Echoes of Grace
Blessings
Lesson by Espn McCall, Preacher at Wickett Church of Christ
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- Duration:
- 41m
- Broadcast on:
- 18 Nov 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
So as we look here at 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3 through 5, let me explain some things to you. Says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Alright, so blessed be God, will my blessed be God. Right, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again into a lively hope. So blessed be God for the hope in which he has given us. Is what it says here, blessed be God for this hope through the resurrection. That's where our hope is from. So that we might have an inheritance incorruptible. Where then we are spiritually blessed with this incorruptible inheritance. And some other versions like the ESV and the ASV and the NASV, it actually uses a different word there. That is a beautiful word. And that word would be undef, or not undefiled, I'm sorry. I don't remember the word anymore because I read the word undefiled, but it's a wonderful word. And if you have one of those versions, please understand that that word means incorruptible. It means it's not going to be touched. Right, nothing's going to make it worse. It does not fade away is what it says. And that inheritance is reserved for us in heaven. It's not something that we get here on earth, which means it's a spiritual blessing. And it's kept by God. Now, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, in verses 3 through 6. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, it begins with blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So here we have the same blessing a second time, the same blessing that was in Peter. Right, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So if we stop right here, it says all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, which means they're not blessings for here on earth. They're not blessings we are going to just receive while we're still alive as they're in heavenly places. As we continue, it says, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestined us upon or unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the love. So here it says, with all spiritual blessings he has blessed us in heavenly places, according to the good pleasure of his will. You see, the Lord wants us to be blessed, he wants us to have these blessings. Now, brethren, let me just tell you, our spiritual blessings might be things that we don't quite understand outside of a kingdom. His kingdom and inheritance is uncorrectable, a place alongside him and heaven. However, our physical blessings we can understand for our physical blessings are abundant and ongoing. So we have many physical blessings, brethren, we are blessed and the world is blessed. Go to Matthew chapter 5 with me. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 43, 44 and 45. And Matthew chapter 5, it says ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, then hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. That ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he makeeth his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. So first things first, he has something for the Christians, he has a command. He says love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. So there's the command to the Christian right there, love your enemies, and when you love your enemies you have to do these things. And here's why you have to do these things, because God makes his son rise on the evil and the good. God doesn't say, oh you've been bad, you don't get any son today, he doesn't say, oh you've been bad, you don't get any rain today, as much as we might think so since we live in a desert, that's not how it works, we just live in a desert. He doesn't say well you didn't, you didn't do this, you didn't do that, you were sprinkled on the head instead of baptized, so you're not going to get rain, but your neighbor there that was baptized through immersion will get rain, doesn't work like that. Even if you think, well I got rain and my neighbor didn't, that's not why, that's because nature is just fascinating. See God makes it rain on the just and the unjust, he makes the son rise on the good and the evil, so not only has he blessed us and the things that we have, he's also blessed the world in the same way. They get the son, they get the heat, they get to live on the earth, his creation. Now read with me verse 46, says be he therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. So here it now tells us he says he's going to make the sun shine on the good and the bad, he's going to make it rain on the just and the unjust, but you, you are to be perfect either way. You're going to get rain, you're going to get shine whether you're perfect or not, but as a Christian you are to be perfect. Now of course we can't be perfect because we're human and we have the knowledge of evil. However he still calls us to be and that's because he set up a way so that we could be perfect and that of course is through repentance. However he tells us this, right, he says the world is blessed in and of itself, but in Matthew chapter seven, if you'll turn with me there, Matthew chapter seven, let me show you something. Because as his children we especially are blessed. And Matthew chapter seven in verses seven through eleven, it says ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receiveth, or he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For what man is there for you whom if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish will he give them a serpent. