Why God’s Blessing Follows My Formation

Well, all of you know that as parents, man, we think a lot about what the first words of our kids are going to be. You know, when Tamara and I were getting ready to have Michael, we're competitive people. So I would hear her and she would be in another room and she'd be speaking to her womb and she'd be saying, "Ma, ma, ma." Well, I wasn't gonna be done. So I would come into the room and I'd start saying, "Da, da, da." And I'll never forget, I was on Westheimer in Houston at Kinko's Copier. I had Michael in his little car seat and he started saying, "Dad, dad, dad," over and over again. And my first thought is, where is my camcorder? Because we decided that there had to be a witness there whenever he said his first word. But fortunately, when we got home, he started doing it again. And I was so proud of my boy, I took him to Braum's and we got some ice cream to celebrate.

But this week I Googled some of the first words that children say, and the first word is mama, so mamas, you win. The second word is dada. But when you get to the fifth word, it's an interesting word because the fifth word that children say quickly is the word no. And as a parent, you know that one of the most difficult things that you deal with is how your children begin to say no. And one of the things that we realize in parenting is what they say yes to and what they say no to is one of the most important things that we steward as parents.

Listen to this scripture in 2 Corinthians 1:20. It says, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they're yes in Christ, and so through Him the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God." So think about what that means. It means that when we say amen to the right things, when we say amen to what God is asking of us in our heart, two things are going to happen. First of all, we're going to see more of God's promises fulfilled in our life. And then the second thing is we're going to see the glory of God begin to increase in our life. And so it's so important that we learn to say amen to the right things.

Titus was a pastor and the Apostle Paul trained him. And he wrote this in Titus 2:11 and 12. He said, "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people." So if you're here today, Jesus didn't die on the cross for some people. God isn't just interested in blessing some people even more than others. But here's what Paul told Titus he needed to do. He said, "Teach them that the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present..."

So if you've raised kids, you've noticed that you can give them two choices. And how many of you know if you give them two choices, they're going to invent a third choice, right? And it's because there's just something in our sinful nature that has a tendency to want it our own way. And to me, this is one of the most beautiful things about Jesus coming to earth. John 1:14 says, when He came, we all saw His glory, the glory of the only Son. Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus was the perfect representation of God. And it said when He came from the Father, He was full of grace and He was full of truth.

So if you came to Jesus, you would see Him by a woman who committed adultery. And He would be telling people, "Put the stones away, because you know what? God didn't send me into the world to stone people. God sent me into the world to save people." But you would have also heard Him say to that woman who committed adultery, "Now listen, stop your sinning. Don't do that anymore." And so what changes lives is the grace of Jesus Christ, that whatever we've ever done, Jesus is for us. Can you say amen? But then it's the truth of Jesus Christ that He won't let us continue to do things that are gonna corrupt His blessing in our life.

And that's what Psalm 27 is about that we're gonna study this morning. It teaches us that God blesses people who want to be formed by Him instead of people who want to fight with Him. And here's one of the most important things that I do as a pastor every week, is I teach you God's Word. And the reason that's important is because your Bible is divided in two major sections. There's the Old Testament, which means the Old Covenant. And then when Jesus came, there's the New Testament, which signifies that Jesus came to bring us a new covenant.

And what a covenant means is that two people have to do their part if blessing is going to happen. That's why in a marriage we have people come and they take their vows before God, because if they'll both serve God, beautiful things can happen. But if you start dishonoring the covenant, pretty soon you start changing God's original design for that covenant. And David's going to teach us how to do our part and how to keep our covenant with God so that God can bless our life.

And here's the first thing that he says, is it starts by asking for God's leadership. Psalm 27, verse 1 says this: "The Lord is my light," David said, "and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, so of whom shall I be afraid?" In other words, if God Himself, who created the universe, has made me a promise, why should I fear bad circumstances around me when the One who said He can bring them all under His control has made me a promise?

But see, the challenge is that God can't bring our circumstances under control until we first let God bring us under control, right? And so David tells us how God begins to bring our circumstances under control. Number one, he says, "The Lord is my light." So God begins to change our life whenever we ask God, "God, would You just show me what I can't see? God, will You show me what I need to know for this to turn around in my life?"

Then he said, "The Lord is my salvation." And God blesses our life when He starts providing things for us that we could never provide for ourselves. And so our life changes and we say, "Oh God, show me what I need to change inside to see this part of my life change." And then we start saying, "God, thank You for the Bible. Thank You for the Holy Spirit. Thank You for Bible teachers who can help me live in Your blessing."

And then he said that God's his stronghold. That even as that's going on in our life, we need strength on the inside. And so we start thanking God. "God, thank You for strengthening me as I go through this hard time in my life."

