Living a Blessed Life Through Fear and Obedience

1. "If I asked every person here, I said, do you want God's blessing in your life? Of course, every one of us would say, yes, yes, of course, Pastor. I want to be blessed. I want God's presence and power in my life. Uh, but what we have to be reminded this morning is that blessing is conditional. Blessing does not fall randomly from the sky. Blessing is the result of some actions and some decisions that we make. We can't just say like God's blessing is just snap your fingers and all of a sudden the blessing will come from heaven. It's not just a pill that you take or even just a church service that you go to. Being blessed by God is not the result of religious activities. The blessing of God is a result of some things this morning." [38:26] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Fear of the Lord produces a love of obedience. That's what our scripture said in the Psalms. He said, not only do I fear the Lord, how joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying His commandments. And so we know that obedience is necessary to find God's blessing. But can I just remind you that God is more interested in the reason why you obey? Not just obedience to the letter of the law, but to the spirit of the law. Lord, it's not just that. I want to skirt by and see how much I can get away with without actually breaking the law. Know that we delight in His laws and we love to obey." [52:28] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "The blessing of God is not mysterious. It's not difficult to find. It is simple. If you want to experience God's blessing, the way is clear. And the Bible describes how we can find this blessing with two words, fear and obedience. Everybody say it together with me. Fear and obedience. That's exactly what our Scripture begins with in verse 1. How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying His commandments. So I want to just say, first of all, to you that you cannot expect blessing from God without first understanding who He is, who you are, our position as sinful and lost people, and how we must first surrender to Him." [42:52] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "The blessing of God means light shines in the darkness. Number five, they are generous, compassionate and righteous. Think of the story that Jesus told the good Samaritan, the man who fell among thieves. He was bruised and half dead on the road and the Pharisee passes by, doesn't even look at him. The Levite passes by, has a look, gets a little closer, but still does nothing. And then a good Samaritan. Samaritan is the one that the Jewish people despise. But this man, he picked up the one who fell among thieves, put him on his own animal, took him to a hotel, paid the fare for him to stay. Then he promised, he said, if this man has any other needs, if you need to buy him something, go ahead and do it. I'll reimburse you fully. To see that he is restored. That's a good Samaritan. This is the blessing of God is not just for you. Hello? We are blessed to be a blessing. We are called to be a conduit." [01:10:12] (66 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The blessing of God is not automatic, but it is available to anyone. And I want to give you some hope and some encouragement here of what the blessing of God looks like. That no matter your background, no matter where you came from or what is in your past, for those who have turned from sin and trusted in Jesus and believe His Word and fearfully obeying Him, I want to tell you there is blessing available. Let's look at the fruit of the blessed life. In this psalm, by my count, I counted 14 separate results following the Lord. And I want to go through them quickly as we close this morning." [01:00:33] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "The blessing of God is for those who fear Him and obey His commandments. Is that you? It's like the tree described in Psalm 1. Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand with sinners or join with mockers. They delight. Listen to that language. They delight in the law of the Lord. Meditating on it day and night. How often? Morning and evening. You know, it bugs me how much attention can we give to YouTube and Facebook and TikTok and all the social media and our sticky little screens. And the Word of God lies dormant in our lives. Hello, Christian? I'm not talking to the world. I'm talking to believers this morning. They delight in the law of the Lord. They meditate on it day and night. And when they do, this is how they're described. Psalm 1 verse 3. They are like trees planted on the river bank. Bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do." [57:35] (78 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "I want to ask you, don't you want that? Don't you want to see that in your life? Don't you want to see more of God's blessing and less of the curse? And the way that we find that is here. Lord, forgive me for trying to do things on my own. Forgive me for the fear of man. Forgive me for these things that I know cause your blessing to flee. Lord, I want to trust you. I want to delight in obeying your commands. I want to fear you above all other. This morning, I want to open up this altar for prayer. If you want to take, you heard something today, and you want to apply it to your life, we're going to pray together here at this altar." [01:21:29] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "I have seen so many. I have seen so many. I have seen so many of God's people wandering in the desert. Yes, saved and set free from sin, thank God. But still not experiencing all the blessing and favor and fruitfulness that God has for you. We're going to contend for that this morning. We're going to rebuke the lies of the evil one. And you know what he says? Yeah, you deserve that. Yeah, you deserve to be forever cursed. And the devil wants you to believe that so that you be in the right place. So that you be ineffective for the kingdom of God." [01:26:29] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "I want to pray specifically for needs in the family. This is such a point of attack in the world that we're living. And the enemy would have us to believe that there is no such thing as a healthy family. The enemy would tell us that husbands and wives are always going to struggle. Mothers and fathers are always going to struggle. That fathers and children are always never going to get along. That mothers and children are always going to be at one another's throats. But I want to believe God for blessing in our families. Can we contend for that this morning?" [01:28:40] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "I want to pray, I want to pray specifically for needs in the family. This is such a point of attack in the world that we're living. And the enemy would have us to believe that there is no such thing as a healthy family. The enemy would tell us that husbands and wives are always going to struggle. Mothers and fathers are always going to struggle. That fathers and children are always never going to get along. That mothers and children are always going to be at one another's throats. But I want to believe God for blessing in our families. Can we contend for that this morning? If you want to receive a prayer for that, would you come just right up to the front and make one line for me? I want to pray together. God, we want to see your blessing in our families. In our homes. Let it begin there. Let it begin there and then, like light that radiates, let it transform our communities. Let it transform our city. Let it transform our nation. This is the beginning. God, I want to see your will, your blessing on my family." [01:29:21] (70 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)