Sunday Recap @ da Chapel
Reverend Joshua Goodin
Psalms 1 (KJV)
“Characteristics of a Blessed Person”
Sometimes it’s not that God hasn’t blessed you, it's that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do to walk in the blessedness that God has for you. You’re blessed even if you don’t look like you’re blessed. You don't need people to tell you you’re blessed. Look at your word and what God says, and you will know that you are blessed. Stop and think back at all the things God has done for you, and you have a testimony that you’re blessed by God. There were times when you didn’t deserve it, times when you didn’t feel like doing it, and times that you felt like you couldn't hear him and cut you off, but God came around to your rescue. It’s amazing how God changed your situation, but you have still not lacked for nothing. Because you have been faithful, even in the midst of your transition God is getting ready to open doors for you and make ways for you. Sometimes when you want to start complaining God stops you in your tracks.
*You have to have the right position. One of the reasons you don’t know you’re blessed is because of who you choose to be a part of your counsel. You have a problem recognizing your blessings because of some of the people you choose to be in your circle. Sometimes you encircle yourself with people who live beyond their means, and if you’re not careful enough you’ll start doing it too. You have to be a good steward over what God has given you. Sometimes you are so guilty of bad stewardship, and you don’t understand that bad stewardship is connected to other things like laziness. You can get up and cook, but instead, you’d rather get up and go to the door for Uber Eats or DoorDash, spending money on something that will only last a night, instead of a cooked meal that lasts over days. When you allow yourself to develop and adopt a mindset, because of the people you hang around, you start living like that. You complain about paying your tithes and offerings, but you’re constantly going to different restaurants. Some of you are guilty of robbing God because you have not been giving like you’re supposed to. Your position is so important because the danger is when you start walking with the ungodly, at some point you start standing with them. When you get tired of standing, then you start sitting with them. When you encircle yourself with the wrong people it continues to put you in a position where you’re not supposed to be. Do the people in your circle help build up your faith or do they tear down your faith? If they’re always leading you to places that you’re not supposed to be, putting you in positions where you have to compromise your faith, putting you in positions where you find yourself tempted and stuck between right and wrong, you need to change your circle. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been rocking with them; how long have you been rocking with God? God knew you before you were in your mother’s womb, how dare you even question your loyalty to God? The problem is that you don’t realize that you’ve been questioning God’s loyalty but in reality, you’ve been the disloyal one.
*You have to have personal devotion. One of the ways that you learn how to follow God is by meditating on his word. Spending time reading and thinking about what you have read, asking yourself the question, how should you change after reading what you just read? Have you ever asked yourself after a sermon on Sunday, how should your life change after hearing this word, or do you treat it like a Sunday morning bulletin leaving it on the pew after service to be discarded by those who clean? At the end of the day if you’re going to leave it there what’s the sense of just getting it. If you’re going to leave the word in church, what’s the sense in coming? Duty-bound people think it’s their duty to show up at church, that’s why they are there. You should show up at the house that has something you need, and you know that you can’t get it anywhere else but in the house of the Lord. Because you understand that it ought to change your mindset when you go to church, go to bible study, or your personal devotional time. Some of you are so guilty that you spend more personal devotion with Netflix, Hulu, or Tubi. Sometimes when you’re in devotion with the Lord it can feel like time out, because the Lord sometimes has to spend time chastising you. You have to apply the word to your life every day, and maybe the reason why you find yourself stuck in certain things is that you haven’t put the word on it. When you start putting the word on your problems and situations maybe you might spend less time stressing and worrying about it. For every problem that you have, God has already spoken a word over it. When your personal devotion is right it will lead to productivity.
*You’ll have productivity. If you’re in the right position and have your personal devotion together you’ll be like a tree, you don’t just grow above the ground, but you also grow underneath the ground, and a strong-rooted tree takes a lot to take down. Some of you are like a tree bought from the store that you plant, if the wind blows too hard it will blow you down and you will become uprooted. When you buy a tree you’re putting it in the ground, but when God has already planted a tree the roots are stronger. Sometimes there are things in your life that keep you from growing up, but that doesn’t mean that your roots aren’t getting stronger underneath the ground. It may not look like you’re growing, but if you get underneath this thing you will see how God is still stretching and growing you. If you are in proper position and have a personal devotion God says everything around you can move, but you’ll remain still. When things have happened these past two years it has caused other people to shift, stop praying, stop reading their word, stop showing up to church. You are doing what you’re supposed to be doing, you remain still, you keep on praying, you keep on reading, you keep on giving, everything around you and everyone around you may be faltering and losing it but you’re still holding it together because God has planted you. God says when you’re in the right position what should happen naturally with you doesn’t take place. One of the reasons why you’ve survived what other people wish they could survive is because of where God has positioned you. There are things that have caused other people to lose their minds and you still have your right mind. There are things that have happened to you that should have caused you to walk away from God, but because you were in the right position and you maintained your devotion with the Lord you are still uprooted and standing in the right place where God has placed you. The reason you can’t say that you’re blessed is that you have allowed people to change your position. How dare you allow people that have not placed you where you are to be able to remove you from where you are? If God has spoken something for your life there’s nothing anyone else can do to move you from your promise. Everything God has for you and spoken in your life shall come to pass.