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The Ultimate Christian Blessing: To Bless The Lord Series
Contributed by Dr. Dave Hartson on Jun 8, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: The biggest hinderance as to why Christian men and women don't bless the Lord like we ought to is that 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.
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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.