The Essence Of A Blessed Life

The meaning of "seeing good days" includes the joy of the Lord and knowing each day is an adventure.The secret of a blessed life is seeking peace and living in the presence of the Lord.


Scripture: 1 Peter 3:9

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. Always nice to be put on the air with a friendly voice. I appreciate my friends at the transmitters, bless your heart. And hello radio friends. How in the world are you? You doin’ all right? I am so glad to be back with you. This is your good friend, Bob Cook. And I just enjoy so much being with you as we look at the Word of God.

1 Peter 3 is the passage. And if you’ve been listening, you know that the last time we got together we were asking the question, ‘What really constitutes a life of blessing’? Well according to Simon Peter, it has to do with loving life and seeing good days. You are called to a blessing, part of God’s call to you is to be blessed and be a blessing. So, what’s the essence of it? Well the first that we talked about for a while was loving life. And that doesn’t mean that everything is going to be perfect all the time. It means that you’re going to be living it in the joy of the Lord.

The prophet says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Jesus said. “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” And Peter said in an earlier passage, in 1 Peter here, “Whom having not seen, ye love. In whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.” Joy unspeakable, and full of glory. That is the essence of blessing to, to love life; just to be so glad you’re alive to serve God, and to enjoy His presence.

That’s, that’s the essence of blessing. Now what else? Well he said, “See good days, see good days.” Oh I came home last night and I thought to myself, “Ah this has been some day.” Well it had been. I had a meeting that lasted I think about 6 hours. Very important, very important meeting, and lot of things were considered thoughtfully in the group that I was interacting with. And then when I got home, there were two or three other matters that were very heavy to take care of. And I was on the phone a long time, and all of that.

And, and so when I finished up along about a quarter after twelve, I, you know I said to Coreen, I said, “Ohh, this has been some day!” But even as I said it, I have to tell you, even as I said that… you know I was tired, I was wrung out, and I said, “Mmm, oh, this has been some day!” Even as I said it, I felt in my heart the joy of the Lord because I knew that I had done my best as unto the Lord Jesus, my Lord and my savior, and it was all right .You know, you have that sense of, “Well it’s all right, it’s okay, it’s good.” You know what I am talking about?

Now he says, “You can see good days.” The very, the very essence of blessing is having your day be an adventure with God. I have often told you what Dr. Mann who used to be president of Eastern Nazarene College would pray in the morning. “Good morning, Lord. What are you up to today? Count me in on it. Amen.” That was, was his prayer. What are you up to today? Count me in on it. An adventure with God.

Look, when you awaken any given day, you don’t know what lies before you. You can’t see around the corner of the turning of life’s road. No one of us can. But God is all ready there as Francis Shaeffer said in his great book, “He’s the God who is there.” He’s already there around the corner. He’s already there at the moment of crisis. He’s already there when something happens that people call it accident. There are no accidents with God. He’s already there when something happens that threatens to break your heart. God is, is there. He’s still on the throne. He’s, he’s the one that knows it all, he’s the one who has planned all — all that is — of your life, from all eternity.

God is such a great God, that He can run the universe and still be aware of your destiny as one individual human being. “He knoweth the way that I take,” said Job, “and when He hath tried me, I should come forth as gold.” Jesus said that God is so great that He has assigned a separate number to every one of your empty hair follicles. “The hairs of your head are all numbered,” said He. Not just counted. There is a separate number in God’s computer for even the smallest details of your life. Can you take that in?

God is a great God. And yet He’s infinitely, tenderly, interested in you. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” And the quality of everlasting life is like having a slice of deity put into the mix of your soul. And so, every Christian has this new nature; it coexists while we’re still alive on this Earth, with the old nature. But you’ve got this new nature. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.”

God has given you a portion of Himself, with which, to live. The joy of the Lord is your strength. See, now all of that is part of the mix, in our concept of good days. It doesn’t mean that everything’s going to happen the way I want it to. Life just isn’t that way. It doesn’t mean that I won’t have some problems, or trials. It doesn’t mean that there may be things that’ll make my tears to fall, or my heart to ache. No, it does mean that every day is an adventure with God because He is there with me and He’s planned it all out.

“When He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before.” Jesus said, when He spoke of His relationship with His disciples, that’s, includes you, and includes me. Can you take that all in? See, good days, the essence of blessing is that you love to be alive because you’re living it with Jesus. Christ in you, the hope of glory, “It is not that ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you,” Jesus said. “It is God,” Paul said to the Philippians, “it is God that worketh in you the, to will, and to do.” ‘To will’ takes care of ‘the want to’, the motivation; and ‘to do’, that takes care of the actual living process.

