Dripping with Abundance
Sunday Evening English Worship
January 6, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Psalm 65:11
Introduction: Happy New Year and welcome to our first Evening English Worship of 2019. I'm so very happy to have each of you come and join us for singing praises and for fellowship in God's Word! Either in person or online, thanks so much for coming. Let's make this a really special year in 2019!
I'm definitely feeling my age though, which is now 64 years old as of 1 week ago. And the reason I know this is because I'm commenting more and more on how fast time is passing! It seems like just yesterday when I arrived in Sapporo in 1992. Then all of a sudden it was the change of the century, 2000. And along with that, was what our pastor mentioned this morning, the Y2K bug that was supposed to fry all of our computers! 2016, the year I joined the church, came and went so quickly. And now the door of the New Year, 2019, has opened right in front of us! Shall we slow down for a bit this evening and let God get us off to a good start in this New Year?
And as Christmas finished and I began thinking about the New Year, God brought one special Bible passage to my heart that I'd like to share with you this evening. And you can see it right here in this picture, Psalm 65:11 from the New King James Version, "You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance." So, with the title of my message, Dripping with Abundance, let me encourage you and give you a good shot of hope like the Lord has given me from this Scripture!
1. His Goodness Crowns the Year
There is so much I would love to teach from this one verse of Scripture, but our time is limited and, of course, time passes so quickly, so I'll take just a moment to unpack this for you. The first half of the verse begins with the phrase, "You crown the year with Your goodness..."
Now, Bible teachers agree that there is one main idea about this verse. And that is that God is indeed blessing each and every season with His goodness. Each season has its own beauty, its own attraction, because God has provided it. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, each is so special! It's like at the beginning of the year, God puts this crown of promise on the head of the New Year, like crowning a queen. It's His promise that He personally will fill each season with its own special kind of goodness. Job 37:6-7 (NLT) tells us this, "He directs the snow to fall on the earth and tells the rain to pour down. Then everyone stops working so they can watch his power." Why are we getting snow right now up here in Hokkaido? Because God is sending it down to the earth as a part of His goodness. And we stop what we're doing, look up at the sky and enjoy watching God's power at work!
Paul goes on to tell us in Acts 14:17 (NKJV) "He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Paul goes beyond Job by saying that God wants to do this to "fill our hearts with food and gladness." Our care and happiness is God's concern. In every single season, He loves to fill our hearts with His goodness.
So then, what should be our reaction to this? I think Jesus' own words in Mark 16:15 (NHEB) are good advice, "And he said to them, 'Go into all the world, and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation.'" Shall we not share God's goodness with everyone we know and everyone we meet? As more and more people get hope and find the goodness of God, then this world will truly become a much better place!
2. His Paths Drip with Abundance
Now, the 2nd sentence of this verse says, "And Your paths drip with abundance." This one phrase too is just loaded to the brim with meaning! The paths that are talked about here have the meaning of wheel tracks on the ground. Bible teachers think this may mean that God comes like a mighty soldier riding on a big, beautiful chariot. And that might be a very good image: God comes as a King riding in His chariot in a number of Bible passages.
But I like the idea that this a wagon of God carrying all the blessings He gives to all of His people. The image that comes to my mind is the story of Joseph. He took a bunch of wagons so full of goods from Egypt thanks to Pharaoh. In Genesis 45:21-23 (NLT) it says, "21 So the sons of Jacob did as they were told. Joseph provided them with wagons, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he gave them supplies for the journey. 22 And he gave each of them new clothes — but for Benjamin he gave five changes of clothes and 300 pieces of silver. 23 He also sent his father ten male donkeys loaded with the finest products of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other supplies he would need on his journey."
Then when he got back home, it says in verse 27, "But when they repeated to Jacob everything Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, their father’s spirits revived." And that's what the abundance of God does for us as well. God supplies our needs more than enough and our spirits too are satisfied!
