Digging Ditches - Blessed to Bless

Head the wrong direction.

My bad.

It's okay.

What's up, everybody?

I hope everybody's good.

I am still wiping the sleep out of my eyes.

I was totally went.

I'm gonna be honest, I went dadmo this afternoon so hard.

Nasal to hate nasal, good Lord, to tell you how tired I was.

Hazel, Hazel was so cranky, and um I was like, oh, I volunteer's tribute.

I'll go put her down for a nap, and my lord, did she put me down for a nap?

Ange came running there at 6 30.

It's 6 30.

And I was like, yeah, so she's at his two.

I was like, oh my gosh.

So I jumped up, but no, uh I I I love being a dad sometimes, you know.

Um you other dads out there, you've done it too, you know you have.

So I don't feel bad about it.

Um, but no, so I think Sunday, man, uh thank you guys so much for your response Sunday and um just leaning into this series.

I do want to I do want to start by saying um definitely not a series of correction.

Um I don't think I don't think it's it it's that.

I think it's just sometimes things are better left unsaid, and then sometimes when things go unsaid, like we talked about with culture, um we it creates a culture that's not, and so I think God's just setting a gentle reminder, this is who we are, um, and then also just some correct a course correction for the future, this is who we're gonna be, and we're gonna stay this way.

Uh so as we go through this again, you know, just every week, uh remember this is not particularly pointed at anybody or anything.

Um, this is just God, God just directing.

Um, if we really are gonna have this house filled, um, we're gonna do it the right way, and we're gonna do it his way, and we're gonna make sure that as we flow through, one of the biggest things that we talked about this week, we're not gonna be a reservoir.

We're not gonna hold on to people, we're not gonna hold on things, we're gonna steward every person, every resource, every ounce of time that we have, our time, talent, and treasure.

Um, but we're gonna we're gonna do and we're gonna bless and we're gonna send as God asked us to.

And so, like we did, we've been doing on Tuesdays, we've been talking about uh Sundays in practicality.

Remember, God's blessing was never meant to terminate with me.

Uh, what God pours into me, he intends to flow through me.

Remember, we're all uh called Paul, um, it could be wrong, but one of the apostles in the writings in the uh in the in the in his letters calls us living vessels.

And so that's we have to stay that way, right?

What's a vessel meant to do?

It's meant to carry and it's meant to pour out.

So everything that God pours into us as a blessing, our goal is to turn around and pour back out one way or another.

Um, remember, God told Abraham, I will bless you, so you'll be a blessing.

So we've got to remember, we a lot of times we pray that prayer of Abraham over our lives and over our family, but we have to remember what that blessing was for.

God blessed Abraham so that Abraham would turn around and be a blessing to the nations.

Not that he would just father the nations and he would be the, you know, he would be the precursor, you know, you're gonna be the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob.

You're the first in the series of three.

That's how awesome is that?

But Abraham had at some point one or another had to come along the way that God's blessing me and raising me, that I that all of that I'm I all that I'm accumulating, all the progress that I'm making, everything that I'm doing, it's for me to give away.

Because one day I'm gonna go be with God, and none of this stuff's gonna be with me.

Genesis 12 and 2, that's that's that's uh where we're talking about again the the the notice of the movement.

I'll bless you so you'll be a blessing.

That destination was beyond Abraham.

And tonight, I'm not gonna go totally over Sunday message again.

We're gonna ask the big question, what does it look like to actually live as a channel of God's blessings?

Because again, it's possible to receive from God and then never learn how to release what we received.

I think we've all had that lesson in our life before.

I think we've all been there before.

And it is scary.

You get a you've that you've prayed for something to God so long, you get that blessing, and sometimes it's been weeks, it's been months, some of us it's been years, and that God turns around and asks us to trust him with that blessing one more time, hand it back to him, just like Abraham did with Isaac.

It's scary, but what's on the other side of it is so much greater than the initial.

So we're gonna bring this back.

Let's go back to the whole concept and uh uh of digging those ditches out that we've been talking about in 2 Kings 3, 16 through 20.

That's what we've been keeping going back to it, keep going back to it.

Why?

God sent the water, Israel prepared somewhere for it to flow, and then there's something important about the ditch.

The ditch isn't designed to simply hold the water.

You you know this at your house.

I hate, I absolutely hate when the ditch holds water in my house.

Why?

Because it after a while it smells, there's probably something in it, and now that I have kids, my kids want to play in it.

Um, I see why my parents told me not to play in the ditch when I was younger.

Because now my kids are doing it at me.

But um what it's not meant to hold water.

It's meant to push the water along in drainage, right?

