ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR BLESSINGS?

Proverbs 10:22 (KJV)

The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

Some time in about 1992 or 1993, I bought what was, for me, the nicest car I had been able to get since going into the ministry, 1988 Buick LeSabre.

It was marriage challenger for us.

Anita and I have an arrangement. We do not buy a car unless both of us agree that the car is the will of God for us.

One time we looked at a 1967 VW Bug.

They were asking $300 for it.

·   It had no battery

·   It had been hotwired so there was no key, to start it you flipped a toggle switch and then pushed a button they had mounted on the dash

·   The windshield wipers only worked if we were going fast enough. Otherwise I had to reach my hand out the window and operate them by hand.

·   It used one quart of oil every day whether you drove it or not and

·   There was no upholstery on the seats – just a blanket draped over the springs.

I wanted it!

But – Anita had “made me” agree that I could not pay more than $250 for it.

She never said a word the whole time I was looking at the Bug.

The guy and I were “dickering” back and forth but it was really more his dickering.

I just kept saying, “My wife won’t let me pay over $250.”

I got the Bug for $250, drove it for a year, until the dashboard had an electrical fire and I sold it to my brother for $300.

Anyway, back to my story.

Anita and I have done this time and time again – we do not buy a vehicle unless both of use have prayed over it, and agree that God is in it.

And we had never gotten a lemon – not even the Bug – we loved that car!

And then I saw this LeSabre.

It was maroon, had a split bench seat.

It was the first full size car we had ever had

And I bought it without even asking Anita if I could buy a car.

You have to take in account that we had not made payments on a vehicle since 1984 when I was able to pay my father in law off after he had bought my 1978 Chevy pick up from the bank so I would not lose it.

We had paid cash for every vehicle we had.

I not only bought the LeSabre without asking Anita. I got a loan to buy it without asking Anita.

But you have to understand – THIS CAR WAS BEAUTIFUL.

When I drove it to church that first Sunday, everyone said it looked like a preacher’s car.

Anita said it looked like an old lady’s car.

She did not make me take it back, but she never liked it.

I’ll never forget making a visit on a new family in our church just after I got the LeSabre.

My wife wasn’t happy

We were making payments on a car for the first time in ten years

I drove up to this family’s home and the man of the house came out. He walked around the car, looked inside and, in a jealous tone said, “Looks like the Lord really blessed you.”

Suddenly our text for this morning’s lesson came to mind and I said, “I don’t know. We’ll have to see if any sorrow comes with it.”

The Bible makes this promise, “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”

I think I know a whole lot of people who are unhappy with their “blessings of the Lord.”

Firstly,

I. BECAUSE THEIR BLESSINGS ARE NOT FROM THE LORD

(but are the product of their own lusts)

Achan may have said the wedge of silver and goodly Bablyonish garment were “a blessing of the Lord” because God had given them the victory over Jericho.

But he would have been wrong, wouldn’t he?

Saul could have said that the spoil, sheep and chief things they took from the Amalekites was a blessing of the Lord, couldn’t he? God had allowed them to win the battle.

But he would have been wrong, wouldn’t he?

Absalom could have said his rapid rise to power and how easily he was able to drive his father out of Jerusalem was “a blessing of the Lord.”

But he would have been wrong, wouldn’t he?

Far too often those things we call “blessings of the Lord” were not from the Lord at all.

They might be

A. Gotten unwisely

At a moment in our lives when we were not yet ready for them.

Or with counsel that is more of the world than of God.

Everything from

·   Cars to

·   Boats to

·   Houses

Can be obtained through loans that the borrower has no business taking but believers he or she can afford because the lender supposedly ran a credit check and said they can afford it.

Treat every lender, even if he is a friend, as a stranger.

His job is to give you money, not to guarantee you can make the payments.

They might have been

B. Gotten unscripturally

Psalms 1:1-2 (KJV)

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

A wise Christian

1. Gets his counsel from Biblically minded counselors and

2. Obeys the Bible even over his counselors

C. Gotten too hastily

(God would have given it with no sorrow if they had waited for it)

There are times when God’s answer to prayer is “wait.”

If we choose to rush ahead of God, what would have been a blessing of the Lord can become a matter of deep sorrow.

Some people are unhappy with the blessing of the Lord precisely,

II. BECAUSE THEIR BLESSINGS ARE FROM THE LORD

(but they are not content with what God has given them)

I bought a brand new motorcycle when I was 20 years old.

It was a Suzuki 450L

I’m telling you, it was beautiful.

I bought it for a purpose. I wanted to save gas money.

They were threatening to raise the price of gas to almost $.90 per gallon!

This motorcycle got 60 miles to the gallon.

I loved that bike.

But the first day I drove it to work, I showed it off to the men on my crew and Marty Bell said, “It’s a sexy little thing – but it’s too small for you.”

That’s all it took.

From then on, I fought discontentment.

·   It bounced too much on the road, (too light for long rides)

·   It didn’t have adequate storage for my lunchbox and thermos

·   It wasn’t as fast the Yamaha 650 Maxim one of the guys in our church rode.

It happens over and over that people get what they need, but want more than they got.

And one of the reasons some people can’t be happy with the blessing of the Lord is exactly because of that.

God showers great blessings on His children but generally speaking:

A. God gives us what we need

Philippians 4:11 (KJV)

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

B. God gives us when we need

The missionary Hudson Taylor went to China in a time much different than our own.

Although he had told churches of his needs and was supported through a missions agency (of his own founding), money was not guaranteed.

One morning, as he stepped out of his house to get to work for the day, his cook approached him in distress because he was about to use the very last food they had on the shelves.

Hudson Taylor’s response was, “Praise the Lord, that must mean that God will send us support money today!”

By the end of the day, he had funds to buy more food.

We just wouldn’t live that way anymore, would we?

It’s one of the reasons we see so few magnificent answers to prayer – we don’t want to be put in a position of needing prayers answered that badly!

C. God seldom gives us more than we need

Exodus 23:28-30 (KJV)

And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

God gave the Promised Land to Israel in phases, as they could care for it.

God will give you what we need, when we need it, but God will not give us so much that it will be wasted on us.

That leads me to make one final point before we finish,

III. CONTENTMENT IN GOD’S BLESSING IS HAPPINESS

Philippians 4:11-13 (KJV)

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

The price of real joy in life is contentment in the blessings of the Lord.

Learn to trust in God regardless of riches and you will learn to have great peace and joy in your life.