Sermon Podcast Weblink:  Sermon “The Benefits of God”

Psalm 103:1-18 (NIV)
¹ Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits–
³ who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
⁶ The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:
⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; ¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children– ¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant and remember (To do them) to obey his precepts.

God’s Benefits

Benefits of membership:

Costco membership:  you pay a yearly/monthly fee but you get discounted savings and additional benefits to being a member.

Benefits of being a member of God’s family:

1.  He forgives (v3)

*  What does his forgiveness cover?  Everything!

*  It covers all of a believer’s iniquities and sins…notice though this is for believers!

*  Before we become members and experience the benefits of God there is nothing good in us, nothing to justify us or make us right with God.  We are lost in our sins.  Without our membership, without our belief in God’s redemptive power we are hopelessly lost.  But once we believe in Him he brings to us this unmerited grace in the form of forgiveness for all of our wrong doings.  We find redemption through Jesus Christ.

2. He heals all our diseases. (v3)

* Psalm 23 says “He restores my soul”

* This is what the benefit of God’s healing entails…he provides a restoration for our bodies, souls and minds.

* He cleanses the soul of all malice, envy, lusts, backbiting, unbelief, all disease of the heart and of the body.

* 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

3.  He redeems your life from destruction! (v4)

*  When we believe in God we get the benefits of that belief.  These benefits include a restoration and a healing from our iniquities’ and our sins but God’s redemptive power takes it a step further.  He not only removes our iniquities but also the causes of these iniquities in us.  Sin itself is removed from our lives.

* Removing mold…can’t simply pour bleech on it and pretend it will go away…if there’s a leak in the roof that let the moisture in in the first place then the roof has to be fixed.

*  Again let’s look at 2^nd Cor 5:17…The old is what?  Is it just under the surface?  NO!  Is it in hiding for a day or two?  NO!  Is it gone?  YES!!!

*God has removed the cause of our spiritual disease in our lives.  He has taken that burden away from us.

4.  “He will renew us and satisfy the desires of our hearts!”  (v.5)