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven get good gifts to them that ask him. So here we have asking you will find, or I'm sorry asking it will be given, seek and you will find knock and it will be opened. Well everybody knows that. And we hear that all day every day, if ye at least open up your Bible, you might not hear those exact words but you'll find it. Daniel in the lion's den, Lord, don't let me die. The Lord closed the lion's mouth. Noah, Lord, what am I to do? Build an ark. That was his answer. I'm going to save you and your family because you look to me. You have Jonah in the whale. Lord, let me out. Go preach to them. Okay. I do what I say, and I'll answer you. That's what the Lord says. Throughout his entire Bible, that's what he says. You can find it in just about every chapter of the Bible. You can find a knock where it is opened, a seeking and it has been found or asking and it's been given. And almost every chapter of the Bible, you can find that. And then he goes on and he says, what man, if his son asks for bread is going to give him a stone. If he asks for a fish, he's going to give him a snake. Right, what evil person would do that? Well, nobody. You take care of your children. That's what he says. And then he says, how much more is your father? That's in heaven. That is God. Whenever you are baptized into Christ, God becomes your father. You're one of his adopted children. How much more is he when his children ask going to give them good things? That's what it says. Go with me to Hebrews, chapter 4. Hebrews, chapter 4 and verse 16. It says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Now, Jesus, of course, is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He is not a Levite as he is a son of David. But he is a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He said, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted yet as we are, yet without sin. So, Jesus here, it says, he was tempted in all the ways we are with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Jesus was tempted in all the three ways that Satan has to tempt. It says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. As children, we have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God. So, we have to hold fast to that profession. We have to hold fast to the fact that he is the Son of God. He was tempted without sin, which makes him perfect. And because he is perfect, we might obtain mercy whenever we approach him and whenever we are in need, we can find grace. Now, I don't know how often you open up your Bible to the book of Psalms. Mine is a lot less often than it probably should be. But let me show you one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 146. Psalm 146, and we'll look at verse 5. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but verse 5 is our one to point your attention. It says, "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God." And Hebrews, it says that we might find the grace to help in the time of need. And in Psalm, it says, "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob." Now, that's how they knew him. That's how they knew God. It was the God of the fathers. Happy is he that has God on his side. At any time you need help and you have God, you can be happy because you know what's going to happen. God's not going to fail. He might tell you no. No, I'm not going to give you an elephant. You live in West Texas, it's just going to kill my animal. Not going to magically give you an elephant or a car or a new house. It's an answer for him, but you know that he will help if you do it. If you ask him, if you ask him within his matter. In Colossians 3, 15, it says, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also are he called in one body and be thankful." It says, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." God is peace. Let him have control over you and be thankful. Because whenever he has control over you, he's going to help you, brethren. The Lord is here to help us whenever we ask him if we are here to listen to his commandments. Now, we just sing a song. We sing the song count your blessings. For brethren, we are abundantly blessed for God is love. It can be found in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8. God is love. And you might say, "Well, I don't understand." Right, what are the blessings that you've shown us thus far? Well, thus far, I've actually shown you a lot more than you can think. I've shown you that we have an inheritance in heaven. Something that is incorruptible. It's undefiled. It'll never fade away. I've shown you that we have all spiritual blessing. I've shown you that God is on our side. I've shown you the sun, the air. We have the right temperature. We have rain. We have wind. We have shade so that we don't get too hot. Now, I could sit here and boil down a list. And I did make a list, but I'm not going to put them all up here because it's a really long list. So, I'll just give you a few. We have the sun, we have air. The right temperature, the rain, the wind, the shade. How about hell? How about your voice? Right, your eyesight. The ability to hear. Shelter. Electricity. We're now on the three hundreds of my list. Right? Transportation. Drinking water. We have enough food. Let's skip over to the eight hundreds of my list. We have family. You have your spouse. You might have children. You'll have your congregation, your church, family, your church, friends. We have the congregation in which we worship God with. You have prayer, and you have the word of God. Now, of course, I could have put my entire list up here. I could have kept going, but we'll just put etc, etc. Because it goes on forever. Do yourself a favor one day. Sit down. Maybe a Saturday sometime that you don't have anything to do and just start writing. What has God blessed you with? And the fun part about it is I guarantee you at the beginning, or at the beginning of service, I had a question on the board. It said, what have you been blessed with? I guarantee you none of you said eyes or ears or your voice. Because that's