The
Bible talks a lot about the blessings of God.
We read about the ways that He wants to care for His people and the
things that He wants to do in their lives.
Our imaginations are captured by countless stories of the miraculous as
God works for the good of His people in every conceivable situation and through
every imaginable tribulation. But too
often those stories seem like just that – stories. We read about them and think about what it
must have been like to live in those days “when God was working.” We are left to wonder if God really works
like that today. Is it still possible
for His people to experience the miraculous?
Can that still happen in our lives?
Since most of us have never seen the
works that were done during the time of Moses or Elijah, or seen the visions of
Ezekiel and Zechariah we just assume that God’s blessings are not what they
used to be. There was at time when He
showed Himself in power, but that time has come and gone. We are content to experience the limited
blessings we have seen and never really look for more. Our attitude is to take what we can get and
be happy with it in spite of the fact that God’s Word clearly promises so much
more for us. We are happy with the
occasional blessing rather than living like the people of Israel who entered
the Promised Land and being OVERTAKEN by the blessings of God. Consider that – overtaken. We are not just offered a few helps along the
way to make this life a little more comfortable. God wants consume every part of our lives, to
overtake our entire being and all that we are with His power and His
provision. This is what God told His
people as they prepared to enter the land of Canaan and the desire of God
remains today. I am the Lord I do not
change.
The word blessing comes from a root
that literally means “to show adoration.”
Just imagine that. God will set you high above all the nations
of the earth (verse 1). God wants to
lift us up to the point that He will be seen through us. That’s how God’s power is seen in the world
today. When His people rely on His power
and God provides for all their needs the world will see without a doubt that
even in a day when He is ignored God is on His throne. Science tries to ignore Him, philosophy
explains Him away, and even Christians ignore His commands but God is still God
and He still sits on His throne. God is
still seen through those lives that put their faith in Him. But that Is not enough, He wants to be seen
in EVERY LIFE that claims His name. God
will overwhelm every doubt and fear with His presence in the hearts and lives
of His people.
We have allowed ourselves to settle
when it comes to the blessings of God. His
call comes to us in some way and we are content to just stumble through life
hoping that what we are doing for Him might be “good enough.” The call of God, whether it is a specific
call on our lives or simply the call to walk with Him, is NEVER a call to
mediocrity. God does not want us to walk
half-heartedly with Him and spend our lifetime struggling to keep up. He promises to provide for us, and if we will
trust Him we will find ourselves living in the ABUNDANCE of His promises. This doesn’t mean we will always be wealthy
from a worldly perspective, but it does mean that we will never be outside of
His presence. We will never have to go
through a trial alone, and our finite power will never be insufficient when His
power and glory drive our lives. Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you
have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in
you, in the sight of the children of mankind (Psalm 31:19)! Look at the
expectation of God’s answers to prayer: Answer
me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy
to me (Psalm 69:16). And consider
the promise of Jesus Christ: The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy. I came that they may have life
and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
Scripture in its entirety teaches that God’s call is never to
mediocrity. His call is always to
abundance - abundance of power, and of mercy, love and grace.
There is a fullness to life that we
will never experience when we just hope for the occasional blessing just to get
by. We will never experience the life
that God wants to give us unless we allow ourselves to be OVERTAKEN by God’s
blessing. Christians spend too much of
the time worrying about looking like fanatics to the world around us to really
see all that God has for us. We don’t
want people to accuse us of being naïve, or taking our faith “too far” so we don’t
really want too many blessings. We don’t
want to look like we are that much different from the world, or that God is
such a prominent force in our lives, so we settle for a life much like that of
the world. We just want a little bit of
God and because of this desire the judgment rings out from Scripture, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor
cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth (Rev. 3:16).
This life to which God has called us
may sound like excessive Christianity.
Like it will encompass every part of our life and not just what we are
comfortable with. It scares some because
it sounds like we would have to give up the control that we have over our lives
(which is much more limited than we realize) to really experience the blessings
of God. We get these feelings because
they are true! It is when we turn
everything over to the control of God that we experience the fullness of
life. That is when we see Him move in power
and experience His glory as it settles in our hearts. It’s easy to convince ourselves that this
kind of life is just for preachers or missionaries, but every time we see God
move through a mighty preacher or a great missionary or teacher we must
remember that they were once lay people too.
D.L. Moody was never ordained in Christian ministry but was one of the
greatest preachers this country has ever known.
Charles Finney was a lawyer, Billy Sunday was a baseball player and
Martyn Lloyd-Jones studied to be a doctor.
These men were just like most other men UNTIL they were overtaken by
God. When their lives were overtaken
they became mighty workers in God’s kingdom and soldiers in His army. But it was only because they were will to be
overtaken. God will not do it by
force. It requires a consecration, or
surrender, on our part. Consider what it
took for the people of Israel in the Old Testament to be overtaken by God’s
blessing:
Faithful People Are
Overtaken By Blessing
God told His people to FAITHFULLY
obey His commands. He had given them the
law and outlined the details of the covenant He made with them. They had all the information they needed to
live a life in harmony with God, but they needed the faith to believe that
God’s commands were actually what was best for them. Without this faith they would live in doubt
about the Words God had spoken as well as the God who had spoken to them. This is an example of what it means to enter
the kingdom of God with “child-like faith.”
