The Inheritance of the Humble (Psalm 37:9-11) | Worship Service

Kootenai Church

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worship. In chapter two, when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly.

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After coming into the house, they saw the child fell to the ground and worshiped him.

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Then opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense.

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Let's sing together joy to the world. Good morning.

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There's two announcements for you this morning. The first is that we have coming up on Christmas Eve, our Christmas Eve service that falls on December 24th this year, so mark that on your calendar.

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6 .30 p .m. Christmas Eve service here, usually about an hour long. Then my second announcement is a little bit longer.

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I have to give this during this time, even though I would love to be able to put this off until next month, but I don't want to.

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For the last couple of years as a church leadership, we've had conversations about hiring eventually another staff member.

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With a growing church, that is kind of an eventuality. We have a church this size and yet only one full -time paid staff person, pastoral staff person, and that is kind of an anomaly in long churches to have that.

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We've been having conversations about who do we hire, what do we hire for, what should that look like. We haven't quite been sure what to hire for yet, and so we don't need another me.

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One of those is plenty, so then the question would become, what then are we looking to hire for?

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What is the need that we would want to be filling with hiring somebody? We don't need somebody to share the work of preaching because I handle most of that, and gladly so, and we have elders who fill in for me and plenty of very gifted and capable men here who fill in the pulpit on a rotating basis, and we have plenty of men here that we could be developing and using in the future for that, so there's no need to hire somebody to come in and share the preaching load.

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But it has become obvious to us as elders over the course of the last two to three years that we do need someone for a more focused and robust biblical counseling ministry.

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There is a great need for that in our congregation, and we have done a couple of things to sort of begin to meet that need, like having the counseling conference that we had in September, October, and November, training some lay counselors in our congregation and trying to get people interested in doing that.

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We have a number of ACBC certified biblical counselors in our congregation, but even with them counseling, that load can be quite, it's not meeting the need that we have and have had for quite a while.

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So even with all of the elders involved in the counseling ministry in some way, and to some degree, there's more that could be done, and the health of our body really could be improved by having somebody who would focus on that.

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So we started to pursue the idea of establishing a biblical counseling center as part of Kootenai Community Church.

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Now, I want to call it the Kootenai Counseling Center, KCC. My wife doesn't like that idea.

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She thinks there's already enough KCCs, and so we have KCC at KCC, which I think would be clever, but we'll see what we call it.

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I started to pull some strings and kind of chase some leads with some contacts that I had at various locations, and finding out if there might be somebody who would be interested in a position as a biblical counselor in a local church who could lead a counseling ministry, train up local counselors within the congregation, train our people, sort of head up sort of the discipleship aspect of pastoral shepherding ministry, and establish a biblical counseling training center.

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And we found somebody who is interested in that, who comes very highly recommended. His name is Joel Baker. He started his training in biblical counseling at the

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Master's College and Seminary, and he finished his education at the Expositors Seminary in Jacksonville, Florida, which are three theological training centers that are exactly aligned with where we are at theologically as a church.

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And he seems to be a very good fit, both theologically and philosophically. For those of you who are familiar with the biblical counseling world, the last name

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Baker might sound familiar. That is because his father, Ernie Baker, teaches biblical counseling at the

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Master's Seminary and the Master's College. So he has that background.

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He has years of experience. He is currently pursuing ACBC certification, and he appears, as I said, to be an excellent fit with us.

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I've had several conversations with him on the phone, a couple of Zoom meetings face -to -face. He's met with our elders once, and the next step would be for Joel and his family to come out here to see our church, to meet you, have an opportunity to be here.

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And so that's what we are going to do. We're having him come out here on January 11th through the 20th, which means he'll be here over two

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Sundays, have a chance to be here to worship with us for a whole two Sundays, and then the whole week in between, and for us to get to know him and sit down and talk about what this might look like.

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So we are looking at possibly doing this sometime in the next calendar year. Maybe halfway through the year would be ideal, but it may be later than that.

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I doubt if it would be much sooner than that. So we are in the early stages of this process, and we would ask that you would pray with us and pray for us as we move forward with that.

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And I want to offer just two notes of clarification. First, we are not hiring another pastor. That's not what this is.

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We're not hiring somebody to call them a pastor. We are hiring somebody who would oversee a counseling ministry under the oversight of the elders at Kootenai Community Church, and then also be involved in a counseling ministry and a training ministry all under elder oversight.

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Now, he may at some point be qualified and recognized as an elder, and if that happens, that's great, but if it doesn't happen, that's irrelevant to what we're hoping to accomplish for the good of this body.

