Yesterday I had the joy of being installed as the new pastor of Bethel Church in Lacombe. Last week Sunday was my first Sunday in Bethel and it was a special Sunday because we celebrated our GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour), our girls' ministry. Here is the message.
This morning is one of those special mornings where we are
invited to celebrate with the GEMS their journey following Jesus this past
year. For the past church year, you’ve been learning about being a blessing,
using this verse to be your guide, “and God is able to
bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you
need, you will abound in every good work.” What Paul is saying is that
God blesses us to be a blessing to others. What does it mean to bless someone?
We don’t use the word “bless” very often today. To
bless someone is to give them a gift of kindness, to speak God into their life,
to act in such a way that people are able to see who God is through us. Blessing
someone is about our hearts and how we live, it’s about caring deeply about
other people and being thankful to Jesus for all his gifts to us. For followers
of Jesus, blessing others is part of who we are because Jesus blesses us.
The GEMS have spent the year being a blessing. Here are some of
the things I’ve learned you’ve done: you stained 230 crosses for the Christmas
dinner at the Lacombe Memorial Center and you had one of the grandpas in the
church make them, which was a blessing to him. After dinner you invited the
people to take them home as a gift, a really cool blessing that helps them remember
that Christmas points to the cross and Jesus’ gift to us there of forgiveness
and new life. Some of you made cards and attached them to bags of poppycock for
the seniors, while others made cookies and hand delivered them to the seniors.
Makes me want to be a senior! On Thanksgiving you served breakfast, which I
heard was a really great time. All of these ways of being a blessing showed the
people that they’re important to you and that you care about them a lot.
What were some of the other ways that you were a
blessing this year?
How did being a blessing make you feel? How do you think it made Jesus feel when
you were blessing others? Why do you think Jesus wants us to be a blessing?
Many of you have been on a farm, and now that
spring is here, you know that planting time is coming close, the farmers are
eagerly waiting for the frost to come out of the ground so the soil can be made
ready and the seeds planted. This is the picture that Paul uses to talk about
abounding in every good work, “As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to
the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” When farmers would
spread seed in their fields, they would take handfuls and spread it in a
sweeping motion to make sure that the seed was well scattered over the whole
field. The more seed they spread, the bigger the harvest, so the farmers would
be really generous when they spread their seed. This is how Paul tells us we
need to be a blessing, to be a blessing in as many ways and as often as we can.
Sometimes we get scared about being generous and blessing
others because we’re afraid that we might not have enough left over for
ourselves if we’re too generous in blessing others. And yet over the years,
I’ve discovered that often it’s the people who have the least who are the most
generous because they’ve learned that we are stronger when we bless others and
live together in a strong generous community rather than holding on too tightly
to our stuff. They have experienced that “God is able
to bless us abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all we need,
we can abound in every good work.” They know this because they’ve lived
this. They usually think in ‘we’
instead of ‘me’ ways, they’ve learned
that God intends for us to be together, this is why Jesus created the church, a
place where people find a place where they are part of a family who cares
about, and take cares of each other.
This is why people still dream of church today being more
like the church in Acts 2, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone
was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All
the believers were together and had everything in common. They
sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they
continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their
homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising
God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved.” This was a church filled with people
who experienced God’s blessings and who then became a blessing to each other,
just like the GEMS have been doing this year.
Paul reminds us that God created us in order to do
good works, that it’s part of being his masterpieces in the world, Ephesians
2, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God has
chosen us to be a blessing in this world, beginning already with Abram when God
called him to leave his country and family behind to travel to a new country
where God would begin his plan to save and renew the world through his family.
God told Abram, “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I
will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all
peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” When our lives are filled
with and shaped by being a blessing to others, it shows the world around us who
God is and what Jesus is like. We don’t do good works in order to be saved, we
do good works, we try to be a blessing because our hearts are filled with
thankfulness to Jesus for the blessings he has showered on us.
Jesus is the great blessing God promised through Abram. While we were still sinners, Jesus
came to earth as a human just like us and he lived and experienced life just
like us. Jesus came to lead us back to his father, to reveal his Father’s love
for us, to show us what the kingdom of heaven is like through his miracles, his
teaching and how he lived. Then Jesus went to the cross where he took the sin
of the world, all the dirt and stains on our souls, all the brokenness and hurt
of the world on himself and on the cross he paid the price for our sin. Jesus
went to the cross to bring new life, to bring renewal into the world. There’s
nothing we can do to save ourselves from sin, as the Heidelberg Catechism
reminds us, “It’s a gift of grace and
that for those who are grafted into Jesus by true faith, it’s impossible not to
produce fruits of gratitude;” another way of saying that our lives are meant
to be shaped by Jesus to be a blessing to each other and our community.
When we’re a blessing to others, we’re changed
inside, shaped more and more into who God has created us to be. Being a
blessing to others makes us more compassionate, it builds stronger healthy
relationships, it creates understanding because as we look for ways to be a
blessing, we see the people around us and the situations they’re in. Being a
blessing helps us to understand Jesus’ heart for all people and helps us live
grace-filled, thanksgiving filled lives, that shape our hearts and how we see
the world around us, helping us to be more like Jesus. Being a blessing points
people to God and Jesus, as Paul reminds us in verse 12-13, “This service that you perform is
not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in
many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by
which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that
accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in
sharing with them and with everyone else.” When you bless others with
your words, deeds, compassion or other ways, in the end others will praise God
because it’s how we show the world that we’re followers of Jesus. People learn
to trust us, and through being blessing people, we grow closer with them and in
these relationships of trust and deeper relationships, we learn their lives and
when we pray for opportunities to share our faith in Jesus with them, the Holy
Spirit opens opportunities for us to invite them to join us in following Jesus.
So as Jesus
has blessed us, let us be a blessing to the world
and invite the people God places in our lives to join us in following Jesus and
getting to know him as their Lord and Saviour too.
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