Introduction:
As you all should know by now, we are priest according to the New Testament. And as priest, we are to bless strangers; bless our church; and bless our family. And then last week, I asked you to bring your priestly duties to even a higher level by blessing those who hurt you. Today, I am going to challenge you to take your priestly duties to the ultimate level and bless the Lord.
It is natural to say to someone God bless you. It someone sneezes most of us will say God bless you. It sounds right. But it almost sounds strange to say bless God; bless the Lord. But the Bible commands us to bless God, to bless the Lord. The question is: "How do you bless God who needs nothing from us?" The answer is simple, you bless God by acknowledging what He has done in your life and how He loves you. And by doing so, we show honor to God.
Let me read you a Scriptures from the Book of Deuteronomy, which clears demonstrates our responsibility not to forget what God has done in our life and to declare to Him how He has blessed us.
Deuteronomy 6:10-12 (NIV) 10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
This passage of Scripture highlights our responsibility not to forget, but it also reveals the biggest hinderance as to why Christian men and women don't bless the Lord like we ought. We have short term recalls when it comes to God and what he has done for us. In other words, we are quick to forget what God has done for us in the past. And our focus is centered on what God needs to do for us now.
And so today, I want you to develop in your life some system that works for you to bring to remembrance all the things that God has done for you. And, then I will give you some examples of what God has done for you.
Scripture
Psalm 103:1-5 (NIV) 1Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--
3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Point #1
We have reminders for everything under the sun; do you have reminders in place to bless the Lord?
On Saturday night, before we go to bed, Anne tells Alexa to give her a wakeup call reminder for 7:30 a.m. On Monday morning, I go grocery shopping each week, so I begin building a list on my phone of things we need from the store. It is not on the list; I don't remember to get it. It I don't write it down, I forget.
Some people put reminders on the refrigerator of things they need to remember like doctor's appointments. Other may have a calendar hanging somewhere where they can enter reminder information. Obviously, we know if we are not reminded, we will forget. And I can testify that the older you get, the harder it is to remember.
So, my question to you is this. What do you have in place to remind you to bless the Lord today? Blessing God is one of the most important things that you can do in your Christian life, so I am sure you must have a reminder system in place if you are going to bless the Lord like we should.
We are not told what David's reminder system is, but he obviously had one because in the first two verses, he is reminding his soul to the bless the Lord.
1Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits--
If you don't have some way to remind yourself to bless the Lord for all that He has done for you, you need to set one up today. As a Christian, a day should not go by in your life that you don't bless the Lord at least once for all that He has done for you. And I would dare say that once is the minimum.
Point #2
I should bless the Lord because He never does anything partially in my life; He does the total job in my life.
3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
How many of you ladies have husbands who started on a project you asked him to do for you and it is only partially completed, and it does not appear that your husband is going to finish it anytime soon?
Moving to Mississippi from a suburb of New Orleans, I experienced culture shock. As I rode around, I was amazed as to how many homes in Mississippi are partially complete and people are living in them, and I don't know if they will ever be completed. It appears who ever lives there is content with their home only partially complete.
Do you know what I like about verse 3? It is the word "all". There is not a sin that I commit that God says, "I cannot forgive that." God does not look at the list of my sin and say to me, Dave, your list of sins is too long, I am only going to forgive a partial list of your sins.
I am so thankful today that God is not satisfied with only forgiving a partial list of your sins. That is worthy of blessing the Lord for!
Then it says that He heals all your diseases. If you are healed from a disease, God may have used a doctor, but He healed you. The Scriptures tells me that He heals all diseases. But you are thinking, I know Christians that died of cancer and heart attacks? How is that true that God heals of all diseases? God is not limited by our earthly time. Time is only relevant to us. In heaven, there is no time, there is no sickness nor is there any pain. You will not walk around heaven and see an Urgent Care or a hospital, because God heals all diseases. Listen you doctors and nurses, when you get to heaven, you are out of work! Bless God!
Revelation 21:4 (NIV) 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
I can bless God because He has done the total job on my life and the lives of those I love. .
Point #3
I should bless the Lord because He makes it His business to rescue me in the here and now and in the life to come.
4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
The word "redeems" there in verse 4 in the Hebrews means that He rescues me, He is my defender or Deliverer.
Certainly, those who know Christ, He is the Great Deliverer from the pit of hell. I was hell bound, but He rescued me by sending Jesus. That is the greatest deliverance that can be had. I cannot deliver myself from the pit of hell, but God can and did. And that is worthy of praising God for every day.
But God is also our Deliverer in the here and now. On May 27, 2021, I woke up with my chest hurting terribly. It was God who had the Cardiologist office to call me with test results early that morning and I got the chance to tell them that I was badly hurting. Otherwise, I probably would not have gone to the hospital, thinking it was my broken shoulder hurting me and I would have tried to tough it out. And then Anne and I got in the car, and I drove the one hundred miles hurting to Baptist Hospital in Jackson. That was my Deliverer seeing me there safely.
And He has done similar things for you. You might have left your house and before you went too far God reminded you that you left something home you had to go back and get. So, you get that item and get back on the road and there is a terrible auto accident, and you think to yourself that could have been me if I did not go back home. That was God saying I rescued you.
Or maybe you forgot to turn off the stove and you left the house. And you are driving along, something pops in your head to tell you that you forgot to turn off the stove. And you go back home and take care of it. That was God.
We have no clue, how many times in each day that God steps in and rescues us. But I do know this, if there is a mess, we will find it. And we need His rescue. So, God needs to be blessed by us because He rescues us from the pit, and He is always rescuing us.
Point #4
I should bless the Lord because God does not withhold any good thing from me.
5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
God could have blessed us once with salvation and been done. Instead, He desires to bless us with things that we need each and every day of your life. Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV) 22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
And in fact, the New Testament writer James wants us to know that every good and perfect gift is from the Father.
Today, if you need to experience forgiveness, that comes from God. Today, if you need to experience love that comes from God. The Bible says we love because He first loved us. Or today if you need to experience peace in your life that comes from God. He does not withhold the good things from us. So, we need to bless God.
Conclusion
David reminds us that we have many things to bless God for. We just got to develop the system that works for us to remember to Bless the Lord. It is our ultimate duty as a priest to bless the Lord.
