Bless The Lord

Theme: A Song of Praise

Scripture: Psalm 103

Objectives: (From the D6 Fusion Sunday School Lesson book)

Know: God deserves our continuous praise for all He does for us.

Think: Always be mindful of the blessings of God in my life.

Do: Praise God daily for the many blessing He gives.

B1 This deals with a lot of God’s attributes.

B2 Psalm 103:1-2,

C1 Introduction of David’s song

C2 Praising God

C3 Bless

D1 The Hebrew word is בָּרַךְ bârak (baw rhack).

D2 It means

E1 The greater to the lesser: a boon, blessing, etc. It is to confer something good on or to someone (source).

E2 The lesser to the greater: kneel, praise, etc. It is to glorify and to regard as sacred (source).

D3 Uses

E1 Genesis 1:22 (MEV) Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

E2 Psalm 16:7 (MEV) I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my affections also instruct me in the night seasons.

E3 Psalm 10:3 (MEV) For the wicked boasts of his soul’s desire; he blesses the greedy and despises the Lord.

C4 All that is within me probably signifies the difference between mere outward worship and inward worship. Mark 7:6 (MEV) He answered, “Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

B3 Psalm 103:3-5, Some benefits

C1 Forgives all

D1 What did the Psalmist know that many of his contemporaries did not? Hebrews 10:4 CSB - For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

D2 Hebrews 10:10 CSB - By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

C2 Heals all. Is this physical or spiritual or both?

C3 Redeems life from destruction.

D1 What destruction is he referring to?

D2 The word for redeems is גָּאַל gâʼal and refers to kinsman redeemer.

D3 What does this remind you of? Compare: Ruth 4:13-14 and Isaiah 44:6 (MEV) Thus says the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; besides Me there is no God.

C4 Crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

D1 It is understood that the crown is woven with lovingkindness and compassion. (Source)

D2 Matthew Henry comments: and what greater dignity is a poor soul capable of than to be advanced into the love and favour of God? (Source)

C5 Satisfies our mouths which renews our youth

D1 Is there anything that is more satisfying than God’s blessings?

D2 What blessing has He given you?

D3 1 Timothy 6:17 (MEV) Command those who are rich in this world that they not be conceited, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who richly gives us all things to enjoy.

B4 Psalm 103:6-8,

C1 Name one blessing from these verses that you have experienced.

C2 What is the balance between God’s justice (judgment) and mercy?

B5 Psalm 103:9-12,

C1 Has God ever been angry at you? How did you respond?

C2 Why is God’s mercy extended to those who fear Him?

C3 Is this an illustration of God’s mercy?

D1 A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. "But I don't ask for justice, the mother explained. "I plead for mercy. "But your son does not deserve mercy, Napoleon replied. "Sir, the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for. "Well, then, the emperor said, "I will have mercy. And he spared the woman's son. (Source)

D2 Or can God extend mercy because justice and God’s conditions were met?

E1 Hebrews 9:26 (MEV) For then He would have had to suffer repeatedly since the world was created, but now He has appeared once at the end of the ages to put away sin by sacrificing Himself.

E2 Old Testament: Exodus 20:6 NKJV - but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

F1 All are required to love God and keep His law. If a person does love God, they will want to keep the law.

F2 No one can do this: Romans 3:20 NKJV - Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin.

E3 New Testament:

F1 2 Thessalonians 1:8 NKJV - in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

F2 1 Peter 4:17 NKJV - For the time [has come] for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if [it begins] with us first, what will [be] the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

F3 Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV - For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

D3 Let’s say that when I was 10 years old, I was throwing rocks. Not paying attention, I hit my dad in the forehead. He has an injury that requires suturing. Someone has to pay. After confessing and acknowledging that I did it, I was stupid, and I was not paying attention, he can do a number of things. He can say, “Ok, I know you learned your lesson,” thus, showing mercy, but he pays the doctor’s bills. He might say though, “I forgive you, but you must do extra chores to pay for the doctor’s bills.” In the latter, I pay. Regarding sin, either I pay (hell) or God pays:

E1 1 Peter 1:18-19 CSB - For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.