That water does I don't want that accumulate in my yard.

I don't want it sitting up and then all that stuff.

I want it to move off to the bigger drainage ditch, and that drainage ditch goes into some small canal, and that canal somewhere flows in the river where it's supposed to go.

It's designed to move water somewhere it wasn't before.

Um, and that's that's the big idea.

That's the picture here.

God blesses us because he intends for his blessings to move.

And the goal isn't simply to be full, the glow, the goal is to overflow.

Um, God isn't just a God of enough, right?

He said, I come that you have life and life more.

There you go.

Cat caught on that.

I like that.

Um I finally had my first classes today, too, by the way.

So like I'm getting back into teaching mode.

So if I go like super teacher, that's what it is.

Classes were cool.

Um my first class, supposed to have seven students, and only three were there.

Um, so that was a real easy class, and then the next class, um, they have a really great mini arts teacher we're at, so kind of get to co-teach that.

Um, and then there was only four, four out of five in there.

So uh really, really good, um, really first day, anyways.

I told you to do.

I'm told squirrel today.

Somebody's gonna have to catch me and ring me in.

Um, but the goal isn't simply to be full.

We live out of overflow, right?

God gives us uh life and life more abundantly.

God's not gonna fill you right up to the bram and say, uh, that's it.

Again, that vessel is meant to pour out.

So what does he do?

He keeps pouring in and pouring in, and you're supposed to let that overflow pour out in other people's lives, first into your marriage, to your children, and then out of your home and beyond that.

So we want to make sure that we leave room and leave capacity and leave permission.

I know that sounds weird to say, but leave permission for God to keep pouring into our lives.

And the permission for God to keep pouring into our lives is the permission that we're saying we're gonna release at the same time.

It's really hard to catch a blessing with an open hand and then try to hold on, hold on at the same time.

You keep going like this, like when your kids keep saying, Gimme, give me, give me, at some point when their hands are full, you can't you can't give them anything else, but they're still saying, Give me.

Well, God wants us to bless because with open, uh, He wants to bless us with open hands because we're gonna turn around and we're gonna give that back.

We can't hold on forever to what God gives us.

So think about this for a minute, and I'm again being really self-introspective here.

Um start thinking about and recognizing what you've been given.

What has God given you in terms of uh physical things?

What has God given you spiritually?

What has God given you in your marriage?

What has God given you your family?

Because before I can become a blessing, I have to recognize that I actually have something to give.

And immediately, this is where everybody's thoughts go to money, but blessing is so much larger than money.

God's entrusted you with time.

We all have the same as that.

God's entrusted you with experience, and now that comes in many different forms and shapes, and there's many, many, many experiences that are represented here.

Um vast backgrounds, different skills, knowledge, spiritual gifts.

There's lots of those, and not one person has all of those.

So you need everybody, every person, because together we represent all those spiritual gifts.

Um, relationships and connections.

Um, people are connected in this room, are connected to so many, so many different people.

We may have people that are cross connections, but there's people that you can reach that I can't reach, and now there's people that I can reach that you can't reach.

Um resources, uh, there's testimonies, encouragement, hospitality, influence, compassion, all of those things are blessings.

Somebody said, somebody may say, I don't have much, but the kingdom isn't how much do you have, it's really what has God placed in your hands.

It's not how much do you have, it's what has God placed in your hands.

Because that's at the end of the day, at the end of days, really what we are gonna get, we're what we're gonna account for.

Um God's gonna ask, what have you done, what have you done with what I've given you?

And again, this goes back to the principle that with who who is trusted with little can be trusted with much.

God, at the at the end of days, if you really look at it, is probably the model for for for, and he is, uh but but for for a businessman, and I would say in some degree a savage businessman, because he's he's dealing with something that's so much greater than just like here's here's a business, or even more so, here's a family business that we want to continue for generations to provide for our family.

He's dealing with the business of eternity, and there are there there is no play in that.

He's more concerned about souls, and he's more concerned about the the the lives and the of people, and so God's not really gonna squander resources.

God's not gonna, God, not, God's not gonna make mistakes with it.

And so when he chooses us and he blesses us to invest in that, God's God's trusting us.

A he's blessing us because he's our heavenly father and he wants to take care of us, but also he's entrusting us because covenant, that covenant promise is us coming together and he's working with us and offering us priesthood and a place in this.

And so it's it's it's twofold what he's doing.

He's trusting us, uh, he's blessing us as a dad, would bless his children because he wants us to be taken care of, right?

But also in the same breath, he's saying, Hey, I want to bring you back into covenant.

