The Lord God is a sun and a shield, bestowing favour and honour upon His people. He is the unchanging Father of lights, from whom every good and perfect gift comes, providing for our physical needs and giving spiritual understanding. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Therefore, we are called to trust in His character, store His word in our hearts, and seek to please Him, knowing that the one who rests in the Lord is truly blessed.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] And there is something about what it is to be blessed. Now I know we use that sometimes as an adjective to explain our frustration. This blessed thing or something is semi-swearing really. But when it’s understood properly, the word blessed means you’ve come under the favour of God and he’s made rich for you in some dimension of your life. And what this verse is saying, it may be difficult at the moment, but if you go on seeking to walk uprightly with him, honestly with him, no sneaky moves, then he will look after you and what you’re actually doing is putting your trust in him, that he will provide all that is needed in your life. I’ve got a series of verses that go along this way and so we’ll go to the next one.

[00:00:56] Which is in Genesis 1 and it’s right at the beginning of creation, 14 to 16. Page 1 on your pew Bibles, if you can find that. Page 1. And in this bit it’s a bit about the creation of the world and it’s about how God creates the sun. I’ve found these verses chasing about the sun because the other verse just spoke about him being sun and shield. So what does Genesis 1, 14 to 16? God said, let there be lights, plural, lights in the expanse of the heavens. Expanse of the heavens is talking really about beyond the atmosphere, the stars and all. To separate the day from the night. Now what’s interesting is that we need, you know, both day and night.

[00:01:47] I don’t know whether you’ve ever been somewhere like Antarctica. Antarctica, I haven’t been there yet. No penguins have invited me. Anyway, but when you go to those places, sometimes it can be light and it never actually gets into the night. And you might think that’s an unusual circumstance but it’s actually annoying after a while. We need the night time for rest. It’s a lot easier to sleep in the darkness. It’s just no light. But God makes something for the light and that’s the moon. And the moon comes up about every four weeks.

[00:02:25] You’ll get a new moon. By the way, you can’t see the new moon so well but you can see a full moon which is somewhere in the makeup of the moon. But every four weeks over Brisbane there’s a beautiful big moon to be seen. And there’s something about the provision of God in moonlight because it’s not bright and it’s not something that irritates the eyes but there’s a sort of joy. Even some of the animal kingdom gets around liking the moon. Our cat loves to get out into the night and come back and meow to get in again in some early hours of the morning. But God provides both what’s necessary, the heat and visibility in the light of the sun and the joy and the sense of wonder in the moonlight that is there for us. Let them be for signs and seasons. And so it’s been many a time that people have found in the constellations and in the night skies all sorts of help. There was a moment in the ship a couple of hundred years ago that Napoleon was taking his troops across in the northern hemisphere, I think it was the Atlantic,

[00:03:38] and some of his men were arguing about whether there was a God or not. Napoleon was a big believer in God. He overheard the argument and strode amongst them. He flung his hand up pointing to the stars and says, Who then made the constellations? He was very glad to have those constellations. That’s why he could get across the ocean to do whatever he was planning. There’s something about what God has made for the provision of the sun and the light that he gives the necessities in their due times. Now, if you’ve been a person who’s been particularly longing for something and it hasn’t arrived. I mean, lots of such things, something that you really want and it hasn’t arrived.

[00:04:28] But there can be a due time. You just need to trust God to bring you to the right time. Don’t try and go sunbaking when it’s only moonlight. But there’s a season for all things under the sun, the Bible tells us. And part of what we’re learning from this is that God is trustworthy in order to supply just what it is that you need. We sometimes in our humanity get impatient with God and we somehow want to press him to produce when we’re feeling the need of it. But it’s a part of learning godliness to rest your hopes and rest your awareness of what you most need in his provision. And we learn that from how he provided this sun and the stars just here and the moon and all the rest. Let’s keep going. I’ve just got a number of verses that talk about God’s provision like this.

[00:05:27] So we’ll go to Isaiah 19 verse 6. I better put these on to make sure I get the right. Okay, it’s about the sun again. And I can’t read the first. What does it say up here? Oh, that’s better. It’s good. It’s rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat. Now, part of what is being said here is quite a number of things.

