Overtaken by Blessings (If We’ll Just Count)

Preached by Pastor Kohl
November 27, 2005

Numbers 28:2, “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God..”
Introduction:
Sometimes we need to stop and take inventory of all that God has done for us. Many people don’t appreciate God because they don’t realize all He’s given them. A songwriter once wrote, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!”

1. Count Your Blessings (Material)
Have you ever gone through your house and thanked God for everything in it? Have you ever thanked God for your washer, refrigerator, hot water tank (ever taken a cold shower?!) telephone, gas, electric, roof, driveway, car?
I estimate that in my 26 years of marriage, my wife has made me 28,470 meals! She has made our bed 9,490 times. She has done 4,056 loads of laundry. This inventory makes me appreciate her more!
It’s the same with God - the more you realize He does for you, the more you will appreciate him.

2. Count Your Breaths (Physical)
The Apostle Paul once said, “He [God] giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;” (Acts 17:25).
The average human breathes 12 times per minute. That’s about 17,280 times per day, or 120,960 times per week. An 80-year-old person has breathed over half a billion times! Each one of those was a gift from God. Imagine if He decided to stop blessing you with air for just a few minutes. You’d die!
Paul went on to say, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being;” (Acts 17:28). It is because of God that you are able to live today. Have you thanked Him for this?

3. Count Your Benefits (Spiritual)
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.” (Psalm 68:19).
A benefit is something that helps or betters a person. For example: a person who belongs to a union will receive benefits that non-members of that union cannot avail themselves of.
By being a member of God’s family, there are certain benefits we have that people who are not God’s children cannot claim. Let’s look at a few of these:

A. We can understand the Scriptures.
It is difficult for unbelievers to understand the Bible. But if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, He will help you understand the wonderful Book He wrote.
Do you read God’s Holy Bible? If not, you are missing out on a benefit from God!

B. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, God’s Holy Spirit lives inside of you! He wants to help you in every situation you face, if you will let Him.

C. We have access to Heaven by prayer.
Romans 8:32 says, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
God doesn’t have to answer the prayers of unsaved people. But He has promised to answer the prayers of His children.

D. We have a Heavenly Father who cares about us.
1 Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
Psalm 35:27 says “Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.” God wants you to prosper!

E. We will live with God forever.
If you are going through a rough time in your life, remember: our future is bright and glorious.

Conclusion:
If you will count your blessings, you’ll see they far outweigh the heartaches and hardships in your life. Everyday can be Thanksgiving for the believer in Jesus!


Copyright © 2005-00Permission granted to freely copy.Scripture verses are from the King James Holy Bible

Chapel Saying of Dr. Bob Jones Sr. Part 1

Finish the job.

You can do anything you ought to do.

You can borrow rain, but you cannot borrow character.

When in doubt, play safe.

You can't do wrong and get away with it.

Jokes

This is why I left the radio station!!
Q: Bachelor Number One, how much do you make?
A: $275,000 per year.Q: And what do you do?
A: I'm a lawyer.
Q: Bachelor Number Two, how much do you make?
A: I make $300,000 a year.Q: And what do you do?
A: I'm a doctor.
Q: Bachelor Number Three, how much do you make?
A: I make $17,500 per year.
Q: And what are the call letters?

______________________________________________________________________


On a hot summer day I was sitting near
an open window sewing and keeping an
eye on my three grandsons playing outside. "Let's play cops and robbers," said Mike.
"I'll be a robber!" Terry and Melvin wanted
the same role. So they needed another
person to play. "What about Grandma?" Terry suggested. "Nah," Mike replied, "she can't run fast enough." "What can we do to make her mad?" asked
Melvin. "Old people can run real fast when
they get mad!"