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And second, we're not hiring my replacement. This is not somebody who's going to come in because I'm looking at retiring. Yes, Bitcoin is doing really good.

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It's not doing that well. So I'm not retiring yet, and I'm not going anywhere. That was my promise to you a year ago.

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It remains my promise to you today. So I expect that we'll have more information about that at our annual meeting when we have more details, and we'll kind of have more of a discussion as a church body when we get together in February.

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Will you turn now, please, to Psalm 52. Psalm 52. The superscript reads,

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For the choir director, a masculine of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told

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Saul and said to him, David has come to the house of Ahimelech. Why do you boast in evil,

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O mighty man? The loving kindness of God endures all day long. Your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor,

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O worker of deceit. You love evil more than good, falsehood more than speaking what is right.

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You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. But God will break you down forever.

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He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous will see and fear and will laugh at him, saying,

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Behold, a man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and was strong in his evil desire.

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But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the loving kindness of God forever and ever.

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I will give you thanks forever because you have done it, and I will wait on your name for it is good in the presence of your godly ones.

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You stand with me as we pray. Let's bow our heads.

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Our gracious God, we thank you that you are our creator and our redeemer, our sovereign God that we joyfully, gladly gather together to worship on this

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Lord's day. We thank you for what you have done, and we have sung of your great works this morning in our worship.

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We have heard of your great works sung to us as we have thought upon all that you have done and accomplished for us.

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At this time of year, we reflect upon the the sacrifice of of our father who gave his son to come into this world to die on a cross in the place of our sins.

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We thank you that you have invaded this dark world with the light of the kingdom, the light of your son, the light of the glory that is our

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God in the person and in the face of Christ. We thank you that thank you that he has come to live in our place and then to die in our place as our sacrifice so that we may know the fullness of glory and grace in your kingdom to be adopted into your family as your sons, not just to be citizens of heaven but to be welcome members at your table in your family for you have loved us and you have lavished your grace and loving kindness upon us.

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We thank you for your mercy, for your grace, for your goodness, for your work in redeeming unworthy sinners who are unworthy of mercy and grace in any measure.

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We deserve only your wrath and yet you look down in love and came into this world to save sinners.

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Thank you that your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to seek and to save that which was lost and now we gladly rejoice as those who have been found, redeemed, saved, justified, cleansed of our sin.

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We rejoice before you and ask your blessing upon our worship and our fellowship one with another and our time in your word.

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We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Let's sing together, Salvation is

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Born. Glory of God.

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Says therefore bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let's end our music this morning and sing together

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Christmas Offering. For the skies of Bethlehem appeared a star while angels sang to lowly shepherds three wise men seeking truth traveled from afar our hope in offering to you.

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We turn now in your Bibles to Psalm 37. Psalm 37.

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We're going to be in Psalm 37 today and then next Sunday since it's the Sunday right before Christmas we're going to break out of Psalm 37 for that one

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Sunday to to deal with something Christmas related that would also be somewhat related to Psalm 37.

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At least that is the goal. But today Psalm 37 when you found your place there let's bow our heads and pray before we jump into our text.

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Our Father we are so grateful to you for the blessing that it is to gather together as your people before your word to have a copy of your word in our own language in our hands to be able to see your words of life and to read them to know them and we thank you that we can trust in the work of your spirit and then the power of your sanctifying grace to apply your work to our hearts so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ.

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So I pray that as we talk about the destiny for the righteous and the wicked today from this psalm as we see that in your word

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I pray that you would work in our hearts to give us a compassion for the wicked to understand what you have what you have promised to give to them that will not repent and I pray that you would help us to be encouraged and enlivened and excited about the inheritance that you have promised to those who are yours in your son in whose name we pray amen.

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We come now to verses 9 through 11 of Psalm 37 verses 1 to 8 is the peace that God gives to his righteous ones verses 9 through 11 is a promise that God gives to his righteous ones so let's read those verses together verse 9 for evildoers will be cut off but those who wait for the

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Lord they will inherit the land yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there but the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

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Last week we took a bit of a break to consider the land promise which is mentioned six times in this psalm in verse 3 you have the command to trust in the

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Lord and to do good to dwell in the land and to cultivate faithfulness and then the other five references to the land are all promises regarding a coming inheritance in that land so last week we just reminded ourselves of what scripture teaches concerning what we can expect in as part of that land promise that land blessing you see a mention five times in this psalm look at verse 9 those who wait for the

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Lord they will inherit the land verse 11 but the humble will inherit the land verse 22 blessed by those blessed by him will inherit the land verse 29 the righteous will inherit the land and verse 34 wait for the

