Forget Not All His Benefits

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.  (Psalms 103:1-5)

2009 has been given a focus and direction and that is to identify and experience the benefits that God has afforded those who choose to serve the risen Lord Jesus Christ.  A benefit by definition is an advantage, a profit or help.  It speaks of the issue of reward and prize.  It is critical to the next twelve months that you don’t equate benefits with never going through difficulty or challenge.  The benefit of race preparation and hard work is finishing the race and getting the prize.  The benefit of winning a battle is only experienced after fighting the fight.  There is a cost to receiving the benefits in life and though salvation is free you must not conclude that the joyous benefits in this life are acquired without your participation.

I will endeavor to spell out the biblical foundation for seeing serving God as worthwhile and advantageous without painting a struggle free life.  Many years ago I was trained in the doctrine of the prosperity message and though there are many things I believe in it to be true, some parts are lacking a whole Bible perspective.  God is not a slot machine or a lottery game.  Work is a huge part of service to our king but it doesn’t achieve love and support.  These things are freely given regardless of your input but the rewards of service are full of the response by a benevolent God to His children.

Let me repeat something that is said often here.  We don’t do things for God to get His approval or acceptance or love.  He loves us because Jesus made it possible for the father to have us in His presence by making us cleansed from our sin through His blood on the cross.  We do this for and with God now that we are His so we can express our love back to Him.

Lets look at just this one verse already.  

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.  (Psalms 103:1-5)

Are you living with these benefits in mind?
➢    Forgiven sin
➢    Healing of diseases
➢    Redeemed from the pit of life
➢    Crowned with love and compassion
➢    Desires satisfied with good things
➢    Renewed youth like the eagle

Wow! This list alone should make you want to live for Christ.  How could you choose to overlook this advantage?  

Look at the list again only this time from the perspective of an unsaved person.
➢    Unforgiven sin
➢    You’re on your own concerning diseases
➢    You’re subject to the pit of life
➢    Love and compassion are not yours to receive or distribute
➢    Desires go unsatisfied even when they appear achieved
➢    Life just plain wears you down

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the tremendous advantage of God’s plan over the worlds.  So why does the world win this battle so often?  Because the world entices us with supposed freedoms which are actually bondages in disguise.

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:20-23)

For example how about addiction to some form of substance abuse.  We are convinced at a young age that the freedom to drink, take drugs and view pornography for example is an inherent right of maturing adults.  We see it as a right of passage and a sign of maturity.  We wait with anticipation or even creep ahead of the societal schedule so we can be among the advantaged.

Teen Challenge: Next week you will hear some of the extraordinary challenges that come from not following God and the enormous benefit for serving Jesus Christ.

Back to benefits:  We often think that we can only benefit if we earn it.  We work and work trying to get the advantage over our neighbor or just get a little ahead of the guy in the next cubical.  God has been working to set us up for rewards long before we lifted a finger.  Other people have done the homework or sown the seed and we are the beneficiaries.

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.  Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.  Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.  Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.  I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”  (John 4:34-38)

Let me take you back to our opening verse; Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.  Part of this life dilemma is that we have benefit amnesia.  Even when someone says God has a plan for good in our lives we walk away and immediately forget the promise.  We have heard so many religious phrases that when the very word of God is spoken we simply put it on the shelf of our minds along with all the rest of the churchy stuff.

God wants to so drive this point home to you this year that you will remind yourself the next time you slip into amnesia about our benevolent God.  You can commit to be open-minded and receptive to what God will reveal this year.  You can declare that only God’s word will have value in your life.  Make 2009 a year of learning the great reward for serving the King of Kings and Lord of lords.   Don’t forget all the benefits God has purchased for you through the cross.

Notes from Pastor Pasch’s January 4, 2009 message; to get a free CD of the complete message, contact Christ’s Family Church at (651) 437-2340.