09/06/2021
Please take the time to read the whole thing. Here’s the sermon from August 29th, 2021 called “The Blessed Life”. Let the church say Amen. Let me say this before I get into the word of God for today. Get the vaccine. I have a scar on my head from when I had a blood bleed. I’m still not over it , and I got affected in November on Thanksgiving. So don’t listen to the crazy people, go listen to the medical doctors, and one of the crazy things is that the folk in the medical field are acting a fool, and they don’t know how much it’s affecting other people because they don’t want to be vaccinated and they ought to know better. They ought to know better. Get vaccinated. The sad thing and Imma shut up on this. This winter if it gets real bad, it’s starting to affect children. Why should we see our children die because grown ups are hard headed and not listening to science, and listening to stupidity, and politicians who are already vaccinated. Let me say that again. Politicians who are already being vaccinated are telling other folk not to get vaccinated or you're free. Yes you’re free enough to die, but you shouldn’t be free enough to make somebody else sick. Amen Lord. That’s my COVID-19 speech. Let me teach this morning. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word, we ask that you will speak to us, minister to us in your own way, and we will give you glory in Jesus name, and for our sake Amen. The memory verse for this morning is from Joshua 24, and Joshua says “if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose with yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether it’s the God which your father’s served on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now dwell. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”. Turn to your neighbor and say for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I had thought God wanted me to change my sermon on Friday, but it just did not become clear, so I went back to the original plan. My wife asked me if my sermon had anything to do with the theme of the booklet you were given, the gift and grace of giving. I hope people are reading that book, and I want to thank Reverend Lin again for giving us access to that book. One of the reasons why people can’t grow is because they listen to TV, and they listen to Facebook, but they don’t listen to God, and God still speaks through his word, and I would trust that you would read that book called the gift and grace of giving, and I said to her, it does because it is a blessed life that has the gift and the grace of giving. So what I want to teach about this morning is living the blessed life. Living the blessed life. As it was discussed on last week, that the grace and gift of giving is when we serve God and not man. This is the blessed life. Let me say that again because somebody may not have heard that. It’s when we don’t serve man, but we serve God. This house that we worship in is not our house, it’s the Lord’s house. Too often people take claim to something that doesn’t belong to them. The last thing you want God to say is yes that’s your house, and then move to his own house. Because the Heavens declare his handy work, and they are the house of God. So when we serve God and not man, this is the blessed life. The memory verse is from Joshua’s last sermon to the children of Israel as they settle in the promised land. He was advising them on what they needed to do if they were going to live the blessed life. He begins letting them know it is a choice that each one of us has to make. Listen to Joshua. He says they can choose to serve the gods of their fore parents if they so choose, but Joshua let’s them know as far as he and his house, they were going to serve the Lord. See Joshua had remembered when the Lord had bought them out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bo***ge. That’s what leads to the blessed life, when you remember. He remembered when the Lord made a highway through the Red Sea that enabled them to walk on dry land. That's part of the blessed life. Too many are forgetful of what God has already done for them in their life, and Joshua said no no no, I remember when the Lord led us for 40 years by a cloud by day, and fire by night. The Lord who fed them with manna from Heaven, and gave them water from a rock. The Lord who had granted them to have a blessed life picked them up from where they were, put them in their own promised land, and made sure while in their promised land that everything they needed was there for them. That’s the Lord, and I guarantee you that if I asked some folk here this morning, that you’d have to testify that it wasn’t by your own hand that the Lord has blessed you, and put stuff in your life that you never even expected. Picked you up, turned you around and put your feet on solid ground. Is there anybody that can say Amen to that this morning, because that’s what the Lord will do when he grants you the blessed life. What is the blessed life? It’s the life that not only has contentment, but a life that is straight and right with God. My brothers and sisters, so often, we want to try and get right with one another, but in order to get right with one another, you have to first get right with God. The blessed life is when you get right and you get straight with God. When you no longer argue with God about what he wants out of your life. You no longer make excuses to God about what you need to do in order to live the blessed life. You know my brothers and sisters, when you live the blessed life, there’s contentment, and there’s life, and you’re straight with God. It does not matter whether you’re rich or poor, black or white, can obtain and have