LỰA CHỌN PHƯỚC TRONG CHÚA 1

Kinh thánh: Thi thiên 34: 1-10

Câu gốc: CÔ-LÔ-SE 3: 1 – Vậy nếu anh em được sống lại với Đấng Christ, hãy tìm các sự ở trên trời, là nơi Đấng Christ ngồi bên hữu Đức Chúa Trời.

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SELECTING BLESSINGS FROM GOD 1

Bible: Psalm 34: 1-10

Main verse: COLOSSIANS 3: 1 – If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

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– Mankind is always seeking fortune and wants to be lucky all the time, and Christians are no exception. We all want to be blessed by God.

– Happily to know, God also wants to bless us abundantly because of His love for all mankind and especially for His children on earth, as Jacob, one of our ancestors in faith, said to Joseph:

GENESIS 49: 25 – And by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above and blessings of the deep that lies beneath.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 49: 25 – Đấng toàn năng sẽ ban phước cho con, tức là phước lành ở chốn trời cao xuống, cùng phước lành ở nơi vực rộng thẳm lên.

– Because our God never changes, so as He blessed Joseph for being faithful to Him, He will also bless us the same when we hold our faith steady in Him and lovely fear Him.

PSALM 103: 11 – For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him

THI THIÊN 103: 11 – Vì hễ các từng trời cao trên đất bao nhiêu, thì sự nhân từ Ngài càng lớn cho kẻ nào kính sợ Ngài bấy nhiêu.

– As we want to be blessed by God, we should know that there are two kinds of blessings. One is spiritual and one is physical. As we have studied many aspects of our spiritual lives and blessings, this time we will focus first on physical blessings from God. We know that this kind of blessing is interesting to many people, and Christians are no exception.

– According to the Bible, physical blessings from God are relating to health, safety, wealth and success. This is the kind of blessings that most people focus on, including Christians, more than the spiritual blessings.

– One of the reasons that people like this kind of blessing is because they can touch them, hold them, feel them with their senses more than the spiritual ones. Therefore many Christians, when they mentioned about blessings, they often meant the physical ones. But we should be careful because God wants us selecting His blessings differently.

MATTHEW 6: 33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

MA-THI-Ơ 6: 33 – Nhưng trước hết, hãy tìm kiếm nước Đức Chúa Trời và sự công bình của Ngài, thì Ngài sẽ cho thêm các ngươi mọi điều ấy nữa.

– In His command, the Lord Jesus wanted us to seek spiritual blessings first, and the foremost one is eternal life in God, then we will be blessed with the rest of them, both in spiritual and physical.

– Regretfully, many Christians have misunderstood the meaning of the above command. They thought that Jesus only wanted them to seek spiritual blessings and neglecting the physical ones. With that kind of misunderstanding, many Christians have refused to live a godly life in order to achieve earthly fortune and wealth.

– Also with this kind of misunderstanding, those Christians were easily fallen to deceitful schemes of some preachers who told them of how to receive God’s blessings by donating money to their personal coffers. We have seen some of those preachers on TV around the world. They have been enriched themselves by preying on Christians who lacked sufficient knowledge of Scriptures.

– There has been warning in the Bible for those kind of preachers from the time of the Apostles, but many Christians have not been aware of that:

1TIMOTHY 6: 3-5 – If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.

1TI-MÔ-THÊ 6: 3-5 – Ví thử có người dạy dỗ đạo khác, không theo lời có ích của Đức Chúa Jêsus Christ chúng ta và đạo lý theo sự tôn kính, thì người đó là lên mình kiêu ngạo, không biết chi hết; nhưng có bịnh hay gạn hỏi, cãi lẫy, bởi đó sanh sự ghen ghét, tranh cạnh, gièm chê, nghi ngờ xấu xa, cùng những lời cãi lẽ hư không của kẻ có lòng hư xấu, thiếu mất lẽ thật, coi sự tôn kính như là nguồn lợi vậy. Những kẻ như vậy con phải tránh xa họ đi.

– On the other hand, some Christians, as they were seeking spiritual blessings from God, thought highly of themselves because of that and regarded others, especially those who toiled for earthly wealth, as unworthy brethren in faith. It is one of the reasons that divided the church and preventing the unity of it.

– We should understand that when the Lord Jesus commanded us to seek spiritual blessings first, He meant the spiritual ones should be first and the physical ones be second. He did not mean Christians should seek only the spiritual blessings and neglecting the physical ones.

– God knows His children are still living on earth and therefore they need physical blessing to survive and to live a happy, fulfilled life. It had been expressed by David in the ancient time before Him:

PSALM 27: 13 – I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

THI THIÊN 27: 13 – Ôi! Nếu tôi không tin chắc rằng sẽ thấy ơn của Đức Giê-hô-va tại đất kẻ sống thì tôi hẳn đã ngã lòng rồi!