You see, far too many people are begging God who need to learn how to believe God, because God doesn't bless beggars. God blesses people who learn how to believe Him for things. Here's a good example. Over the years, I've had lots of people who will say things to me like, "Pastor, will you pray for the strife to go out of my marriage? Pastor, will you pray for this trouble to go out of our marriage?" And I like to joke with people and I'll say, "Well, I'll pray for you, but are you willing to change?"

And they'll look at me with big saucer eyes and I'll say, "If you don't change, the only way God can get the strife out of your marriage or the trouble out of your marriage is to kill you, or the trouble isn't going to go." But if you change inside, then God can begin to do amazing things in your life.

I think back to a man who was living in his car when he joined our church years ago, but when he left to move to another city, he was earning a six-figure income. And I asked him, "Tell me your story." And as he began to tell me his story, I could just hear Scriptures coming into my mind, and it made me so grateful for the opportunity that I have to pastor people.

And let's say today that you're saying, "Pastor, I really want God to bless my career." Well, Proverbs 16:3 says you have to commit your plans to God, and then He'll cause them to prosper. Proverbs 14:23 says it takes diligence for us to prosper. Proverbs 11:1 says it takes honesty and integrity for us to prosper. Proverbs 22:29 says it takes excellence and skill for us to prosper. Deuteronomy 8 says, "Don't ever forget that it's God who gives you the power to prosper." And 25 says it takes generosity for me to prosper.

So can we see that it's one thing to pray for God to bless me, it's another thing to say, "God, You have the capacity to bring everything under control for me to live in Your blessing. I just need to learn to say yes to the right things and no to the wrong things in my life."

One of the stories I love in the Bible is the story of Bartimaeus. And it says one day Jesus and His disciples were walking out of the city of Jericho, and he started screaming at the top of his lungs, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me." So people called to the blind man because his call out to Jesus made Jesus stop. And Jesus said, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." And Jesus said, "Go, because your faith has healed you."

So do you notice what begging couldn't do? Faith could change in this man's life. And I love the story because one of the things it tells us is that Bartimaeus had this cloak. And back in those days, beggars would have cloaks that would basically tell people, man, I need mercy just to survive. And whenever Bartimaeus went to Jesus, it said he took that cloak and he threw it away. And he came to Jesus, and you know what he was saying? "I don't need to beg anybody to survive. I've got a God who loves me so much. Listen, if He made me a promise in the Bible, if I say yes to the right things and no to the things that are wrong, God's gonna bless me."

Can you give God a great big shout of praise this morning for that? Amen? See, God begins blessing us when, first of all, we say, "God, I want Your leadership on the inside of my heart." He can't bring it under control until we let Him bring us under control.

Here's the second thing that David teaches us, and that is afterwards we have to trust God to handle our trouble. David's trouble was significant. He talks about in verse 3, he says, man, an army can try to besiege me, but he said, I'm not going to let my heart fear. Wicked people are going to advance against me, but you know what? They're going to get devoured and God's going to fulfill His promise in my life.

And then he says in verse 5, he said, "For in the day of trouble, He's going to keep me safe in His dwelling. He's going to hide me in the shelter of a sacred tent and He's going to set me on a high rock." And then notice, he said, "Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me."

So what did David count on for God to turn his trouble into what God said his trouble could turn into? First of all, God's leadership in his heart. But then he said God's going to exalt my head. God's going to help me think right about what I'm going through.

I love the story of Helen Keller for this reason, who sadly, at just 19 months, got an illness and she ended up blind. She got so bitter about it when she was a little girl until one day somebody named Annie Sullivan came into her life. And what did Annie do? She helped her see things differently than Helen was seeing things. She provided for her skills that could make her life into something amazing.

And when Helen Keller started living with strength on day one, I don't think she ever dreamed that she would write 14 books that got translated into 50 languages. I don't think she ever dreamed she would travel to 35 nations and be an ambassador that brought the disabled the hope and the help they need. How many of you know whatever's going on around you, God wants to make something happen inside of you that causes your life to be awesome?

And that's what David is saying. Scholars don't know if he wrote this when he was in a battle or if he wrote it later in life to help people win their battles, but here's what we know. He helps us see when God has control of me on the inside, things start changing on the outside. Whenever we trust God in the middle of our trouble, He turns it into something nobody else could ever turn it into.

You say, "Pastor, how do I do that?" Well, Genesis 3 tells us. It's the first story with people in it in the Bible. And of course, Adam and Eve, they made some mistakes. And how many of you know when people make mistakes, sometimes their inside doesn't respond well to the mistakes they made? And that happened with Adam and Eve.

