Let me ask you some questions. No one will answer yes to every one of these questions, but everyone will answer yes to some of these questions and many of you here will answer yes to most of these questions.
Do you have plenty of clothes to wear? Is your house warm in the winter, cool in the summer? Do you eat to your heart’s content? Will your concern over the next month be eating too much or eating too little? Can you read and write? Do you have the Bible in a language you can understand? Is there a good church within driving distance from your home? Have you texted with friends and family this week? Have you laughed at some funny meme that went between you? Do you have cousins to play with? Has the Lord blessed you with a husband or a wife? Or perhaps the Lord has taken them home in the past year and yet are you blessed with precious memories of that husband or wife? Has He blessed you with children, by birth or by adoption? Has He blessed you with grandchildren? Do you have children walking with the Lord? Have you been able in the past year to see a child or a grandchild or a niece or a nephew play soccer or baseball or football or tennis or run a race or sing in the choir or play in the orchestra or have a part in a play?
Are you able to worship God freely according to your conscience? Has God given you faithful pastors to preach the Word, faithful elders and deacons to care for your body and soul? Has He given us in this country yet to this day free speech and free exercise of religion? Did you take a vacation in this past year? Did you travel to another state or another country? Have you heard a beautiful piece of music that warmed your heart or thrilled your soul? Have you seen the glory of God in the mountains or a field or a lake or an ocean? Do you have clean water to drink? Do you have indoor plumbing? Do you have a TV? Internet? Cellphone? Do you own a car?
Have you flown safely on a plane in the past year? Did you walk to your pew this morning, or if you cannot walk, did you have some kind person to help you to your seat? Do you ever look out your window and see squirrels or birds or deer, or at our house, cats and chickens? Have you been blessed with Christian parents? Christian grandparents? Have you heard the Gospel? Do you know Jesus? Do you know how to be saved?
I often think of Psalm 16:6, and I hope you’ll think of this verse in a new way after this sermon and the ones to follow. Psalm 16:6 – The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
That was the psalm that God’s people were to sing as the natural overflow of their heart to look at whatever had been given them by lot, by God’s own apportionment. Paul says in Acts 17 that God assigned to each people their place in which they are to dwell, that they would look around and with a smile and satisfaction say, “My, oh, my. Surely the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.”
This clip is part of the sermon “The Particulars of the Promise” delivered by Dr. Kevin DeYoung at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC on December 1, 2024.