Lectionary Calendar

Saturday, December 21st, 2024
the Third Week of Advent

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Bible Commentaries
Psalms 112

PsalmsPsa 107 PsalmsPsa PsalmsPsa 119

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Verses 1-10

Intro:
1. We welcome the High Schoolers in with us...and we welcome the recent graduates to the scary adult church :)
2. We welcome our Fathers - Happy Fathers Day. I pray what you hear this morning is not just a list on what to improve but encouragement to what you’re doing right.
  1. We know statistically how important it is to have a father in your life.
  2. I pray that you will hear not what you aren’t, but remind you who you are.
  3. Dads I pray that you would be affirmed, because I know we do better when we’re affirmed. We like rising to challenges.
3. But let’s 1st start with this 2min video (Cheerios made it) How To Dad! [no to peanut butter on my cheerios & I look up to my son not vice-versa]
TRANSFORMING AN ENTIRE GENERATION
1. Psalm 112 - is an alphabetic acrostic poem. After the intro note of praise, each line begins with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet.
  1. The Psalms, are broken up into different types of Psalms. This is a Wisdom Psalm, meant to pass along wise sayings.
2. PSALM 112 NLT
3. 1 Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. 2 Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed. 3 They themselves will be wealthy, and their good deeds will last forever. 4 Light shines in the darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate, and righteous. 5 Good comes to those who lend money generously and conduct their business fairly. 6 Such people will not be overcome by evil. Those who are righteous will be long remembered. 7 They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. 8 They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly. 9 They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor. 10 The wicked will see this and be infuriated. They will grind their teeth in anger; they will slink away, their hopes thwarted.
4. (1) Praise the Lord - Start - Praise God/Yahweh.
5. How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. (nkjv Blessed is the man...it begins w/a beatitude, a blessing that is also usually a promise)
  1. The fear of the Lord is not being afraid of him, rather it is an understanding of the awesome power and strength and giving more weight to God than to the influence of the world around him.
  2. If we fear the Lord than we won’t fear anything else…
    1. You won’t have fear about your family (2). Or about finances (3). Or about the dark things in life (4). Or about your business decisions (5). Or about any bad news (7). You won’t have to fear being generous in your giving (9). You wont even have to fear your enemies (10).
6. (4) They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.
  1. Wow, those are 3 great qualities we want our children to have right?
7. But I also see words like darkness, not be overcome by evil, bad news, foes, the wicked...as a reality of life for even the best of believers...life can be pretty harsh. May I encourage you to allow your children/grandchildren to fail.
  1. This is counter-culture for sure, in allowing your children to fail.
  2. Our culture has thought it best to over protect our children from failure (in sports & in life).
    1. There must be some balance between us in our generation, sitting on the back of an open tailgate, going down the road, and some children today wearing elbow & knee pads to go get the mail.
    2. Some young adults don’t care to drive when they can get their license, it’s safer if mom or dad drives. Others don’t want to fill out a job app for risk of being turned down or not called.
    3. Conan O’brien said, I just taught my kids about taxes by eating 38% of their ice cream.
  3. Please give them the gift of failure to help propel them forward.
  4. If we don’t let them fail, they won’t succeed at what matters most.
8. (2) Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed.
  1. An entire generation of godly people will be blessed - by fulfilling our calling of bringing heaven to earth...is this not our #1 duty?
  2. Successful everywhere - what we need to pass on to the next-generation are those things necessary to be successful everywhere.
  3. Define Success - the definition we get from society and culture is… make sure that you have well-rounded, well-educated, happy kids.
    1. That sounds good, but is it right or best or most important... or biblical?
  4. Well-rounded? what about excelling in the 1or2 things God has gifted them in?
  5. Well-educated? education is important/great, but no matter how degree’d your children are, if they don’t follow & cherish Jesus, what’s the point?
    1. Mt.16:26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
  6. Happy-Kids? Culture has been alluring parents to bow down and worship at the altar of happy children.
    1. Remember the Scripture that says, be happy for I am happy? Oh no it’s, be holy for I am holy.
    2. "Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” – Helen Keller
      1. Life is more than a balance sheet between positive & negative feelings.
      2. A happy life without meaning will not last.
    3. Distinguish between lives high on happiness and lives full of meaning.
    4. A wedding can bring you happiness or it can bring more meaning to your life.
      1. Think of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela or Ghandi as prisoners, probably at best extremely uncomfortable and at worse in profound physical and psychological pain. Researchers would certainly not find their lives happy: Their balance of positive to negative emotions would probably weigh heavily to the negative. Their satisfaction with life? Probably nil.
      2. But great people make it clear that however unpleasant their lives might be in a given moment, their beliefs about their respective situations inspire their lives with profound meaning.
    5. Don’t get me wrong, God is into happiness. He started this whole Psalm with it w/aleph יֵרְׁשַא[eh·sher - highly favored or fortunate; as by divine grace]
