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Do We Dishonor God by Neglecting His Gifts?


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00:00:00.000 | Well, there's never a shortage of questions about our delight in God in relationship to
00:00:08.160 | the gifts that he gives us.
00:00:10.080 | It was only two months into the life of this podcast, we addressed the question, "How
00:00:14.120 | do I know if I love the gifts more than the giver?"
00:00:18.120 | That was APJ 55, episode number 55.
00:00:22.320 | We're back on the theme exactly eight years later with a related question from a listener
00:00:26.440 | named Robert in Fairbanks, Alaska.
00:00:28.320 | "Hello Pastor John, thank you so much for your faithful ministry.
00:00:31.160 | I've heard you talk about the importance of loving God more than the gifts that God gives
00:00:35.200 | us.
00:00:36.200 | I believe the spirit of that statement is certainly true, but it doesn't explain everything
00:00:39.800 | I see in the Bible.
00:00:41.800 | Particularly, how does this square with Psalm 103 verses 1 to 5, which seems to suggest
00:00:48.800 | that we love God more because of the benefits?
00:00:54.200 | Pastor John, can we diminish God's glory by being too unconcerned with inventorying
00:01:00.080 | the gifts he has given us?"
00:01:02.080 | I'll start with the conclusion and then try to back it up.
00:01:06.520 | Conclusion.
00:01:07.520 | It is not inconsistent.
00:01:09.800 | Indeed, it is crucial that we both love God more than we love his gifts and that we love
00:01:21.880 | God more because of his gifts.
00:01:27.200 | That's the conclusion.
00:01:28.200 | And I'm saying, "Amen, amen, Robert."
00:01:32.080 | So I am agreeing with Robert's suggestion that God's gifts may not just compete with
00:01:41.680 | our love for God, which they certainly can and do, but they also deepen and intensify
00:01:51.760 | our love for God himself.
00:01:54.320 | And I agree with the flip side, which Robert also suggests, namely, that we can diminish
00:02:02.000 | God's glory by being unconcerned, to use his phrase, with inventorying God's gifts.
00:02:12.520 | He gets that idea rightly from Psalm 103 verses 1 to 5, which indeed does inventory at least
00:02:23.240 | five of God's gifts, maybe six, depending on how you count them.
00:02:29.660 | But here's what Psalm 103 says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within
00:02:35.600 | me, bless his holy name."
00:02:38.640 | Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who, one, forgives all your
00:02:46.600 | iniquity, who, two, heals all your diseases, who, three, redeems your life from the pit,
00:02:53.400 | who, four, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who, five, satisfies you with good
00:03:00.520 | so that, six, your youth is renewed like the eagles.
00:03:04.960 | Now, that's amazing.
00:03:06.680 | He's so right.
00:03:07.680 | That's an inventory of some of God's countless gifts to the psalmist.
00:03:13.520 | Let's notice three things from this passage, these five verses.
00:03:20.520 | First, we are indirectly commanded not to forget the benefits of God, both the spiritual
00:03:31.720 | gifts and the natural gifts.
00:03:35.900 | He commands his own soul.
00:03:37.960 | He says, "Soul, don't forget all God's benefits."
00:03:43.520 | So Robert is right to insist, "Inventory them.
00:03:49.120 | Do that.
00:03:50.120 | It's a duty.
00:03:51.120 | It's a divine expectation.
00:03:53.040 | Don't be neglectful in your affections or in your thanksgiving of God's countless good
00:04:01.200 | gifts."
00:04:02.200 | Here's the second thing to notice from these verses, and I mentioned it, but I'll stress
00:04:08.960 | it.
00:04:10.440 | They are both spiritual and natural.
00:04:14.300 | So he forgives all our iniquity.
00:04:17.840 | That's a spiritual work of God.
00:04:20.400 | And then it says, "He heals your diseases."
00:04:25.200 | That's a miracle to be sure, but it's a miracle that shows itself up in a very natural thing,
00:04:30.160 | like I got well.
00:04:31.160 | I got well.
00:04:32.880 | And so both kinds of blessings are lavished upon us, and both kinds are to be remembered.
00:04:40.320 | As I was preparing and thinking about this, Tony, I couldn't help but think, this is one
00:04:45.400 | of the best arguments in the Bible for keeping a journal, because I've been rereading recently
00:04:54.000 | some of my journal entries from 40 years ago when I was in Germany as a grad student.
00:05:00.640 | I'm sitting there in my chair downstairs loving God.
00:05:06.040 | I'm just thanking Him and loving Him because of how sweetly faithful He was to Noel and
00:05:12.600 | me.
00:05:13.600 | And what we were doing in those days.
00:05:15.320 | I mean, it was just, He came through for us over and over again.
00:05:19.560 | Well, anyway, that's a little side note.
00:05:22.880 | If you're going to obey the command, don't forget the benefits of God.
00:05:27.280 | How are you going to do that?
00:05:29.240 | And one way would be keep a journal.
00:05:32.200 | Now the biblical pattern of remembering the mercies of God in Psalm 103, that's not isolated.
00:05:42.160 | Psalm 77, 11, "I will remember the deeds of the Lord."
00:05:47.320 | Psalm 105, verse 5, "Remember the wondrous works He has done, His miracles and the judgments
00:05:54.920 | He uttered."
00:05:55.920 | Psalm 143, verse 5, "I remember the days of old.
00:06:00.240 | I meditate on all that you have done.
00:06:03.440 | I ponder the work of your hands."
00:06:07.120 | And then there's a warning about the opposite.