I want to bring you into relationship, I want to you to be holy and walk in that royal priesthood.

And what is that priesthood?

That's in service with him to his kingdom.

And so God's bringing us not just, hey, I want to bless you and take care of you, my children, but I want to raise you up as my children, and I want to bring you into the family business.

I want to bring you into this, and I want to trust you with what I have.

Um, and so that's again, there's so many purposes he blesses us.

1 Peter 4 and 10 says this, as every man has received a gift, even so minister the same one to another.

Again, notice the movement Peter's talking about receiving, ministering.

Sometimes what I what I receive becomes the very thing that I end up stewarding.

Sometimes the blessing that I receive becomes the very thing that I have to manage and I have to look out for.

Why?

Because eventually that testimony is gonna have to reach somebody else.

That blessing is gonna have to move beyond me to somebody else.

Blessing becomes stewardship the moment that it reaches my hands.

When God heals my body, after a time, it's gonna have to turn around where I start either witnessing about it or I start praying for people to get healed in the same manner in which I was healed.

Um, if if God blessed my family financially, that you know, uh like we we we talk about in the old days where people just open up their door and there's groceries there and you didn't know how groceries were gonna get there in the week, that you either one or two things, you start witnessing about that, or you're gonna God's gonna bless you so much that you're gonna be that person that ends up putting groceries on somebody else's steps.

You see where I'm going with this?

That whatever God blesses us with is in this some way, some way and format and shape, and how it's gonna be part of how we minister to people and how we we bring the gospel forward because A, he loved us as his child, but B, he's saying, I need to bring, I'm bringing you into the family brace, I'm bringing you into priesthood, I'm bringing you into this.

And so let me show you and load it feels like, let me show you what that love looks like, but now I'm asking you to bring that to somebody else.

And so that's where we shape that that that that ditch and flowing it.

So now talking about how do we keep that clean?

How do we how do we keep that blessing mentality?

And we have to remove that mind mentality.

Remember the seagulls on finding Nemo?

Mine, mine, mine.

You remember your kids when they were little?

Mine and no were their favorite words.

Um Hazel's in that no and mind phase right now.

Um, you know, kind of just kick maverick out of it, and now so we got another one in it.

But uh that's that's where things get clogged up as we have God pours into our lives, and somewhere along the way, that gift becomes a possession.

We have to constantly say that mindset that it was never mine in the first place.

That blessing, that that monetary value, that extra time from the healing, um, any of those things.

We can't get into the mindset, well, that's now it's my time, it's my money, it's my house, it's my talent, it's my ministry, it's my experience, it's my position.

Notice, notice where that goes, my, my, my, my, my, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

But scripture teaches continual stewardship.

It's that I own nothing independently of God.

We that's again, that goes back to the very principle of tithing.

It's not that, it's not that God absolutely needs the 10%.

No, he doesn't.

But when we give the 10%, it's showing we actually trust him with the full 100% that when we give the 10%, he can make that 90% more than the 100% ever was.

And so the same is the principle that that's why that's why that's why tithing is taught, is because it teaches another principle of stewardship.

It is complete dependence on God, that we have nothing independently of him.

And so if we do it with our finances, we gotta do we we need to find a way to do it with our time and our treasure, uh, our time and our talent if we're if we're uh investing our treasure there.

I just simply manage what belongs to him.

I manage what belongs to him.

Matthew 10 and 8.

Um, he says, this freely you have received, so freely give.

If it's been given to you freely, then the expectation is turn around, hey, freely give it away.

Jesus connects giving directly to remembering what you've you've received.

And so generosity begins with memory.

You've got to remember what it felt like to receive that blessing.

You've got to remember what it was like to pray for that blessing and to pray for that miracle and to be at that place of dependence and desperation.

I'm not saying we should be desperate all the time, but there should be, there should be, there should be some way or another in the memory, like in our memory, um, and be able to call it in prayer.

Um guys, if you journal um at any sense or any degree, sometimes uh sometimes we just naturally forget things over time.

And maybe, maybe something that we need to do is as God blesses us is just simple you know, write one or two short lines about it with a date so that we can go back.

One, for one reason, that when we feel discouraged, we can look back and it's well, God really has blessed me.

But two, um, it also shows us, hey, there is a lot for me to turn around and start blessing people with.

Um, we have to we have to commit it to memory one way or another.

Um, and when I remember how God has how gracious he's been towards me, I become more willing to extend grace towards somebody else.

Um the language that Paul uses when he's writing, he says he calls himself a chief among sinners, right?

But at this point, Paul's building churches and and raising up people, yet he still he still keeps it in perspective.