Now, the very last part of Psalm 65:11 say, "Your paths drip with abundance." The word "drip" actually means "to drop gently to the ground." The wagons of God are so filled to overflowing that as they move along, goods continue to fall to the ground. This so much reminds me of Psalm 23:5 (NLT), "My cup overflows with Your blessings." God's goodness is not just halfway or just enough, but always overflowing so that we could never run out!
And that's what the final word, "abundance", is all about. Recently I've been enjoying quite a bit of the new tech news and videos on the Net. And there's this university called Singularity University that was founded by a high-powered businessman named Peter Diamandis. He and his fellow teachers and leaders of the university have been studying all the tech trends and they are seeing many things in our world that are going to change soon. They say that soon things like electric energy, food, clothing, access to the Net and many other things are going to become almost free and very abundant.
I think that's a nice, positive and exciting way of looking at our world. I like it, but the Bible tells me that I already have complete abundance in my loving Heavenly Father! I'll give you one example of many from the Bible. Psalm 50:10 (NIrV) says, "Every animal of the forest already belongs to me. And so do the cattle on a thousand hills." Mr. Diamandis is not telling me anything new about what abundance is!
Conclusion: Let me bring my message to a close with one more of my favorite Bible passages, Colossians 1:16 (NLT). It reads like this, "For through him God created everything in heaven... and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see... Everything was created through him and for him." Now, this is where we're talking real, overflowing abundance! It begins here on earth with all the things we CAN see and ends up in heaven with the overabundance of things that we CAN'T see or even imagine! How about sharing that message to everyone you know!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening with our final Bible passage which is our main Scripture for the evening...
Psalm 65:11
"You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance."
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on the passage from God's Word and pray it together:
Dear Lord, on this first Sunday of this New Year, we are so happy to be here in Your House. We don't know what's coming in 2019, but we know You. You have taught us that this New Year will be full of Your goodness. We want to be so close to You all year-long. We want to follow in Your paths. Please fill our hearts and lives with Your abundance. May we know You better and love You more this year. We pray this now in Jesus' loving and gracious name, Amen.
January 6, 2019 - 5:00 pm
Messenger: Don Frank
Bible Passage: Psalm 65:11
Introduction: Happy New Year and welcome to our first Evening English Worship of 2019. I'm so very happy to have each of you come and join us for singing praises and for fellowship in God's Word! Either in person or online, thanks so much for coming. Let's make this a really special year in 2019!
I'm definitely feeling my age though, which is now 64 years old as of 1 week ago. And the reason I know this is because I'm commenting more and more on how fast time is passing! It seems like just yesterday when I arrived in Sapporo in 1992. Then all of a sudden it was the change of the century, 2000. And along with that, was what our pastor mentioned this morning, the Y2K bug that was supposed to fry all of our computers! 2016, the year I joined the church, came and went so quickly. And now the door of the New Year, 2019, has opened right in front of us! Shall we slow down for a bit this evening and let God get us off to a good start in this New Year?
And as Christmas finished and I began thinking about the New Year, God brought one special Bible passage to my heart that I'd like to share with you this evening. And you can see it right here in this picture, Psalm 65:11 from the New King James Version, "You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance." So, with the title of my message, Dripping with Abundance, let me encourage you and give you a good shot of hope like the Lord has given me from this Scripture!
1. His Goodness Crowns the Year
There is so much I would love to teach from this one verse of Scripture, but our time is limited and, of course, time passes so quickly, so I'll take just a moment to unpack this for you. The first half of the verse begins with the phrase, "You crown the year with Your goodness..."
Now, Bible teachers agree that there is one main idea about this verse. And that is that God is indeed blessing each and every season with His goodness. Each season has its own beauty, its own attraction, because God has provided it. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, each is so special! It's like at the beginning of the year, God puts this crown of promise on the head of the New Year, like crowning a queen. It's His promise that He personally will fill each season with its own special kind of goodness. Job 37:6-7 (NLT) tells us this, "He directs the snow to fall on the earth and tells the rain to pour down. Then everyone stops working so they can watch his power." Why are we getting snow right now up here in Hokkaido? Because God is sending it down to the earth as a part of His goodness. And we stop what we're doing, look up at the sky and enjoy watching God's power at work!
