How To Become Blessed

How to Become Blessed

Psalms 1:1-3

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

“Blessed is the One”

Imagine for a moment that the Lord appears and gives you the option of either door #1 or door #2. He explains that behind door number one is the ultimate freedom to live your life in any manner you choose. You have the freedom to create your own morality and change it based on your circumstances. You will feel pleasure living behind door #1 from indulging in the broad path of self-gratification but it will be fleeting, forever leaving you an ache in your soul for something more that you cannot define, nor can you satisfy! Jesus then tells you that behind door #2 you will have to choose to forfeit your freedom to live your life your way and submit to His word as the lamp unto your feet. Your morality will be defined the narrow path of His word and as such will be known and unchangeable. You will feel unspeakable joy because you will be blessed beyond all measure and the ache within your soul will be filled with the Lord’s presence who is your Rock, Salvation, and portion forever. Which door would you choose?

Those who are born again and have chosen door #2 do you feel blessed beyond all measure? Being blessed is not about the accumulation of money, fame or power; for those things are worldly, here today and gone tomorrow (Luke 12:22-34). Nor is being blessed a product of being in good circumstances for many a believer has “suffered pain, or pine in sickness, endured losses and crosses, and yet in it all has been a blessed person.” Nor is being blessed a feeling of joy that merely comes from doing philanthropic deeds. Being blessed is not only being content in all situations (Philippian 4:11-13) but being in a state of overwhelming, indescribable peace and joy that can only come from being in God’s presence and basking in His glory! Being blessed is a “sense of well-being” that comes from having the living waters (John 4:14) flow within one’s soul and the Good Shepherd to guide one’s every footstep (John 10:1-21)! It is the security of knowing one’s life is unshakeable because one is standing upon the Rock (Psalms 18:1-2) of one’s salvation or being under His wings of divine protection (Psalms 91). “Blessedness is not deserved but a gift from God.” While access to blessedness is offered unto all those who believe it is only received when one continually rejects door #1, the ways of this world, and has one’s mind renewed by meditating and following God’s commands as given in His holy word (Romans 12:1-2)! The following sermon is going to explore the steps we as believers need to take to be truly blessed as given in Psalms 1:1-3.

Does not Walk with Sinners

To become truly blessed by God king David begins by stating what we must not do, follow the ways of this world. David says believers are “not to walk in step with the wicked or stand in their way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers” (verse 1). While we are called to let our light shine (Matthew 5:16) and become all things to win some to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:22) this does not mean we do so by emulating their walk upon the dark path that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:14). While many of this world are not drunkards or swearers but instead easy-going, respectable, good neighbors it is easy take their advice, walk in their shoes and eventually find our home in choosing our own path to live rather than submitting to the Lord’s right to rule over our lives. David says once a believer no longer seeks or follows the advice of his/her Creator it becomes incredibly easy to indulge in the sins of this world without even knowing that one has done so! And with a world rather than a God centered view it becomes very tempting to critique others and even mock those who are trying to walk on the narrow path that leads to righteousness. Even though no believer is truly righteous, blessed are those who refuse to “dwell in the tents of wickedness” and strive to live holy lives for they truly believe better is a day in God’s court than a thousand without Him (Psalms 84:10)! Remember those who have chosen door #1 can “do a thousand things which the saint cannot do and would not if he (she) could: and the Christian can do a thousand things of which the sinner knows nothing!”

Delights in the Law

Even though there is no one truly righteous (Romans 10:3-12) believers can still be blessed by God. It is not the impossible goal of sinlessness but inviting the Holy Spirit to plow furrows of righteousness into one’s heart by reading and obeying His word that leads to receiving God’s blessings! “The Bible is the the inerrant, without error, Word of God. It is the Voice of God in print. When you read the Bible, you are reading a letter from the living God. You’re not just reading words by a great writer on pages that are to inspire you.” Even though a blood-washed sinner, quickened by the Holy Spirit, cannot read the Bible and be indifferent or unchanged” a lukewarm one certainly can. “Do not billions of Bibles exist in many scores of translations” and yet they are often left unread, occasionally glanced at, or weighed and manipulated to justify one’s own sin! To receive God’s blessings King David says God’s word must be our “companion and hourly guide” ordering our very footsteps away from the “wicked devices of carnal men and women” into His glorious presence. We are to rejoice in His right to rule over our lives! The Bible is not a “self-taught composition of imperfect men like ourselves but the words of our eternal God,” a so to speak “holy place where we can meet and have fellowship with Him.” One reads the word of God not out of a sense of duty but with the knowledge that to not do so would leave a “vacuum in our lives” that would soon be filled with the sinful ways of this world. Those who are blessed do not read His word with dread of His commands but instead delight for obeying them is the key to receiving the desires of one’s heart, i.e., pleasing and drawing nearer to Him. Contained within God’s glorious love letter are words of justice, wisdom, absolute truth, and the bread by which our souls are fed and when obeyed the key to storing up eternal treasures for all of eternity! So, if we want to be blessed let us take delight in His words that often take us on “winds of eagles” into His glorious presence of grace not as those condemned but blood-atoned children seeking a crumb from the Master’s table!