I am a sinner, still yet saved by grace.

We've got to remember that that truly salvation doesn't happen the moment that we receive the uh the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Acts 238 formulas up.

There's really a whole life beyond that.

Salvation and the end of it happens when he calls us home, whether it's out of the grave or it's or it or the trump, we have we hear the trumpet sound.

Um, that that's where it is.

So it the whole time in between, it's we're still sinners yet saved by grace.

Now, I mean, yeah, we don't go bragging around, yeah, I'm I'm I'm a sinner, but we keep that perspective that God's grace is why I wake up every morning.

God's grace is why I can be a part of the ministry that I'm in every uh that I that I get to be a part of.

God's grace is why I have the house that I have, the family that I have, the husband, the wife, the kids that I have.

God's grace.

And if we can keep that perspective, again, it backs off the mind mentality and places us in a place of humility that truly I am dependent for him on everything.

When I remember who prayed for me, I can pray for somebody else.

When I remember who taught me, I can use that to teach somebody else.

When I remember who made room for me at a table that I had no business being at and called me up and called me to greater things, then I can do the same thing.

I can call out talent in people, I can call out the call of God in people, I can invite them to tables that they may not be ready yet.

But if in calling that ignition might start something in their life.

And then when I can remember who is patient with me when I when I wasn't quite patient, then I can be patient with a spiritual baby.

Here's the danger of becoming a reservoir.

A reservoir says, How much can I keep?

Um, how many of you guys have seen the Hoover Dam in person?

It's ginormous, isn't it?

It's it's like you look over it and it's whoa.

Um that's that's that's a type of reservoir, right?

Um it it keeps that water there where it wasn't there once.

Like God didn't make that lake there.

We made that lake there because we built a ginormous dam.

And so it's saying, how much water can I keep for the area?

Like the towns and all that stuff wouldn't exist right without there, right?

And so that's the idea of a reservoir is how much can I keep on hand?

How much can I can I can I stop the flow that I keep it here?

But a channel asks, where does it need to go?

And this is this is where we have to be careful.

There are blessings that God gives to you, and there are blessings that God gives through you.

Wisdom is learning the difference and navigating those two.

There are sometimes there are blessings that God gives to you, and then there's blessing that God gives through you.

And we have to we have to constantly stay in prayer and communication with God.

What what is what is what is the blessing to me, but what is the blessing that I'm supposed to hand away in this?

And so that helps keep that clean and keep that process in our hearts and minds, um, constantly working towards it.

And if we want to expand the ditch, expand that idea, expand where that channel is going to go, we have to increase our capacity to bless people.

And that's not exactly how you think it would go in the kingdom of God.

Remember, the kingdom of God's a little backwards.

How's the capacity?

How do we increase our capacity to bless?

We we by giving away.

Because if we're emptying the vessel, we're making room for God to fill it back up.

If you're looking for God to move in your life, start giving away.

Go, one thing you can do right now, go clean out your house.

I imagine there's toys, there's clothes, there's things in your house that you have in abundance because God has blessed you and begin to just give it away.

Whether you go donate it, there's nothing wrong with donating it.

Um, if you can't find somebody, because the principle stays the same.

But if you can find somebody who's in need, if you can find a family who needs those secondhand clothes, if you can find a family who needs that extra food in your pantry, if you can find a family who needs it, watch what happens as you begin to go and you take inventory, because that's what you're doing, right?

You're looking, oh my gosh, we actually are in excess.

God has richly blessed us.

That's why oftentimes you see principles, uh, print uh scripture and uh principle and scripture where many times he has God, God has the people, has the person, or has the family take inventory before he does a miracle and a work.

Why?

Because he wants them to see first how much a reminder of how much he's already blessed them, how much his power and his providence has already been in place.

But then remember what he does with Gideon.

He tells them take inventory and then he tells them to start cutting numbers.

Why?

God doesn't need the excess and the blessing and the abundance that he's given us to bless people.

He needs us to realize the lesson through it.

Many times the miracles and the messages and every the blessings and everything that that that God did, whether in the Old Testament or New Testament, were not just for the person for it was.

Oh, that would be awesome if more Reese's came in.

I'm hungry.

Um, what happens if more leaders come in?

Not just people.

What happened if if more people come in who don't necessarily need to be fixed up?

Maybe they're coming in from other backgrounds and God's calling them here to help and they have leadership potential and they they're they're ready to go.

What happens if God gives us more influence in the city and in the area?

What happens if God gives us more families?

What happens if God gives us more spiritual children?

We don't just expand merely so we can contain more.

Again, we expand so then we can distribute more.

