R408 The Real Criterion By Which God Chooses to Bless People

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton about how God chooses to bless people. Oh, I'm excited about today's message, the real criterion by which God chooses to bless people. That's today's topic as we head to the book of Hebrews with Dr. Don Wilton as we study the Bible, God's encouraging word.

Know that we're here for you. We're connecting online right now at www.tewonline.org. Many are asking about the fortified message from Dr. Wilton and the strategy of Satan, a remarkable book.

Both are available on our website right now at www.tewonline.org. There is spiritual warfare that's taking place now more than ever and we'd love to pray with you in your battle. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to pray with and for you. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. I want to preach on a very special subject.

Here it is. The criterion by which God chooses to bless His people. The criterion by which God chooses to bless His people.

Before we look at God's Word, I want to talk about this just for a little while. Have you ever asked God or wondered in your heart, what is it that I have to do in order for God to bless me? What do I need to do? I want God to bless me.

What is it that I need to do? Now I'm going to answer that in two ways. Number one, God does not have to have any reason at all to bless us. I think that's very important this morning. God needs no reason whatsoever to bless His people. God blesses us because He's God. That's like saying that God is faithful for any other reason than God is faithful. It's like saying God is holy because He wants to be holy. God doesn't want to be holy. He is holy. God doesn't sit down and say, you know, I think for the next four weeks I'll be holy. He is holy. God doesn't sit down and say, angels, come on, gather round.

Listen, I've made a decision and I've actually decided that for the next year I'm going to be faithful. God doesn't do that. He doesn't need to do that because God is faithful. God doesn't say, well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do for the next six months.

I'm going to bless these people or I'm going to bless this church. God doesn't need us to give Him a reason to be blessed by Him. God does it because He's God.

But on the other side of the same coin, because God is God, God requires that we give Him a reason to bless Him, to be blessed by Him. Baptism. Folks, you don't have to be baptized by immersion in order to go to heaven. So why get baptized?

Because God says it. God says that we must repent and be converted. We must be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We don't get baptized in order to go to heaven. We get baptized because we are going to heaven. So I want to come back to this question.

You ready? What is it that I need to do in order for God to bless me? But friends, I'm going to submit to you today that the blessings of God are not confined to a dollar sign.

In fact, sometimes they are anything but a dollar sign. Have you ever looked at somebody and observed their life and wondered what you need to do in order to receive the same blessing that they have? Have you ever looked at someone who is married and you've said, you know, I wish my marriage could be as blessed as that marriage. I wish my children could grow up like those children.

I wish my business could be like that business. I wish that I could have the same joy that he or she has. I want to be blessed.

Well, what is it that you've got to do? Well, first of all, you've got to do nothing because God will bless you if God wants to bless you. But on the other side of the coin, we've got to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ requires practical, demonstrable, measurable Christian discipleship out of all those who love him.

When Jesus says, I want you to forsake all and follow me, Jesus tells us what we need to do in our followship of him and he tells us that the quality of our followship is going to be in direct proportion to the blessings that God bestows upon us. One of my favorite people in the Old Testament is Moses. I love to study Moses. One of these days I've promised myself I'm going to do a whole series just on the life of Moses. I want to get up here on Sunday morning for six months or for a year and every Sunday I want to talk about God's servant Moses.

I want to go back there to the time when he was born in the bulrushes. I want to trace his incredible lifespan through Pharaoh's court out into the wilderness and wandering around the desert for 40 years. I want to see what he did with the children of Israel.

I want to read his mind and understand the height and the depth of this incredible man of God. And in all that, I want to ask the question, why did God bless Moses? I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Perhaps the most well known of all passages in the New Testament that deal with the old patriarchs of the Old Testament. Hebrews chapter 11, and I want to read singularly just about Moses. We're going to look at verse 23.

Please open your Bibles and follow along with me this morning. The Bible says by faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw that he was no ordinary child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith, Moses left Egypt.

Not fearing the king's anger, he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. May the Lord write his word upon our hearts. There are six key indicators in the life of Moses that are related to the proportion of blessing that was poured out upon God's servant. Let me give those six to you.

You might want to write them down. Number one, godly parents. Now these are the criterion by which God chooses to bless his people. Number one, godly parents. Number two, public identification.

Number two, public identification. Number three, admitted weakness. Admitted weakness, the criterion by which God will choose to bless you, my friend. Number three, admitted weakness. Number four, biblical conviction. Biblical conviction. Number five, practical action. And number six, long-term commitment. These are the criterion by which God chose to bless Moses as we find them recorded in God's word in Hebrews chapter 11.

Let's have a look at them and apply these principles to our own lives this morning. Why did God bless Moses? Number one, godly parents. Now friends, I'm going to say to you that as I began to study this passage of Scripture, many times I've read this passage, many times I have preached in this passage, many times I have taught from this passage, but do you know that verse 23 hit me between the eyes like it has never before? Listen to verse 23. By faith, Moses' parents. There is something wonderful about the faith of godly parents. Here's what the Bible says. The Bible says that if you train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it. The Bible is filled with instruction from Genesis to Revelation about the fundamentals of the faith as they are vested in the lives of godly parents.

