STOPPED FROM ENJOYING THE FULL BLESSINGS OF GOD
PSALM 95:7-11
Introduction: God called Israel out of Egypt with the intent of leading them into the Promised Land and of showering His bountiful blessings upon them. Their actions stopped them from enjoying the full blessings of God and from entering the Promised Land. In Psalm 31:19 David writes “"Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You". As the Body of Christ, God has marvelous blessings He has prepared for us today. But we are not going to enjoy them if we, like Israel, allow our actions to stop them from flowing into our church and individual lives by our actions. Actions that will stop us from enjoying the full blessing of God include unbridled tongues, unrepentant hearts, unbelieving eyes, unlistening ears, unwilling hands, and unmoving feet.
I. Unbridled Tongues
A. Numbers 14:27-30 How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
B. Murmuring, grumbling, gossiping, lying to one another, and sowing discord kept Israel from enjoying the Promised Land.
C. James 3:2-8 “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
D. If we Christians spent as much time praying as we do grumbling, we would soon have nothing to grumble about. - copied
E. Colossians 3:8-10 “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
F. The only way to "bridle" the tongue is with a "bit" of love. – copied
II. Unrepentant Hearts
A. Hebrews 3:7-11 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.” Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.” As I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”
B. Daniel 5:20 But when his (King Nebuchadnezzar’s) heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.
C. Unforgiving toward others
1. Unforgiveness is a willful choice to hold on to hurt, anger, and hostility. In essence, we are denying the cross, which was the ultimate sacrifice for all sin and wrongdoing. Refusing to forgive is a sin. – Charles Stanley, © 2008 In Touch Ministries® All Rights Reserved.
2. Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
D. Unconvinced as to their condition
1. There are those who have the outward forms of faith but lack inner conviction.
2. Matthew 7:3 “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
3. Psalm 38:4, 18 “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me... I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.”
4. We can learn from David. He knew and recognized sin in his life for the horror it really was. He knew that sin was an act of disobedience against God. He knew that his sin defaced the majesty and name of God. He knew and experienced the wrath of God against his sin. He made no excuse for his sin. He doesn’t attempt to minimize what he has done. He acknowledged his sin and he cried to God because of it. That’s the proper order. David wept because of his sin, not because of the result of his sin. Most of turn the order around. We don’t weep over our sin; we weep when we are caught, when the results demonstrate themselves. Only then do we repent. - unknown
E. Unconcerned about their impact
1. Matthew 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”
2. Romans 14:7 “For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself.”
III. Unbelieving eyes
A. Hebrews 3:19 “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
B. There are those who will only go by sight not by faith.
C. We try to rationalize and reason everything out instead of trusting God.
D. Faith leaves everything in the hands of God when we understand or do not understand.
E. 2 Corinthians 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
F. When Peter saw by faith he actually could walk on water, he made a commitment with both of his feet to step over the rim. Unbelief keeps both feet inside the boat. Doubt takes one step out of the boat and keeps one foot in. But faith steps completely out of the boat. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 71)
G. Three frogs sat on a lily pad. One decided to jump off. How many were left? Three. He only decided to jump off, but never took the leap. It’s not enough to make a decision. You’ve got to take a leap of faith and follow through with it. – copied
IV. Unlistening ears
A. One minister got into the pulpit one Sunday, and found he had forgotten to bring along his sermon manuscript. He noticed that the previous Sunday’s notes were still lying on the pulpit, so he simply preached that sermon all over again. To his surprise, nobody noticed! Everyone after church complimented him on a fine sermon. During the following week, there were several funerals and other emergencies in the church family, and the pastor never got around to writing a new sermon that week. So, the next Sunday he preached the same sermon for the third time! After church, everyone began to compliment him again. Finally, one old man scratched his head and declared, "Pastor, haven’t I heard that one before?" The minister replied, "Oh, good!--I was beginning to think that you all weren’t listening to me!" – unknown
B. Hebrews 3: 7-8 “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS…”
C. William Aims in Leadership magazine said this, “The receiving of the word consists of two parts. Attention of mind and intention of will. If the will does not intend to receive the mind can not attend.” It is not that God doesn’t speak to us, it is that we are not always listening and paying attention when He does speak.
D. Jeremiah 11:3-4 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace’, saying, ’Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God.’”
V. Unwilling Hands
A. 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.”
B. There are people who idly take advantage of God’s grace. Subconsciously they say, “Why should I put forth myself to do God’s will? Why should I have to work in the church? Why should I take risks? Why should I sacrifice and give myself away for the sake of others? Been there done that but not anymore. I’ll just sit back and take it all in?”
C. Matthew 21:28-32 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, Son, go and work in the vineyard today. And he answered, I will not, but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, I go, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”
D. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
E. Can you imagine if…
Moses said, "I don’t do Pharaohs or mass migrations."
Noah said, "I don’t do arks and animals."
Rahab said "I don’t do enemy spies."
Ruth said, "I don’t do mothers-in-law."
Samuel said, "I don’t do mornings."
David said, "I don’t do giants."
Peter said, "I don’t do Gentiles."
John said, "I don’t do deserts."
Mary said, "I don’t do virgin births."
Paul said, "I don’t do correspondence."
Mary Magdalene said, "I don’t do feet."
Christ said, “I don’t do crosses”
F. Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
VI. Unmoving feet
A. Joshua 3:13 “And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap."
B. The church is supposed to be Christ’s body--his hands, his feet, and his voice--by which he carries out his plans in the world. God intends that "through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known" (Eph 3:10). The church is to be God’s light in a dark, corrupt society. The Christian life was never meant to be lived only in church for a couple of hours on Sunday. It’s meant to be lived in the public arena--on the firing line at school, the office, and in the neighborhood, seven days a week. – unknown
C. When the Lord says “Go” our feet need to be set in motion.
D. Romans 10:14-15 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!"