We must believe in the power and the goodness and faithfulness of the
one who spoke and revealed Himself to us; the one with whom we live in
covenant.
The Bible reveals God’s word to
us. It claims authority as His inspired
Word, and what we believe ABOUT the Bible is important. We claim that the Bible is inerrant, or
infallible, we say that it is important to us and a necessary part of our
lives. But how many of us live a life
that shows those statements to be true?
Do we really believe the Bible is that important? We claim its authority, but we seldom refer
to it outside of a Bible study or worship service. I can count on one hand (and might only need
three fingers) the number of times I have been in meetings where decisions were
made based on something that was clearly seen in Scripture. How many people do you know that even carry a
Bible to meetings (or even to church anymore for that matter)? I don’t just do it because I’m the
pastor. My Bible goes to every meeting I
have ever attended. It’s our rule and
our guide. It’s the inspired word of God
and I trust what it teaches. I don’t
know how we continue to get by without it.
If we are to be overtaken with blessing we must believe once again
that: no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will
of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2
Peter 1:20, 21).
But even believing in the authority of God’s Word is
not enough in itself to obtain the blessing and abundant life God has promised
us.
Obedient People Are
Overtaken By Blessing
Our text did not just call the
people of Israel to have faith in the Word, but to FAITHFULLY OBEY the Word of
God. That means that the Word of God
APPLIES TO YOU! Sometimes people ask me
after a sermon, “Do I really have to do that?”
I had just spent the last half hour or so reading Scripture that says
they do and they still ask. Is it any
wonder we don’t see the blessings of God?
We spend the majority of our time trying to come up with reasons we
don’t have to do what the Word of God teaches us. Wouldn’t our time be better spend trying to
discern how we can be completely obedient to the Word rather than how we can
get around it? Read on in the 28th
chapter of Deuteronomy and look at what God had to say about those who didn’t
obey the Word. When we spend our lives
trying to ignore and explain away the Word of God we can expect NOTHING MORE OR
LESS THAN THE JUDGMENT OF GOD!
God is not trying to keep something
from us be requiring obedience. He does
not want us to miss out on something good, but He has given us His Word to keep
us from a lifestyle that ROBS US OF HIS BLESSINGS. Scripture reveals to us the way to walk with
God in holiness. It teaches us what it
means to live in His presence and what His Holy character requires of us if we
are to experience relationship with Him.
The only way to be overtaken with the blessings of His presence is to
live in accordance with what is taught in the Word; to make every effort to
conform our lives to what the Bible teaches; to conform the church and our
congregation, and to make Scripture our foundation and our rule of faith. In the
path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death (Prov. 12:28).
Living in opposition to the Word
separates us from God. God was
represented by the people of Israel and is represented by His church
today. Moses was repeatedly commanded to
do “all that God commanded.” When they
worship, traveled, and even when they gathered food. God wasn’t trying to oppress them, but to
free them from the things that stood in opposition to His presence. That’s what He is doing today in the church through
His Word. God wants us to experience His
presence and to be encompassed by His glory and blessing. We cannot experience this without obedience
to the Word.
Careful People Are
Overtaken By Blessing
There is one more element of this
command to be “faithfully obedient” that we must consider. God told the people to be “CAREFUL” to be
obedient to the command. This might be
the most difficult part of this command to follow, but it is completely
necessary if we are to be overtaken by the blessings of God. This implies that we must PUT SOME THOUGHT
into the way we live if we ever expect God’s blessings on our lives. We so often go about our business with little
or no though as to whether or not the things we do are worthy of God’s
adoration (or blessing). We celebrate
the holidays of the world, and celebrate our Christian holidays on the terms of
the world. We just do what the world
does and live like the world lives and it never occurs to us that we might be
setting an example or sending a message to those around us that diminishes our
witness of a life walking with God.
God has more for us than to stumble
through a thoughtless existence hoping in vain that we might wander into His
presence. God told Moses, I will dwell among the people of Israel and
will be their God (Exodus 29:45). He
told the prophet Jeremiah, I will give
them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will
be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart (Jer.
24:7). He told Ezekiel, I will give them one heart, and a new spirit
I will put within them I will remove the
heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may
walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people and I will be
their God (Ezek. 11:20, 21).
If God is willing to live among us,
give us His Word, empower us to follow His Word, and transform our lives in
accordance with the blessing of His Word would it really hurt us to put some
thought into the things we do? Would it
be so bad to consider our activities and hobbies and the example we set in
light of what God has done and what he wants to do in us?
God will stop at nothing to bless
His people. He was willing to
continually forgive throughout the Old Testament, even when His people turned
their backs on Him. He sacrificed His
own Son just to show us His love.
Through the blood of Christ, and the truth that was revealed we are
cleansed and transformed into a suitable dwelling place for God’s Spirit. And this Holy Spirit living inside of us –
revealing God’s power and His glory through our lives - is what it means to be
OVERTAKEN by God’s blessings. God’s
consuming blessings are available for us today.
To each one who is faithful, obedient and careful to live according to
the Word – the revelation of Himself – God has given us.
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