June 7th, 2026 - "Blessed to Be a Blessing" - Bishop Max Whitfield

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you have questions related to what you hear today, or just want to find

out more about the ministries at First United Methodist Church, please visit us

online at fumcbentonville.org or check us out on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

Bishop Max Whitfield: Good

morning.

Good morning.

It's great to be here today and to be able to share with you

the good news of Jesus Christ

I'm gonna read today from the Old Testament, the Book of Genesis.

Passage of scripture that many of you could quote from memory.

But for helps, helping all of our memories just a little bit,

I'll read this first few verses from the 12th chapter of Genesis.

"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.

I will make of you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.

And in all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' So Abram went as the

Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.

And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.

Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother-in-law's son Lot, and

all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they

had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.

When they passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the ark of Moreh.

And the time of the Canaanites were in the land.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'To your offsprings I will give

this land.' So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.

And from there he moved on to the hill country, to the east of Bethel,

and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai to the east.

And there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord.

And Abram journeyed on by stages toward Negib." This is the word

of the Lord for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Oh, Lord, take the words that I speak this day and transform them to be Your

Holy Word to us as we have gathered here.

Speak to us afresh and anew, for we ask it all in Christ's holy name.

Amen.

Well, I find it a little bit intimidating today because usually you hear Michelle

or Ray preach, and you've got me.

And that's, uh, sorry about that.

But that's the way it rolls around every so often.

Uh, Michelle decides that she needs a rest, and you need to

know what good preaching is.

And so she preaches, and she said, "You can tell how bad he really is next

week." Mark Laster, when I saw you come in, I saw the Ozark Mission Project.

I can't remember how many years ago you and Alan Bruner decided that

it was time to do Ozark Mission Project and put it together.

How many?

40. 40 years ago.

That's … They've continued to do this work

fabulous, fabulous ministry that's going on, uh, throughout the state

because of a couple of people who had a vision and heard a calling from God and

responded to that call with faithfulness.

And so we give thanks for those who've continued this journey and continue

to hear God's calling as well.

I remember quite well being a part of a Bible study group.

You may have been a part of one of those groups as well, in which

you went through a major portion of both the Old and New Testament.

And toward almost the end of that, there was the opportunity to ask

individuals where they were hearing God's call to be in ministry.

And the group went around, there was only 10 or 12 of us in the class,

and they would say, "Well, I'm hearing a faint call from God," and

then they would fill in the blanks.

We did that around the table, and then after we'd gone through that

time of sharing that information, then was the real hard part.

It was hearing the members of the class turn and say to individuals,

"Well, let me tell you where I see your gifts and graces, and where

I hear God may be calling you." And then shared that information.

Now, most of us looked at each other and said, "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know what you're seeing, but you don't see what I see

in myself, and I don't see what you're seeing in other people.

Something's going on here that's all mixed up.

Surely, God couldn't be calling me to do that kind of a task." And I remember

one particular person in the class because they said to her, "I believe

you would be a great teacher, Bible teacher in our Sunday school class.

You have all the gifts and graces necessary to be that, that

fabulous teacher." She looked at them and said, "I don't know what

you're seeing, but you're wrong.

That's not what God's calling me to do, and I don't have any intention of

doing it at all." And so that ended, the class went on. And a few weeks

later, one of the classes invited her to teach one Sunday morning

So she said no

"You don't understand.

I've got gifts and graces, but teaching adults the Bible is not one of them.

I want no part of it." But time passed. Two or three weeks later,

she went back and she said to the person who had asked her, she said,

"Well, I'll tell you what I've done.

I've, I've prayed about it.

I've thought about it.

I'll teach one Sunday, and then you'll know this is not

what I'm being called to do."

She went back, taught that one Sunday, and then the next Sunday,

and the next, and became one of the most gifted teachers of adults that

were a part of that congregation.

Because you see, others could see what she could not see in herself and allowed her

to become all that God intended for her to be as a leader in that particular church.

I remember, uh, uh, one of the older pastors when I was

starting out in ministry.