____________________________________________________________________


DOG'S NOTES TO SELF:~ The garbage collector is not stealing our stuff. ~ I do not need to suddenly stand straight up when I'm lying
under the coffee table. ~ I will not roll my toys behind the fridge, behind the sofa or
under the bed. ~ I must shake the rainwater out of my fur before entering the
house. ~ I will not eat the cats' food--before they eat it or after theythrow it up. ~ I will stop trying to find the few remaining pieces of clean
carpet in the house when I am about to get sick. ~ I will not throw up in the car. ~ I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, etc. just because Ilike the way they smell. ~ "Kitty box crunchies"--although they are tasty--are not food. ~ I will not eat any more Kleenex or napkins and then redeposit
them in the backyard after processing. ~ The diaper pail is not a cookie jar. ~ I will not chew my human's toothbrush and not tell them. ~ I will not chew crayons or pens, especially not the red ones,
or my people will think I am hemorrhaging. ~ When in the car, I will not insist on having the window rolled
down when it's raining outside. ~ We do not have a doorbell. I will not bark each time I hear
one on TV. ~ I will not steal my mom's underwear and dance all over the
backyard with it. ~ The sofa is not a face towel. Neither are mom & dad's laps. ~ My head does not belong in the refrigerator. ~ I will not bite the officer's hand when he reaches in for
mom's driver's license and car registration. ~ I will not play tug-of-war with dad's underwear when he's
on the toilet. ~ I will not use "roll around in the dirt" as an option just aftergetting a bath. ~ Sticking my nose into someone's crotch is not an
acceptable way of saying hello. ~ I will not come in from outside and immediately drag my butt
across the carpet. ~ The toilet bowl is not a never-ending water supply and just
because the water is blue, it doesn't mean it is cleaner. ~ The cat is not a squeaky toy so when I play with him and he
makes that noise, it's usually not a good thing.

Wal-Mart apologizes to Muslim woman

Tue Feb 19, 11:46 PM ET

RIVERDALE, Utah - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. apologized to a Muslim woman who said she was mocked because of her face veil.
"Please don't stick me up," a cashier told the shopper on Feb. 2, according to The Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Wal-Mart apologized Monday in a letter signed by Rolando Rodriquez, a vice president and regional general manager. It was released Tuesday by the council's Nevada chapter.
"I can assure you that the associate in question was disciplined in accordance with our employment policies as a result of the situation," Rodriguez said without disclosing details.
Rodriguez said employees at the Riverdale store would undergo "sensitivity training," specifically in the Islamic faith and Muslim culture.
At Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., spokesman Phillip Keene confirmed the letter and declined further comment.
"We applaud Wal-Mart for taking appropriate action to resolve this incident," said Yasser Moten, executive director of the council's Nevada chapter. The group doesn't have an office in Utah.

Persecuting Christians in America?

Column: Randy Bright
February 14th, 2008

This week, after our pastor and two others returned from a mission trip to India, my Sunday School classmates talked about how the church was persecuted in other countries. I later spoke to one of those who had made the trip to India. Though they were not aware of it while they were in India, they learned after returning that two Christian pastors had been arrested in India for converting people to Christ and had been burned alive.
Afterwards, I got on the Internet to see if I could find any news of the execution, and while I could find none regarding that particular event, I did find many more reports of how the church, Christians and pastors are frequently targeted for persecution by Muslims, Hindus and others.
That persecution includes beatings, shootings, murder, burning of Christian’s homes and burning of churches. One report from Nigeria said that during a period of several weeks (it was unclear what year this occurred), 1,500 Christians had been killed and 173 church buildings had been destroyed.
A very recent report on the Door of Hope International website stated that in India the year 2007 had been the “most violent ever for Christians since independence.” (India gained its independence from the British in 1947.)
According to the report, records indicate that between 1950 and 1998 there had been 50 attacks on Christians. From 2001 to 2005, there was a total of about 200 attacks, and in 2006 there were 128. In 2007, the number of attacks jumped to more than 1,000.
In 2007, there was an outbreak of violence in the state of Orissa that led to the murder of at least four Christians and the burning of 730 homes and 95 churches. In addition to the four known murders, a number of other Christians were missing and presumed dead.
The attacks were carried out by Hindu extremists, and despite the fact that there are laws to protect Christians, authorities ignored it.
Just as Muslims seek to impose Islamic law over secular law, Hindu extremists seek to do a similar thing with their ideology. According to the same Door of Home International website, in another event in 2002, Hindus killed around 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, as pro-Hindu government officials did nothing to stop them.
Persecution against Christians is going on in many other countries around the world: Somalia, Turkey, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Libya, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Eritrea, just to name a few.
The question is, when will this kind of persecution come to America, and are American Christians ready to endure the type of persecution that others around the world have been enduring for many years?
I recall that for at least twenty years before the 9/11 attack, experts had been saying that there was no question if there would be a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, only a question ofwhen. And when it happened, we were surprised!
We need only look at Europe as a model to see that Islam is taking over without ever firing a shot or burning a church. They have been able to do so because the Europeans’ lost their faith and turned their backs on God. Eventually all of Europe will fall under Islamic rule, and it is then that the bloodbath will begin to eliminate anyone who isn’t a Muslim. A similar thing may happen in India and other Asian countries as Hindus impose their rule on the people of those questions.
We know from research that the United States is slowly losing interest in its traditional faith and Judeo-Christian values. With the mantra of tolerance (for any religion but Christianity) that we hear from “enlightened” secular people, perhaps it won’t be too much longer before the homes and churches of Christians in the United States are burned while an unsympathetic government looks on.
Ridiculous? Perhaps. But then 50 years ago we thought that the idea that abortion would be legal was ridiculous. But over 50 million unborn children have been murdered under the protection of the government. We never thought that prayer would be taken out of school, but 40 years later our schools have become a dangerous place for children, both culturally and physically. We never thought euthanasia would come, but in a few states it is either legal or will be soon. We thought terrorism would never come to America, but it did.
So why should we think that the idea that Christians would be persecuted in America is ridiculous? Something to think about while there is still time to do something about it.

