What should I be doing
Notes
Transcript
Its 2020 and we are doing thanksgiving away from each other
Its 2020 and we are doing thanksgiving away from each other
it might be easier if everyone was doing it the same
Yet directions from all over the place of what we should not be doing and then still need to weigh out what we are really going to do
But you know what? People were telling us what to do way before 2020 came around!
This is such a confusing time but all of life can be a confusing time.
We need thought to find purpose at this hour for what we should be doing correct?
I find what I should be doing in God
Perhaps you say, yes what I want to do is what God tells me to do.
If you want to do what God tells you to do than get ready because God is going to make and allow that to happen.
As we approach Thanksgiving and isolate on all that we have, all the God has done for us, all the blessings God has given us
I want you to ask yourself something, what is God thankful this Thanksgiving?
I ask in this weird way because God tells us in this great big books in the Bible that is spelled weird, Psalms
We are told this things.
2 My soul, bless the Lord,
and do not forget all his benefits.
At Thanksgiving I am supposed to thank God for all the blessings He has given me, yet when I read that verse, I am supposed to bless the Lord.
God didn’t just say it in one place. He said it in many places.
21 Bless the Lord, all his armies,
his servants who do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works
in all the places where he rules.
My soul, bless the Lord!
Intense command of God
What does it mean to Bless God?
Some very church folk might call you a blessing
Or you might be looking for a blessing
Or they might say bless your heart but that isn’t a compliment.
The Hebrew word is Barak. Barak means blessing. It isn’t spelled the same but it is the root of where our former name is a Swahili derivative of the Arabic word deriving from this Hebrew word and means lightening or blessing.
But unlike the Arabic word, the Hebrew word is a derivative of “the knee”. It is to give of oneself, to provide a gift.
Let me stop and say, anyone who follows Jesus can bring a gift before God.
But what if you’ve been pathetic in your life. What if you have done hard drugs, hurt people, hurt your family, abused others, abused your body, committed sexual immorality, everyone else in your life who starts to hear just some of what you’ve done would say your trash.
You, yes you, are invited to be a blessing to God.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works
in all the places where he rules.
My soul, bless the Lord!
Maybe today your thinking of yourself as lower than low, but I tell you God invites you to bring a blessing.
There is a great event in the life of Jesus that is so memorable that the disciples couldn’t forget it, they had to write it down
I saw that this week, I saw someone
There was a dinner that Jesus was invited too by a big time political and religious figure.
They sat at a table and in walked either a prostitute or a woman that everyone knew was a bad, woman
But then she did something even more intense.
37 And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume.
This was intense. The perfume was expensive, the tears but the hair, Jewish women kept their hair covered and this was so intimate.
The political leader, the Pharisee, he finally thought he figured Jesus out as not knowing anything becuase he would’ve known how bad this lady is
Then Jesus gave the guy a math/financial test.
Suppose 2 guys owed money ....
which love the lender more?
43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one he forgave more.”
“You have judged correctly,” he told him. 44 Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You didn’t anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. 47 Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
My friends,
Jesus forgave you forever, give it over to Him, surrender your life to Him and He asks you to bless Him.
That’s right, this isn’t just a believe in the idea and walk away living in the same, I suck and can’t do nothing, as before.
Each and everyone of you is so special to God that He would die for. And each and everyone of you God is giving you the opportunity to give to Him.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works
in all the places where he rules.
My soul, bless the Lord!
What can you do to bless the Lord?
Take an attitude of SEEKING to bless the LORD
Take an attitude of SEEKING to bless the LORD
10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
The Holy Spirit Will Guide You Into What To D0
The Holy Spirit Will Guide You Into What To D0
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
16 I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
Do what you find God leading you to do
Do what you find God leading you to do
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.
Do IT.
Now I am so excited by Church what we will be doing this afternoon
God, THe Holy Spirit, led Kendra to say let’s be generous, lets give this Thanksgiving!
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
Isn’t this good? Kind? Gentle! It is so full of love and joy!
This is how we bless God by doing what God leads us to do!
As a church you rallied, came together with Kendra, and each in your own way, gave to the Lord
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Many think it might be the act of generosity that is the point of this.
It isn’t Al Capone, the big time murderer and gangster had a soup kitchen and had no desire to Bless the Lord.
This was an act motivated by the Holy Spirit to bless families.
Its so beautiful because Kendra did not do this on her own, several people bought supplies, several helped organize, each in their own way!
This was not the only thing in which God was blessed this week!
Some of you took part in building the Christmas Lights to give Glory to God about His life.
Each person acting in their own Spiritual Gifts, talents and abilities to Bless the Lord!
Each person acting in their own Spiritual Gifts, talents and abilities to Bless the Lord!
Joe pounding the polls in
Some of you blessed the Lord by practicing self-control, you wanted to bless the Lord through being part of stuff this weekend but couldn’t because God led you to believe you might make others sick
I also want to say when we can’t do one thing, but we are seeking to bless the Lord we will bless in a completely different way.
Maybe its through prayer, through worship, through calling a friend and giving Godly love and advice, maybe through guiding your family into spiritual truth, maybe through meditating, maybe through being kind to your doctor or nurse or medical delivery person and praying for them by their side. Email your teacher and tell them your praying for them.
You see if you sit at home and say your bored, as I have done, perhaps we are most bored when we seek what might make me happy today, what can feel my mind and run from anxiety.
What if we all ask, how can I bless the Lord right now.
Am I fit? Yes - if the woman who washed Jesus feet was than I am
What do I need to do?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.