Changing the World One Blessing at a Time

Chapter 11, verse 25. One short little verse,

probably a short sermon, amen. Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 11:25

11, verse 25. If you've never read through the

Proverbs before, I would encourage you to do

so. There is some great wisdom in there, some

great instruction. If we would all live by the

Proverbs, we would all be a lot better off. So

I encourage you to read through those Proverbs

if you've never read them before. But this morning

we'll be in Proverbs chapter 11, verse 25. We'll

Proverbs 11:25

read the Scripture, then we will pray. will be

enriched and the one who waters will himself

be watered let's pray father god we come to you

today and i thank you for your good word and

god we thank you for the blessings that you give

to us and i pray god that we would not fail to

realize the blessings that we that we see daily

god some of them maybe are small and sometimes

go unnoticed, and maybe even sometimes, God,

there are big things that you bless us with.

But God, help us not to ever forget that you

are the one who blesses us and provides for us

and gives us mercy and takes care of us, dear

Lord. So I pray, God, that today that we would

all rejoice in your blessing, that we would continue

to experience your blessing in our daily life,

and God, that it would transform us. It would

transform our hearts. It would cause us to be

a people who would bless those that we encounter,

dear Lord, to share your love and to share your

grace and to share your mercy, dear Lord, to

maybe give people a little glimpse of hope in

this world that needs it. So I pray, God, that

in these few minutes that your Holy Spirit would

just speak to each one of us, take away any fear

or pride that's within me, dear Lord, today.

I pray that you would free us from the distractions

and the worries of the world. And in these few

minutes, your Holy Spirit would begin to do a

mighty work in our hearts. And I ask these things

in Jesus' name. Amen. It is a beautiful thing

in life when we realize that we are blessed by

God. Now maybe you all realize that today, or

maybe you don't. Maybe there are days that we

realize it more than others. Maybe you could

list a whole list of things this morning that

God has blessed you with. Maybe sometimes in

the hustle and bustle and the worries of life,

we overlook some of God's blessings. But it is

a great joy in our life when we realize that

there is a God who created us, who takes care

of us, who is with us. who leads us, who guides

us, and most importantly, who has sent his son,

Jesus Christ, to die on a cross that our sins

could be forgiven. That is the greatest blessing

we could ever receive, is that we would repent

of our sins and follow Jesus Christ. And when

we seek God, and when we realize who God is,

that God is the God of everything, and that there

is no good that comes... Apart from God, it is

a beautiful thing. It is a joy in our life when

we take a moment and we begin to pause and we

begin to see that we are blessed. Even from the

little things that we may take for granted. Our

air conditioning. What a blessing it is that

we can come here today. It's a few of you fanning.

I see that, but it could be a lot worse. The

little things like that that we just become so

accustomed to. We have vehicles to drive. Do

we all are going to eat food today? I hope we

are. I think we probably all are. If you're not,

let me know. We want to make sure you're going

to eat. But I expect we're all going to eat today.

Probably three meals and probably a snack in

between. I thought about that this morning. I

was in my office and I thought, here I got a

box of Cheez -Its and a Hershey bar. Here's some

people in the world that would kill for that.

And this is just my snack. This is just between

meals when I'm sitting there reading and I'm

thinking, I'm hungry, you know. It's the small

little things that sometimes we take for granted,

and we don't realize how blessed we are. We're

blessed that we have parents or grandparents.

We're blessed that we have spouses. We're blessed

that we have children. We're really blessed when

we have grandchildren. There are lots of blessings

that God brings in our life, and that brings

us a lot of joy. And if you haven't stopped to

count your blessings lately, then maybe this

afternoon you should. Because in the midst of

our world that comes with stress and pain and

heartache and depression and all that comes with

it, there is great joy when we pause for a moment

and realize that God has blessed us. I'll tell

you a great blessing that I'm thankful for is

this church. It is a blessing. to be part of

Enterprise Baptist Church. It is a blessing to

know you people. It is a blessing to serve alongside

you people. It is a blessing for us together

to serve the Lord. God has been good to us. And

God loves us, and that is evident in the hearts

of the people who are here. And there is great

joy that comes in the blessings of the Lord.

But what do we do with those blessings? Do we

bless those that we encounter? When we go out

into the world, if we are God's people and we've

experienced the joy of being blessed, then are

we blessing those that we encounter? We should

be. The scripture here says, whoever brings blessing

will be enriched. Perhaps on some level it's

speaking of material gain that God blesses us

with. And certainly sometimes he does. Certainly

God blesses us with material gain and sometimes

even great riches God blesses us with. And so

be it should that be God's will in our life.

But I think the real blessing that we receive

when we serve the Lord and we love others. The

real blessing that we receive is in the joy of

doing it. Jesus is quoted as saying in Acts chapter

Acts 20:35

20, verse 35, it is better to give than to receive.