00:06:09.680 | Psalm 106, verse 7, "Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous
00:06:18.840 | works.
00:06:19.840 | They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but they rebelled by the sea
00:06:28.200 | at the Red Sea."
00:06:30.480 | So those are two things to notice in Psalm 103.
00:06:36.240 | One, that we're commanded not to forget the gifts of God, and two, that His gifts are
00:06:42.820 | both spiritual and natural.
00:06:46.080 | Now here's the third thing that I think may be the most important thing to notice in those
00:06:53.860 | five verses in Psalm 103.
00:06:57.980 | What do the blessings, the gifts, five or six of them, what do those gifts of God—the
00:07:06.200 | gifts of God—do in the heart of the psalmist?
00:07:11.080 | What do they actually do?
00:07:12.880 | And here's the answer.
00:07:14.380 | They cause the psalmist to praise God.
00:07:20.260 | Not to praise the gifts, though they are beautiful, wonderful, great, glorious, satisfying, oh,
00:07:26.600 | how wonderful to be healed and to be forgiven.
00:07:30.320 | Here's what he says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.
00:07:37.680 | Bless His holy name.
00:07:41.060 | Bless the Lord, O my soul."
00:07:44.200 | Now this gets at what Robert was saying when he says that we diminish God's glory by neglecting
00:07:53.080 | the inventory of His gifts.
00:07:56.080 | That's right.
00:07:57.200 | The psalmist shows both of those insights because he clearly is giving God glory because
00:08:06.660 | of the gifts, not in spite of the gifts, and this is clearly coming from his heart, a heart
00:08:13.200 | of love, his soul.
00:08:14.520 | "Bless the Lord, O my soul."
00:08:17.360 | His soul is being stirred up for God by God's gifts.
00:08:24.680 | So why would I even mention, let alone emphasize, that his gifts are dangerous, that they might
00:08:36.800 | lure us away from God?
00:08:40.000 | Well, first, because that's what we see happening to millions and millions of people every single
00:08:47.760 | day.
00:08:48.960 | They take God's gifts from God's hands and feel nothing for God.
00:08:54.840 | It's called idolatry.
00:08:57.440 | And second, because texts like Philippians 3.8 say, "I count everything as loss, everything
00:09:08.600 | as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
00:09:14.440 | For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order
00:09:20.640 | that I might gain Christ."
00:09:23.880 | So how in the world do we put that together?
00:09:28.240 | We put it together like this.
00:09:31.040 | When Paul views the healing of his diseases, for example, as a competitor with Christ,
00:09:39.600 | if he views the healing of a disease as a competitor with Christ in his affections,
00:09:46.880 | that is, if he sees it as a rising temptation to love health and life more than he loves
00:09:53.840 | Christ, he counts it as rubbish.
00:09:56.360 | And that's how he fights for genuine faith.
00:09:59.960 | By comparison to Christ, they are rubbish.
00:10:03.000 | He preaches that to himself and he counts them as rubbish so that Christ remains Christ,
00:10:09.160 | God, treasure in his life.
00:10:12.360 | And I would say to all of us, test your heart to see if you can say that.
00:10:17.080 | Can you say in comparison to Christ, all is rubbish?
00:10:21.280 | If I must choose, I choose Christ.
00:10:24.360 | But when he views the healing of his diseases as a blessing from God and for the glory of
00:10:32.440 | God and for the advancement of God's saving purposes in the world, Paul will soar with
00:10:39.320 | the psalmist, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and don't forget any of his benefits."
00:10:45.480 | He does it at the beginning of almost every letter he writes, right?
00:10:49.160 | He just erupts with thanksgiving for the gifts of God's people.
00:10:55.080 | So here's a test case that we can all use to discern whether the gifts of God are having
00:11:03.520 | the wrong effects on our souls.
00:11:06.560 | The test is in Psalm 40, verse 16, and Psalm 70, verse 4, and the tests go like this.
00:11:15.320 | Psalm 40, "May those who love your salvation say continually, 'Great is the Lord.'"
00:11:25.400 | Not "Great is the gift."
00:11:28.680 | Or Psalm 70, "May those who love your salvation say evermore, 'God is great.'"
00:11:38.720 | Is that the effect?
00:11:40.040 | I'm asking, is that the effect that the gifts of God have on you?
00:11:46.240 | Do they cause you, me, to feel and to say, "Great is the Lord.
00:11:56.080 | God is great."
00:11:59.200 | That's the test.
00:12:00.200 | So thank you, Robert, for pressing in on this.
00:12:02.880 | I think you're absolutely right, and I'm glad for the clarification conclusion.
00:12:09.360 | We love God more than we love his gifts, and we love God more because of his gifts.
00:12:21.560 | Love that principle.
00:12:22.560 | Pithy, memorable.
00:12:23.560 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:25.840 | And if you want to hear more from Pastor John on the practice of journaling that he mentioned
00:12:29.480 | earlier, see our archived episodes, particularly APJ 409 and APJ 1262.
00:12:36.360 | Those are two episodes that you will find an explanation for why and how Pastor John
00:12:40.880 | journals.
00:12:41.880 | You'll find them at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:12:45.920 | Those are episodes 409 and 1262.
00:12:49.200 | Well, how can we find mission and live on mission?
00:12:52.720 | It's one of the keys to walking by faith in this life, and we're going to address it next
00:12:57.000 | time when we return on Wednesday.
00:12:59.400 | I'm Tony Reinke.
00:13:00.400 | Thanks for listening.
00:13:01.400 | We'll see you then.
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