We gotta we've gotta get this.

idea out that we just want to pull up and just build this massive church and this massive congregation.

Um because again we're called to give we're blessed to bless.

Second Corinthians 9 and 8 says this and God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.

Again look at the principle and the flow here God supplies we have sufficiency and we abound towards good works.

Ultimately God is the source.

Once we keep catching on to that we've got to keep catching on that God is ultimately the supply we have sufficiency because of that.

And then because we have sufficiency because God supplies we then abound towards good works.

God isn't simply increasing the standard of living he's increasing their capacity for kingdom impact.

And then 2 Corinthians and it's again the same chapter going down verse 10 through 12 Paul continues by describing God's power God supplying seed to the sower.

Why even give seed to a sower?

Because a sower releases it.

That's the person who goes in the field and pokes the little holes and goes and sows the seed carefully.

Why?

Because they release it.

God's not going to go just give somebody seed who's going to go bake them all and turn them into sunflower seeds and eat them.

You know sometimes it's okay to have the excess sunflower seeds are good.

Pumpkin seeds are good.

But at the end of the day you can't eat all of them you got to plant something so that way you can turn around and have more sunflowers have more pumpkins have more tomatoes have whatever the fruit needs to be and God's the same way.

The church needs the spiritual fruit why what's fruit for fruit's not the the the apple tree doesn't need the apple to feed itself right that's not what it's for the apple itself is a fruit that it is the fruit that we eat is really a containment for the seed that when it falls to the ground all that stuff around it is going to feed that seed so it can grow into an apple tree.

So God never made fruit and and so again remember whatever's whatever's done in in in nature reflects the supernatural right so the fruit that we eat that we love um I I I lately the kick around the house has been um what are those little oranges?

You know I'm talking about the come in the bag that little halo mandarin mandarin oranges yeah yeah that's been the kick around our house lately like we we we love those I'll find myself waking up at midnight and I'll I'll go in the kitchen and those are on the counter I'll end up eating you know two or three of them.

But like and the kids love them and everything but those those mandarin oranges aren't meant to feed the mandarin orange tree.

It's meant for for me and for my kids.

And so if God made that in the natural supply us spiritual fruit is the same way.

The spiritual fruit that you develop is not for you it's not going to feed you because oftentimes it costs you something it becomes of your hard work and your labor that spiritual fruit that you're developing is for somebody else.

And so the spiritual fruit that we develop in this house by by all the different people by all the the different gifts of the spirit and all the fruits of the spirit being available they will feed the house but there's going to be excess from it and fruit spoils after a while.

And so that's again the principle we can't hold on to everything.

We need every fruit of the spirit in this house we need every gift of the spirit at work in this house but what we're producing and we're teaching people to increase in it and guys God teaches us to increase in our development and our growth we got to start releasing that out of the house.

Again that's what sowing does we've got to take that and and give it away because once we start planting that and growing that in other people and calling it out in other people God will keep God will keep God will keep releasing it to them.

And so if I eat everything God intended me to sow that I've misunderstood the blessing God's not God's not in the business of us being starving and miserable but he's also not us being in the business of being so fat and happy that we do we don't do anything.

God's not an American economist.

He wants us to to to be fed and to be taken care of obviously physically but also spiritually and in the spiritual context he wants us to be fed but the excess that we have is that we turn around and we bless others with it.

So again back to this idea that blessing is more than money because it easily sounds like blessed to bless as they turn around and to be a giving lesson again this is this is much bigger well you have to open up your table invite somebody in hospitality is kingdom ministry.

What do they do in Acts what do they do in Acts 242?

Peter Peter Peter preaches the message of Pentecost we see that 3000 are added in one day and what do they do?

They go house to house they go breaking bread um I mean my gosh that is like the most Pentecostal southern Christian thing every they go to house bread breaking breaking bread uh and why because in Jewish society the table the table is actually like a very sacred place and I don't mean it as in terms that's where you know they they they conduct their worship or they would they would they would conduct the sacrifice.

No it's because at the table it was very personal.

They whoever you sat with the table you were level with so either it was you know parents talking to their children grandparents pouring into their grandchildren it was neighbor neighboring guests or even guests from somebody who was traveling and you sat down and what they would do is again that Shema that we talked about here O Israel the Lord our God is one and all those scriptures afterwards they would conduct that at the table daily they would talk about the stories of old they would talk about how Moses uh God God God used Moses to split the Red Sea they would talk about the exodus of their people they would talk about the power of God how he led them in the day by a cloud and a pillar of fire by night they would recite that daily at the table they would talk about that impact in their life what they thought they would they would ask their kids what they thought about that.