not things you think about when you think about blessing. You might think about health. You might think about a safe trip, your family, the church. You might think about the baptism and the chance that we have to go to heaven. But you probably don't think about the sun, the stars, the moon. I'm sure you probably don't think about the ocean. There's a lot of things in which we are blessed by that you don't think. And yet if you were to truly sit down and think of nothing but what God has given you, you'll find those. Now my list is about, I think I stopped at about a thousand and three. Because I had things to do and it was nighttime. Now I spent just about the better part of the day making my list. That's actually what I did Tuesday, I made my list and made this lesson. And I could have kept going. But I needed a lesson to write. I had things I needed to do. And so take your time. You might not finish it in one day. You might not even make it to a thousand. Although you have more than a thousand blessings available to you. So not only has God made blessings or given us blessings, God has promised us a lot. Go to with me to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verses two through nine. It says, "And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee. If thou shalt harken unto the voice of the Lord thy God." So let's stop right there. And all these blessings, what blessings will the spiritual blessings, the blessings that God has promised his people will come unto thee and overtake thee. You will be overrun with blessings. If, it says that it says if, which means you don't get it in less. If you harken to the voice of the Lord thy God. If you do what he says, that's what that means. As we continue on, it says, "Blessed, shalt be thou in the city, and blessed, shalt thou be in the field." Blessed, shalt thou be the fruit of thy body. And the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, to increase thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shall thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shall thou be when thou comest out. As the Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way, and flee out before the seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou setest thine hand unto, and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord hath, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, and he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord. Thy God, and walk in his ways. So here we have a series of blessings that has been given to the people of Israel on one condition. If thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord. That's the condition. If they don't, they don't get any of these blessings. All of these blessings were promised to him. Abundance, right? That the fruit of thy body, the works in which you do will be blessed. The fruit of thy ground, the things that you try and grow will be blessed. Any livestock you have will be blessed. Your children will be increased greatly. You will have the blessing of kin, right? Blessed be thy basket and thy store. Anything you go out to collect will be blessed. And it's not blessed as though it's holy. It's blessed as though it's in abundance. You will have great abundance in these things, right? You'll be blessed whether you're coming into your home or you're walking out of your home. Into those doors, into your car, you're going to be blessed if and only if you keep the commandments of the Lord thy God. And you walk in his ways. And of course, that's not the only time we see in the Bible that we are blessed. Go to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 and verses 39 and 40. It says, "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise." So if we stop right there, who is these all? Well, these are all the men in the days of Abraham. The days of Adam, Noah, David, Jonah. And we could continue on with the list, but these are all the men of old, right? They who had a good report through faith and they didn't receive the promise. Well, what? Promise. Well, the promise of salvation, they didn't get the promise of salvation. It says, "God, having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." In our Bible study period, we just looked at God's plan. God had a plan for his people, for the earth as it were, he had a plan. And because in his plan, something better was to be provided, he made sure everybody got it at the same time. So that they without us should not be made perfect. And of course, how did he do that? Well, whenever he sent his son to die, well, his son didn't die there and then everybody ahead was saved. His blood didn't just flow forward to forgive people's sins. His blood flew to everybody who was righteous, who had a good report with God. So we might all be made perfect. We might all have the same opportunity as each other. To go back and you think about what we had in Deuteronomy 28. And all these blessings shall come on thee and take over thee. If, that if again, there's that if again. If you listen to the word of God, with the voice of God. If you keep his commandments and walk in his ways. These men that had a good report, these men that got the perfect things that we got that were made perfect did these ifs. They received the blessing. And Hebrews chapter five and verse nine says and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Jesus was made perfect. And because he is perfect, he died and was resurrected without sin in his life. He is the author of our eternal salvation and unto all them that obey him. He has the right to say you aren't perfect or well done by good and faithful servant. He gets that right because he is perfect because he is the author of our eternal salvation. Now, of course, in the Bible, we also have the Israelites misusing the abundant gifts that God gave them. You can find that in Exodus 12 and in Exodus chapter 