E2 Ephesians 2:8-9 CSB - For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

B6 Psalm 103:13-14,

C1 What does this teach us about fathers?

C2 How does God pity (show compassion to) us?

B7 Psalm 103:15-18,

C1 How long is life? If short or long, how should we prioritize? Isaiah 55:6 NKJV - Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

C2 Explain the difference between God’s rules in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

B8 Psalm 103:19-22,

C1 Where is God’s throne?

C2 What is the extent of God’s kingdom?

C3 Why don’t we see God’s rule on earth today?

B9 Questions

C1 How do we continually praise God?

C2 Is praising God only verbal or are there other ways?

C3 How can we remind ourselves of God’s blessings?

C4 How can we praise God in difficulties?

B10 Next week:

C1 When under attack

C2 Theme: A song for justice

C3 Scripture: Psalm 109

Purpose For Living

There has been an increase in suicides. Life seems hopeless for many. I thought I would write an article on why we exist, and what is our purpose.

Introduction

Consider this insight from Ben Shapiro:

In other words, people need meaning and purpose in life. Our focus on materialism from both the political right and left — on income inequality and intersectional victimhood from the left, and on tribal affinity and economic deregulation from the right — ignores the key problem: Americans, particularly young Americans, increasingly don’t feel that their lives have purpose. This isn’t a problem that can be cured by redistributing Xboxes. This is a problem of the soul. (Source).

He writes about the skyrocketing levels of suicide in the USA:

According to the Centers for Disease Control, youth suicide is in the midst of a precipitous and frightening rise. Between 2006 and 2016, suicides by white children between ages 10 and 17 skyrocketed 70%; while black children are less likely than white children to kill themselves, their suicide rate also jumped 77%. And as The Blaze points out, CNN reported last year that “the suicide rate among girls between the ages of 15 and 19 rose to a 40-year high in 2015.”

It’s not just young people. According to Tom Simon, a CDC report author, “We know that overall in the US, we’re seeing increases in suicide rates across all age groups.” As of 2016, suicide levels were at 30-year highs.

What Is Our Purpose in Life?

B1 For management

C1 God wanted a beautiful earth.

C2 He wanted to delegate something to maintain it.

C3 God created Adam and Eve to be those maintainers.

C4 God created them with a reasonable soul (ability to reason and learn) and the communicable attributes of God in order to accomplish this.

D1 Genesis 5:1 CSB - This is the document containing the family records of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

D2 Psalm 8:6-8 CSB - You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas.

C5 Genesis 1:26 CSB - Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth."

C6 Genesis 2:15 CSB - The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

B2 For fellowship

C1 1 John 1:3 CSB - what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

C2 Fellowship is meeting together to talk and enjoy life together, having a common cause and purpose.

C3 The Greek word for fellowship here is κοινωνία koinōnia. It means having beliefs in common, fellowship, participation. (Source)

C4 1 Corinthians 1:9 CSB - God is faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

C5 Philippians 2:1 CSB - If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy.

B3 To glorify God

C1 By our thoughts, desires, words, and deeds reflecting the image of God. He is holy, loving, just, etc., so also He wants us to be this.

C2 Ephesians 4:22-24 CSB - to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. Some examples are found in Ephesians 4:25-32.

C3 Romans 1:21 CSB - For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. This passage teaches that there is a common failure.

D1 Do not glorify God.

D2 Are not thankful.

C4 Glorifying by praising in song: Romans 15:9 CSB - and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praise to your name.

C5 Telling God thank you glorifies Him: Psalm 50:23 CSB - "Whoever sacrifices a thank offering honors me, and whoever orders his conduct, I will show him the salvation of God."

C6 Humbling ourselves glorifies God: Psalm 86:9 CSB - All the nations you have made will come and bow down before you, Lord, and will honor your name.

C7 Obeying God’s rules glorifies Him, but disobedience is proof of NOT glorifying Him: 2 Timothy 3:2 CSB - For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy.

C8 Believing God glorifies Him:

D1 Did NOT believe: Deuteronomy 9:23 CSB - "When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, he said, 'Go up and possess the land I have given you'; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not believe or obey him.

