All Sufficient (6.26.15) 1
Psalm 121
1
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5
The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7
The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Numbers 6:24-26
24
“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace."
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I.
II.
Believe it or not, your pastor was in a musical his freshmen year of high school. To be honest, I got in
probably more out of pity than talent! I can still remember one of the songs. Don't worry I will not
sing it. However, the chorus goes like this "I've got music, I've got rhythm, I've got my gal who could
ask for anything more!?" It's a fun tune, but is it not human nature to ask for a little bit more?
a. All we have to do is be with a two year old for two seconds and we discover this. How many
cookies do they want? "Just one more!" How many more minutes do they want to stay up?
"Just one more!" As we age the only thing that changes is what we want more of. No matter
how much money, power and, praise we get it never seems to be sufficient.
b. This morning we are continuing our sermon series entitled "This is our Story" with this
famous passage out of the 6th chapter of Numbers. In this blessing and benediction we
encounter a God who is all sufficient. As we examine this passage and, more importantly,
the All Sufficient Creator it points us toward, we will discover three ways in which our God is
all sufficient. To help with memory they all begin with 'P.' He is One who blesses us with the
provisions we need, protects us from what could destroy us and, gives us peace that this
world knows nothing of!
In this passage, the Lord is telling Moses to instruct Aaron and all of his sons, all the priests of Israel,
to speak this blessing over God's people. In this blessing we discover that God is all sufficient in
terms of His provisions. So, why does He provide and what is it that He provides?
a. In order to answer these questions let's look at the passage itself. In our English translations
we see the word LORD in all caps three times in three verses. Whenever we see this English
translation it means that, in Hebrew, it is God's proper name Yahweh. There are many ways
to refer to God in Hebrew two examples are a generic word for god and, the Hebrew
equivalent to the pronoun He. Instead of these, the Lord inspires Moses to use His proper
name three times, why?
b. The name Yahweh basically means I Am, I Am Becoming, or I exist, and it communicates the
Lord's complete self sufficiency. As we are about to sing in our closing hymn, God is ever
blessing and ever blessed. Christian theologians have pointed out that God's all sufficiency
starts with the fact that He does not need to create to be blessed or loving. Instead He is
eternally loving and loved through the community of the trinity of His own being. The one
God in three persons, Father, Son and, Holy Spirit is in a constant, all sufficient, love
relationship.
c. Because of this the only reason God would create or bless is for the benefit of the created!
God blesses us for our own sake! This was true for the Israelites, as God rescued them out of
Egypt not because of their worthiness but because of God's mercy and it continues as Christ
rescues us out of slavery to sin and death while we are helpless, still sinners. This is radically
different from the pagan gods that surrounded the Israelites and the idols of our time.
d. Those gods demanded that people sacrifice to them so their blessing could be earned. Some
gods even demanded the first born son in order to obtain blessing. Even though the names
of false idols have changed, the way they operate is the same today. The Lord is all sufficient
because He blesses not so that we will bless Him, but because He loves us for our own sake.
The gods of materialism, pleasure, comfort and, accolades demand more and more but give
less and less! That is one way we can discover if we are engaged in idol worship. The all
All Sufficient (6.26.15) 3
III.
IV.
sufficient God of the universe demands only that we turn to Him and accept His grace. In
leaning on Him we are delivered before sacrificing to Him. Out of gratitude for receiving His
all sufficient provisions, we then surrender more and more. Even then we are only asked to
surrender that which is hindering our relationship with Him. Idols, on the other hand,
continually demand more and deliver less in terms of satisfaction, hope and, purpose!
So what are these all sufficient provisions that God graciously bestows on us out of His unmerited
love for us?
a. First, we will be provided with everything we need to live out His purpose for our lives.
Notice I did not say that we will be given all we want, we will be given all we need. Second,
we will be given His presence through it all. As Numbers says the Lord's face shall shine
upon us. Finally we will be given His grace for whenever we mess up. This is the passage that
Cheryl Hymes shared. When I asked her what it meant to her she said, "What more could
you want?!" And she's right! What more could we want than to be in the Lord's presence,
given what we need to live out His purposes for our lives, and grace for when we stumble?
b. In this we discover the truth of a Hebrew proverb Ravi Zacharias shares. God is like the sun
and His blessings are like the shadow. If we walk toward the sun our shadow will always
follow but if we chase after our shadow we will never catch it. In the same way, if we follow
our all sufficient Lord His blessings will follow us. If we chase after blessings in and of
themselves, we will always be chasing after them, never catching them!
c. So in what ways have we been chasing our shadow? In what ways have we been chasing
after our own comfort, prosperity and, pleasure instead of God's kingdom coming to us and
through us? If we turn our eyes toward Jesus and look full in His wonderful face, the things
of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace!
