultimate gladness, so we pray

for all nations to know and praise God. Next

to verse four, make a note, write down that word,

glad. And look at verse four and see God makes

people glad through his work as judge and through

his work of guiding his people. Judge. guidance.

Judge, guidance. So this verse could answer the

question that someone might ask, which would

be, would the world be a better place if everyone

was a Christian? Would the world be a better

place if everyone was worshiping God? If everyone

was guided by God, if everyone was happy with

his judgments, the world would be a better place.

If all nations were glad in God as their Lord,

there would be more love and peace, more justice

in the world. And that leads to the next question.

Okay. Well, if the world would be a better place,

if everyone was following God, why isn't everyone

following God? And the answer is people love

sin. We would rather. like we are in charge and

that we are the judge of right and wrong. We

would rather feel like we're able to pursue sin

rather than turn our lives over to God's leading

and guidance. And when you look at the state

of the world right now, you see a lot of brokenness

and hurting because of pride and selfishness

and fearful self -preservation. But if all of

the nations were glad in God and in his guidance,

we would see a perfect world. And in fact, we

are going to see this kind of perfection in the

world, in the new heavens and new earth, but

that doesn't come until the very end where the

Bible says that God's rule will cover the whole

world as the water covers the sea. It's a beautiful

picture. Now. Before we talk about the nations

following God as judge and being glad in God

and his judgments, the nations, that can kind

of feel distant and not related. We should probably

first talk about us. Are there areas of your

life where you do not want God to be judge? Are

there areas of your life where you do not want

God to be king? And are there parts of your life

where you say, you know what, I really don't

care what the Bible says about that. I want what

makes me most happy, what makes me, what I feel

is most convenient for my life, what makes me

temporarily happy, that's what I'm after. And

if you're saying that, you are missing out on

the gladness that comes from following the God

of the universe. If you're thinking, I really

don't care what the Bible says about sex and

greed and gossip and laziness and what I look

at online or gentleness or how I should speak

to my family, I'm going to be my own judge and

my own guide. You will experience brokenness

in your life. The brokenness of sin. Don't be

surprised if you do not feel glad in God if you're

living in sin. The good news is there are people

here who want to... pray with you and help you

repent of those things and live in line with

God. And now that we talk about the heart of

this Psalm in verse four and being glad in God,

I want you to back up, zoom out to that A part

of the structure to Psalm 67 verses one and two.

Okay, look at the intro. Here's what verses one

and two say. It says, 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. This is a prayer

for blessing. So once again, if you're writing

notes, next to verses one and two, and then also

verses six and seven at the end, write the word

bless. Bless, a prayer for blessing. God's face

shining upon someone, like you see there in verse

one, would communicate the idea of God's favor

and delight abiding on a person. God's delight

abiding on someone. Think about the way a loving

parent might hold their baby and just gaze at

them, right? Their delight resting on them. That's

what this is saying is, God, make your face shine

us. Delight on these people right here. If this

sounds familiar, it's because it's from Numbers

6, way back here. Numbers 6 verses 24 to 26,

Numbers 6:24–26

which Kelly read at the beginning of the worship

service. And priests in Israel would actually

pray this prayer of blessing over the nation

of Israel to be blessed. Who doesn't want to

be blessed? Everybody wants blessing, right?

In order to learn about blessing, I decided to

do some research on Instagram and found that

there are 162 million posts with hashtag blessed.

Quickly looking at Instagram, I can also see

that blessed can apply to almost anything, but

apparently it often applies to being good at

sports, having a cute baby goat, or random people

on the street handing you money. Truly, blessing

can apply to many different things. In fact,

if you look down at verse 6, you're going to

see that blessings include things like crops,

getting food. It says the earth has yielded its

increase. So things like rain, which is very

relevant right now, air, health, friends, community,

beauty in creation, order. We could list millions

and millions of blessings from God. What's unique

about Psalm 67 verses one and two is that it

gives us the purpose for the blessing. a purpose

for the blessing. It says, God bless us so that

your way may be known on earth. God bless us

so that your saving power would be known among

all nations. The prayer is God bless us so that

you would be famous among all the people. Listen,

church, we are not blessed to be rich and enjoy

our riches and our high standard of living. We

are not blessed to be comfortable. We are not

blessed to retire early, take life easy without

any kind of care or sacrifice for others. We

are not blessed to be able to avoid worries and

stress, which are inherent in a meaningful life.

We're not even blessed for the purpose of knowing

God and then just keeping that knowledge all

to ourselves. We're not blessed to know God and

then just keep the knowledge of God and his goodness

in our homes, in our families, in a compound,

in a bunker, alone in a monastery somewhere.

No, we are blessed in order to make God's ways

and his saving power known among the nations.

Why are you here in Prescott? Because there's

a good church here? For a good job? Is it a safe

town? To enjoy natural beauty. Maybe all these

things, but ultimately, you are here to make

God known. You are here to tell people about

Jesus and to glorify God. I want you to look

at what happens then when God is known among

the nations and people come to know God's saving

power. Look at verses three and five. The result

is praise. So next to verses three and verse

five, write the word praise. And if you're paying

attention, verse three and verse five are identical.

