How to Live A Blessed Life

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Acknowledgements:

GOD

Pastor Washington and Sis. Anna Washington

Reid Temple Ministers

Reid Temple Church family

My wife, Samantha Jones

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father…Your name is excellent in all the earth and it is in You that we live, move and have our being…and for this, we are gratful and glad.

Scripture:

Our scripture passage is from the Old Testament Book of Exodus, chapter 14: versus 1-5, and verse 13. I’m reading from the New International Version. It is our church custom to stand we prepare to read God’s word. We will read together.

1 Blessed is the one

who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,

and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither—

whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!

They are like chaff

that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Topic:

Today, I’m going to speak on the topic: It’s About You, But It’s More About God! It’s About You, But It’s More About God!__________________________________You May be seated in the presence of the Lord.

Sermon:

Bible researchers and academic scholars who have done extensive study in the area of the Psalms have come to conclude the 1 Psalm out of the 150 Psalms in the bible is referred to as the “preface to the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Ghost is part of the God-head trinity that serves in a co-leadership capacity with God, and Jesus. According to Gospol of John, the Holy Ghost is also referred to “as the Advocate, whom the Father will send in my name, and will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that Jesus has spoken to us.”

If you look across the landscape of this world and nation, you will see evil of all manner of scope and range causing havoc throughout our l,ocal community, throughout the nation, and throughout the world. Now it seems like you can’t even turn on the news without learning about the latest act of violence being carried out in some community somewhere. When you look at all of your social media platforms, such as SnapChat, IG, and Twitter, or FB, you are seeing the latest posting of something that may or may not upset you—or get some kind of reaction out of you.

And so I applaud the members of our Reid Temple Church at the North campus for taking a Social Media fast this entire month of August to focus on other ways to occupy their time without the use of being plugged in to the latest social media craze. And since each day since our church has started the fast, they have offered up a bible scripture to reinforce the importance of God in our lives. Even during a FAST, God is still speaking. God still has a Word.

And might I suggest to you SNL on this evening that if you want to grow deeper in the things of God…you have got to go deeper in to the word of God.

And so our scripture today takes us today to this text where we see it’s spirtual offering for our lives and how to be better Christians. Here are the components that make up the first Psalm:

1 Blessed is the one

who does not walk in step with the wicked

or stand in the way that sinners take

or sit in the company of mockers,

And The New King James Version words it this way: Blessed is the man, who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly…In particular, I like the fact that writer uses the word “counsel” in it. The meaning implied here is that you will be blessed by God when you make a conscious choice to not seek advice from those who have no moral compass, or those who have no respect for God.

Therefore, you must ask yourself, what kinds of people are you keeping company with or hanging out with? Do they do things or say things that cause you to make decisions that are not in your best interest? Finding out this answer is very simple. If their actions don’t in some way glorify God, then you are sitting under ungodly counsel. In other words, you should begin to feel that you don’t feel well spiritually after you hangout with them.

Additionally, the last part of that verse goes deeper…by saying: “Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” …What this simply means is that you will be blessed if you do not fellowship or literally “sit” with persons who have evil intenions. After you sit with a person for a while, you begin to pick up some of their habbits.

This is easy to recognize because if you are spending enough time with God…you should have enough of God’s word and discernment in you to be able to tell whether or not what somone, or a group of persons is saying to you that will not bring God glory. It’s just that simple.

SNL, either their conversation will bring glory to the name of God, or it will not.

Is the group or persons speaking things that will edify the body of Christ, or are they saying things that are negative and tear down the body of Christ.

Now as we explore verse two, it says that “his delight is in the law of the Lord and in it, he meditates day and night.” This simply tells us that you must be excited when it comes to understanding and living by God’s Word. The “law” means ‘teaching,’ ‘instruction’ or ‘direction’. Scholars point out that we generally associate ‘the law of the LORD’ with the law God gave to Moses or with the first five books of the Bible. However, this particular verse helps us to understand that “law of the Lord” for our understanding is really the reading the entire bible from cover to cover.

Now, we tend to delight in some things, but sometimes, it’s not neccesarly the “law of the Lord....” We might as well be truthful…we are in the church. It doest matter, the Lord already knows…The Lord was there when we did it, the Lord watched how we did it, and the Lord watched who we did it with. And at those moments, we were delighting in the Lord…But this is where we are thankful to God…but the Word tells us that God forgives us 70 times 7....Now, what this means is that it doesn’t give us license to continue after we have been convicted…The passage encourages us to take a different approach to Gods word…In other words, when we delight in God’s Word, we become blessed, and it brings us joy and satisfaction.

The passage continues to go deeper and tells us that we must meditate on God’s Word Day and Night. Here we see the palmist is telling us a prescribed way for being blessed…The prescribed way is day and night....Now, we have to challenge ourselves, because some us medidate day and night on weed, or women, or men, pornography, alcohol, or money. And we do it so much so that these areas become addictions…which prevent us from being blessed by God. Why is this the case, well because we have put our passions into areas that do not bring Glory to God. And as result, we become for dependent on the addiction, rathar than being dependent on God. And the biblical scholars remind us that the Word of God should never be far from the thoughts of God’s children who really want a deeper relationship.

As we now take a look at verse 3, the bible tells us that

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

The psalmst points out in this verse that God’s Word will strengthen us to the point that we will be a strong as trees…because they represent strength and stability. Trees also bear fruit, and they provide shade from the sun.

As we further break that down, what the text is suggesting here is that as you grow deeper in God’s Word there out to be some characteristics that you have spent time with God. Just like you can look at an apple tree and tell that it is an apple tree by looking at it…People should be able to look at you, and be able to tell that you study the Word…Here’s a little more description so that you really understand where I’m coming from....If you see a person who smokes weed on a consistent basis, after a while they will always have a look about them that suggests that they smoke weed…There will be some outward signs....If you know a person who is an alcoholic, oafter a while, you will see outward signs that demonstrate that they drink alcohol.

And all that I’m trying to suggest to you this night is that as the verse explains that when you spend enough time with God, there out to be some visible signs that demonstrate that this is the case. And the text says that if you spend time with the Lord, delighting in his word, meditating on his word day and night, then you will be like a tree, planted by rivers of water, and that will enable you to bring forth fruit in the right season. And what does it mean by right season…when you have gone through the growth process of the Word of God, then you will product fruit that will enable you to be able to share God’s word to a person who is in need to understanding God for their purposes, but God is using you to draw them to God.

And as I close on tonight, I want to help you with understanding that in order to have a blessed life, you’ve got to the put the work in with God. You’ve got to established that relationship with God…This passage shares with the you the benefits of have God’s word to be a part of your life, day and night. And guess what else about God…God already knows your desired level to spend time with him....God knows your desired level that you spend in other things that don’t Glorify Him, but God is saying through this passage that if you spend time with God…that you will be blessed.

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

that are planted by the r

and who meditates on his law day and night.

We will be blessed if we do not walk with the wicked. The New Kiing James Versions says, We will be blessed if we do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

In other words, we are blessed if we don’t hangout with those who have no respect for a God, or morals as it relates

friend and family post something, or you yourself some crazy new fad or ch