32, which for the sake of time we won't turn and read. But I do encourage you write it down, take the note, turn and read there. Exodus 12 and in Exodus 32, you see where the Israelites first or first notably misuse the abundant gift of God so much so that they get stuck in the wilderness for a while. And in Malachi chapter 2 and verse 2, if he will not hear, if he will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name, sayeth the Lord of hosts, I will even sin to curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Yay, I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart. Now, the book of Malachi is actually a very sad book. And if you haven't read the book in that fashion, if you haven't really sat down and studied the book, you might not know that. The book of Malachi is the last prophet sent to the people of Israel. And it's God saying I'm done. You aren't listening to me. Here's your last chance. And of course, the Israelite people still don't listen. And the Lord leaves the Israelite people. He leaves the Jews for about 500 years or so until his son is sent. It is the last prophet. He says, if you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart and give glory to my name, I will curse you. I will curse the blessings that I have given to you. He says, yay, right? Actually, I've already cursed them because you don't listen to me. You didn't follow the if. And in Luke 12 and verse 48, "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Well, what does that mean? For unto whomever so much is given, of him shall be of much required. Well, that means everything that God gives you, he expects something of you. He requires something of you or otherwise he's going to curse you. He's going to curse the blessings that he's given you. Well, what is that? Oh, we've talked about it, haven't we? It's those two if statements. If you harken his voice and if you follow his commandments. If you do those things, that's what's required of you. And you'll be blessed. Now, brethren, as I told you, your physical blessings are abundant and ongoing. Now, I've talked about the abundant, haven't I? You know, I showed you a list of about, I think I showed you 15 of them out of my list. And I encourage you to make your own because they aren't going to be identical. But they're abundant. So what does it mean for a blessing to be ongoing? And if we have a lot of blessings, what does it mean? And I'm not talking about the sun rises every day. It rains every once in a while, four inches a year, a max maybe. I am not talking about that. Go with me to Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three and verses one through eight. And my Bible app just crashed and I've got to reopen that. But Acts chapter three and verse one through eight, we see the crippled man. Oh, fast. Thank you. We see a crippled man at the gates. And Acts chapter three, beginning in verse one, it says, now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, which was the ninth hour. This is out of the ESV. And a man lame from birth, he was being carried, whom they lay daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms for entering the temple or of those who enter the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention to them expecting to receive something from him. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. And the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up. He stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. There's two things I want you to understand here. Number one is the man was lame by birth, which means he didn't have any muscle period, which means Peter didn't just pick him up and he figured it out. It's not going to happen. It means that God had a hand in it. God blessed Peter in order to heal the man. Now, there's another thing Peter says. He asked for alms and Peter says, I have neither silver nor gold. Now, per our understanding of scripture, Peter and Paul. I'm sorry, Peter and John would have had silver and gold. They were workers. They were working men. And yet that wasn't his point. His point was silver and gold. It's not going to help you right now. I can give you money all day every day. You've received money all day every day. And it hasn't helped you. So what I'll give you is something that can help. And he gave him legs, essentially. He gave him the ability to walk. He gave him a blessing of God. And in verse three, I'm sorry, in verse 11 of chapter three, and it says, and as the lame man, which was healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's Great Wandering. As the lame man, which was healed, held Peter and John, which means it didn't just stop. And he collapsed after he ran inside. He's still there. He's still with Peter and John. So ask yourself, what is your greatest physical blessing? Now I'm sure none of us magically grew all the muscles to walk. I'm not sure any of us have been raised from the dead. Maybe we've been decapitated and got our head put back. No, probably not. I don't think you regrow an arm. So what's your blessing? Me, personally, I think, binds my voice. I've been told by many people, I have a very soothing voice. I have the voice for talking to people. Now, whether that's true or not, I don't know, but that's what people keep telling me, so I'm going to have to believe it. And so I think mine would be my voice. Maybe yours is the ability to walk. It's the ability to work with your hands. Maybe it's that you can see people. See, whenever people are hurt, maybe it's that you can hear the cries of others. It's not going to be something miraculous. You're not going to read people's thoughts. I hope nobody in here can read people's thoughts. But you definitely can't do that miraculously. And so you have to ask yourself, what is your greatest physical blessing? Brother and everybody is going to have a different, great physical blessing. I'm