    6. And yes, our Constitution calls out Life, Liberty, & the pursuit of Happiness as our inalienable right. It is a right...but should Happiness be our goal in life? I think pursuing Jesus should be our goal, then as a bi-product of pursuing Jesus is a life full of (highlight on screen) Joy, delight, success,…
  7. I like how Craig Groeschel pastor Life Church expounded vs.2 (re-read it). We are called to unleash - Christ centered, biblically anchored, world changers.
    1. We are called to unleash (not coddle, not hyper protect) - Christ centered (Christ 1st above all else), biblically anchored (not swayed by anything), world changers (not just consumers but producers, motivators, transformers).
    2. See, God as equipped His children with supernatural gifts, which are specifically chosen for this moment in history, and that will best glorify Him.
  8. This might all sound too difficult. Or, this is great for you preacher man...I’m just trying to get by in life. [I can appreciate your difficulties you’re dealing with]
    1. Story: I remember years ago a child was left at church on a Wed night. The child wouldn’t or couldn’t talk. Trying to figure out what to do. A parent forget their child? How can that happen? Did they just drop them off for church & go out to dinner? I guess we call the police? Then a large van rolled up. Door rolled open. Inside a frazzled family of about 8. Parents very apologetic explained, he usually crawls to the back & sleeps on or even under one of the seats. We got almost all the way home when we found 1 missing. [life is difficult]
  9. But this might be easier than you think. What you expose your children to helps determine what they will become.
    1. They will be exposed to wrong influences naturally. Peer pressure, an over-sexualized world. So, we need to expose them to the right influences.
    2. Prov.13:20 Walk w/the wise & become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.
9. Parents you know you can’t force your children to love God (they’ll only become rebellious teens). But you can expose them to people and things that would increase the likelihood of their falling in love with Jesus. [Expose them to 3 things:]
  1. Expose them to the joy of knowing God personally.
    1. Children today are not rejecting Christ, they are rejecting dead-empty religion.
    2. We want to expose them to a living relationship, with the living God, who is love.
    3. We want to expose them not to just rules, but to a relationship.
    4. So how do we do that? - it’s easy, just point every blessing in life back to God (not in a weird way, doesn’t have to be syrupy). “Look at this house. This food. We get to go on vacation this year. God is good.” Connect the good things in life to the Giver of life. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights. James 1:17
    5. It’s not telling/making our children read their bibles, it’s modeling it so they want to
      1. This generation, if you don’t have it, they’re not going to want it.
      2. If it’s not important to you, it’s not going to be important to them.
      3. This next generation is better than us in this category. They can smell a fake. They’re fake-detectors.
    6. So, #1 Expose them to the joy of knowing God personally.
  2. Expose them to the presence & power of God in His church.
    1. Again, this is easy. We are the church that exists for the world. And we value participation in local church. Not, I’m looking for a church to meet my needs (selfish).
    2. Church life can be your kids identity, community, extended family, friendships.
    3. Church life also teaches our children how to deal with real life problems.
      1. Our kids grew up their whole lives here, church & school. We had to work through with them the realities of friends that had moral failures. Broken relationships...some that hurt us, some that we hurt.
    4. Dear friends we’d get close to & then never see again. Friends/enemies. Victories/failures. Sin/repentance/forgiveness.
    5. Church life is so important...be on time. Come for all of worship. Talk about what you learned as afamily (HS & middle school teach same through Eph).
      1. Do you over-rule church for other things...but never over-rule other things for church?...be careful, you are sending a message to your children.
    6. In Church life we can serve one another. Help raise one another’s children. We can together...touch our community & impact our world.
  3. Expose them to the thrill of being used by God.
    1. High schooler’s...it’s not that God wants to use you in the future, you are called by God to be used right now.
    2. You are not the church of tomorrow, but of today. And your generation already desires to make a difference in your world.
    3. Dads, moms, don’t make your children serve...simply expose them to how awesome serving is.
10. Dad’s just expose them to...the joy of knowing God personally. To the power and presence of God in His church. And of to the thrill of being used by God.
11. Dads don’t listen to “you can’t, won’t, and never will be.” God cares about you and the generations to come.
12. Dads it simple, you want them to see a Father in God, let them see God in their father.
  1. All our actions speak louder than words but some things echo into the next generation.
  2. And maybe, your greatest contribution to this world is not who you are but who you raise.
End: Fathers we have a little gift for you...a Fathers Day Coffee Mug. Warrior.
1. Judges 6:11-18
2. (12) Mighty man of valor (aka Mighty Warrior, where we got our HS name from Warriors)
  1. I bet he turned around at this point to see who He was talking about.
  2. The Lord saw what Gideon would become, not as he was. (he made it in the hall of faith Heb.11:32)
  3. So, Gideon doesn’t come on stage as a hero warrior.
3. (14) Might of yours - or, go with the strength you have. (both NIV & NLT)
  1. How can we do that? because, He is sending you.
4. (14b) Have I not sent you? - The Christian father’s confidence should rest in God’s presence & power, not in his personal abilities or resources. Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible notes
5. (18) He wants to worship Him - before representing Him in the public square, Gideon needed to know him in a personal way.
  1. Too many try to skip this step (straight to leadership position, w/o their proving)
  2. God’s warriors must be w/Him in worship before they can be w/Him in warfare.

