Blessed To Bless

I’ll be honest, up until recently if anyone used those words in a sentence you could almost guarantee I would shutdown. I could feel my heart as it slowly hardened toward the speaker. “Don’t guilt me into feeling bad for people on the other side of the world.” “There is plenty of suffering right here in America and as a citizen of the US I should be most concerned about my own people.” “I am doing plenty to serve God’s people in my local church and I don’t have the time or energy to add to that.” “Becoming a missionary is not something I feel called to.”

There might be some truth to some of those statements. I have been made to feel guilty for the blessings I’ve recieved that others haven’t. It is true that there is plenty of suffering here in America. It’s also true that I serve in my local church.

After telling and retelling myself all these things, it’s no surprise that I was super closed off to “missions” even though I didn’t really understand what it was or why it’s necessary. I don’t know if any of you have experienced that or can relate to any of those statements but I bring it up because here’s the deal: we are going to talk about missions. I’m going to say things like God is a missionary God, and he has called all of us to the mission field. And we (Brandon and I) are going to be talking about this for the next four weeks. In fact the title of the sermon series is “God On A Mission.”

God On A Mission

Now I hope that doesn’t mean I won’t see some of you for the next four weeks. I hope that together, we can all set aside our preconceived notions and come at this with an open heart and mind. And that you will trust that neither Brandon or I are trying to lay guilt, or make you ashamed, or make you commit to something or other or manipulate you into feeling or doing something you’re not comfortable with. There is none of that. And if you feel that from either of us at any point please tell us, so we can address it right away.

So here’s what happened. Brandon and I took a class called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. Now the fact that we took the class at all is miraculous. Like I said before I was really closed off to this whole thing, and then my good friend Miriam asked me to be a prayer partner for those taking the class, and somehow it came into my brain that we should take this class. And the details worked out perfectly for us to both take it (it must have been a God thing) . And it’s changed our lives. But we’re still figuring out what that means exactly. It doesn’t mean we’re selling all of our worldly possessions to go to a far off land to convert the heathen. It does mean, however, that that’s not an immediate closed door for us as it once was. We have no answers for what’s next, how to live this out, but we did feel strongly that this was something we needed to bring to you, our church family, because whatever we do, we want to do it with you people. Our family.

Enough of that. Let’s dive in.

Let me give you a quick overview on what to expect these next few weeks.

Four Week Outline

Week 1 (today): Blessed to Bless

Week 2: The Story of His Glory

Week 3: The Great Commission(s)

Week 4: The Kingdom Strikes Back

Today we’re going to talk about God’s mission to bless the nations as seen throughout the Bible, from the beginning in Genesis all the way to Revelation. We’re going to focus on a few key passages in the Old Testament.

Next week, week 2, we will talk about the why of God’s mission. You may have heard it called the story of His glory.

We are devoting week 3 to the New Testament to discuss the Great Commissions. Yes you heard correctly, there are actually five.

Then the final week we are going to get down to the nitty gritty. What it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ with God’s mission as the forefront during this in-between time that we live in; that is, after Christ’s first coming, and before his second coming.

Okay. You Ready?

Lets go all the way to the beginning, where we first see God establishing a people for himself. We see a promise for the people and a mission to the people.

We are skipping over the first few chapters in Genesis: through the creation story, the subsequent fall, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Arc, the Tower of Babel, and we are picking it up in Genesis 12, where God singles out a man, from which will come a chosen people.

Starting in Genesis 12:1-3

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

At this point, here’s what we know about Abram: pretty much nothing, except that he is a descendant of Shem, one of Noah’s sons. We eventually know a lot about this dude as we read more about him in our Bibles: he becomes Abraham, he marries Sarah and they miraculously have a baby in their old age, Isaac. He is the father of the nation Israel, the first of the great patriarchs of Israel, literally the grandfather of the person Israel who was Jacob. He is considered a man of great faith, and we are told in Romans 4 that his belief in God was credited to him as righteousness. But I think this passage has very little to do with what kind of man Abram was, or would become. This passage actually reveals a mission, God’s mission. The mission includes a chosen people, a promise, and a purpose. And it’s a mission that is carried out throughout the pages of Scripture, and is still being carried out today.