They will grow strangely dim because we will not only have the Lord's provisions but also His
protection.
a. The word used to say may the Lord keep us literally means, to keep watch over. This is
echoed by the Psalmist in Psalm 121 in saying "The LORD watches over you the LORD is your
shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night." In the
beginning of the psalm it says "I lift my eyes up to the mountains, where does my help come
from? My help comes from the LORD (notice all caps) maker of heaven and earth." This
psalm is powerful and meaningful all on its own. What adds even more depth to it is that
some of the common deities at that time and place were the gods of the mountain, sun and
moon. He is really saying, "I look to that mountain, is that really where my help comes from?
No, my help, my protection, comes from the all sufficient maker of heaven and earth."
b. They still used, as good stewards, the creation that God has made, but it was not where
they, ultimately, looked for protection and safety. Today we could say, "I lift my eyes to my
IRA, is that where my help comes from? I lift my eyes to the U.S. government, is that where
my help comes from? I lift my eyes to.. you can fill in the blank, is anything worthy of our full
trust in protecting us?" No! These things may or may not be helpful. We should not trust in
the protection of these gifts, but in the giver! We put our full trust in our all sufficient God,
who protects us from ourselves, external circumstances and, our spiritual enemy.
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V.
c. We live in a time and place that encourages us to follow our hearts. Our all sufficient God
doesn't want us to follow our hearts, but to guard our hearts. Guard our hearts against
passions, and desires that will lead us to destruction, not abundant life now and eternal life
with Him.
d. The protection from external circumstances we receive will not save us from difficulty and
hardship. Instead it will change our experience of them in two ways. First, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, our Father in heaven will use challenges to mold us into greater Christ
likeness. Second, no matter what happens we have the hope of the resurrection. The worst
thing this world can do to us is our death and the death of those we love. That is horrible, I
am not demeaning the pain and difficulty this causes. However, in the midst of those
difficult circumstances we are protected from the destruction of our souls because we have
a bodily resurrected Lord to cling on to! It does not take away the pain but enables us to
endure the pain and find joy again!
e. Finally we are protected from our spiritual enemy. Brothers and sisters, make no mistake,
we are in a spiritual war and our enemy, the devil, wants to destroy us. In his preface to the
Screw Tape Letters C.S. Lewis writes this, "There are two equal and opposite errors into
which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is
to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are
equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."
Let us not fall into either error. In pretending they do not exist, we will not ask for
protection from them and believing them to be more powerful than they are will cause us to
not trust the protection our all sufficient God gives us.
Protected for what purpose? The purpose of peace, not as the world gives, but deep down peace.
a. The best peace the world offers is the absence of conflict. The peace that our Lord gives is
so much more, it is truly all sufficient. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom and it means
peace, wholeness and, completeness. In other words, in the creator of the universe we find
wholeness and completeness. While no one and nothing else are all sufficient, we do try to
fill in the gap with other things and people don't we?
b. I find this a lot in premarital sessions. Our culture has perverted the purpose of marriage to
be a self help or self fulfillment institution. This was popularized by Jerry McGuire when, at
the end of the movie Tom Cruise, playing Jerry, goes back to his estranged wife and gives
one last heartfelt plea. The little speech he gives is moving, and great overall, but there is
fatal flaw. He finishes it by saying to her, "you complete me!" Relationships, like marriage,
can be great. They can add richness, and depth to our lives like nothing else but no created
person can complete you and me! It is unfair to put that kind of pressure on another human
being and the effort will inevitably fail.
c. The same goes with trying to be complete in what we are competent in, in our position at
work, or anything else. These things are merely shadows of completeness, we find complete
wholeness in being children of our Father in Heaven. When the Lord inspired Moses to say,
"the Lord lift His countenance upon you" it calls to mind that intimate and precious delight
of a Father looking upon his children, and we are His children. We are adopted through His
All Sufficient (6.26.15) 5
VI.
VII.
VIII.
Only Begotten Son. The Holy Spirit enables His sacrificial death on the cross to cleanse us
from sin and His victorious resurrection, to lead us to an all sufficient completeness in Him!
So Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Lord we've got so much more than music, rhythm, and our
guy or gal. Instead, we have all sufficient provisions, protection, and peace. Our Creator, Redeemer
and, Sanctifier is all sufficient. God our Father, creating us to delight in Him, God the Son, constantly
redeeming us by His resurrection power and, God the Holy Spirit, drawing us more and more into an
all sufficient love relationship with the Triune God of the universe.
Let us pray: Lord, help us to be complete in You. May Your provisions, protection and, peace draw us
closer and closer to who You are, and who You created us to be!
Receive this blessing and benediction: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face
shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."