He had worked for 40 years in his particular vocation, and when he

retired, he heard a call from God to serve as a part-time local pastor

And he did that for a number of years.

Never served a congregation of more than an average attendance of 30 people.

But he went out every week and preached the gospel in these three small

churches, sharing the good news of God's love and care for the people.

He was never recognized as one of the great preachers, and annual conference,

you know, didn't know his name or what he was doing or anything else.

He had a unique way of reaching out and sharing the love of God with individuals.

You see, he loved to garden.

And so every spring, he would plow up a good area, tomatoes and radishes and

carrots and okra and corn and peas.

And then after he had planted all this and it began to bear fruit, it was far, far

more than he and his wife could ever use.

And so he would identify people within the community that he knew that were

not going to any church or having any part of the Christian faith, and

he would carry to them and say, "I want you to have this gift from God."

And he would share with them the produce from his garden.

And with that, he would tell them of God's great love and care, and they

began to understand what it meant to be loved and cared for just as they

were, not as they were expected to become or desired to become, just living

out the faith on a day-to-day basis.

And he touched the lives of hundreds of people by answering God's call to give

away what he was producing in his garden.

Now, the scripture lesson that I chose for today is a story of Abram.

Simple story.

God comes and calls Abram.

He said, "I want you to go to a land that I'm gonna show you."

What if someone told you that?

"I want you to go to a land that I'll show you." Now, my first

reaction at least would be, "Well, where is that land?" You know?

He didn't tell him.

He said, "Pack your bags.

Go, and I'll show you when you get there." Mark, if you had started out this group

to be involved this week, and you told them, "I've got a task for you to do.

I'll show you where it is and what it is, but, you know, you just show up.

And after you show up, well, I will see if you got the tools you need or not.

We'll, we'll see whatever you need to do.

Just pack your bags, come along." "Well, where are we going?

How long will we be gone?

What would we do?" "I'll show you." I don't know how many volunteers you'd find

in this congregation or this group that would respond to that kind of calling.

But Abram responded in faith.

You see, he was willing to go.

And what were the limitations?

Have you thought about it?

Here's Abram, seventy-five years of age, being willing to step out

to go where he didn't know a thing.

Willing to respond.

You see, that's what it means to have faith and trust in God.

To be willing to place ourselves in the hands of God and willing to go

wherever God would have us to go, knowing indeed that God blesses us

when we're willing to give ourselves away, willing to give ourselves to

do whatever it is that God's calling.

I don't hear enough talk about that in the life of the church today.

I don't hear it about myself or anyone else.

You see, God's calling is for simple things.

Sometimes it's as simple as on Holy Communion, handing out the bread and

the juice, or maybe it's singing in the choir or you ushering or, you know,

it may be as complicated as being a, a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, a politician.

You, you see, God's got a strange, strange sense of humor

God calls us and we say, "I can't do that.

I, that, I don't have the gifts and graces to do that." And yet we find,

like Abram, that God continues to call when we're willing to respond and

to answer the call, to be able to go where we've never gone before, to do

what we've never done before, reaching out and, and giving ourselves away.

Sometimes the tasks are simple, and sometimes they're so complicated that we

can't even imagine how we could possibly do what we're being expected to do.

But God continues to call, and God even calls us here and now.

Sometimes it's here in the church, sometimes it's out in

the community, and sometimes it's in places we never imagined.

But God calls, and like Abram, the call is to respond, and to go, and to

become what God would have us to do.

I've got an exam for you now.

I want you to try something.

Take your hand, and then take a couple of fingers and just listen

there and can you feel something in that wrist go bump, bump, bump?

You, you can?

Any, anyone not able to hear that?

Oh, oh, okay.

You see, God's still calling, calling for you, for me, to become faithful

to whatever God would have us to do.

Calling and saying, "I've got a place for you.

I've got work for you.

I'll support you.

I will bless you.

Not so you can be great, but that you can be a blessing to others,

that you can give to others what you don't even know you have, that you

can give love and forgiveness and new life and hope to all the world."

Yeah, it's still beating, and the calling is still going out.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the sermon podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

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Grace and peace.