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Lord and keep his way and he will exalt you to inherit the land when the wicked are cut off you will see it we considered different interpretations or different ways that the land promise has been interpreted one that this refers to just entering the land under Joshua we saw that can't possibly be second as a promise of security and provision third as a promise that they will live in the land all of their lives fourth as a promise that the righteous will enjoy success in the land but we observe that none of those interpretations can match the context because whatever is intended by this promise cannot be something that is also enjoyed and experienced by the wicked because the distinction is made all the way through the psalm that the wicked are cut off when the righteous inherit the land and they do not enjoy whatever it is that this land promise means and it's not merely a picture of heaven it is the land that is the land that they were called to dwell on verse 3 but it is the land at a time and in a condition when the wicked are cut off and the righteous possess the land alone with abundant prosperity and enjoy abundant prosperity we saw that this promise will be fulfilled when the wicked are excluded that's verse 9 22 and 34 it will involve an abundant prosperity that's verse 11 it is an eternal blessing the last forever that's verse 29 all of these in our psalm here psalm 37 and it will mean the exaltation of the righteous that's in verse 34 so while the righteous lived in the land alongside the wicked there was yet a future state of the land of israel that the righteous would enjoy that involved an eternal dwelling abundant prosperity exaltation and the removal of the wicked from the land so the land is not a spiritual reality it is not a symbol of something else in fact it is a promise of the very land that they lived on and were called called to dwell in and cultivate faithfulness in but they would experience the righteous will experience that land in the kingdom of the lord jesus christ in resurrected form that is what the promise is now that is something that is yet future for us just as it was to them we are waiting for the fulfillment of that promise the righteous will receive an eternal prosperity in a renewed land blessed by god and purged of the wicked hear that again the righteous will receive an eternal prosperity in a renewed land that is blessed by god and purged of the wicked this is what god has promised so verses 9 to 11 we see that god has promised something to the wicked and something to the righteous there's a promise to the wicked in verses 9 and 10 and a promise to the righteous in verses 9 and 11 it's odd that you would have 9 and 10 and 9 and 11 but that's because of the structure of these three verses verse 9 tells us something about the righteous and something about the wicked verse 10 and elaborates entirely on the wicked and verse 11 elaborates entirely on the righteous so verse 9 and 10 describe the impoverishment of the wicked sorry i've been battling a cold all week long so i might have to do that a couple of times verses 9 and 10 describe or promise the impoverishment of the wicked and then verses 9 and 11 describe and promise the inheritance of the righteous the impoverishment of the wicked and the inheritance of the righteous let's look at verses 9 and 10 notice how the evil doers are described or how the wicked are described verse 9 they are called evildoers in verse 10 the wicked man now the term evildoers simply describes one who does bad one who does something that is bad it was kind of a generic term that was used to describe people who do harm or bring disaster one who acts wickedly or spoils things somebody who is good for nothing that word could be used to describe somebody good for nothing or something that is good for nothing in verse 10 it's not so much a generic term for evildoer or somebody who spoils something but verse 10 describes the guilt that is associated with the wickedness the term that is translated wicked man describes a somebody who is condemned or guilty a criminal so there is a judicial component to it in other words that's the phrase wicked man in verse 10 describes the guilt associated with the doing of the evil it is the opposite of righteous and this would be a good opportunity to highlight again the difference or distinction between the righteous and the wicked when we're speaking of the righteous in terms of this psalm and in fact in terms of of all of scripture unless we're talking about the righteousness of God or the righteousness of Jesus Christ the term righteous does not mean somebody who has never sinned nor does it mean somebody who has earned

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God's favor that's not the term righteous means it describes in this context somebody who has sinned but somebody who unlike the man in verse 10 his guilt is not imputed to him he's not a guilty criminal

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I am a sinner but I'm not guilty before God I'm not guilty before God not because I have done enough righteousness to overcome my guilt but because I have trusted in the righteous one and therefore all of my guilt is taken out of the way so I can be a sinner and I am and I still sin and I confess that to the

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Lord but I am not guilty before God's bar of justice my guilt has been removed the condemnation has been removed

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I'm no longer viewed in the courtroom of God as a guilty criminal deserving of punishment and justice but instead

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I am viewed as a son who has the righteousness of Christ so a righteous one is one who is not credited or not counted as wicked before God but instead credited or counted as righteous in the place in the sight of God by virtue of their faith so this verse 10 wicked man describes his guilt or his condemnation and it reminds us that the justice that is described in verses 9 and 10 this is a just justice