©2008 Randy W. Bright
Randy W. Bright, AIA, NCARB, is an architect who specializes in church and church-related projects. You may contact him at 918-664-7957, rwbarch@aol.com or www.churcharchitect.net.

Your Cell Phone or Your Bible?

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our mobile phone?
*What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
*What if we flipped through it several times a day?
*What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
*What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
*What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?
*What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
*What if we used it when we traveled?
*What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go “hmm…where is my Bible?” Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our mobile phone, we don’t have to worry about our Bible being disconnected. Makes you stop and think “where are my priorities? And… no dropped calls!

A Joke

If you' ve ever worked for a boss that reacts before thinking things throught, you will love this...!
A large company, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. This new boos was determined to rid the company of all slackers. On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning on a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He walked up to the guy leaning against the wall and asked, "How much money do you make a week?'

A liitle suprised, the young fellow looked at him and replied, "I make $300 a week. Why?"

The CEO then handed the guy $1,200 in cash and screamed, "Here's four weeks' pay, now GET OUT and don't come back!"

Feeling pretty good about himself, the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does any want to tell me what that goof- off did here?"

From across the room came a voice....


" Pizza delivery guy from Domino's"

What Doctors can do --

What Doctors can do --
Japanese doctor says, "Medicine in my country is so advanced that wecan take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have himout looking for work in six weeks.

"A German doctor says, "That is nothing. We can take a lungout of one person, put it in another, and have him outlooking for work in four weeks.

"A British doctor says, "In my country medicine is soadvanced that we can take half a heart out of one person,put it in another, and have both of them out looking forwork in two weeks.

"The American doctor, not to be outdone, interjected, "Youguys are way behind. We are about to take a woman with nobrains, put her in the White House, and then half thecountry will be out looking for work in one week

More Thought-provoking Questions

Excerpt from

You're Born An Original; Don't Die a Copy

Part 2

Does failure discourage or bring determination?

Do you exist, or do you live?

Is God your hope, or your excuse?

What dominates your day?

How many people have made you homesick to know God?

Is your mission on earth finished?

How many happy selfish people do you know?

"Is there anything too hard for the Lord?" ( Gen. 18:14)

If you were arrested for being kind, would there be enought evidence to convict you?

What is more miserable than being out of God's will?

Think About It

Excerpt from

You're Born An Original; Don't Die a Copy

Part 1

"Who said it?" is an important question to ask of everything we believe.

Do you make promises or commitments?

Does God seem far away? If so. guess who moved.

Do you have a strong will or a strong won't?

What is it like to be my friend?

What is it like to work with me?

Are you making a living or a life?

If the future generations were dependent on you for spiritual knowledge, how much would thet receive?

Do you risk enought to exercise your faith in God?

Do you say "our Father' on Sunday and then act like an prphan the rest of the week?

Are you willing to preach what you practice?