D2 Did believe:

E1 John 6:69 CSB - "We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

E2 John 11:27 CSB - "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world."

E3 Hebrews 11:6 CSB - Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

B4 For good works

C1 Matthew 5:16 CSB - "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

C2 Ephesians 2:10 CSB - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

C3 Easton’s gives the following three points:

1. Works are "good" only when,
   1. they spring from the principle of love to God. The moral character of an act is determined by the moral principle that prompts it. Faith and love in the heart are the essential elements of all true obedience. Hence good works only spring from a believing heart, can only be wrought by one reconciled to God (Ephesians 2:10; James 2:18:22).
   2. Good works have the glory of God as their object; and
   3. they have the revealed will of God as their only rule (Deuteronomy 12:32; Revelation 22:18,19).
2. Good works are an expression of gratitude in the believer's heart (John 14:15,23; Galatians 5:6). They are the fruits of the Spirit (Titus 2:10-12), and thus spring from grace, which they illustrate and strengthen in the heart.
3. Good works of the most sincere believers are all imperfect, yet like their persons they are accepted through the mediation of Jesus Christ (Colossians 3:17), and so are rewarded; they have no merit intrinsically, but are rewarded wholly of grace.

What Happened to Our Purpose?

B1 Rebellion, Disobedience, and Selfishness

C1 Rebellion and disobedience

D1 Seen in all humans in some way at some time.

D2 Breaking God’s laws

E1 Obedience to God’s laws is required in thoughts, desires, words, and deeds.

F1 The Lord Jesus stated that not committing adultery in the flesh is not good enough, one must also not commit adultery in our thoughts: Matthew 5:27-28 NIV - You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

F2 Lust starts with the heart, so does covetousness and every other sin.

G1 1 John 2:16 NKJV - For all that [is] in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.

G2 James 1:13-15 NKJV - Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

E2 The Lord Jesus is just the opposite: Hebrews 4:15 NKJV - For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all [points] tempted as [we are, yet] without sin.

D3 Examples

E1 Israel: 1 Samuel 12:14-15 NKJV - If you fear the LORD and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the LORD your God. "However, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as [it was] against your fathers.

E2 Family: Matthew 10:21 NLT - A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. Compare Micah 7:6.

E3 All people:

F1 1 Timothy 1:9 NIV - We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers.

F2 Romans 3:23 NIV - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

E4 Romans 5:19 NKJV - For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.

C2 Selfishness

D1 Seen in all people some place some time.

D2 Examples:

E1 2 Timothy 3:2-5 CSB - For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.

E2 Philippians 2:21 CSB - all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

F1 Compare God’s way: Matthew 16:24 CSB - Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

F2 1 Corinthians 10:24 CSB - No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.

B2 Separated

C1 Because of sin

D1 Romans 8:7 NIV - The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.

D2 Colossians 1:21 NLT - This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

C2 From God

D1 Ephesians 2:12 RSV - remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

D2 Ephesians 4:18 NIV - They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

D3 God wants reconciliation

E1 Romans 5:10 NIV - For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

E2 2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV - We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

How to Restore Purpose in Living

B1 Are You a Good Person?

B2 Everyone has sinned, broken God’s laws: Romans 3:23 NKJV - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

B3 God’s punishment for sin is death and suffering in hell forever.

C1 Death: Romans 6:23 NKJV - For the wages of sin [is] death, but the gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

C2 Forever: Revelation 20:12-15 KJV - And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

B4 The sinner must be punished: Isaiah 13:11 NKJV - I will punish the world for [its] evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

B5 The Lord Jesus died. He bore the punishment for sins: 1 Peter 2:24 NKJV - who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.

B6 We need to repent and believe in Jesus Christ

C1 Repent: Mark 1:15 NKJV - and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.

C2 Believe: John 6:47 (Pickering) Most assuredly I say to you: the one believing into me has eternal life.

B7 Now we live to do His will:

C1 Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV - Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

C2 Matthew 5:16 NIV - In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Copyright © 2018 by Len Gane All rights reserved.