the blessed life. You ought to underline that. It does not matter what color you are, it does not matter where you come from, doesn’t matter what your beginning was, does not matter what your home life is, doesn’t matter what your financial status is. It does not matter. If you choose to seek the blessed life, you can have it. What I love about it is nobody can keep me from it, nobody can do anything to make sure that I don’t get it, because it’s not in their hands, the blessed life is in God’s hands, and if God wants to bless you, there’s nobody that can stop him from pouring a blessing upon you. If there was some folk here this morning that could testify, they’d tell you that no matter how many demons came against them, no matter how many troubles they had in their past, when they look back over their life to see where God has brought them from, they have to testify this morning, I’ve been blessed. I wish there was some folk this morning who will just tell the Lord I’ve been blessed from the crown of my head to the bottom of my feet, I’ve been blessed. What is the blessed life? You can obtain it. David picks up this same theme in Psalm 1, and gives a little recipe for living the blessed life. My brothers and sisters, I hope you would write down some notes, because one day you may need what’s spoken here this morning. One of the reasons we keep getting in trouble over and over again is because we never write down the lessons in life that God teaches us on Sunday morning, so I hope you would take out your pen and act like you’re somewhere called church and let the Lord speak to you this morning. Listen, David picks up this same theme, and he gives us a recipe for living the blessed life. Listen to David. Psalm 1:1. Blessed is the man, woman or child that reads my word and walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the paths of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. To have and live the blessed life, one must be careful of where, and with whom they walk, whom they stand, and whom they sit with. Let me say that again. In order to have the blessed life, you must be careful about who you stand with, who you walk with, and whom you sit with. Turn by you, and see who’s next to you, because the person next to you may be trouble for your spiritual life. When you walk in the blessed life, you gotta be careful about who you walk with, who you stand with, who you sit with. It means when he says you need to not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. It means that one need not get their life counseled or get advice from someone who does not walk with God, even know God, or acknowledges him as God. Let me tell you my brothers and sisters, God is not speaking on Facebook, God doesn’t have a blog page, God is not given one of those Google things who if all your information is coming from that, you’re definitely in trouble. When you walk in that kind of counsel of the ungodly, the Facebook knows nothing about God, Google knows nothing about God. When you get all your information from crazy places like that and you walk in the counsel of the ungodly, you can’t live the blessed life. That’s what David is talking about. Stop getting your information just from anywhere. You know when the Bible talks about a dog returning to its vomit, it doesn’t have enough sense not to eat the crazy stuff that it already threw up. Don’t get your information from crazy people. Turn to your neighbor, and say stop listening to dumb folk, and start listening for the word of the Lord. Stop going on Facebook, and try to get information on what you need to do, and what you need to live. They don’t know nothing about you, but listen, the God who sits high and looks low knows about every hair on your head. He knows you from the crown of your head to the bottom of your feet. If you really want to get information about you, go back to the one who created you, go back to the one who breathed life into you, go back to the one that picked you up, and made you who you are. Go back to Him. He has all the information you need about yourself. I get so tired of people going around to other folk looking for information. Don’t you know even if they know good information about you, they ain’t going to give it to you. Even when they know something good about you, they’re not going to tell you about it. But if you really want to find out about yourself, get down on your knees and talk to the Lord about it, and I guarantee you that when He speaks to your heart, speaks to your mind, He’ll make you know exactly who you are. If you want to live the blessed life, you’ve got to know that those who don’t get the advice from God, they have a mental disregard for justice, righteousness, truth, honor, and virtue. That’s why you can’t listen to folk who don’t want justice, can’t listen to folk who don’t want to be righteous. Secondly, if you want the blessed life, you can not stand in the path of sinners. Path means a way of direction, or even a road. Not only do those who want to live the blessed life, they’re not going to travel the road of sinners, they’re not even going to stand in the path or the way. Oh I need to talk for a couple minutes on that because some of you church folk need to get off the way of sinners, even if they’re in your family. Just because you have a family relationship to you, if they’re a sinner, they’re really not related to you because the people who are related to you are those who have been washed in the blood, who and they’re sanctified, and they trust the Lord for their life. That’s your new family. The Bible says you’ve been born again, and when you’ve been born again, you’ve been adopted by God, and if God adopted you, now