return to 'Top of Page'

Verses 1-10

Intro:
1. We welcome the High Schoolers in with us...and we welcome the recent graduates to the scary adult church :)
2. We welcome our Fathers - Happy Fathers Day. I pray what you hear this morning is not just a list on what to improve but encouragement to what you’re doing right.
  1. We know statistically how important it is to have a father in your life.
  2. I pray that you will hear not what you aren’t, but remind you who you are.
  3. Dads I pray that you would be affirmed, because I know we do better when we’re affirmed. We like rising to challenges.
3. But let’s 1st start with this 2min video (Cheerios made it) How To Dad! [no to peanut butter on my cheerios & I look up to my son not vice-versa]
TRANSFORMING AN ENTIRE GENERATION
1. Psalm 112 - is an alphabetic acrostic poem. After the intro note of praise, each line begins with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet.
  1. The Psalms, are broken up into different types of Psalms. This is a Wisdom Psalm, meant to pass along wise sayings.
2. PSALM 112 NLT
3. 1 Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. 2 Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed. 3 They themselves will be wealthy, and their good deeds will last forever. 4 Light shines in the darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate, and righteous. 5 Good comes to those who lend money generously and conduct their business fairly. 6 Such people will not be overcome by evil. Those who are righteous will be long remembered. 7 They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. 8 They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly. 9 They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor. 10 The wicked will see this and be infuriated. They will grind their teeth in anger; they will slink away, their hopes thwarted.
4. (1) Praise the Lord - Start - Praise God/Yahweh.
5. How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying his commands. (nkjv Blessed is the man...it begins w/a beatitude, a blessing that is also usually a promise)
  1. The fear of the Lord is not being afraid of him, rather it is an understanding of the awesome power and strength and giving more weight to God than to the influence of the world around him.
  2. If we fear the Lord than we won’t fear anything else…
    1. You won’t have fear about your family (2). Or about finances (3). Or about the dark things in life (4). Or about your business decisions (5). Or about any bad news (7). You won’t have to fear being generous in your giving (9). You wont even have to fear your enemies (10).
6. (4) They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.
  1. Wow, those are 3 great qualities we want our children to have right?
7. But I also see words like darkness, not be overcome by evil, bad news, foes, the wicked...as a reality of life for even the best of believers...life can be pretty harsh. May I encourage you to allow your children/grandchildren to fail.
  1. This is counter-culture for sure, in allowing your children to fail.
  2. Our culture has thought it best to over protect our children from failure (in sports & in life).
    1. There must be some balance between us in our generation, sitting on the back of an open tailgate, going down the road, and some children today wearing elbow & knee pads to go get the mail.
    2. Some young adults don’t care to drive when they can get their license, it’s safer if mom or dad drives. Others don’t want to fill out a job app for risk of being turned down or not called.
    3. Conan O’brien said, I just taught my kids about taxes by eating 38% of their ice cream.
  3. Please give them the gift of failure to help propel them forward.
  4. If we don’t let them fail, they won’t succeed at what matters most.
8. (2) Their children will be successful everywhere; an entire generation of godly people will be blessed.
  1. An entire generation of godly people will be blessed - by fulfilling our calling of bringing heaven to earth...is this not our #1 duty?
  2. Successful everywhere - what we need to pass on to the next-generation are those things necessary to be successful everywhere.
  3. Define Success - the definition we get from society and culture is… make sure that you have well-rounded, well-educated, happy kids.
