August 31, Psalms of Healing
Sermon Title: To Your Good Health
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INTRODUCTION:
Hearing1
Dewey goes to the local revival
and listens to the preacher. After a while the preacher asks anyone with needs
to be prayed over to come forward to the front at the altar.
Dewey gets in line, and when it's
his turn the preacher asks: "Dewey, what do you want me to pray about for
you?"
Dewey replies: "Preacher, I
need you to pray for my hearing."
The preacher puts one finger in
Dewey's ear, and he places the other hand on top of Dewey’s head and prays and
prays.
After a few minutes, the preacher
removes his hands, stands back and asks: "Dewey, how is your hearing
now?"
Dewey says, ”I don't know,
Reverend, it ain't until next Wednesday."
I.
The
preacher was so busy that he did not take the time to understand what Dewey
really needed.
A.
Life
may be busy, but it can be too busy.
B.
Business
may not allow you enough time to be blest by the content of this psalm.
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MAIN BODY
I.
Satan’s
Convention2
Satan called a worldwide
convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said “We can’t keep
the Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their
Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from conservative values.
“But we can do something else. We
can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship in Christ. If they
gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.
So let them go to church, let them
have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time so they can’t gain
that experience in Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels.
Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital
connection throughout their day!”
“How shall we do this?” shouted
his angels.
“Keep them busy in the
nonessentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds,” he
answered.
“Tempt them to spend, spend,
spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Convince the wives to go to work for long
hours and the husbands to work six or seven days a week, ten to 12 hours a day,
so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their
children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from
the pressures of work.
“Overstimulate their minds so that
they cannot hear that small, still voice. Entice them to play the radio or
cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, VCR, DVDs, CDs and their
PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and
restaurant in the world plays non-biblical, contradictory music constantly.
This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.
“Fill their coffee tables with
magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day.
Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk
mail, sweepstakes, mail-order catalog and every kind of newsletter and
promotional offering free products, services and false hopes.
“Even in their recreation let them
be excessive. Have them return from the recreation exhausted, disquieted and
unprepared for the coming week. Don’t let them go out to nature to reflect on
God’s wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and
movies instead.
“And when they meet for spiritual
fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with
troubled consciences and unsettled emotions.
“Let them be involved in
soul-winning, but crowd their lives with so many causes that they have no time
to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength,
sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause.”
It was quite a convention in the
end. The evil angels went to their assignments, causing Christians everywhere
to get busy, busy, busy and rush here and there.
A.
Has
the devil been successful in his scheme?
B.
You
be the judge.
1.
Satan’s
goal is to take our minds away from Christ and steer us toward the cares of the
world.
2.
God
wants us to enjoy life, but he must be first.
3.
If
we are too busy for God, then we are too busy!
C.
Are
we too busy to echo the opening phrase of the psalm?
1Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.
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II.
If
we are too busy how are we going to recognize and benefit from the benefits
that the psalmist says God is sharing.
2Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and do not forget all his
benefits—
A.
3who forgives all your iniquity,
1.
Who
forgives all your sins.
2.
You
may illustrate the forgiveness with the story of the woman taken in adultery.
a.
Neither
do I condemn you.
b.
Go
and sin no more.
3.
God
not only forgives, he also forgets, or blots out all our confessed
transgressions.
12as far as the east is from the
west,
so far he removes our
transgressions from us.
a.
How
far is it from east to west?
b.
You
cannot measure the distance because it is infinity.
c.
That’s
a far piece.
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B.
who
heals all your diseases,
1.
God
gave to Israel some very precise rules and regulations that would allow them to
avoid the diseases of their contemporaries.
a.
He
gave them dietary rules.
b.
He
gave them rules for planting, harvesting, and crop rotation.
2.
Now
we have a marvelous health care system.
a.
It
works pretty good.
b.
We
have some of the benefits of following the simple plan of God, but in this day
and age, it is necessary to take a more proactive part in our own health care.
Prescription Change3
An old man strode in to his
doctors office and said, "Doc, my druggist said to tell you to change my
prescription and to check the prescription you've been giving to Mrs.
Smith."
"Oh, he did, did he?"
the doctor shot back. "And since when does a druggist second guess a
doctor's orders?"
The old man says, "Since he
found out I've been on birth control pills since February."
C.
4who redeems your life from the
Pit,
13As a father has compassion for his
children,
so the LORD has compassion for
those who fear him.
14For he knows how we were made;
he remembers that we are dust.
1.
Its
an old story but well worth repeating4:
A man fell into a pit and couldn't
get himself out. A subjective person came along and said, I feel for you down
there. An objective person came along and said, It's logical that someone would
fall down there. A Pharisee said, Only bad people fall into a pit. A
mathematician calculated how he fell into the pit.
A news reporter wanted an
exclusive story on his pit. A fundamentalist said, You deserve your pit. An IRS
man asked if he was paying taxes on the pit. A self-pitying person said, You
haven't seen anything until you've seen my pit. A charismatic said, Just
confess that you're not in a pit. An optimist said, Things could be worse. A
pessimist said, Things will get worse.
Jesus, seeing the man, took him by
the hand and lifted him out of the pit!
D.
who
crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
E.
5who satisfies you with good as
long as you live
F.
so
that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
1.
The
image here may be compared to a molting bird.
2.
The
bird comes out with new feathers.
3.
We
will come out with a new life.
III.
Pick
up on verses 15-18
15As for mortals, their days are
like grass;
they flourish like a flower of
the field;
16for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to
everlasting
on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to
children’s children,
18to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his
commandments.
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CONCLUSION:
I.
We
do not have a lot of time.
Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn’t famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. Capone had a lawyer nicknamed “Easy Eddie.” He was Capone’s lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie’s skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.
To show his appreciation, Capone
paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but also, Eddie got special
dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with
live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large
that it filled an entire Chicago city block.
Eddie lived the high life of the
Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around
him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son whom he loved dearly.
Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars and a good education.
Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with
organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted
his son to be a better man than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and influence,
there were two things he couldn’t give his son; he couldn’t pass on a good name
or a good example.
One day, Easy Eddie reached a
difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. He decided
he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al “Scarface” Capone,
clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To
do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost
would be great.
So, he testified.
Within the year, Easy Eddie’s life
ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago street. But in his eyes, he had
given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could
ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious
medallion and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read:
The clock of life is wound but
once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own.
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in time,
For the clock may soon be still.
A.
The
steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.
1.
It
has no beginning.
2.
It
has no end.
3.
It
is and we are the beneficiaries of all of it. It no wonder that the writer of
the psalm is full of ecstasy.
II.
The
psalm concludes with these words:
19The LORD has established his
throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20Bless the LORD, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his
bidding, obedient to his spoken
word.
21Bless the LORD, all his hosts,
his ministers that do his will.
22Bless the LORD, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul.
A.
I
will acknowledge all his benefits!
B.
I
will take time to bless the Lord!
Amen!
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