First of all, Adam blamed his wife. And how many of you know men have been blaming their wives ever since? Can you say amen? And then after that, the woman blamed the snake. And how many of you know people have been making excuses and blaming the devil ever since, right? And then I like to say the devil didn't have a leg to stand on, so he had to go ahead and he had to take the blame.

But it's a beautiful story because it tells us how to trust God in trouble. And the first thing that happened in Genesis is it said the Lord called out to Adam and He said, "Adam, where are you?" Notice He didn't say, "Adam, what have you done?" He wasn't mad at Adam. He was madly in love with Adam. And He said, "Adam, the first thing I need you to do is I need you to live reconciled to Me if I'm gonna help you."

And I'm sure there are people today who've done things, and the guilt, the shame, the condemnation is causing you to run away from God. Listen to me, don't run from God, run to God. He'll be the best friend you've ever had whenever you go through hard times.

But some people run to God, and David also understood in Psalm 66:19, he said, "If I keep iniquity in my heart, God's not going to hear my prayers." And some people run to God, but they don't repent of their sin and they don't get the sin out of their life. And they don't realize God has to do something in us before God can do what He's dreaming of around us.

And that's the second thing that God did with Adam, is He not only reconciled him, but next in Genesis 3:17 it says to Adam, He said, "Because you listened to your wife and you ate fruit from the tree which I commanded you not to do, the ground's cursed. You're gonna have to do some things to get My blessing back into your life."

And God spoke to each one of them. And basically what God was saying is, "I do want you to be reconciled to Me, but if you want to be rewarded, you're going to have to do the right things." And many people don't realize that in life, that they want God to bless them, but God doesn't bless us because we beg Him. God blesses us because we believe Him for things.

And to believe God for things means I'm going to be reconciled. I'm going to let God's love melt away the fear, melt away the condemnation, melt away the guilt, melt away whatever keeps my heart in rebellion. I'm going to think about how much Jesus loves me and I'm going to live reconciled to God. Amen.

Then the second thing is we have to treasure His righteousness. Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then My blessing is going to be added to your life."

And in the end, God let Adam and Eve know, "I want your redemption." Genesis 3:21, it says, "The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, and He clothed them." So what you see is that God is clothing their mistakes. This is the first picture of animal sacrifice we have in the Bible, and it shows us the picture of God's Son who would hang on a cross for us so all of our sins could be forgiven.

And God will cover our sin, but if we want to live a redeemed life, we also have to let God work on the inside of us. And that's the next part of David's Psalm, is he tells us, I need you to seek God's ways above your own ways.

Psalm 32:8 and 9 says this to us. It says, "I'll instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I'll counsel you with My loving eye that's upon you, but don't be like the horse or the mule which has no understanding and has to be controlled by bit and bridle or they're not gonna come to you."

In other words, God says, "I wanna bless you, but here's what I need from you. I'm gonna show you things you don't see. I'm gonna provide things you don't have. I'm gonna bring you the strength you need to get through your struggle, but I need you to serve Me. You can't be stubborn if you wanna step into the blessing I have for your life."

I don't know if you ever heard the story about this young farmer and his wife. They had a bumper crop one year and they both got so excited. He wanted to buy some new farm equipment that he really didn't need. She wanted to buy some new house furniture that she really didn't need. And before you knew it, they were fighting with each other.

And have you ever had a time whenever you and somebody close to you were ticked off at each other and you did it so long you couldn't even remember what you were ticked off about, but you were just ticked off, right? Well, they were in that place whenever one day a storm was blowing in and they knew they had to get all the animals into the farm. And so they worked hard, got every animal into the farm except one old stubborn mule.

Finally, they were both trying and the young farmer looked at his wife. And he said, "Is this mule a relative of yours?" And she said, "Absolutely, by marriage."

The moral of the story is be careful of arguing with a woman. You're never going to win, right? But there's another moral, and that is God can't lead people who are stubborn.

And this is one of the reasons I admire David so much. And this is something we can learn from him because God doesn't want us just to admire him. God wants us to imitate him. God wants us to know that He'll turn things around that are trouble in our life if we'll do the same thing that David did.

And listen to the next part of the Psalm, which is the longest. In verse 7, he said, "Hear my voice when I call, Lord. Be merciful to me and answer me." And then he said, "My heart says of You, seek His face, and Your face, Lord, I'm gonna seek."

Now this is what makes me think David wrote this older in life because when he was younger, he might not have known, man, I'm going through a trial, but if I seek God, He's gonna do something great in my life.