    1. That sounds good, but is it right or best or most important... or biblical?
  4. Well-rounded? what about excelling in the 1or2 things God has gifted them in?
  5. Well-educated? education is important/great, but no matter how degree’d your children are, if they don’t follow & cherish Jesus, what’s the point?
    1. Mt.16:26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
  6. Happy-Kids? Culture has been alluring parents to bow down and worship at the altar of happy children.
    1. Remember the Scripture that says, be happy for I am happy? Oh no it’s, be holy for I am holy.
    2. "Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” – Helen Keller
      1. Life is more than a balance sheet between positive & negative feelings.
      2. A happy life without meaning will not last.
    3. Distinguish between lives high on happiness and lives full of meaning.
    4. A wedding can bring you happiness or it can bring more meaning to your life.
      1. Think of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela or Ghandi as prisoners, probably at best extremely uncomfortable and at worse in profound physical and psychological pain. Researchers would certainly not find their lives happy: Their balance of positive to negative emotions would probably weigh heavily to the negative. Their satisfaction with life? Probably nil.
      2. But great people make it clear that however unpleasant their lives might be in a given moment, their beliefs about their respective situations inspire their lives with profound meaning.
    5. Don’t get me wrong, God is into happiness. He started this whole Psalm with it w/aleph יֵרְׁשַא[eh·sher - highly favored or fortunate; as by divine grace]
    6. And yes, our Constitution calls out Life, Liberty, & the pursuit of Happiness as our inalienable right. It is a right...but should Happiness be our goal in life? I think pursuing Jesus should be our goal, then as a bi-product of pursuing Jesus is a life full of (highlight on screen) Joy, delight, success,…
  7. I like how Craig Groeschel pastor Life Church expounded vs.2 (re-read it). We are called to unleash - Christ centered, biblically anchored, world changers.
    1. We are called to unleash (not coddle, not hyper protect) - Christ centered (Christ 1st above all else), biblically anchored (not swayed by anything), world changers (not just consumers but producers, motivators, transformers).
    2. See, God as equipped His children with supernatural gifts, which are specifically chosen for this moment in history, and that will best glorify Him.
  8. This might all sound too difficult. Or, this is great for you preacher man...I’m just trying to get by in life. [I can appreciate your difficulties you’re dealing with]
    1. Story: I remember years ago a child was left at church on a Wed night. The child wouldn’t or couldn’t talk. Trying to figure out what to do. A parent forget their child? How can that happen? Did they just drop them off for church & go out to dinner? I guess we call the police? Then a large van rolled up. Door rolled open. Inside a frazzled family of about 8. Parents very apologetic explained, he usually crawls to the back & sleeps on or even under one of the seats. We got almost all the way home when we found 1 missing. [life is difficult]
  9. But this might be easier than you think. What you expose your children to helps determine what they will become.
    1. They will be exposed to wrong influences naturally. Peer pressure, an over-sexualized world. So, we need to expose them to the right influences.
    2. Prov.13:20 Walk w/the wise & become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.
9. Parents you know you can’t force your children to love God (they’ll only become rebellious teens). But you can expose them to people and things that would increase the likelihood of their falling in love with Jesus. [Expose them to 3 things:]
  1. Expose them to the joy of knowing God personally.
    1. Children today are not rejecting Christ, they are rejecting dead-empty religion.
    2. We want to expose them to a living relationship, with the living God, who is love.
    3. We want to expose them not to just rules, but to a relationship.
