Last time together our key passage was:
Genesis 12:1-3
“Now the Lord said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”.
That’s a pretty big deal right there, isn’t it?
• “Blessed” first mention: Genesis 1:28
• As best I can tell, most blessings from God thereafter came with an “If, then” clause. “If you do this, then I will do that”.
• Read Genesis 12:1-3 again.
Then read v. 4 “So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him…”
• Abram knew there was too much at stake not to be obedient to the Lord.
o Have you ever had so much at stake that your only choice was to be obedient to God?
o Abram was obedient through his faith in the Lord.
• We see throughout scripture that blessings require obedience and faith.
BODY
Today we will be in part 2, of a three-part series called “Blessings”.
Our key passage is:
2 Corinthians 9:6-11 and we’ll eventually get there.
The title of todays’ message is “Blessed to be a blessing”.
One more note about the passage in Genesis 12:1-3
God tells Abram “because I have blessed you, you are to bless others”. Did you catch that?
Then He goes on to say, “I will bless those who bless you”.
I don’t want us to miss this church!
I’m convinced this continues today as recorded in Deuteronomy 28:1-2 (which we looked at last time also)
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all those blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
There’s that “if,then” clause again!
Have you ever awakened (or as my grandmother would say “waked up”)
Have you ever waked up on a Sunday morning and decided today was not the day you would attend church?
But somehow you mustered up the mental fortitude to go anyway?
And then, almost miraculously, that was one of your best days ever?
Like, something someone said to you absolutely made your day?
Or maybe someone said to you, I am so glad you came today, I needed a hug and you were just the right hug!
That’s the blessing we are admonished to receive in
Hebrews 10:25.
A couple of weeks ago Sean read that verse for us.
Let’s look at that verse again.
We’ll start in v. 24 Hebrews 10:24-25
“And let us consider one another, in order to stir up love and good works,
v 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting on another (exhortation is a spiritual gift, right) and so much the more as you see the Day approaching”. (The NKJV capitalizes the word Day.)
One way we bless others is to just show up. Show up to church y’all.
So, if you are going to church only for yourself, you may be missing out on blessing others, and thereby missing a blessing by blessing others!
You don’t have to go there,
but Acts 2:42 tells us
“and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Greek word for fellowship)
This is one huge way we bless each other. We gather in one accord, and we strengthen each other for the next battle!
How else can we bless others?
One of the visions of Cross Pointe Church is to be a giving church. (church vision?)
Giving: one of the ways we bless others is in our
giving.
Stand with me as we honor God while reading His word:
2 Corinthians 9:6-10 (read from my bible)
Key points:
o Sow stingy, reap stingy
o Sow bountifully, will reap bountifully
o Give from your heart, not grudgingly or of necessity
o Because God loves a cheerful giver
o God abounds us in grace
Verse 11 wraps up the previous 5 verses like this:
Read v. 11:
How do we bless others?
Are there people in your life, who whether you know intimately or on more of an acquaintance level, that you find hard to love?
Listen to what scripture tells us in
1 Peter 3:8-9
The NKJV has this as the heading for these verses:
Called to blessing
1 Peter 3:8-9
“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous,
v.9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.”
Even when we are not in the mood, maybe even especially when we are not in the mood, we are called to be a blessing to others!
How do we bless others?
(Amish murders)
Morning of October 2, 2006
A mentally disturbed milkman barricaded himself inside an Amish school, ultimately murdering five young girls and wounding six others, before turning the gun on himself.
Some of you may remember what happened at his funeral.
About 30 Amish people, many of whom suffered a loss at this mans’ hands, stood alongside his widow and children, and comforted them.
They lived out what we are called to do,
Blessing others even in the most trying of situations!
Survey:
In a survey a few years ago, 72% of the Americans polled, believed they are blessed by God to enjoy life.
Only a very small % believed they were blessed by God, in order to be a blessing to others.
In my opinion, that is a blatant failure in the teachings in the church.
Rev Ken Davis said this:
I do not know if being selfish will cause you to go to hell, but I do know a lot of people will go to hell if you are selfish.
Meaning: By not giving our time, talents, treasures to bless others and winning souls for Christ, many people will spend eternity in hell.
This may ruffle some feathers, but I can’t help believe that the true measure of a church is not:
o In its’ attendance #’s (although obviously that is important)
o It’s not in its’ money (although that is critical, difficult to operate without money)
o But rather, it’s in souls saved and baptisms!
• Let’s look at two verses that help us revisit our calling as the church:
o These are ones we are all very familiar with, but we all need a quick refresher course from time to time.
o Matthew 28:18-20 (read from my bible)
o Acts 1:8 “and you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth”.
Those words from Jesus in Acts 1:8, were His last words before He ascended into heaven.
What does a blessing look like?
It is natural to think of blessing in terms of material “stuff”, but blessings also look like this:
• A meaningful touch (as mentioned earlier)
An embrace: Mark 10:16 “and he took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them”.
• A kiss: Genesis 27:26-27 (read from my bible?)
• Use of your spiritual gifts:
o Do you know what they are?
o Are you using them to bless others for Gods glory?
o If you really want to get serious about blessing others with your Spiritual gifts, 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 might be a really good place to start in order to understand your calling in Gods Kingdom.
o Let’s look at another passage today about our spiritual gifts found in:
Romans 12:6-8 (read from my bible)
• A spoken message: Ever just picked up the phone and called someone just to check on them? Your response to the Holy Spirit moving in you, blessed that person.
o All of our kids’ lives, we have told them we love them, in fact; we rarely end our conversation (especially on a phone call), without saying I love you. We might have spoken to them on the phone 10 minutes prior…
o For me, if those are the last words my kids hear from me, they will know without a doubt, that I love them.
• I thought about that this week, and it caused me to think that is EXACTLY what Jesus said as His last words “It is finished”, which translates to “I love you”, in the DelRay translation.
• What is YOUR life’s reason?
• Who has yet to be blessed by you before you get to heaven?
CLOSING:
Church, many of you have been a blessing to me for a long time, others are more recent; but Lisa and I love you and are here for you anytime you need us.
So, let’s wrap this up today:
Recap the body:
How do we bless others?
o God blesses us when we bless others, as written in Genesis 12:3
o We bless others simply by showing up to church
o We bless others by giving, as recorded in
2 Corinthians 9:6-11
o We are called to bless everyone, yes; even those ones we don’t like too much, as instructed in 1 Peter 3:9
o We bless others by being a witness for Christ, which is found in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8
o We bless others by putting our spiritual gifts to work- Romans 12:6-8
o A blessing looks like:
o A hug, or a meaningful touch
o A phone call or a text that includes “I love you”
o A Route 44 unsweet tea from Sonic-someone here needed to hear that today!
Recap the intro:
Last time we looked at Blessings from God
Today, we kind of zoomed in on blessing each other,
Next week we’ll cover how we bless God (oxymoron)
-Call Ashley up-
Close with Jesus’s last words
Church, here’s what a blessing looks like:
It looks like love.
We find it in John 19:30 when Jesus said “I love you DelRay”, as His last words on the cross.
And in Acts 1-8 He said “Go out into the world and tell everyone about me DelRay. Then He ascended into Heaven.
That’s what a blessing looks like church!
It looks like love!
