Reflecting deeply on good questions helps bring so much clarity to our lives - including our relationships, our work, and how we use the time, energy, influence, and money we’ve been given. Knowing this is true, I’ve sought to become a great question-asker…both of myself and of other people. I want to give you two of the most significant questions for the actual life you are living. Here’s the first one:

What do you want most?

How would you answer this question today? Maybe you most want a new job or a new place to live or to be free of an addiction or to have a few close friends or to find a spouse or to have your child get into a certain school.

We are creatures of desire. We want so many things. We long for them. We love imagining our future with them and we fear what our lives will become if we never receive what we are after. Before you think that a question like this might fit out there in the world but have no place in a church setting, let me quote Jesus verbatim on this one:

“What do you want?” or “What do you want me to do for you?” – Jesus

What do you want? is a really important question, but there’s a second question that goes with it and it’s this one:

Why do you want what you want most?

What is your reason for wanting what you want? If you get what you’re after, what will the scope of the impact be? I think there’s a huge invitation from God for all of us today. I honestly believe God is inviting us to reimagine what we want most and why we want it. We’re continuing this series we began last week called A City on the Hills. Our text for today is Psalm 67. I’d love for you stand as I read this text. As I read it, keep in mind these two questions – what do you want and why do you want it.

Psalm 67:1-7 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us – so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. The land yields its harvest; God, our God blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Some of us are not comfortable asking God to bless us personally. Others of us are very comfortable asking God to bless us, but we never think about asking God to bless anyone else besides us. Which of those do you tend to lean towards?

I want to encourage you to pray for God to be gracious to you and bless you and make his face shine upon you. To have God’s face shine upon you is to have His divine favor and approval over your life. We long for God to turn his face towards us. Dallas Willard wrote about a boy who crept into his father’s bedroom to sleep. It was dark and the boy couldn’t see his father, so he asked him, “Is your face turned toward me, father?” “Yes” his father replied. “My face is turned toward you.” Only then could the child go to sleep. Whether we recognize it or not, you and I desperately need to know that God’s face is turned towards us.

God’s favor is the greatest distinction we could ever have over our lives.

While we should express this desire to God, it really matters why we want this request to be answered.

It is good to ask God to bless us. It is wrong to assume God’s blessings end with us.

Shine on us, yes…but Jesus says we’re a city on a hill so that whatever God shines on us might shine through us – for the sake of the world. I love how one commentator described this:

The gifts of God to His people should benefit the whole world.

This is true whether we’re talking about time, money, or our gifts and talents. Speaking of gifts, Peter reminds us that our gifts are ultimately for us to deploy in service to others.

1 Peter 4:10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

After making this request of God in verse 1, verse 2 begins with these words – SO THAT. We all have a “so that” living underneath our deepest desires.

What is the “so that” behind what you want God to give you?

I want a new job so that…

I want more influence so that…

I want more money so that…

I love these words Paul gives Timothy when it comes to what to do with what God gives us.

1 Timothy 6:17-18 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

There are two reasons God provides us with blessings – for us to enjoy and for us to be generous and share.

Back to Psalm 67. Bless us SO THAT your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Sometimes what we want is to make ourselves more known or our opinions more known or what we think about politics most known. We want to align ourselves with the way Jesus taught us to pray and live:

Matthew 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

Is it okay to want more than we have right now?  I think it depends on why we want more. Let’s take our church as an example. If we want our church to grow so that it makes us look good or brings attention to us, that’s probably not a motivation God wants to honor. But if we want our church to grow so that more people experience God and put their faith in Jesus, I think God loves to answer that request.

Think about The Hope Project. When we launched the first ever Hope Project, our goal was $20,000 and our church, less than a year old, gave over $40,000. Our goal this year is $500,000 and by 2027 we want to give $1 million in a single year. The more our church grows, the more resources we’ll have to give to our local, national, and global partners.

We are called to live on mission. But mission isn’t the end goal. I’ll never forget what I heard someone say when I was in university:

Mission exists because worship does not.

Look back at the movement in this psalm:

Movement #1 – May God be gracious and bless us and make his face shine upon us

Movement #2 – So that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations

But that’s not the end either. Bless us so that your ways may be known so that…

Movement #3 – (verse 3) May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.

Every human being worships something or someone, but they were made to worship God alone.

Why? Because only God is worthy of worship. And everything else we attempt to put on the throne of our lives will never satisfy, including: wealth, pleasure, a great reputation, accomplishments, possessions, the best friends, the best church, the best job, the best children, or the best spouse.

God wants to bring joy, justice, and divine guidance to the world – through your life.

(v.6) The land yields its harvest. We believe it’s harvest season here at Epic Church. What do you do with an abundant harvest?

Leviticus 23:22 “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.”

And verse 7 summarizes the whole cycle we’ve been learning today.

What can we do?

-Ask God to bless us/shine his face on us

-Use our blessings to bless the world so that they will know God

-Make an “above and beyond” gift to The Hope Project‍