Now, I suspect sometimes maybe our heart is not

right. And maybe we are tempted to think, well,

I want to give to somebody else because I want

God to give back to me tenfold. And our motivation

may be sometimes for our generosity. or our blessings

toward others is not from a right spot. But when

we do the Lord's will, and we do the Lord's work,

and we begin to bless others in our life, and

whatever means we may be able to, the real joy

comes from not what we get in return necessarily,

not in a materialistic way, but the real joy

comes from knowing that we have done the right

thing. And oftentimes the real joy comes from

seeing the person that you have helped. Now I'm

going to tell you guys, you know this, because

you all live in the world, you watch the news.

Our world is in a bad shape. Sometimes I really

begin to question humanity. I see people do some

things and I think, I don't have a lot of hope

for humanity. People do some stupid stuff. People

do some evil stuff. And sometimes I wonder, what

is the future going to hold for humanity? But

then I'm reminded of God. And God is good. And

God can change hearts. And God can change people.

And you know what? There may be more good people

in this world than you realize. God may be working

more than you realize. And our world can be so

overwhelming and depressing. But it's always

a beautiful thing when you see someone who is

a blessing to someone else or who is generous

to someone else. You know, sometimes I'll go

eat breakfast, and maybe you've had this experience

before. And I went just Saturday morning. I went

to eat breakfast Friday morning. And I was in

line, and there was a guy that went in before

me, and he was ordering, and he got through ordering,

and he said, and I want to pay for his too. I

didn't do nothing to deserve this guy to pay

for my breakfast. And little things like that

happen sometimes. People will do the littlest

things for you that are so insignificant. A $4

biscuit, not really too much. But when people

do those things in my life, and maybe in your

life too, it renews my hope for humanity. It

brings me a little joy. That someone was generous

enough and that cared enough to bless me. I'm

certainly not deserving of it. Sometimes I wonder

why God even blesses me so much. There are certainly

far more people in this world that are deserving

of blessings than myself. But yet God is so good

that he continues to bless us in spite of us.

And so I see the things that people do. Sometimes

they're the smallest things that you could ever

imagine. Sometimes it's when I go to the dollar

store and the lady behind the counter speaks

and smiles and says, how are you doing today?

Are you having a good day? I'm shocked. You know

why I'm shocked? Because most of them don't even

look up. They don't even pay you no attention.

You ask them a question, they just kind of grunt.

It's like you don't even know they're there,

you know? And sometimes I think, man, this world's

in a bad place. But then the smallest little

thing, just someone... speaking to you, it renews

my hope. And I think, man, I'm glad to see there's

somebody that cares about their job and that

cares about other people. And so maybe it's the

little things in our life that we can do to other

people. Maybe we can be a little bit of hope

to the people that we encounter. Maybe there

are ways that we can bless others today. Maybe

there are ways that we can help enrich the lives

of others today. If we've experienced the love

of God through Jesus Christ, if we've experienced

the hope through Jesus Christ, if we've experienced

blessing through Jesus Christ, then we need to

be those who are going into this world and who

are blessing others, not for some materialistic

gain that we can get in return, but because it's

the right thing to do. And you may discover in

your life, if you're not serving God and blessing

others, you may discover that you are missing

a lot of blessing in your life. Because there

is nothing greater than taking a little bit of

your time and a little bit of your money and

caring about someone just a little bit. There's

nothing better than doing that and seeing that

you bring a little bit of hope to somebody's

life. Now there are a lot of ways perhaps that

we could be generous. Maybe we could be generous

financially. Maybe God's blessed you and you're

doing good. Maybe you could afford to buy that

biscuit for that person behind you in line next

time you go through line. It might change their

day. You ever had something like that happen

to you before? You're just having the worst day

ever and somebody does the least little thing

and it instantly changes your attitude. Maybe

in the way that you interact with other people.

Maybe if the girl behind the counter at the dollar

store speaking to you makes your day better,

well, maybe if you spoke to her, it would make

her day better. Maybe nobody speaks to her and

ask her how her day is. Maybe you see the same

person every time you go to the grocery store.

Here's something cool. Maybe you could learn

their name. When you go in there, say, hey, Susie,

how you doing today? Those things make a difference.

It takes us very little effort to do those things,

but those things begin to make a difference in

people's lives. If you know somebody that's struggling,

wondering where their next meal will come from

or how they'll pay the light bill, you say, I

could pay a couple hundred bucks. I could help

them out. It might not even be that much to you,

but it may change their life. The little ways

in which we can be generous and we can bless

others may change their life. Because people

don't see that in the world today. You see the

evil. And there's plenty of good out there. I'm

not saying there's not. But that's what our world

needs to see is the love of Jesus Christ and

the generosity of Jesus Christ that comes in

us and overflows through us to those that we

encounter. We want our world to change. And maybe

God's going to send a great revival, and maybe

there's going to be some wonderful, magnificent

event that's going to just shake up everybody

at once. But then again, maybe God just wants

to use you to be generous to somebody else. Maybe

God wants to use you to just go love on somebody

else. We can be generous with our money, but

we can also be generous with our time. I say

this all the time, and I'll say it again, because

you need to do this, church, brother and sister

in Christ. There is no greater blessing to me.

You might not agree, but try it and let me know.

There is no greater blessing than when you go

see someone who is sick, who is bedridden, who

cannot leave their house, who has no company.

