Personal Revival – A Life Blessed By God
Psalm 1
A young man was learning to be a paratrooper. Before he was about to make his first jump, he was given these instructions.
1. Jump when you are told.
2. Count to ten and pull the ripcord.
3. In the unlikely event your chute doesn’t open, pull the emergency ripcord.
4. When you get down, a truck will be there to take you back to the airfield.
The young soldier memorized these instructions and climbed aboard the plane. The plane climbed to 10,000 feet, and the paratroopers began to jump. When the young soldier was told to jump, he jumped just like he was told. Then, he counted to ten and pulled the ripcord. Nothing happened. His chute failed to open. So, remembering his instructions, he proceeded to pull the emergency ripcord. Again, nothing happened. Now, he was a bit frustrated. “Oh great,” he thought. “I suppose the truck won’t be there when I get down either!”
Have you ever had days like this paratrooper when you thought that nothing would ever go right? I’m talking about those days where everything seems to be working against you, and the hands of the clock seem to never go forward. I’m talking about those days where you feel like the whole world is against you. I’m talking about the days where you feel weak and weary, and God seems so very far away. The funny thing about these kinds of days is that they seem to multiply. As soon as you have one, they seem to keep coming and coming. Pretty soon, it feels like you have more of these blah and bad days than you do good ones.
God never promised us that all the days on earth would be good. In fact in Ephesians, we are told that the days are evil. So, what do we do with these evil days? What kind of hope do we have? We have the hope that God will be with us every step of the way, and we have the promise that he wishes to bless us. These blessings will cause a revival in our hearts that will help us to weather any storm. However, with most Biblical promises, we must look at the conditions that must be met in order for it to come about. Turn with me to Psalm 1 as we read the Scripture this morning.
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does 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 will perish.
Let’s take a look at three actions we must take to live a life blessed by God from this Scripture. Before we begin, let’s pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be real in our lives this morning.
Action #1: We Must Separate Ourselves From The World
Last year at about this time, I was very unhappy with one part of my life. I was getting heavier and heavier, and there did not seem to be much I could do about it. As I came near 300 pounds, I decided that I needed to take action. I needed to go on a diet.
Picking a diet was not very hard for me. The only one that seemed appealing in any way was the Atkins’ Diet. Why was this appealing? I guess it was because I could still eat almost all my favorite foods (meat and more meat), and there were no limits on portions. I decided to give it a try and lost almost 60 pounds with relative ease. The hardest part for me however, was finding something I liked to drink without sugar.
Before my diet, my two favorite drinks were Pepsi and Iced Tea, and when I talk about iced tea, I mean a super sweet drink with a bit of tea flavor. I love the sweet tea you get when you travel down south. Now, since I was to keep sugar to a bare minimum, these two drinks would not do. I started to drink Diet Pepsi which was gross at first, but now I love it. I can’t even drink the regular stuff much anymore. But, finding a substitute for sweet tea proved to be much more difficult. I tried many brands of diet iced tea until I settled on one that filled the void. Lipton makes a diet ice tea that comes in the form of a powder that contains no sugar and still tastes fairly good. All you need to do is take a spoonful of the powder and add it to a glass of water. Then, you stir it up and you have a glass of tea. When the powder hits the water, it changes the color, taste, and smell of the water. Nothing about the water is still the same. A little bit of this powder changes everything about the water.
Why do I tell you this? I tell you this because it is the same thing that happens when a Christian allows even a little bit of sin to enter his or her life. However, there is a difference. Adding sin to a life of a believer does not result in a pleasing drink in the eyes of God like adding iced tea powder to water does. Even a little bit of sin will completely change the life from one that is blessed by God to one he is displeased with. For example, let stick with the water theme. Suppose I were to take just a little bit of dirt and put it in a glass of water. Would you still drink it? You would not take it because it was impure. The same thing is true with God. He unconditionally loves the sinner, but He cannot even look upon sin let alone bless it.
Our Scripture takes this just a bit farther. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. When we hang out with those who live in sin and wickedness, we must be careful, because the more we hang out with them, the more we can become like them. We must be careful as to whom we allow to influence our lives.
Have you ever been around a group of people who do nothing but talk negative and complain about everything? Guess what? The longer you hang around with this crowd, the more you are going to be like them. If we want to be blessed by God, we must make better decisions about who we spend the bulk of our time with. If you find that you are always negative in your attitude and thinking and you never were before, you probably have been hanging around people who are the same way. If you find that you have been excusing sins like lying and gossip because they are not “big” sins, you have probably been hanging out with sinners too much. God does call us to reach the sinners, but we must have a strong support system of Christians to help us and pray for us and keep us accountable because the devil will try any way possible to pull you away from God.
God does want to bless our lives, but we must show that we are truly serious about following Him and not the world. Like I just said, we must surround ourselves with Christian friend who will live a godly example for us. We must not tolerate even the smallest sins. Critical spirits and negative attitudes are not of God, and He will not bless a life full of these things. In order to be blessed, we must strive to live a pure Christian life. God does not want a being he designed to be pure to be polluted like our glass of water was when we added the dirt. He blesses us when we strive for holiness because God is holy, holy, holy.