But can I tell you something? It's a blessing to be where I'm at at this season of my life. You know next summer, this 17-year-old kid who gave his life to Jesus is gonna have served Jesus for 50 years, y'all, and He's been so good to me over these 50 years. And so now when I go through a trial, I just want to seek God because I know God's going to be more good to me than the devil ever was bad to me.

And David said, "I was in that place where I decided I'm just going to seek God." And what happens when we seek God is He gives us the light to see what we need to see. He provides for us what we can never provide for ourselves. And He gives us strength to step into something we could never step into without Him.

Some of you remember when we dedicated our Jimatorium. It was the first sanctuary once we grew out of our 300-seat sanctuary, and my college pastor came and he helped dedicate the building. And he stood up in front of the church and he said, "Let me tell you something. I'm really glad God sent Jim to my church two years before Tamara came to college. I'm older than..." And he said, "Because listen, Tamara would have never married Jim the way that I found him," right?

And can I tell you, that's true. We got to change inside. Listen, God has such dreams for us, but how did they come to pass? First of all, we honor the leadership of Jesus in our heart. If we let Him control us, He can bring the other things under His control.

Maybe you're fighting an addiction. Maybe alcoholism ran in your family. Maybe there was some other difficulty. Let me tell you something. What sin made run in your family, Jesus will make run out of your family if you'll serve Him. Amen?

And if you don't get there overnight, just keep coming to Faith Family Church, because listen, we're not here to see through you. We're here to see you through. We're always going to strengthen you. We're never going to scold you. Can you say amen?

You let God's leadership take over in your heart and you make a decision: I'm going to trust God in my troubles and I'm going to choose God's way over mine every time.

Then here's the third thing. David taught us we need to confidently wait until God completes His work in our life. I love verse 13. It says this. David wrote, "I remain confident of this, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

Now I want you to say that with me this morning. I want you to say, "I'm confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

Some people get so discouraged they wanna go to heaven because they don't wanna deal with it all anymore. But listen, don't you let the devil do that to you. Before you go to heaven, you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, and you will bring friends to Christ. You will bring family to Christ. You will be part of God's army. Can you say amen?

David said, "I will see the goodness of the Lord." And he said, "I'll wait for the Lord." He said, "I'll be strong and I'll take heart and I'll wait for the Lord."

Another one of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Paul. And it shows us that there are a lot of people in the world, I don't know if you've noticed this, but there are a lot of people who receive direction from God, but they don't really enter into great destinies from God.

I've been shocked over the years. There are people who give me words of prophecy that come from the heart of God, but their own life has fallen apart. And then there are people, and I bet you've seen some of these people too, they're living a horrible life and they start quoting Scripture and trying to straighten you out. Have you met anybody like that?

But Paul, he wasn't like that. What he was was somebody who took the direction of God seriously. And because he took the direction of God seriously, and because he was determined to follow God's direction, God did amazing things in his life.

And I love one story in Acts 21 where it says Paul was headed to Jerusalem. And a prophet named Agabus took Paul's belt and he tied his own hands and his own feet with Paul's belt. And he looked at Paul and he said, "The Holy Spirit says, in this way the Jewish leaders are gonna bind you and they're gonna hand you over to the Gentiles."

And the Bible says that when this happened, all the people started pleading with Paul, "Don't go to Jerusalem. It's gonna be difficult if you go to Jerusalem." But listen to how Paul answered. He said, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I'm ready not only to be bound, but I'm ready to die in Jerusalem in the name of the Lord Jesus."

And he wouldn't be dissuaded. So we gave up and we said, "Let the Lord's will be done."

Can I tell you this morning, as we close this 37th anniversary service, I want to thank some folks who are like the Apostle Paul. They didn't just trust God in the good times, they trusted God in the trouble. And that's why we're here today.

Pastor Larry, thank you for every battle that you fought for us to be who we are today. Listen, you're a legend to me and you always will be.

Dr. Solis and Tara, thank you for every prayer you prayed. You prayed with passion. You prayed with perseverance. And my pledge to you as a pastor is the devil will never kill what God has raised up. Amen.

Harry and Brenda, thank you for loving. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for staying faithful. Our best days are ahead.

Doc Hardin, you know we wouldn't be sitting on this beautiful campus if you weren't beside me. Doc Hardin's like my dad. My dad knew my weaknesses and he loved laughing at them. Anybody have a parent like that? Doc Hardin's been that to me.

And listen, all we're sitting in, this man has worked so hard for us to be who we are.

And I'm gonna say this to you. I don't know what hard time you're going through. I know the devil's mean. I know because of that he's abused some people who are here. I know because of that some of you are fighting incredible battles, you know, being here.

But I want to say it one more time.

Jesus is real.

And if you say yes to the right things and you say no to the wrong things in your life, I guarantee you, you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Amen.