And so the table became a very very loving and sacred space so when they went table to table house to house house to house table to table talking about what God had done in the upper room they were inviting God into that sacred space and then once they started inviting people to that uh because the hospitality was there because the love and the warmth was already there those people were open to receiving the promise that God had for them and so open your schedule make time for somebody who needs discipleship it can start with your table and you'll find out at your table that somebody really may want to serve God and really may love God with all their heart but they just don't understand it.

We were all spiritual babies once the table is a such a sacred space because if we if we truly do ministry right if we truly do ministry right like the Bible talks about then there will be vulnerable questions that are opened up at the table that God will equip you to answer.

Sometimes the people in your lives are looking for answers and looking but looking for a way to ask them a lot of times people are so nervous and so worried about well what are they going to think about my Christianity what are they going to believe about my relationship with God and truth be told nine times out of ten we've probably had that question in our life before and we've struggled with it and we've wrestled with it and somebody opened their table up to us that we were able to talk about it.

Again God is just simply asking that we turn that around and we do that.

So open up your schedule you'll find somebody has those questions um a Bible study does not mean it has to be oh how good good God how long is search for truth um and and when it's when it's taught just as it was intended to be it's like almost a year long Bible study right because they have the one and two parts and oftentimes it turns into I think it's a 12 week or anyway it oftentimes it turns into almost a whole year process if you know what I'm talking about search for truth.

But let's think it that doesn't have to be you don't have to do that formal of a Bible study.

When somebody's at your table and they have questions you can just say okay let's meet at this time whether it's for coffee or you come back over to the house and we'll talk about those things that's a Bible study because you're studying scripture because you're going to have to go now you're going to have to ask God how do I answer them for their personality?

How do I answer them that I not offend them how do I answer them because I may not have all the answers to this question.

So it's forcing you to grow so now you're getting blessed while you're blessing somebody God's cultivating growth in you and he's giving you mana to give to somebody else so we open up our tables we open up our schedules open up your experience again at the table you might find that somebody's walking through exactly what you went through early in your marriage early in parenthood early in your career and you can share that with somebody and you don't know just what that one meal can do to change their life and then guys open your mouth encourage people bless people testify and that's not even at the meal or at the table just encourage people bless people with with with your words testify what does Proverbs say that the power of life and death is within the tongue begin to speak life over people begin to speak encouragement to them even if they're not doing a great job yet even if they don't have it right yet how many times have we told our kids that you're doing a wonderful job and that artwork looks so good but it it looks like an absolute turd it's because do the same thing with spiritual babies.

Encourage them they need it it might be a big deal for them to come consistently two weeks in a row for us that's normal because we've developed that walk but for them to come on time consistently two weeks in a row you praise the fire out of them for it because again they're not at this they're not at the they're not at the same level maturity that we are so bless them call out the good things in their lives call out the good things and call out things as what as what they could be prophesy to them.

That's what you are your cast in vision open your hands guys meet practical needs when you're able if it's financially do it.

Again if it if it's you know somebody's short on clothes for their boys and and you you just went through the closets or you go through the closets be practical about it.

However you can meet the need meet it if they need if they're if they're short and you can just you can't provide the finances for food but you can show up with a hot meal at their house do it open up your spiritual gifts don't bury what God gave you they're not treasures to be tucked away and locked away use it for the body and remember everybody out there is it is meant to be in the body of Christ he died for them he has a place for them in the body so serve the people here obviously but serve them as well and again your blessing should reach somebody move from intention to practice here's here's here's the danger everybody wants to be a blessing but blessing is an intention blessing has a recipient um that what um my pastor used to say that that that hell is hell is paved hell the road to hell is paved with good intentions we can intend to do things all we want to and we can talk about it and talk about it and talk about it at some point or another the rubber has to meet the road and we have to take this step or maybe for some of us it feels like a leap but we got to take that leap of faith I've got I've got to try I've got to see something I think in our heart of hearts we all want to do it we want to be a blessing.

We want to help uh reach people we want to help see people grow we want to see spiritual babies mature and we talk about it a lot but when it comes to the step of actually doing it we get choked up and we get nervous what if I don't do it right what if I don't speak into their life right what if I don't teach them it just you know what if I'm not perfectly theologically correct when when trying to explain something for the Bible Bible about them.

Again it has a recipient so but we just have to we just have to come back to what is actually what is actually being blessed because God who is actually being blessed because God blessed me and so just get off the theoretical seat and get into the practical who and ask God that question when you pray.