you can declare I’m a child of the king, and you need to get away from some of those folk who are sinning, and doing all kinds of stuff, and telling you that it’s alright, that God doesn’t care, that God doesn’t mind. My wife told me a joke, and she told me not to tell it the other day, but I’m going to tell it this morning. She said this brother died, and he went to Heaven, and when he got to Heaven he looked around, and it looked boring to him because the people were nice, people were kind, and people were greeting one another. He said I don’t know if I want to be here, and the angel said to him that’s alright my brother, Heaven is a choice, now you can visit hell if you like, and so the brother said I think I will, I think I will, and so he got on the elevator and went down to hell, and went he got down there, everything looked so good, the people were dressed nice, and talking nice, and having a party, drinking wine, and doing everything they wanted to do, as a matter of fact, the devil had on a 3 piece suit. No tail, no horns, no nothing there, and the brother looked at them and said my God, this looks good, and he went back up to Heaven, and he said listen, I decided that I’m going to go to hell, and the elevator that brought you up takes back down, go on get on the elevator, he went down, and when he got down to hell again, he looked around and saw that things had changed. The devil didn’t have a 3 piece suit on, now he had a tail, and he had horns, and all the other folk were looking like they were in a bad shape, so he said to the devil, did I make a mistake? What happened here? The devil said we were candidating for your soul. That’s the only change. I stop by to tell you this morning that the devil is candidating for your soul, so he’ll make things look good, and make things look right when you’re on the trail of sin. Anybody here can testify this morning? When you were out there sinning, it looks like everything is good, but the devil is just candidating, and as long as you stay out there, you’re going to miss the blessed life, while those who walk in the blessed life, they don’t even get on that path, especially those of you who have been on that path. It’s amazing to me how many folk already been out there, now they’re 900 years old, and they still don’t have enough sense to come on out the rain. If you’ve been out there, you have no reason to go back out there. You know what’s out there, you’ve been there, you saw that, you did that. The same dance, the same clothes, you’ve been there, now you need to get up, and come on out, and walk in the blessed life. Is there anybody here that understands you cannot live back there in a sinful way, and expect God to give you blessings from the crown of your head to the bottom of your feet? Then the third thing is that “they who want the blessed life will not sit in the seat of the scornful”. They are the folk who are always critical about what God wants to do. Every time you say let’s go west, they want to go east. Every time you say we need to get up, they say we need to sit down. They’re so critical and scornful about the people of God, oh you know them. Some of them are in your family, who have nothing nice to say about the preacher, nothing nice to say about the teacher, nothing nice to say about church. He says if you want to live the blessed life, even if it’s your family, sometimes you have to excuse yourself out of the conversation, you got to get up and walk away from them because you cannot live a blessed life listening to foolishness, you cannot live a blessed life, allowing sinners to speak to you, ungodly folk to teach you, ungodly folk to talk to you, you gotta get up sometimes and say to them, my brother, my sister, I love you but I can’t be in that conversation. Is there anybody here that sat with folk that anytime they had something, all they had was negativity? All they had was something bad to say. Ooohhh, you need to get up, because I stopped by to tell you that if they talk about somebody else negatively, when you get up, they’re going to talk about you too. So you better be careful my brothers and sisters, you cannot live the blessed life. Turn to your neighbor, and say I don’t know if I should be sitting by you. In the middle of church, somebody will say something negative to you. We’re getting ready to do this Capital Campaign, and I guarantee you that there have been folk who have said something negative. Don’t pay them no mind. They’re going to get on that elevator, go up, and come back down. Don’t pay them no mind. So David said listen, if you want to live the blessed life, you gotta be careful who you walk with, who you stand with, who you sit with. Be careful my brothers and sisters. It’s not about what your politics is. It doesn’t matter whether you're a republican or democratic. If wrong is wrong, you get up and you move from it. Don’t you sit there and think that because I ain’t said nothing, I’m going to get out of this alright. No because just like the blessings of God when David said my cup runneth over, the sins of the devil will fall off on you just by the person you’re sitting by. Anybody ever been in a room where the people smoked, and you didn’t smoke, and when you came out of the room, your wife asked you what were you smoking? That’s how sin works in our life. Let me get this here, have a couple more minutes. David said “but their delight is in the law of the Lord”, and if you don’t get nothing else, I want you to get this “or the word that they meditate on day and night”. So the blessed life is not just coming to church, the blessed life is not just talking about how religious you are, and how holy you are, listen to what David