So God is working, and living, in you, and walking with you. And so you can be thrilled to be alive any given day, with Him. Then as a result, you’re gonna say, “These are good days because I’m living them with Jesus, and for His glory.” Isn’t that good? Now how do you achieve this? That’s the next question How do you achieve this blessed life? You want to think about that for a minute. Now he said, for, because, because he that will love life and see good days, how do you achieve it.

Well interestingly enough he starts with what we say: “Let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips, that they speak no guile,” that’s the first thing. Second, “let him eschew,” — that means hate it, dislike it, turn away from it — “eschew evil and do good,” that’s the second thing. “Let him seek peace and pursue it,” that’s the next thing. And then, “Let him live, as in the presence, the very presence of the Lord — ‘the eyes of the Lord, over the righteous’ — and let him depend in the next place, let him depend upon the reality, of answered prayer.”

And finally he winds it up and says, you’d better fear God, because He’s against people that do evil. But what is the essence then of blessing? The essence of blessing is that you love to be alive because you’re living it with God. You have good days because every day is an adventure with your Lord. Then how do you achieve it? All right let’s, let’s talk about that. He says, if you want this, if you want to live your life with God, and have good days because God is living them with you and through you, then he says, “Refrain your tongue from evil.” Why? “Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”

And if you’re going to manage your speech, that means that you first have to manage, or let God manage, your heart. Oh this gets down where I live now, you see. Because if, if I’m going to seek to be a blessing, I have to be sure that my heart is right with God and with people, so that what I say is going to reflect His truth and His love. That’s what Peter is really saying to you, “Let him refrain his tongue from evil.”

That goes back you see to, to verse 9: “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing.” You have plenty of opposition, as a Christian. There’s no lack of opposition from the, from the world around you. So the temptation is to talk back. It’s… Have you ever seen two little boys arguing and fighting? Maybe some of you fellows can think back to when you were maybe eight or nine, or something like that. And you were standing outside of the house, and the neighbor boy was talking with you. And you had some kind of a boyish disagreement, and you would say, “Oh yeah?” And he’d say, “Oh yeah.” And you’d say, “So’s your old man.” And he’d say, “So’s your old man.”

And you’d go back and forth with epithets — the worst that you can think of as little boys, not having learned all the dirty language of the world. But you, you did the best you could to tell him off. And finally if it, if it, if the argument lasted long enough, you actually engaged in a few fisticuffs. And you either came into the house crying, or he did, depending on which one of you was the better, (Laughs) was the better fighter. Do you remember that at all? I suppose all of you fellows that listen to me, are all always good little boys and you never got into any scrapes, right? (Laughs) Oh tell me about it.

Now see, that’s human nature. You talk back to me, I’ll talk back to you, “Oh yeah?” “Oh yeah.” “You did.” “I did.” “You didn’t.” “I didn’t.” Don’t talk back. You don’t have to talk back, said Peter. Well now, he said, “Let him refrain his tongue from evil.” I have to get busy about disciplining myself as to what I say. And that immediately drives me to my knees, because what I say comes instinctively out of my heart — how I really I am, inside. Did you have a, ever have an argument with your spouse, and one of you, either one of you had, have, had said, “Oh I, I didn’t mean that.” What was the reply? “You must have meant it, ‘cause you said it, didn’t you?” Yeah? (Laughs) That sound familiar?

Oh you see, all of us, all of us have similar circumstances because we’re all human beings. And if you identify with anything, I say it’s because we’ve all been there. So you must’ve meant it, you said it. See, what I have to do is to start to discipline my heart. “Under God,” Paul said, “I keep my body under, I discipline it, I buffet it, lest that after I’ve preached to others, I myself should be a castaway, should be disapproved.” So, there’s the first thing.

How do you achieve this blessed life? Work on the heart that produces the words you say. Down in your heart if the love of God is supreme, and the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from every known sin… You’re not fighting against God on anything. You’ll find that your speaking is different. It has a different approach because it’s coming from the heart of God. “It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father.” Well listen, we’ve got to say a few more things about this, and we will get back to it the next time we get together. All right?

Dear Father today, oh we may be so full of the Spirit of God, that what we say reflects Thy presence and Thy love. In Jesus name I ask this. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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