going to tell you right now, life happens. It doesn't just stop. Right, it doesn't say, "Oh, look." You know, you're only going to ever have good times. You're never going to experience bed because of life. Right, we are in the world. We're physical, which means you're going to age. You're going to fall off something, you're going to break your arm. Hey, you might even get in a car accident. It's not going to be fun, but it can happen. And every time that happens, right, maybe you get cut off in traffic and then somebody breaks checks you and you just get ugly angry. You're so angry because that happened. And that's whenever you forget your blessings. You forget that you had the ability to drive in the first place. That God gave you life, that there was enough light that you at least saw the person. Right, check you otherwise it could have been worse. And you forget that blessing. And whenever you forget that blessing, you're in trouble. My grandfather told me a story. I'll just put it up on the board. If I'll click the right button. He said we took a short trip down Mexico Way. Says he wouldn't have been gone but three or four days. And we saw ancient ruins in some pretty cool sites. Said the days were hot and humid. So were the nights. He says what wonderful rooms and all kinds of food and glamour. It was hard to think people would need anything more. Yet there were beggars literally at the church's gate. Filthy clothes and so much hunger. I pitted their feet. I'm not sure if this was a real story or a poem he found and told me it was a story. But it was beautiful nonetheless. He said the market was crowded. The odor was rank. As I passed through the stalls my heart really sank. He said there on the ground with his eyes begging please. Said a deformed man bent just taller than my knees. Some beg for money. Pretended blindness on the take. This poor soul so deformed could not be a fake. So I gave him some money. His crooked mouth gave me a smile. So then maybe your blessings a smile. You ever think about that? A smile can brighten someone's day. Sometimes a hug can brighten someone's day but I don't recommend walking around hugging people. You might get in some trouble doing that. I was pensive and troubled as I walked for a while. Lord how you've blessed me and body and soul. With so many blessings without and within and most of all Lord the remission of sin. Help me Lord to be thankful more than ever before. Help me to praise you and honor you more. I sometimes do grumble and think things so bad. I get selfish and put out but by what I don't have. When I get down Lord or be set with some trial bring to my mind a deformed dwarf and a smile. Now this sounds like a poem it does but my grandfather actually told me this was a story he took. It was a trip he took to Mexico. I didn't believe him either but I chose not to question him. I genuinely think he read it out of a book but I wrote it down because I thought it was interesting. Because if we go back to the beginning of the story if I click the right button. When we go back to the beginning of the story it's beautiful. All these nice beautiful things and then you have beggars at the church's gates. And he says some faked it some didn't. But this man definitely didn't. Whenever he gave him money he gave him a smile. And then he continued on the story and he said all he wanted from the Lord from that point on was just another smile. Now of course he called him a deformed dwarf but that's because he was a crippled man he couldn't walk. Like he was deformed in his ways. He was deformed in his stature and yet all my grandfather said he looked for the rest of that trip was a smile. He wanted to make somebody smile. He wanted to be the light in somebody's day. So brethren as I conclude this lesson think about this. What is your greatest blessing? What blessings have been bestowed on you? And maybe you say well I don't know what my blessing is. And I don't know what I can do. Why don't you go make people smile? It doesn't have to be anything complicated. It can be anything as little as a joke. Maybe it's helping somebody in need. But as you leave this place if you don't know what your blessing is if you don't know the gift in which God is giving you and we're going to use gifts very loosely because we don't have the miraculous gifts anymore. So we'll use it loosely. But if you don't know the blessing that God has given you then go make somebody smile. Make that a blessing. Be the light in somebody's day. And after you're the light in somebody's day you'll just feel good. And you can thank God for the things in which he has given you to be that. Now of course we have all of the commandments we have here believe, repent, be baptized, confess. And then you have that pesky one that's to remain faithful. And that's really hard. Think about how often do you fall short of the glory of God? How often do you sin? Maybe something slips and you didn't mean for it to slip. How often do you push away or push aside the blessings of God? Now that's not an answer that you need to raise your hand and say seven. Or maybe you know sign language and you say twenty six. I'm not asking you to do that. But think about it. And if anybody feels as though they have just disregarded the blessings of God that they don't understand that Jesus was a blessing that the chance to come forward and repent is a blessing. That to go to heaven is a blessing. Then brethren you might not have been baptized in the proper manner. If you don't understand that, then do you understand Jesus? Do you understand what his sacrifice truly was? If anybody has anything that they need to ask for repentance or prayers from the congregation if you'd come forward as we stand and sing the song that has been selected.
Lesson by Espn McCall, Preacher at Wickett Church of Christ
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