God's Benefit Package

God’s Benefit Package

Sunday, April 06, 2008 – PM

By Pastor Jim May

A lot of people work a job only because they need the benefits. I thank the Lord that when I was forced to take an early retirement, that I was able to lock in health care benefits for as long as we live. This has saved me so much money over the past few years when the cost of health insurance has gone out of the roof.

There are a lot of people who are retiring from their normal jobs only to discover that they have to go back to work just to afford, or to qualify for a healthcare insurance.

You don’t realize just how much that benefit is worth until you don’t have it anymore, or you are forced to pay for the full amount without the company kicking in on it.

Some have said, “You can’t eat benefits, and that’s true, but if you have benefits, then you can take some of the money you are able to save and go buy groceries, so you see, you can eat because of the benefits.

I had decent benefits most of the time that I worked a public job. But lately I’ve found a job that has the absolute greatest benefits of all time. Working for the Lord carries benefits that are literally out of this world!

King David realized the value of God’s benefit package too. Even though David was the King of Israel, and had all wealth and power that man could ask for, he still knew that God’s benefits were greater than anything that man could afford.

Psalms 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Oh if we could just learn to bless the Lord like David did. I can still hear David crying unto the Lord, “Create within me a clean heart and renew within me a right spirit. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable, On Lord!”

David knew how to sing, to praise, to clap his hands, to worship and to dance before the Lord and he wasn’t ashamed or afraid of what others might say or think. He worshipped God because he never forgot the benefits of God’s Kingdom.

Psalms 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

The benefit package of God’s servants is the best in the Universe. They are without number and we should ever be thankful and think of the good things that God has so freely given to us, both in this life and in the one to come.

By his mercy he supplies our needs. According to his great love for us, he provides our heart’s desires. We aren’t worthy of anything. We can’t earn enough to pay enough to get the benefits of God – but they are all free for the taking. All we have to do is appropriate them for ourselves.

What are a few of the benefits of serving the Lord? I say few, because we could never name them all, and neither could David.

But David did give us a good list of God’s benefits that he gives freely to all of his children and co-workers in the fields of harvest.

Psalms 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

The greatest benefit of all is that God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, offers free forgiveness for sin. That’s a benefit that is more valuable than all others combined and it’s value is beyond description.

How can we place a value on one single soul that comes to Jesus? Is it too costly to reach the lost? Is there any price that is too high to pay? Heaven gave all that it had, the very Son of God, so that one soul, and then many souls could be saved.

God not only saves our soul, but he knows our weaknesses and how that we are prone to sickness because we are living in this earthly tabernacle, this body that is slowly dying because of the power of sin. Only God can heal. Doctors can give medicines and treat illnesses. Nurses can help you to do what’s necessary to get better. But only God has the power to heal and make their efforts worthwhile. God created within the body the mechanism for the body to repair itself and to heal itself. But the powers of sin block the ability of the body to do what it was designed to do. The process of growing old, getting weaker and allowing everything to degenerate are all by products of sin and it’s curse of death upon all of creation.

The next time you get tired, kick Adam. The next time you get a head cold, feel miserable, or get sick, just look up toward heaven and ask God to kick Adam one more time for you. I don’t think that Adam is in Heaven, so I just imagine that he is paying a heavy price for causing sin to enter the heart of every human being born upon the earth. Now don’t forget that after you kick Adam around, to get your neighbor to kick you around as well. After all, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, not just Adam. He was only the first one to get the chance to sin, but every one of us have followed in his footsteps.