And here is the very beginning of this operation, the revealing of the basic outline of the mission. God chose Abraham, and through Abraham he would make a great nation. This nation would be called God’s chosen people, His precious possession. We’ve talked about this in other sermons. Why do it this way? Why use broken, messed up people to carry out God’s plan? We don’t know why but we know that time and again that is how God chooses to operate.

In this passage God makes three promises:

God would give Abraham a place to live Genesis 12:1

Genesis 12:1 (ESV)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

2. God would make Abram a great nation Genesis 12:2

Genesis 12:2 (ESV)

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

3. God would bless the nation of Israel Genesis 12:2-3

Genesis 12:2–3 (ESV)

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Wow! That sounds amazing! Three awesome promises with no caveats! Wait a minute. A close reading of the text makes this a bit more complicated. The promises to Abraham have a purpose. Look at verse 2 closely Genesis 12:2

Genesis 12:2 (ESV)

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

SO THAT. Why is God going to make him into a great nation, bless him, and make his name great? SO THAT this nation will be a blessing! A blessing to who? I’m glad you asked. In verse 3 we have the answer: Genesis 12:3

Genesis 12:3 (ESV)

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

All the families of the earth! Not “I will bless you so some people that you have regular dealings with will be blessed.” No! “All the families of the earth!”

Now this word families is not to be mistaken for our understanding of family structure. This is referring to an ancient understanding of families: entire people groups, clans, separated by geo-political boundaries. So when it says families, the Bible is talking about all peoples, all the nations.

Listen church, God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, was chosen SO THAT through them all other peoples on earth would be blessed.

Throughout the Bible we see God’s heart for all peoples and we see God’s chosen people joining with God in this mission and we see the chosen people abandoning this mission. We don’t have the time today to look up every verse but they are there, revealing an overarching theme spanning the entirety of Scripture of God’s heart for all the nations. We’ll just look at a couple verses. Consider Isaiah 56:6-7

Isaiah 56:6–7 ESV

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

This one hit me right between the eyes. I’ve read the Prophets before, but I never noticed God’s heart in it. God intends his temple to be a house of prayer for all peoples. These aren’t part of the Israelite community. These are foreigners!

Let’s consider Jonah. You all know the story, God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh to call them out on all their evilness. Nineveh is a foreign land. Jonah didn’t want to, tried to run away, spent some time a whale, eventually went to Nineveh and the Ninevites repented of their evil ways. And Jonah was all angry about it and here’s what he said to the Lord: Jonah 4:2

Jonah 4:2b ESV

And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

The disaster Jonah is talking about is what God planned to do the people of Nineveh because of their sin. But Jonah knew God’s heart. When he says God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, he not talking about how God treats the Israelites, though that is true too. But here Jonah is talking about God’s steadfast love, His graciousness, His mercy, for a foreign, sinful people, the Ninevites. What!?! God has a heart for this foreign, sinful people? Apparently he does and he sent Jonah on a mission to call them back to God.

Here’s the crux of what I’m telling you today: we, you and I, the church in America, the church throughout the world, is called to this mission too. Galatians 3:7 says

Galatians 3:7 ESV

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

When Paul speaks about faith here he is referring to faith in Jesus Christ. This means us. Through Jesus Christ, we are now Abraham’s sons and daughters. Descendants that have inherited not only the promises of God, but also God’s mission. If you doubt this then take a look at Romans 11. Gentiles are grafted into God’s chosen people. What he intended for the Israelite nation, he now intends for us. To bless us so that we can bless all the peoples of the earth.

You might wonder, what does it mean to bless the peoples of the earth? There are lots of examples of blessing throughout the Bible: material blessing (with cattle, flocks, land), wealth, lots of children. But in the end we know all these things are earthly treasures that moths and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. The only blessing that lasts is the eternal blessing of knowing Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

The Psalmist understood this in Psalm 67 . He starts off in verses 1 and 2. Psalm 67:1-2

Psalm 67:1–2 ESV

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.