said. You find a delight in the word of the Lord. My brothers and sisters, it’s not just about who you walk with, and stand with. Some people say I don’t go to church, I stay home, I don’t go to the bar, I stay home. That does not matter where you are. If you don’t do what David says. You don’t find delight and joy in God’s word. My brothers and sisters, one of the problems with the church is that church no longer finds delight, and joy in the word of God, and when you don’t find delight and joy in the word of God, you miss what the blessed life is going to offer you. If you only read one sentence of the Bible, or no sentences of the Bible, and you don’t get joy when you open the book, and the book begins speaking to you, this is what David’s talking about, you get a delight in the word of God when He speaks to you, and not only do you get delight in the word of God. Let that boy preach over there. Not only do you get delight in the word of God, he says not only do you get delight, but you meditate on it day and night. If you’ve been around here at Bethel, what I’ve been telling folk is that God is not looking for believers, I’m not looking for believers, I’m looking for folk who think. There’s too many believers in the house, too many people who believe, but they never thought about what they believe in, and their belief is not based off of the word of God, it’s based off of what momma said, what the preacher said, or something else that came to their imagination. David says these people who have delight, they find joy in the word of God, and then they meditate about it day and night. They think about it. These last couple of days, when we were doing this Daniel fast, I haven’t watched TV or very little of it these past couple of weeks, because I wanted to get into the word of God, and I wanted God to speak to me, and it’s amazing how clean my mind is becoming from not listening to those folk on the TV. Yes we get joy when we put on our story, we get joy when the days of our lives is told, we get joy when the CNN news comes on, but when is the last time you got joy out of the word of God? When did your hands start clapping, and your feet start stomping because of something that God had put in your heart, and said to you sometimes you gotta stay there long enough till you get a delight in the word? Anybody had a momma who when you said to her I don’t wanna eat that stuff, she said you gon’ sit there until you like it, and you found out that after a while, if you just sat there, you end up liking it, because you realize that the only way you’re going to be able to get up from that table, you’re going to have to eat what’s before you. I stop by to tell you if your going to make it in this life, if you’re going to live the blessed life, you’re going to have to eat some of the word of God in the morning, in the noon day, in the evening, you’re going to have to meditate on it, think about it. Don’t just listen to what the preacher says, use your mind, God can speak to you just like He can speak to a preacher. If He can speak to a jackass, surely a jackass like me, surely God can speak to you. Is there anybody here that came to church one morning, and the Lord spoke to you? Is there anybody here that opened up the book, and the Lord spoke to you? He will speak to you, and call you by your name. The delight is in the law of the Lord. When I wake up in the morning, I say I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus, I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus, I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah. Anybody woke up this morning with their mind stayed on Jesus? Give me 2 more seconds and I’ll finish. He says in the blessed life look at the benefits of the blessed life. With the benefits of the life that’s blessed, listen again to David. He says “the man, woman, or child will be like a tree planted by the water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever they have done shall prosper”. If you want to get the rest of this you have to come to Bible Study if I don’t finish it today. Being planted means that you will be stable. I watch folk come into church, go out of church, come over here, do all of this, not stable. He says listen, when you’re in the word, you’ll be just like a tree planted beside the water. Anybody know somebody who has girlfriends like they have shoes? Girlfriends got boyfriends like they got underclothes. You don’t know anybody like that? Just not stable, can’t stay on the job, can’t work, don’t like nobody, don’t wanna be around nobody. Every time you see them, they got something different. When I was young, my momma wouldn’t let me bring another girlfriend into the house. You bring one, and that was enough. You weren’t bringing nobody else, nope let that person stay right outside the door, because you got to be stable, you got to know what God is trying to do in your life. He says when you have a blessed life, you’re not wishy washy, you’re not run by every wind, somebody can talk to you. You know what some of our problem is? We let other people get into our mind, and make decisions that are against what God has for our life. Oh help me Holy Ghost. We let other people gossip to us, and speak to us, and say a whole manna of crazy things, and we allow those things to affect our life, and what makes it so bad, we live the lie those folk are telling. No matter what lie they tell about us, we keep listening to them, we want to know what people are thinking about us, we want to know what people say. Don’t you listen to other folk. That’s what David said listen, when you stand in God, you’re just like a tree that’s planted by the rivers of water. That means you’re