– That’s why Jesus had said that He already knew the need of His children while they were still living on earth and He more than willing to bless us with abundant physical blessings after we eagerly seek the spiritual ones.

MATHEW 6: 32 – For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

MA-THI-Ơ 6: 32 – Vì mọi điều đó, các dân ngoại vẫn thường tìm, và Cha các ngươi ở trên trời vốn biết các ngươi cần dùng những điều đó rồi.

– God also knows that if His children were poor and desperate, they could easily do bad things or make bad choices in life, as it has been expressed in the book of Proverbs:

PROVERBS 30: 7-9 – Two things I request of You and deprive me not before I die: Please remove falsehood and lies far away from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, and say: Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God.

CHÂM NGÔN 30: 7-9 – Tôi có cầu Chúa hai điều; Xin chớ từ chối trước khi tôi thác: Xin dan xa khỏi tôi sự lường gạt và lời dối trá; Chớ cho tôi nghèo khổ, hoặc sự giàu sang; Hãy nuôi tôi đủ vật thực cần dùng, e khi no đủ, tôi từ chối Chúa, mà rằng: Đức Giê-hô-va là ai? Và lại kẻo e khi tôi bị nghèo khổ, ăn trộm cắp, và làm ô danh của Đức Chúa Trời tôi chăng.

– As we have already known, God so loved us that He took a human form and came into the world to die for us on the cross. As He did not hold back His life but died for us therefore nothing in the whole universe is so precious to Him that He does not want to bless us with.

– So we Christians should be confident knowing that God has been waiting to bless us abundantly in this life, but we must follow His instructions to get it.

– There are some questions that have been asked from time to time that if God so loved us why didn’t He bless us unconditionally? The answer is so obvious that sometimes we Christians forget, that because God is Just and Wise, so He cannot bless His children without us fulfilling His requirements first.

– Let look into a family as an example. We know that if parents let children having their ways all the times, they would soon becoming bad ones with unpleasant characters and later on, after growing up, they would suffer in life because of those kinds of unchecked behaviors.

– It is the same in spiritual aspect. So, if human parents know that, God know much more of that matter than mankind, that’s why He wants us to fulfill His requirements first before blessing us physically.

– Another reason that God wants us to seek spiritual blessings first is for us to be suitable in handling His physical blessings. Because God is Wise, so He does not want to waste His blessing on those who would squander them off or used them for bad purposes.

– We know that things in this life are neutral objects. They cannot be good or bad by themselves. It’s the way humans use them that makes them good or bad. Money is one of the examples. Money cannot sin by itself. It’s the necessity of life. But the way people used it that made it good or bad. It’s the same for car, houses, guns, knives, etc…

– Because God is Wise so He wants Christians to prove ourselves worthy of His physical blessings by seeking spiritual blessings first in order to handle properly, benefitingly the physical ones from Him for ourselves and for others around us.

– Regretfully, because many Christians did not know of this meaning in God’s command relating to His blessings so they either refused to live a godly life or abandoned attempt to be prosper for God’s glory.

– In order to encourage us seeking spiritual blessings first then the physical ones, we should look into real life to see the importance of a godly life in handling physical blessings, like success, money, power, privilege, higher positions or academic credentials.

– We know that being successful academically is one of the physical blessings that people are more than often proud of. But all over the world there have been many people who used their academic achievements to commit crimes, even the most horrendous ones. We heard that computer engineers became hackers, doctors and dentists became murderers, professors fostered terrorism in schools and universities, nurses became rapists and abusers, teachers became child manipulators, and so on.

– It is the same in politic, as career politicians became swindlers, deceivers, or in societies, as rich people became child exploiters, women, or even men, abusers, or in religions, as priests became child molesters. They had what others dreamed of, but instead of using them to do good deeds, they used them to satisfy their criminal intents or devious desires.

– Thus now we know why God wants us to seek spiritual blessings first, like having strong faith, godly characters, pure mind and loving hearts before receiving physical blessings from Him, so that we know exactly how to use them to glorify God, serve the church, benefiting us and helping others.

– Until then we will not be fully blessed in physical ones, because God is still waiting for us to fulfill His requirements first.

– There are other questions like why God has not blessed His children yet with physical blessings while the unbelievers and criminals have had them already? To that question we will have the answer next week when we consider other verses in the Bible.

– In the mean time, may God give us patience and understanding as we are trying to seek spiritual blessings first according to His command so that we will be blessed much more physically in the day to come when we satisfy His requirements for us. Amen.