There is no greater blessing than to go and to

sit down, and to visit with someone. It ain't

about what you talk about. It's just about going

to see them. And you got people right now, you're

thinking about somebody's name, and you thought,

yeah, I need to go see that person. And you've

been thinking about that for five years. You

know, I should go see that person. Well, yeah,

you should. You should. You should go see them

this afternoon. You know what I hear when I go

visit a lot of people? A lot of them are older.

And I hear this all the time. They say, you know,

people used to go visit each other. They don't

anymore. I don't know why, but you should. But

you should go visit each other. And you can go

see the people you see all the time. You can

see the people you see here on Sunday. And that's

all well and good. But you need to go see the

people that everybody's forgotten about, that

have fallen through the cracks. And I've told

you guys this a lot, and I'm going to keep telling

you because this is a way in which we can minister

to these people and love on these people and

let them know that they're not forgotten. And

you know what that brings in their life? It brings

hope. That's what they need. That's what we need.

That's what our world needs. And I believe when

we bless others and people see our generosity,

we don't do it for us. We don't do it so we can

say I paid somebody's light bill or I went to

visit 17 people this week. We don't do it for

us. We do it because it's the love of God that's

in us. And that comes with great blessing to

the person that you minister to. And it might

even bring more blessing to you than it brings

to them. So perhaps in our world that is dark

and is dying, maybe one of the easiest ways that

we can begin to bring hope into our world today

is just by being kind to people, being generous

to people, being compassionate to people. Just

talking to somebody, just saying hey to somebody.

You know, you go up there and you're pumping

gas, you know, and you're looking straight ahead.

You're like, I'm going to watch this little screen

because there's this person here and I don't

want to look at them. I might accidentally make

eye contact and then they'll speak or I'll have

to speak. So I'm just going to look here, just

pretend like I'm busy. Well, maybe next time

you get gas, you just look over across the thing

and you say, hey man, how are you doing today?

That might blow somebody's mind. It's the little

things that I think renew hope for humanity.

Humanity's not that bad. I mean, sin is pretty

bad, and it's always been bad, but as long as

there are human beings, as long as God is at

work and he will continually be at work, there

is hope for us. And the Bible calls us to be

servants. It calls us to serve one another. And

here in this proverb, it talks about blessing.

It talks about generosity. Now, I would hope

that everybody in here has experienced the blessing

of God in some way, and I suspect you could all

give me at least one thing. But more importantly,

I hope that you've experienced the blessing of

forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. That's

what changes our heart. That's what changes our

attitude. That's what guides us and motivates

us to go and do the little things. So ask God

to show you those little things this week. Ways

in which you can be generous. And when God shows

you those ways, you go and you do it. You don't

make excuses. You can make excuses from now until

you die and miss the opportunities that God has

given you to be generous and to bless those around

you. So ask God to help you see, because sometimes

we don't see. Sometimes we're so selfish and

we're so focused on things in our own life. Sometimes

we just fail to miss the simple things. But never

take the little things for granted, because the

way you speak to someone, The meal you buy for

someone, the visit that you pay to someone, the

card that you mail to someone are things that,

quite frankly, will take very little effort on

your part, but they may change the life of somebody

you encounter. When people know that you love

them, it makes a difference. When people know

that you care about them, it makes a difference.

And when people know that you care about them

and you love them, they listen to what you have

to say. And when you show them the love of God,

when you show them the love of Jesus Christ,

you can share with them the love of Jesus Christ.

And they will listen. But they won't have to

listen to your words because they would have

already seen it in your actions. And that generosity

and that blessing that you bring to others that

you encounter, it may very well change the world.

Let's pray. God, we thank you for your good word.

We thank you for the many blessings you give

us. We thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you

for loving us when we are unlovable. We thank

you for the joy that we receive through your

words. We thank you for the joy that we receive

through the blessings that we have through you,

the blessing of your presence, the blessing of

your love, the blessing of your grace, the blessing

of your forgiveness, dear Lord. And God, that

gives us who are in Christ hope. And so I pray,

dear Lord, in our hope and what we are blessed

with, God, that we would be faithful to bless

those we encounter. that you would help us, dear

Lord, to see areas in our life that we could

be generous in ways that we could be a blessing

to others, ways that we may not even realize,

dear Lord. We often don't even realize the impact

that the things that we do will have on people,

dear Lord. So I pray that you would help us to

see those opportunities in which you want us

to serve. I pray, God, that you would help us

to be a blessing. to help us to be generous to

those we encounter. God, maybe there is one today

that we need to go visit. Help us to go love

on them, dear Lord. Maybe there are some today

we can help financially. Maybe there's a little

act of kindness, dear Lord. Maybe it's speaking

a kind word, God. Whatever it may be, God, I

pray. that you would help us to see those opportunities

in which your generosity can overflow through

us and let that overflow this week. And I pray,

dear Lord, that through the actions we do, we

never do it for our glory, but only for your

glory, only for your kingdom. And I pray, dear

Lord, that the world will see the hope of Jesus

Christ through the love that overflows through

us. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.