[00:06:06] You’ve got to dig it out a little bit. But the provision of the heat of the sun is a good thing. You know what happens if we were to have the sun blasted out of the skies altogether? The earth would, all the things on the earth would die. We can’t exist without the energy of the sun. All the weather would change. There would be a terrible time. I can’t even imagine how bad it would be if we lost our sun. But the provision of it is there and nothing is hidden from its heat. Now, you can go to some of the desert areas and wish that it wasn’t so hot.

[00:06:48] But somehow in the balance of things in this planet of ours, there’s a tremendous provision in the heat of the sun and nothing is hidden. And there isn’t any way to take yourself out from underneath God’s arrangement with the sun. There’s sufficient heat always for enough. Sometimes the people of God have been asked to believe in his provision and to trust in him. And sometimes he’s taught them lessons in that, like the ones that had to get the manna and they weren’t allowed to get it, those little pieces of something that turned up on the ground. And they had to get it every day and not take double doses so that tomorrow they could be lazy. They were to thank God for his provision in the right measure of the manna.

[00:07:41] Well, what about some of those people that had terrible circumstances? A husband had died, a child was there in the care. A lady who just had a boy and she’d run out of food. And so the prophet helps her by telling her to fill up all these little containers and then they get turned into oil. And she just has enough. And it’s an amazing thing when you get called of God to go into a circumstance, sometimes our missionaries experience this, where they don’t have much provisions. They pray to God.

[00:08:18] Some of them actually use the Lord’s Prayer. Do you know what the Lord’s Prayer includes in it? Give us this day our, what’s the next word? Daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. And there’s something about that position of being cast onto God’s supply that really does something for you spiritually. If you get so much money that you never have a need and you never have to go and pray for it, I pity you. For there’s a tremendous blessing

[00:08:55] for when you recognise just how dependent you are on the Lord and he’s going to provide your warmth and there’ll be nothing hidden from its heat. And he’s going to provide your light. That verse back in Genesis 1 talks about the lights. There’s something very interesting. The Bible often uses the term light as a metaphor, not just only so your eyes can see. But it uses light as a bit of a metaphor for understanding. He gives light in due season.

[00:09:33] He helps you to understand. And when you find yourself at a loss to unravel the circumstances God has put you into and you can’t quite fathom it, don’t get too upset. Go and talk to him about it. Say, Lord, I really wish you’d let me understand a bit better why you’re allowing this. Sometimes he won’t let you know anymore, but get you just to trust him. But other times he brings to you a perception

[00:10:04] that you didn’t have before. And this idea about the sun is not only that it gives heat, but it also gives light. And it’s how God provides for us understanding. The Bible often uses the understanding that you get when you expose yourself, listen to me, to the light of the scriptures. And you immerse yourself in his word. It’s a fascinating thing how many testimonies you hear, especially from people who get involved in God’s work

[00:10:33] where there’s something that’s not working for them and they spend their time praying about it and they’re asking the Lord, please teach me if there’s something I haven’t understood. And then suddenly they land on a Bible verse and it speaks to them. And they get light in terms of spiritual understanding. God is in the business of providing just what you need physically. You can see that in his provision of the sun and the moon and his provision for all that is involved in our atmosphere.

[00:11:06] God provides what we need. But you know, spiritually that’s even more the case. That we are so dependent on him and the more you recognize that blessed is a man who trusts in the Lord. How that first verse finished with, when you trust in him it is an amazing thing how he’ll lead you to some way to understand the circumstances you’re in. That’s the way the Lord works

[00:11:31] and he is a sun and a shield, he is a light to those who will recognise us from him. We can keep on going with these verses, they’re beautiful actually, I’ve been so thrilled, this is not a new sermon to me, it’s one I got because I used up my two this morning. But let’s go now to James 1 and verse 17. In James 1 and verse 17, now this is really something, this verse, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

[00:12:12] Coming down from the Father of lights, why does the verse call him the Father of lights? Because in the whole frame of things, he is the one that has set the lights and just as it’s true physically in the world that we live in, it’s also true spiritually, that he will give you a light on whatever issue, if you’ve got something you’re not sure how to understand, and take the time to go and speak to him,