replenished, and restored every day, and your leaf does not wither, the things that you do does not wither, whatever you put your hand to, whatever you lay your hand to, it will prosper. Turn to your neighbor, let me see your hands. Whatever you lay your hands to, he says when you are in God, when God has blessed you from the crown of your head to the bottom of your feet, whatever you lay your hand to, you will prosper. I stop by to tell you my brothers and sisters don’t listen to those preachers on TV who think prosperity is all about money, and when they talk about prosperity, they’re always talking about you sending them a dollar, they never talk about them prospering you, and send you a dollar. Don’t listen to folk like that. They’re pimps. Spiritual pimps. Trying to take from you. Don’t listen to folk like that. Listen to what he says. If you are living a blessed life, whatever you lay your hands to will prosper. Not only financially, no, forget that because you don’t always need financially. What God will bless you is spiritually, he’ll bless your family, it’ll be like David when he says my cup runs over, and when your cup runs over, it means God has given you more than enough. Not only for you, but for your neighbor, for your friends, for your children. Why do you think I’m standing here today? My mother and father were blessed. They were like a tree planted beside the river of water, and they were prosperous. How do you know that reverend? Because everything I put my hand to has been blessed. Not because of me but my grandma prayed, my grandpa prayed, my momma prayed, my daddy prayed. Is there anybody here that understands that you’re blessed this morning, and whatever you touch, whatever you look at, whatever you want to be a part of, it will be blessed. What does it mean to be blessed? It will be successful. How many of you want to be successful? Maybe you’re here this morning, and you want to learn how to live the blessed life. The sad thing in the church is that there’s an altar call given, and most folk don’t get up and come. One of the reasons I’m so blessed is because every time when I was coming along, getting into ministry even as a preacher, when God gave an altar call, I would get up and go. It’s not showing off, it’s saying to folk I don’t care what you think about me, I heard something today that I need. Maybe you’re where I am. I’m 71 years old, and I’m almost out of here, but I’m not sad about that. My wife almost lost me 6 months ago, but I’m not sad about that. I know that my redeemer lives, and He’s going to come and get me, so I’m not worrying about. I want to live this life blessing you. I want you to be prosperous because you’ve been a part of this church. I want you to succeed at whatever it is that trying to do. Let me say something to you old folk. Stop sitting down and doing nothing. You’ve got a whole new life to live. God has a whole lot more for you, even though you think you are old. You ever hear people say I can’t wait till I retire. Yeah, you’re going to retire and die. You better get up off of that lazy seat, and come and do something. I want to pray for you this morning if you’re saying reverend, I would like to live the blessed life. I want God to bless me from the crown of my head to the bottom of my feet. I ask you to get up and come from where you are, and just say I need that. God spoke to me this morning. I need the blessed life. Come on y’all. If God is speaking to you, come. I need the blessed life, I need to be blessed. Not that superficial blessing. You know most people want to be blessed by hitting the number. That’s why you ain’t got no blessings. When you hit the number, the Lord is blessing me. Or when you go to the store, and somebody gives them extra change, they say I was blessed, no you’re a thief, that’s what you are. Lord, I really want to be a blessing. Listen, if you don’t want it for yourself, you ought to want it for your children. I’m just amazed at folk who don’t want to see their children living better off than they are living. Our mothers and fathers prayer, my grandparents prayers. When you see me in this 3 piece suit, it’s because my grandmother, and my grandfather prayed. God’s got a blessing for you. I want to pastor a congregation of people who are blessed. I want to be with people who want to be blessed, who are seeking something from God. Anybody here tired of not getting what God has for you? Lord I want it. Let us pray. Father, we pray right now, we want to live the blessed life. The enemy may attack us because we don’t want to sit with him, we don’t want to walk with him, and we don’t want to stand with him, even if it’s members of our family, we want to get up, and move to the other room. If they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do Lord, we’re going to still love them anyway, but we’re not going to stand in the same path with them, we’re not going to acknowledge that that path is good, we’re not going to say that they’re doing a good thing. God help us. We want to prosper, we want our soul to prosper. We want to prosper in blessing other people’s lives, we want to prosper by being a blessing to others, a blessing to the congregation, a blessing to the work of God. Lord do it, and we will give you the glory, honor and praise. Give us a delight and joy for your word, help us to think about your word, so we don’t have to be taught by others, but be taught by the Holy Spirit as you promised. You do it Lord, and we will give you the glory, honor and praise. We praise you for it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Written by Rev. Edward M. Bailey (My pastor). Please tell me at least one thing you took from today’s sermon.