Sometimes we don't have things from God because we don't ask him practically and I'm I'm not just talking about in sense of blessing for us but we need to pray specific prayers God who God orders the steps of a righteous man.

He doesn't direct lost people lost people are lost because they're lost they don't have that spiritual GPS they don't have the Spirit of God living inside of them directing them saying hey I need you to go here I need you not to go here I need you to say this I need you not to say this so when we pray that should be a part of our prayer God who today who today do you want me to run into at the grocery store who today do you want me to to reach at the school who today at work who today God one person let me just start with one person because again once we once we when we're in the realm of the theoretical we feel like it should be hundreds of people and every person that we come in contact to with you know what you grow into that you grow into being the kind of person that every person they talk to that somehow you bring that up in conversation that's developed over time they're there that you're not automatically born with that and people who even are fantastic evangelists and you you you you you you like it's the kind of people that you invite to come to churches to kind of have a crusade type service to focus on that that even for them if you sit down and talk with them that was developed over time they they naturally have charismatic personalities um they're they're naturally people people but there's still something in them that God had to develop to bring that time does that make sense and so what what we've got to do is again move out of the theoretical move to the practical what's practical one person God who's my person today who who's who's the target today who are you saying order my steps to them to minister to them and what does that blessing look like God again if you ask God for specific things he's going to start answering specifically and when we start focusing our prayers and I'm not saying again don't don't get this don't don't don't get this confused don't stop asking God for what you need and praying for your needs and praying for your praying for your your marriage praying for your family praying for your grandchildren praying for all that stuff don't stop add this to your prayers God I know you're gonna take care of me in all these things so I've I and and you've blessed and then and then remind yourself God you've blessed me with with the house you've blessed me with this job you've blessed me with all this stuff now who am I supposed to bring it to and again start with one person start with that that that who's gonna be the recipient today who am I blessing because God has blessed me whose life is easier think about it whose life is easier because you're in it?

Who knows Jesus better because you invested in them?

Who's received encouragement because you noticed them and you noticed the small thing in their spiritual development who had a meal because you opened up your table not just a spiritual meal a physical meal who learned to serve because you brought them alongside you who discovered their gifting because you encouraged it and you saw it and you you saw it may have been a little bit covered in dirt but you helped them you you saw it and you called it out at them who is restored because you refused to give up on them that's where blessing gets out of the theoretical and becomes practical and tangible and so this is what church is for the water has to leave the house that blessing has to leave.

So last week we we we kind of we got we we we talked about healthy church and healthy church culture but a healthy church cannot become the destination of everything that God pours out because if all the water stays inside the house we miss the purpose inside the ditch it becomes a it a reservoir a dam.

It becomes what happens when water backs up and stays there for a long time it gets stagnant.

We don't want the fruit to grow stagnant we don't want the fruit to rot we don't want the water to become stagnant here we want a rip a river of living water.

Isaiah 58 10 through 11 talks about God's people pouring themselves out for others awesome you got it and if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted then again notice he talks if you do then this happens then your light shall then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong and you shall be like a watered guardian like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

That's some powerful imagery that he that he talks about in there that's fascinating as they pour out God keeps supplying that they give God keeps replenishing the channel doesn't just become empty because water stops flowing from the source here here here here here's what we have to you don't you don't have to be the source when you're connected to the source sometimes it's in it is it is very intimidating to try to reach for people and try to supply the need for people because in our human mindset we're like oh my gosh I cannot be everything for that person.

Let's wipe that off the board now you can never be everything for that person because if we truly stay humble in God's presence we realize we're never at we're never the everything for our marriage we're never the everything for our children we're never the everything in our ministry why because ultimately he's the source and if God is entrusting me with someone to bless them in some way some manner some shape somehow whether it's encouragement it's a meal whatever that looks like then the source is going to ultimately provide this is why we can live open handed.

Sometimes yeah it hurts to give because that we we in our flesh because we're still wrapped in it our flesh will constantly contest well if you give that deeply this week you'll cut into this or you'll do this if you open up your schedule too much you might you might be invited into it.

You know what at the end of the day if we trust the source he'll direct the rest of that if we're constantly going back to the source God who am I supposed to bless who am I supposed to love who am I supposed to who am I supposed to be for today then God will turn around and he'll keep directing those steps he'll keep providing he'll make sure the time's there he'll make sure the money's there he'll make sure the resources there'll make sure all that's there if we just open up the floodgates and we just let that pour out from our lives so some practical questions to begin to ask ourselves when you hear God has blessed me what do you immediately think about what's the first thing that comes to mind and I hope this broadens a little bit your eyes beyond just just what has God blessed me with financially when God when you hear the words God has blessed me what do you immediately think about is it because he healed you is it because he saved your marriage is it because of the home that you have or the career that you have or any of those other things none of those things are wrong answers.

