Sunday, September 13, 2026
Saturday, September 12, 2026
“COUNTING EVERY BLESSING: God’s unseen blessings.” - 9-13-26
“COUNTING EVERY BLESSING: God’s unseen blessings.” - 9-13-26
INTRODUCTION
Blessings
God carries our burdens daily.
God heals all our diseases.
God redeems your life from the pit.
God crowns us with love and compassion.
God satisfies your desires with good things.
Psalm 103:1-6 NIV
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”
Psalm 103:1-6 NIV
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
God will bless you.
There is an old story of a father who took his young son out and stood him on the railing of the back porch. He then went down, stood on the lawn, and encouraged the little fellow to jump into his arms. "I'll catch you," the father said confidently. After a lot of coaxing, the little boy finally made the leap. When he did, the father stepped back and let the child fall to the ground. He then picked his son up, dusted him off, and dried his tears.
"Let that be a lesson," he said sternly. "Don't ever trust anyone."
Bernie May, Learning to Trust, Multnomah Press, 1985, p. 4
“Everybody has problems, but everybody also has blessings in life.” Robert W. Bly
“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” Eric Hoffer
Psalm 103:6 NIV
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”
Psalms 103:6 NIV
I. TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
“Being able to recognize and appreciate your blessings in life is a blessing.” Angel Moreira
“Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things we lack so we might see the blessings we possess."
Max Lucado
A. Trust
A television program preceding the 1988 Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing, impossible as that sounds. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers' word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe.
B. In the Lord
C. With all your heart
The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust him; the greater our progress in theology, the simpler and more childlike will be our faith.
J. G. Machen
II. LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING
A man who lived on Long Island was able one day to satisfy a lifelong ambition by purchasing for himself a very fine barometer. When the instrument arrived at his home, he was extremely disappointed to find that the indicating needle appeared to be stuck, pointing to the sector marked "HURRICANE." After shaking the barometer very vigorously several times, its new owner sat down and wrote a scorching letter to the store from which he had purchased the instrument. The following morning on the way to his office in New York, he mailed the letter.
That evening he returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer missing, but his house also. The barometer's needle had been right--there was a hurricane!
E. Schuyler English
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”
Camille Pissarro
“What seems to us bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” Oscar Wilde
“Blessings sometimes show up in unrecognizable disguises.”
Janette Oke
Uncle Oscar was apprehensive about his first airplane ride. His friends, eager to hear how it went, asked if he enjoyed the flight. "Well," commented Uncle Oscar, "it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but I'll tell you this. I never did put all my weight down!"
A. Lean not
B. On your own understanding
III. IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM
“You will be blessed the moment you realize you already are.” Bryant McGill
A. In all your ways
B. Acknowledge Him
CONCLUSION
“When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.” George Best
Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him.
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Saturday, September 5, 2026
“COUNTING EVERY BLESSING: God satisfies your desires with good things.” - 9-6-26
“COUNTING EVERY BLESSING: God satisfies your desires with good things.” - 9-6-26
INTRODUCTION
Blessings
God forgives all our sins.
God heals all our diseases.
God redeems your life from the pit.
God crowns us with love and compassion.
Psalm 103:1-6 NIV
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”
Psalm 103:1-6 NIV
I. GOD SATISFIES
The French have a proverb, which states, “A good meal ought to begin with hunger.” It is hard to enjoy a meal when you are not yet hungry. But, when you are hungry, anything tastes good.
Matthew 5:6 NIV
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Matthew 5:6 NIV
A. Many people think God is a cosmic killjoy.
Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him.
Augustine, The Confessions of Saint Augustine
1 Timothy 6:6-12 NIV
“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
1 Timothy 6:6-12 NIV
B. “God satisfies.”
1. Full, enough, satiated
2. God satisfies.
II. GOD SATISFIES YOUR DESIRES
Philippians 4:19 NIV
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19 NIV
Desires = “ornaments, mouth, years, jewels, soul”
mouth - connection to eagle illustration (molting)
years - connection to eagle illustration (beak)
jewels, ornaments - connection to Jewish view of the soul as adornment of people
A. God knows your needs.
B. God instilled your needs.
C. God satisfies your needs.
C.S. Lewis gave us the following insight: Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Michael Horton, Editor, The Agony of Deceit, 1990, Moody Press, p. 49
III. GOD SATISFIES YOUR DESIRES WITH GOOD THINGS
“I've learned that if you give a pig and a boy everything they want, you'll get a good pig and a bad boy.” (age 77)
from Live and Learn and Pass it On, Jackson Brown, Jr
Psalm 37:4 NIV
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4 NIV
A. Good things = beautiful, beneficial, pleasing, favorable,
B. Our desires are meant to be satisfied with good things.
Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV
CONCLUSION
Psalm 103:5b, “. . . so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Molting which leads to new plumage or an older eagle wearing its overgrown beak down so it can eat. God provides.
God satisfies. God satisfies your desires. God satisfies your desires with good things.
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.
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