Action #2: We Must Saturate Our Lives With God’s Word
A couple of years ago, some bright, Christian college-bound students were quizzed on their Bible knowledge. Here are some of the answers they gave.
• Sodom and Gomorrah were lovers.
• The New Testament was written by Matthew, Mark, Luther, and John.
• Eve was created from an apple.
• Jesus was baptized by Moses.
Now, these were some of the brightest kids going into college, and they were even entering into Christian Universities. The lack of knowledge they show should alarm us, but it should not surprise us. Recent studies show that the average Christian spends well under one hour a week reading the Bible. If you don’t believe me, let’s take a bit of a Bible quiz this morning and see how we do.
1. What is the Great Commission and where is it found in the Bible? (Matt. 28:19-20 – Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.)
2. What was the name of the righteous King of Israel that took office at age 8? (Josiah)
3. Which prophet married a prostitute in obedience to the Lord? (Hosea)
4. Who helped to convert the Ethiopian Eunich and where is it found? (Philip in Acts, chapter 8)
5. Who was Onesimus and where can you find him in the Bible? (A runaway slave who helps Paul in prison in the book of Philemon)
I did not make this test out to embarrass anyone. Some of you may have gotten them all and that is great, but some of you had trouble, and that is OK too. I just want to point out the fact that we all need to spend a bit more time in the Bible. For the most part, our Bible knowledge is very limited. If you don’t believe me, how many of you can quote the entire Bible from memory? It is written that Daniel Webster, the same man who wrote Webster’s dictionary, was so in love with God’s Word that he had it memorized from cover to cover. He thought it was that important. Today, we would probably find it tough to recite 10 verses that we have committed to memory. We need to make it a priority to have God’s word in our hearts.
Now, God is not calling us all to be Bible scholars, but He is asking us to make more effort to be in His Word. Verse 2 of our passage in Psalms states this. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. This passage started by telling us that we will be blessed when we don’t surround ourselves with sinners, wicked people, and scoffers. The next step in obtaining that blessing is to delight in the law of the Lord. That is the Bible. When you delight in something, you want to spend a great deal of time doing it. I think it would be safe to say that Heather delights in scrapbooking. Don delights in golfing. My wife delights in singing. All of these people try to make time to do these things because they enjoy them.
Think back with me a second to when you were courting your husband or wife. You delighted in their company, and because of this, you spent as much time with them as possible. Even when you didn’t think you had time, you would rearrange your schedule to make the time. God is asking us to make His Word a delight in our lives and to meditate on it whenever possible. Whenever we start spending time in the Word, learning from it, making it a delight, and memorizing Scripture from it, He will begin to pour on blessings.
We Must Situate Ourselves By The Waters
While preparing for this sermon, I came across some amazing facts about water. Here are a few of them.
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken as hunger.
3. Even mild dehydration will slow down your metabolism by 3%.
4. One glass of water in the evening eliminated nighttime hunger pangs in 99% of dieters in a University of Washington study.
5. Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Research has indicated that 8-10 glasses of water a day can significantly ease back and joint pain for 80% of people who suffer from it.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can result in fuzzy short-term memory.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water a day decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79%, and bladder cancer by 50%.
As you can see from these figures, water is extremely important to the physical health of our body. I will also say that we need the right kind of water to stay healthy in our spiritual lives as well.
In John 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well that he has water for her that will never make her thirst again. What water is he referring to? It is the living water that comes from a connected relationship to Jesus Christ. Verse 3 of our Scripture tells us this. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. What does it mean to be a tree planted by streams of water? It means that we go to a place where we can get close to God and just wait there while He fills us. We position ourselves away from everything else but God, and we wait for Him. We must position ourselves close to Jesus, the Living Water. This could be a time of prayer. This could be a time of soaking. Whatever it is, we must do it often so we can bear fruit. If a tree is away from water for any length of time, it will die and certainly not bear fruit. If we as Christians are cut off from our water, we will not bear fruit. God blesses a life that is rooted in Him. If our roots go shallow, we will be uprooted by any wind that blows, but if our prayer roots grow deep, nothing can separate us from the blessings of God.
Folks, we don’t have to live our lives hoping that God will bless us. He desires to bless us, but we must follow His Word if we are to be blessed by Him. In our passage, He has made it clear that we need to separate, saturate, and situate ourselves. We must be separate from the world and not allow sin or sinners to taint our lives. We must saturate ourselves with God’s Word and delight in all He has to tell us in it. We must be like trees situated by the Living Water that is Jesus. Our roots must grow deep through prayer and through spending time with God. When that happens, God will bless us. Everything we do will prosper. If you find yourself this morning living a life that you feel is not blessed and not prosperous, maybe you need to make the decision to work on one of these areas. Don’t keep yourself from experiencing a person revival that will result in a life blessed by God. Let’s pray.