Paul goes on to tell us in Acts 14:17 (NKJV) "He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Paul goes beyond Job by saying that God wants to do this to "fill our hearts with food and gladness." Our care and happiness is God's concern. In every single season, He loves to fill our hearts with His goodness.
So then, what should be our reaction to this? I think Jesus' own words in Mark 16:15 (NHEB) are good advice, "And he said to them, 'Go into all the world, and proclaim the Good News to the whole creation.'" Shall we not share God's goodness with everyone we know and everyone we meet? As more and more people get hope and find the goodness of God, then this world will truly become a much better place!
2. His Paths Drip with Abundance
Now, the 2nd sentence of this verse says, "And Your paths drip with abundance." This one phrase too is just loaded to the brim with meaning! The paths that are talked about here have the meaning of wheel tracks on the ground. Bible teachers think this may mean that God comes like a mighty soldier riding on a big, beautiful chariot. And that might be a very good image: God comes as a King riding in His chariot in a number of Bible passages.
But I like the idea that this a wagon of God carrying all the blessings He gives to all of His people. The image that comes to my mind is the story of Joseph. He took a bunch of wagons so full of goods from Egypt thanks to Pharaoh. In Genesis 45:21-23 (NLT) it says, "21 So the sons of Jacob did as they were told. Joseph provided them with wagons, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he gave them supplies for the journey. 22 And he gave each of them new clothes — but for Benjamin he gave five changes of clothes and 300 pieces of silver. 23 He also sent his father ten male donkeys loaded with the finest products of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other supplies he would need on his journey."
Then when he got back home, it says in verse 27, "But when they repeated to Jacob everything Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, their father’s spirits revived." And that's what the abundance of God does for us as well. God supplies our needs more than enough and our spirits too are satisfied!
Now, the very last part of Psalm 65:11 say, "Your paths drip with abundance." The word "drip" actually means "to drop gently to the ground." The wagons of God are so filled to overflowing that as they move along, goods continue to fall to the ground. This so much reminds me of Psalm 23:5 (NLT), "My cup overflows with Your blessings." God's goodness is not just halfway or just enough, but always overflowing so that we could never run out!
And that's what the final word, "abundance", is all about. Recently I've been enjoying quite a bit of the new tech news and videos on the Net. And there's this university called Singularity University that was founded by a high-powered businessman named Peter Diamandis. He and his fellow teachers and leaders of the university have been studying all the tech trends and they are seeing many things in our world that are going to change soon. They say that soon things like electric energy, food, clothing, access to the Net and many other things are going to become almost free and very abundant.
I think that's a nice, positive and exciting way of looking at our world. I like it, but the Bible tells me that I already have complete abundance in my loving Heavenly Father! I'll give you one example of many from the Bible. Psalm 50:10 (NIrV) says, "Every animal of the forest already belongs to me. And so do the cattle on a thousand hills." Mr. Diamandis is not telling me anything new about what abundance is!
Conclusion: Let me bring my message to a close with one more of my favorite Bible passages, Colossians 1:16 (NLT). It reads like this, "For through him God created everything in heaven... and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see... Everything was created through him and for him." Now, this is where we're talking real, overflowing abundance! It begins here on earth with all the things we CAN see and ends up in heaven with the overabundance of things that we CAN'T see or even imagine! How about sharing that message to everyone you know!
Closing Prayer: Let's close out our evening with our final Bible passage which is our main Scripture for the evening...
Psalm 65:11
"You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance."
Now let's look at our closing prayer, based on the passage from God's Word and pray it together:
Dear Lord, on this first Sunday of this New Year, we are so happy to be here in Your House. We don't know what's coming in 2019, but we know You. You have taught us that this New Year will be full of Your goodness. We want to be so close to You all year-long. We want to follow in Your paths. Please fill our hearts and lives with Your abundance. May we know You better and love You more this year. We pray this now in Jesus' loving and gracious name, Amen.