And he ends it the same in verse 7. Psalm 67:7

Psalm 67:7 ESV

God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

We are going to spend some time studying this particular Psalm in more depth next week. But we can see just from these few verses the blessing for the nations is that they would know God’s saving power and fear Him. Our mission is to use all God has blessed us with to bless the nations, to bring to all peoples the Good News of Jesus Christ, His saving power!

This is ultimately about all the nations and we are going to get into that in the next few weeks, and it’s so hard to not talk about it all right now, but then we’d be here for hours. So for now let’s start with where we’re at right now, and the people and opportunities that are right in front of us. I have some work for you to do. We are going to take a moment right now but I want you to continue this throughout the week. I want you to think about your daily routine, getting up to make breakfast, going to work, going to school, cleaning the house, watching the kids, fixing dinner, all the things. And I want you to consider all the ways in which you are blessed. With a bed to wake up in, a home, running water, a car to get you places, your family and friends, your Netflix subscription and big TV. And I want you to take an honest accounting of how much time you spend managing all these blessings. Making sure these blessing are in great shape so you can continue to be blessed by them. Now I’m not saying its wrong to be blessed. God is a giver of good gifts and in fact he does bless us. And throughout the Bible we see He does pour out spiritual blessings and familial blessings and material blessings. None of these are bad things. The question is are we using these things to bless others, or are we too busy managing all our blessings.

Now I want to make sure we don’t enter into the guilt and shame territory. I’m not suggesting that any of you that are blessed with material wealth for example are sinners because you haven’t given away all your possessions. There is absolutely a place for being good stewards of God’s good gifts that He has blessed us with. This is really about opening our hearts to God’s examination and asking Him, “Am I hording this blessing for myself when You have called me to bless others with it?” It matters not how big the blessing is. Is it my millions of dollars in my bank account (ha, ha, yeah, right), or is my carpet pad?

Here’s my own example. We moved into our current home two years ago. And the carpet was gloriously new, and the previous owners really went all out with carpet pad. It’s all squishy and soft. And I got to a point where I was getting so upset that the neighbor kids, and my own, kept running through the house with their shoes on. Or what’s worse is the big boys running through the house without their shoes off and getting their stinky feet smell all over my carpet. Like to the point where friends can’t come into the house anymore, I’m sorry, and even though its like zero degrees outside your options are freeze out there or not play with friends at all because they’re going to ruin the carpet. But here’s what I discovered, and I know I’m his mother and I’m partial to him but this is a true, non biased observation. My son, Sam, is a blessing to his friends. He talks about Jesus to his friends. He really wants them to know about God. He came home upset one day because his friend across the street kept rejecting his invitations to come to church and believe in God. And I was so worried about my carpet, that I was hindering Sam’s ability to bless these neighborhood kids.

Was I hording the blessing of new carpet and in so doing not allowing others to be blessed in a real, powerful, way? Yes.

So ask yourself, are you hording a blessing when you could be blessing others? How does God want you to use your blessings to bless others? This isn’t necessarily about giving up all our possessions. It could be as simple as taking some deep calming breaths when kids come over to play. So I really want us to take some time this week and catalogue those blessings we are busy managing. And let God direct our steps in how we can bless those around us with each blessing we have.

Can we have the worship team come forward? I want to close out our time with a verse from Revelation. We started at the beginning, in Genesis, and so we’ll end here in Revelation. God is on a mission. And as mind boggling as it is to us He has called us to be on mission with Him. He has blessed us SO THAT THROUGH US all peoples on the earth will be blessed. We start with considering how we can use our blessings just to bless those around us but ultimately the picture is much bigger and the mission is not completed. Do you know how I know that? Because Christ has not come, the end is not here. It may feel like it with all that’s happening in the world, but it is not here yet and until it comes, we are on mission. John had a vision of what the end would look like. Here’s what he saw: Revelation 7:9-10

Revelation 7:9–10 ESV

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

God has a plan. He is on mission so that when that day comes, when Christ comes again, there will be worshippers from ever nation, tribe, peoples and language, and he has called each of us to be on mission with Him. To use the blessings He has given us to bless others. We are blessed to bless. Amen.