[00:12:44] even if you have to do it, go and shake heaven with your request. Lord, I don’t understand, what do you want me to do? And he can bring in a spiritual illumination for which you’ll thank him. He’s the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. And this is one of the characteristics of God

[00:13:11] that he doesn’t set you in a course and I want you to do this and you sit away doing it and then he comes to you and says, no, I’m tired of that idea for you, I’ve changed it. Have you ever had friends who change like that for one period of time and they’re wanting you this way

[00:13:26] and then the next minute they’ve had some change in them. What a nuisance it is and you’ve been trying to keep them happy one way when they change. Well, God’s not like that. Coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Not even the hint. One of the things about God is his constancy of personhood. He doesn’t change.

[00:13:54] One of the beautiful things about his not changing is that when he sent his son to die for you on the cross, he was saying with the biggest way that he could say, I love you. I want to forgive you. And he doesn’t change. You’re the apple of my eye. You are the one whom I sent my son to pay for your sin that you could get in the door with me and then I’m not going to change. I’m not going to have you go out being a Christian and think you didn’t make much chop of it. Out the door with you. He doesn’t do that. with whom there is no variation or change,

[00:14:36] shadow of change, due to change. That’s one of the most beautiful things about the Lord. You can trust in his character. You know, we all talk about, a lot of us, to varying degrees maybe, but we all are people who can be ones that have changes in what we do and say. We don’t keep our words sometimes. So we change what we really want. Human relationships are fraught with the fact that,

[00:15:09] you know, we can be variable and we can be kind one day. You know, it’s a terrible thing if you’ve got someone who’s kind one day and nasty the next. With whom there is, this is with God, with no variation or shadow due to change. And his dependability of character is what the Bible is telling us to put our trust in. Well, I’ll keep on going to get through these nice quickly.

[00:15:38] That was, verse 17, that was James, was it? Yeah. Psalm 119, 7 to 12. If you happen to be looking up the few Bibles, it’s page 513, I think. 119 is the Psalm, verses 7 to 12. I will praise you with an upright heart. This is, I mean, the psalmist saying to God, I’ll praise you with an upright heart. If you want to have God treating you

[00:16:15] the way these verses are talking, what he wants you to do in response, when you see how that’s how he’s been, is to attend and try to get your heart to be an upright heart. When I learn your righteous rules. Just recently in church, I’ve been talking a little bit about the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

[00:16:39] I’ve been trying to say, let’s not be just Old Testament Christians, but there’s a lot of good in the Old Testament revelations. But there was yet to be revealed the New Testament. The New Testament’s a step further on what God wants us to be. But having an upright heart is a part of what the Old Testament

[00:17:01] is all about. When I learn your righteous rules, what can be a fault as if you see God wants you this way and then you make it a legalism that you think you can tick the box and get him to have to love you more? It’s not saying that. He loves you even when you’re not righteous. But it is saying

[00:17:23] that it is great benefit from learning the things of the Old Testament and seeking to attend, having an upright heart by learning his righteous statements, by your seeking to keep his statutes. There’s a lot of little ones like honour your word and keep your promises. Ones like don’t repay

[00:17:49] evil with evil. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me. This is a psalmist saying to God he’s feeling forsaken. And that’s a beautiful verse. How can a young man keep his way? And he goes through the things to do. And when you take seriously how God has been talking

[00:18:15] and you see his commandments and tell him I’m going to try and not wander from your commandments Lord. Look at verse 11. I’ve stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Some people never get to sin, know they sin against the Lord because they don’t know his statutes. But we’re meant to store them up in our heart

[00:18:36] that we might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. And there’s something about a person that wants to obey the rules. When one of my final years of teaching out west was having a class full of kids, most of them aboriginals, and this is a little town

[00:19:00] out in the middle of nowhere. And it was fascinating how you really quickly got to know the ones that loved the school and they loved you. And they found what were the rules. But the ones that were intent on not obeying anybody, they seemed to never get to learn what the rules were.