Exact same content. This is the toppings part

of the burger here. It says, let the peoples

praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise

you. Praise is a response of God's saving work.

and his blessings on his people. And humans want

to praise, even if you're not yet a Christian

right now. All people have a desire in them to

worship something. One Bible scholar said it

like this. He wrote, we long to be impressed.

with jaw -dropping feats of greatness that flow

from unique ability and peerless power. This

is why so many around the world are intoxicated

by the prowess of elite athletes. This is why

we love to see the majesties of creation, the

ocean, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and the

starry heavens. We love these indescribable glories

because there is a yearning in us for the one

who alone could create them. Praise completes

our enjoyment and there is nothing we were made

to enjoy more than God. There's nothing we were

meant to enjoy more than God. And some have settled

for sin and shallow entertainment. Enjoy God.

When you hear the gospel, When you hear the good

news of Jesus and you believe you are moved to

praise, that is the cause and effect. Hear the

gospel praise. When you learn that the God of

the universe and all there is became a man named

Jesus and died on the cross for our sins that

we committed against him, he didn't stay dead.

He rose to life. He offers you life. What else

can you do but praise? And when we praise God,

We're then moved to be glad. And gladness and

praising God, that's the heart of this psalm.

So see the progression once again. See this.

God bless us. Make your greatness known. People

are then going to praise you for your greatness.

And then through praising, people are going to

be glad. The psalmist wrote this psalm to say

that he wants the gladness through praising God

to spread to the whole world. At the time of

this psalm, go back in history over 2 ,600 years

ago, not much of the world was praising the one

true God of the Bible, the God of Israel. Not

much of the world was praising him. Just a very,

very small fraction of the world was praising

God. And yet today, over one third of the world

worships God because one third of the world is

Christian. The largest church is in South Korea.

10 % of China is Christian. There are fast -growing

churches in Africa and South America. What changed

2 ,600 years ago to today? What changed? What

sparked this glad praise? What started this off?

2 ,000 years ago, an angel appeared to shepherds

and said, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good

news of great joy. That will be for? That will

be for? All the people. For unto you is born

this day in the city of David a Savior, who is

Christ the Lord. God became a man and came into

our world. Thirty years passed before he died,

he said in John 12. And I, when I am lifted up

from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

All people. God in flesh was lifted on the cross

to pay for our sins so that we could be forgiven

and reconciled to God in his forever family.

And when you speak that message, people from

nations and all over the world, all different

backgrounds, all different languages are drawn

to the Savior. 1 John 2 says, he is the propitiation

for our sins and not for ours only, but also

for the sins of the whole world. Jesus is the

remedy for the broken world because he died for

sins and he is the solution for all people who

come to faith in him. Not just one nation, not

just one people. After his resurrection, Jesus

said to his disciples in Acts chapter one, verse

eight, but you will receive power when the Holy

Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and

to the ends of the earth. We are to tell of the

blessings of God to the ends of the earth, just

like we read in Psalm 67, verse seven. And when

we look forward at Revelation, the end there

in chapter seven, we see in heaven, the throne

and a multitude before the throne from every

tribe, nation and language and people praising

God. Why would they praise? Because God made

us. and loved us and saved us through Jesus.

Friends, if you are not a Christian, I want you

to be glad in God. To learn more about what it

means to follow Jesus, after the service, you

can come forward here and there are people who

are gonna pray with you and they would love to

talk with you about what it means to follow Jesus.

Christians in the room, 70 % of the people outside

of these doors, felt that Jesus was not worth

worshiping today. But a recent survey said that

over 80 % who are not in church, over 80 % said

they would attend church if invited. Invite someone.

Right now, we are going to apply Psalm 67 by

praying for the nations. We're actually going

to do what we saw in the Psalm. We're going to

apply it right away. So what I have is a list

of 10 large nations with huge gospel needs that

we're going to throw on the screen. And I want

you to pick one of those that pops out to you.

And then if you're comfortable, I would urge

you, and I really hope you're comfortable, to

turn to people around you, get in groups of two

to four people, and then appoint one person in

your group to pray for one of these nations.

And pray for the Christians who are already in

that nation, A very small minority might be persecuted,

might be discouraged. Pray for more workers because

Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but the

workers are few. Pray for churches and pray for

the people in these nations to be glad in God.

So church, go ahead and form those groups, two

to four people. If you're all by yourself, you

could pray just by yourself. That's okay. But

we're going to get some work done right now.

And we're gonna pray for the nations. Let's spend

some time. I'll give you a minute to pray. Father

in heaven, you are holy. You are glorious. You

are good. You are generous. You have blessed

us. I thank you for blessing us with the knowledge

of the gospel. I thank you for sending witnesses

to us, someone to share the gospel with us so

that we could hear and believe and be saved,

Lord God. I ask that you would send witnesses

to people around the world, that more people

would know your saving power, that people would

praise you, that people would be glad in you.

Pray for the joy of Jesus to spread all over

the world. Hear the prayers that were prayed

by the saints in this room, Lord God. Ask that

you would multiply them, that you would bear

fruit, Lord God, through your people, through

your church, by the power of the Holy Spirit

all over the world. Lord Jesus, thank you for

saving us. Shape us and mold us by the power

of the Spirit to be more like Jesus. and then

to take truth and good news to those around us,

Lord God. We pray all this in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Church, you just applied Psalm 67. You

prayed for the nations. I would encourage you

to continue to pray for the nations. Do it again

tomorrow. Do it again next week and the week

after that and see how God shapes your heart

for his world. We are going to continue to apply

Psalm 67 and obey what we see in the Bible right

now by praising our good God who has blessed

us so much. So will you stand and let's praise.