    4. So how do we do that? - it’s easy, just point every blessing in life back to God (not in a weird way, doesn’t have to be syrupy). “Look at this house. This food. We get to go on vacation this year. God is good.” Connect the good things in life to the Giver of life. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights. James 1:17
    5. It’s not telling/making our children read their bibles, it’s modeling it so they want to
      1. This generation, if you don’t have it, they’re not going to want it.
      2. If it’s not important to you, it’s not going to be important to them.
      3. This next generation is better than us in this category. They can smell a fake. They’re fake-detectors.
    6. So, #1 Expose them to the joy of knowing God personally.
  2. Expose them to the presence & power of God in His church.
    1. Again, this is easy. We are the church that exists for the world. And we value participation in local church. Not, I’m looking for a church to meet my needs (selfish).
    2. Church life can be your kids identity, community, extended family, friendships.
    3. Church life also teaches our children how to deal with real life problems.
      1. Our kids grew up their whole lives here, church & school. We had to work through with them the realities of friends that had moral failures. Broken relationships...some that hurt us, some that we hurt.
    4. Dear friends we’d get close to & then never see again. Friends/enemies. Victories/failures. Sin/repentance/forgiveness.
    5. Church life is so important...be on time. Come for all of worship. Talk about what you learned as afamily (HS & middle school teach same through Eph).
      1. Do you over-rule church for other things...but never over-rule other things for church?...be careful, you are sending a message to your children.
    6. In Church life we can serve one another. Help raise one another’s children. We can together...touch our community & impact our world.
  3. Expose them to the thrill of being used by God.
    1. High schooler’s...it’s not that God wants to use you in the future, you are called by God to be used right now.
    2. You are not the church of tomorrow, but of today. And your generation already desires to make a difference in your world.
    3. Dads, moms, don’t make your children serve...simply expose them to how awesome serving is.
10. Dad’s just expose them to...the joy of knowing God personally. To the power and presence of God in His church. And of to the thrill of being used by God.
11. Dads don’t listen to “you can’t, won’t, and never will be.” God cares about you and the generations to come.
12. Dads it simple, you want them to see a Father in God, let them see God in their father.
  1. All our actions speak louder than words but some things echo into the next generation.
  2. And maybe, your greatest contribution to this world is not who you are but who you raise.
End: Fathers we have a little gift for you...a Fathers Day Coffee Mug. Warrior.
1. Judges 6:11-18
2. (12) Mighty man of valor (aka Mighty Warrior, where we got our HS name from Warriors)
  1. I bet he turned around at this point to see who He was talking about.
  2. The Lord saw what Gideon would become, not as he was. (he made it in the hall of faith Heb.11:32)
  3. So, Gideon doesn’t come on stage as a hero warrior.
3. (14) Might of yours - or, go with the strength you have. (both NIV & NLT)
  1. How can we do that? because, He is sending you.
4. (14b) Have I not sent you? - The Christian father’s confidence should rest in God’s presence & power, not in his personal abilities or resources. Dr. David Jeremiah Study Bible notes
5. (18) He wants to worship Him - before representing Him in the public square, Gideon needed to know him in a personal way.
  1. Too many try to skip this step (straight to leadership position, w/o their proving)
  2. God’s warriors must be w/Him in worship before they can be w/Him in warfare.

return to 'Top of Page'

PsalmsPsa 107 PsalmsPsa PsalmsPsa 119

Copyright Statement
These files are the property of Brian Bell.
Text Courtesy of Calvary Chapel of Murrieta. Used by Permission.

Bibliographical Information
Bell, Brian. "Commentary on Psalms 112". "Bell's Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/cbb/psalms-112.html. 2017.

Bible CommentariesPsalms 112

Bell's Commentary on the BibleBell's Commentary

Verses 1-10

Verses 1-10

Bible Commentaries
Psalms 112