The Blessed Life - Part 2

Continuing Pastor Kyle message, a blessed life understands the power of the crowd and is careful who they allow into their inner circle. The famous statement by Rodney King is :“Why can’t we all just get along?” Jesus explains why in John 3:18-20, “this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” It is false to believe that the nature of mankind is basically good, because of the sin nature of the flesh desires.

Matthew 12:30 “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”

It is also wrong to think, “live and let live” or “to each their own” or “what’s right for me may not be right for you” because we are not in the place of the Sovereign Creator God who sets the standards of life and living, which we all are accountable to. Two lies that will come back to bite us are (1) How other people act does not affect me and (2) They are not attacking or harming me. They truth is “yet”. We can pretend all we want to, but you are either on the “straight and narrow” or you are on the wide road to destruction – Matthew 7:13. There is no gray area in between.

John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

A blessed life bears fruits in season. There is a pattern of godly prosperity. The greatest sin is the temptation of “more”, which produces “greed’. There is nothing wrong with getting “more”, but increase shall never be expected and unhealthily pursued. “More” is not all the time nor the norm of daily life; it comes in season. The sin of greed must be avoided. The “good” life is a godly and fruitful life for the glory of the Lord.

Matthew 13:23 “He who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

A blessed life takes hard work and a lot more time than you think. Just as threshing is necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff, our lives need a good threshing to get to the essential nutritious seed of blessed living. Blessing requires threshing.  Lastly, a blessed life values the work God does in us as much as the result God produces through us. Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” – the fulfillment of life this side of heaven.

If you are not seeing any fruit in your life, then you should ask if you are tapped into the source of living water. Blessings come from Jesus Christ. God (our Maker) created us to work beside Him and through Him for the advancement of the kingdom of Heaven. We want to see results; that’s natural. Be drawn to God’s purposes and values, the work through the Lord, aligned with His holy Word, Will and Way. 

In Christ, Brian