[00:19:21] And you catch them doing something wrong and they didn’t know that was not what was to be done. They made a point of trying not to learn the rules. Well God wants us the opposite He wants us to go and seek what is His statutes to seek what he wants not because that’s the only way to get His smile

[00:19:42] because He loves you anyway but because that’s your way of being upright and you’re wanting to do I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you I’ve found out all the rules not rules as in this will make you get praised and this will give you a slap on the wrist but all the things that

[00:20:07] God wants and you soon found out when you had a new student I had different ones coming in from the bush and being in my class and the ones that loved being in school and it’s an opportunity that it offered they found out all the rules straight away the ones who were rebellious and hated having anybody tell them anything.

[00:20:29] They’d try hard not to know the rules. Tell me which are you in God’s rules. Do you know them? Have you searched them out so you might find out how to please him? Do you pray and say, Lord, to some degree I’ve not been upright, but can you change me? I found out, I think I’ve always been a bit of a, oh, don’t bother about what I am, but we’ve lots of need to be straightforward, not sneaky or not ignoring the truth.

[00:21:10] And God comes and says, why don’t you chase down what I like? Here’s a bit of a turnaround. You chase down, God says, what I like. Show that you love me. Show that you have a heart to be upright, even when you can’t. I’ll help you. I’ll forgive you. I’ll have grace to you. But boy, somehow or other, God responds to people who make it their decision

[00:21:37] to work out how best to please him and to be upright. That’s not just, some people would call that Old Testament religion. No, it’s the whole Bible is the same. Jesus said the same sort of thing. If you’re my friend, keep my commandments and my father will love you and I will love you and we will reveal ourselves to you. That’s New Testament. It’s the whole Bible.

[00:22:04] And it’s a very gracious thing that God has given us, a revelation which has so much in it by which we can be enabled to change our life and become someone that God blesses. And that’s the message of tonight that the Lord is saying to somebody here, that very first verse, put that first one up again that we had. The Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord bestows favour and honour.

[00:22:38] No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. I’ll give you a little illustration that you might think is trivial but meant a lot to me, right? When I was a young man and beginning to earn money I used to be involved in Youth for Christ and they always needed money to run. So I used to give them a big large

[00:23:06] amount of the money I earned and the runner of Youth for Christ here in Brisbane called me in and said, you can’t give that much. He tried to stop me doing it and I said to him, I know I’m intended to go into Christian work and at that time I’ll need the Lord to look after me. This is my chance to give.

[00:23:30] And so he let me give. Well, one of the costs of giving like that was I like driving cars and you can’t have as much money to buy a nice one. And I went across to America on the strength of my bank card and I’m there hardly about any money, just a little bit. And do you know what?

[00:23:54] The Lord made available to me to be able to get this lovely second hand car. It was a little old lady who’d only done 30,000 miles. It was a 400 cubic inch Pontiac and it was the joy of my life. And when I had nothing, I had a really good car. You should have seen it go. And I still think of that car

[00:24:23] and I wished I crashed it in the end and I thought, oh, it was written off but the amount of money I got from the insurance company was just what I needed to pay my fees at Wheaton College. And God was providing. I want to tell you, he’s got a lot of resources, the Lord.

[00:24:46] And he’s just looking around the eyes of the Lord, rove to and fro, seeking whom he may prove himself powerful on behalf of them. Just looking for someone that he can show his great power. Why not satisfy the sort of person that God can bless?

[00:25:09] For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. He bestows favour and honour. No good thing does he withhold. Someone here, God wants you to take him up on this. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Blessed is the one who trusts in you. That’s from the Lord.

[00:25:34] Take it up and see what happens. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the scriptures, all how potent and powerful they are. I pray, Lord, that this word will ring in the hearts of people you see needed tonight. And Lord, we thank you for how you take care of us.

[00:25:54] Thank you for being a sun and a shield. You not only provide the heat and the warmth, but you give us a shield if that’s what we need. Lord, we praise you for your provision. Thank you for the, how you always seem to come up with it. Thank you for that Psalm 23.

[00:26:12] He leads us beside the still waters. He restores my soul. Oh, Father, we thank you for how you are and we praise you for the opportunity to walk with you in Jesus’ name.