It is our mandate. I'm going to show you something interesting here, folks. Just look at this with me. Verse 23, the Bible says that because of the faith of Moses, his godly parents were not afraid of the king's commandments. Now who is this man? This is Pharaoh we're talking about.

This is a man who just with a click of a finger could have them decapitated. This is a man who rules with an iron rod. This is the great I am of the modern world in which he lived. And yet the Word of God says that based upon the faith of godly parents, their perspective was a spiritual perspective out of which their son was able to rise and grow into a young man.

And the consequence of their spiritual perspective was a spiritual understanding with regard to the orders and the edicts of the day. One of the things that I will never do in this pulpit, never. I will never preach politics and I will never tell anybody how to vote. But I'll tell you what God will require of me, beloved friends. God will require of this pastor that I preach and teach the unapologetic principles of the Word of God so that when you as godly people go to the ballot box, that your vote is not based upon anything but a spiritual perspective.

What does God say? Well, look what happened to Moses. The Bible says, my friend, that God blessed him because he had godly parents. You know, prior to the conversion of my own father, we can find no trace of any Christian people in England, Scotland, Africa, Australia, where our family come from. But you know, since my father gave his heart to Jesus Christ, you can find that influence everywhere from Africa to England to Scotland to the United States to Canada and to many other parts of the world. You can find people that now know and love Jesus Christ.

Why? Because of the influence of godly parents. What kind of parent are you today? Are you a godly parent? Are you a parent who is exercising your spiritual faith?

Is your perspective of the world based upon a spiritual perspective because you are rooted and grounded in the invisible God? Why did God bless Moses? Number one, godly parents. Number two, public identification. Look at verse 24. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Public identification. Pharaoh was a man who was esteemed for who he was. The greatest man of his day and age. Moses was his grandson. Can you imagine what it must be like to grow up as the grandson of Pharaoh's daughter with everything that opens and shut? Can you imagine being in the position that Moses was in? And yet, my beloved friends, the Bible says that when Moses came into direct confrontation with a living and a holy and an awesome God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, he had to make a distinctive identification.

He had to settle something and he went public with it and he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You say to me, pastor, what do I need to do in order to be blessed? Beloved friend, you and I need to demonstrate who we serve.

God or Satan. We need to publicly identify with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. All too often I meet men and women who say to me, pastor, my relationship with Jesus Christ is private and yet the Word of God says that Jesus Christ demands of our discipleship that we publicly identify with the Lord Jesus Christ.

So how do we boil all this down to where the water hits the wheel? Basically it's this friends, if nobody knows that you belong to Jesus Christ, that is one reason why God is not blessing you. That is one reason why God is not blessing you and it's a major one.

Number three, admitted weaknesses. Look with me at verse 25. Moses chose rather to be mistreated along with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. And in verse 26, we understand what this pleasure of sin is all about.

There it is. In verse 26, the treasures of Egypt. The treasures of Egypt for Moses were his point of greatest vulnerability.

And Moses came to the point at which he was willing to admit his weakness. Now folks, I'm going to give you a guarantee this morning. Every one of us here today has got an Achilles heel. I have, I've probably got several. You've probably got several.

Do you know something? Satan knows exactly where that is. I had a man come to me some months ago and he said to me, pastor, I want to talk to you and I want you to pray for me. He said, I've got lust in my heart. I'm a married man.

I've got a wife and I've got children. And I said, he said, I've got a wonderful home, but he said, I've got lust in my heart and it's eating me alive. And he said, I've got to, I've got to do something about it. And I looked at this man and I said to him, sir, I want to tell you something. You have taken the greatest step toward being blessed by God that you can ever imagine because you've come to the point at which you're willing to acknowledge and to admit your weakness.

Now folks, listen to me. Lust is sin. I'm not saying that it isn't, but I'm going to say to you, my friends, if you don't admit your weakness, your weakness put into practise is going to become the reality of your sin. That man was saying that he was lusting in his heart and he got on his knees before God and he said, oh God, I'm lusting, but I love my wife and I love my family and I don't want to do this. And I looked at him and I said, tell God about it, confess it to God, admit your weakness and God will come in and he will restore you and he will write your name in his heart and he will strengthen you and he will encourage you and he will forgive you. You know what happens if he gives way to his weakness?

I'll tell you what happens. A broken family, broken hearts, broken children, broken relationships, broken everything, sadness, sorrow, sickness, you name it, all because a man is not willing to admit his weakness. Moses was a man's man. Moses was a man who stood on the threshold, the son of Pharaoh's daughter and said, listen, I know that for me, the enticement to the world is the rich treasures of Egypt, but I am going to admit that, I'm going to forego that and I'm going to associate myself with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little while.

Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with more from Dr. Wilton along those lines of what it is to associate ourselves with the people of God and watch God strengthen us. There is a battle, there is a conflict. Spiritual warfare is taking place and we want to equip you, we want to pray with you. Our phone number for prayer is 866-899-WORD.

It's 866-899-9673 and it's also a place to get resources that will help you in that spiritual battle, resources like this. Are you spiritually dressed for today's battles? As Christians, the Word of God equips us on how to prepare and fight spiritual battles.

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Call us at 866-899-WORD. 666-899-9673 and request Fortified and The Strategies of Satan for a gift of $25. Thank you for supporting The Encouraging Word as we continue to proclaim the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word. My brother, if you are lusting in your heart today and you succumb to that and you end up having an affair with some lady, I will enjoy the pleasure of sin for a little while, but I want you to know according to God's Word, be sure your sin will find you out.

And great will be the fall thereof. And I have yet to meet a man or a woman that says, listen, I think I'll go out today and just break up my family. I think I'll just go out today and I'll just split up my children so that my children don't know whether they're coming or going. I think I'll just go out there and destroy everything I've ever stood for.

I've never met any person who has ever done that. And beloved friends in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you want God to bless you, think on these things. Godly parents, public identification, admitted weakness. Number four, biblical conviction. Biblical conviction. Look at verse 26, Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward. This man understood eschatology.

I think he would have done great in a study of the book of Revelation. And I'm going to say to you, friend, that Moses here, I think he had an understanding of eschatology, which is the doctrine of last things. Basically, Moses had faith because of his biblical conviction. Moses did what he did because God had said it and written it.

That's what. Friends, I'm convinced in my heart that God is speaking to this congregation. And we have a responsibility to do what God is telling us to do. We do not have an option when it comes to the Word of God and when it comes to biblical conviction. And I'm going to say to you this morning out of the love of my heart, if this congregation wants and expects God to continue to bless this congregation, as he has done for over 150 years, we need to be people who stand upon biblical conviction. There are many wonderful people in this congregation.

Why will God choose to bless us? Godly parents, public identification, biblical conviction, admitted weaknesses. Number five, practical action. Here's the tough one.

Practical action. Look at verse 27. By faith, Moses left Egypt. But you know something, folks? Moses signed the first Nike contract with God.

He just did it. He left Egypt. He wasn't paid anything in silver and gold, but he was paid the overabundance of God's blessings. And you can travel with this great servant of God from one mountaintop to the other. You can partner with Aaron and hold up the arms of Moses. You can even be a partner in slamming the rock that refused to gush forth with water. You can run around with all the children and receive the manna that fell out from heaven. You can partner with them walking across the great sea upon a dry bed and then look back in absolute amazement as the army of Pharaoh is swallowed up under the indignant waves of an almighty God who refused to succumb to the powers of Pharaoh's court. But I'm going to say to you that where it all boiled down, where the water hit the wheel, was that Moses just did it.

Practical action. You see, there are people in this congregation this morning. There are people worshiping with us by way of television. God has been speaking and God is saying, this is what I want you to do.

This is the way I want you to walk. God speaks to churches. He speaks to nations.

He speaks to individuals. But we refuse to just do it. We've got to call a meeting. It is my prayer for this congregation that we're going to have less and less meetings that we vote on anything. And more and more, we simply get on our faces and say, Lord, not our will but thine be done. That we translate our faith into action. That we put our faith into action.

And you say to me today, pastor, what must I do in order for God to bless me? Godly parents, public identification, admitted weakness, biblical conviction, practical action, and the final one, long-term commitment. Verse 27, by faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. Did you notice he didn't fear the king's anger the same as in verse 23, his parents didn't fear the king's anger and both were for the same reasons, their faith.

Passed on to the children. But folks, this man had long-term commitment. Verse 27, he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

The spiritual dropout rate in America today is alarming. God says, are you willing to do what you've said you're going to do? Are you willing to go the whole mile?

Are you willing to run the race? Are you willing to be blessed by me? What a powerful challenge from Dr. Don Wilton here on The Encouraging Word. Are we willing to be blessed by God? That is God's desire to bless us. There's responsibility we have.

There are choices we need to make. As the pastor steps into the studio, I pray you'd open your heart to this next choice. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. Perhaps moments ago you were praying along with Dr. Don, and you've given your life to Jesus Christ. Maybe you rededicated your life.

You know, as Dr. Don mentions often, it's not the words that we say, but it's the attitude of the heart. And if your heart is open to what God wants to do, we would love to speak with you, to encourage you, and to walk with you some of the next steps about what it is to not only belong to Christ, but to grow in Him, to become the kind of leader, the woman of God, the man of God that the Lord has created you to be. Some of these resources are available on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. But we have a packet that if you've just given your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus, this packet's absolutely free if you'll call this number, 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. And any time, 24 hours a day, we'd love to pray with you on that line, but also connect you with resources that will help you grow. It's our goal to see God work in each of us as we just see the empowerment of the Bible itself, God's encouraging word in our lives every single day.