Because again blessing goes beyond finances and so who blessed you spiritually when you were first learning to walk with God so some of us we gotta think we got to think a little far back for that but who are some of those people that blessed you when you first were learning to walk with God and what did they give you did they give you time did they give you patience did they give you knowledge maybe they gave you opportunity number three ask this what what has God placed in your hand right now that could bless somebody else what's in your hand right now that you could use to bless somebody else and then here's here's a real here's a real check number four where are we tempted to become reservoirs instead of channels where's the place in your spiritual walk that is the hardest place to give out of and again not not not correction because this is something that we constantly have to evaluate it'll move around in your life in some seasons of your life it will be finances in some seasons of your life it will be time in some seasons of your life it will be resources where right now in your walk with God are you tempted to become a reservoir instead of a channel where where are you worried about giving from right now again time talent treasure where what are the what are those areas and so number five if God doubled right now what he's entrusted you with would twice as much blessing flow out or we just simply accumulate twice as much self-evaluation is probably the hardest thing to do right um that's why scripture talks about it it's like when a man he he you put a you put a mirror in front of a man's face he sees he sees the problem the issue but as soon as you take it away uh he forgets about it because we don't like to look at those things we don't like oftentimes when the spirit turns it like we're we're okay when when God convicts other people in the room but when he turns the mirror on us we're like ooh I don't want to see that but what God does again the same voice that speaks conviction is the same voice that speaks love.

God's not do God's not God's not gonna God's not gonna go through and this is not he's not like sitting down for a financial audit on all the stuff that you have and like you're horrible at managing your resources.

I'm gonna take it all away God loves you too much for that and again God's opulent like I don't even know how much the cattle of a thousand hills would be worth but I'm pretty sure it's worth a lot and that's a lot of cattle to count that's a lot to calculate and the way that scripture describes God is just simply opulent which means God is so rich and has so much resource there's not even a number to put to it there's not even a value to put to it.

Why?

Because he created it all and so how big are we to think that that if God really is going to come in it's kind of spiritually audit our lives that he's gonna take it all away no he's just gonna say okay I've got plenty left I'm gonna give to somebody else I'm gonna trust somebody else to do the work so when when when God holds that up to our lives and asking us what can we bless other people with what can we do he's not sitting down it's like all right time for the punishment decard to come out you have been blessing other people with this I'm gonna take it away and you've been blessed that's not how it works.

He's gonna say okay here's your progress report I'm going to check back in with you.

We've had this conversation.

I want you to open up your home more.

I want you to open up some time more.

Have you been working on it?

And God will continue, like a good father does, will help us with that each and every time that we go to Him with it.

So again, here's some covenant practices.

Again, these aren't the five ways to get blessed.

No, don't think of it like that.

These are practices of people who've understand what they've been blessed with.

Practice gratitude.

Everybody say gratitude.

Remember regularly what you've received.

Grateful people become generous people.

Practice hospitality.

Everybody say hospitality.

Gotta make room for people at your table, in your schedule, in your life.

Practice generosity.

Everybody say generosity.

Hold your resources loosely.

Take care of what you've got, but hold your resources loosely.

Remember where the source is.

Everybody say discipleship.

Practice discipleship.

Give away what you've learned.

Again, if this is not just about what we can give in terms of monetary value.

Give away what you've learned.

There is somebody eager to learn what you've learned.

And then everybody say availability.

Practice availability.

Start asking, Lord, who needs what you've placed in me today?

Again, wake up in the morning and ask God, who's my person today?

And so if we zoom out on all this, we've dug the ditch of the heart.

We've dug, we've talked, we've dug the ditch of marriage, we've dug one for the next generation, we've dug one for servant leadership, and we've dug one for a healthy church.

Why?

Just so we can have a healthier church?

No.

Because living water is supposed to come somewhere.

As it's coming in from the outside, as it goes through those channels, those people are getting cleaned up, they're getting blessed, they're getting developed, they're getting poured into their lives.

But that living water has to go somewhere.

And God forms healthy hearts because he builds healthy marriages that raise healthy disciples, that become servant leaders, that build healthy churches, that bless their communities.

This has been the direction of the water the whole time.

This is where we've been going to the whole time.

Again, Genesis 12, 2 through 3, I will bless thee.

But remember, God didn't stop the sentence there.

That thou shalt be a blessing.

Abraham, I'm going to bless you.

So you'll be a blessing.

And the promise of Abraham is a promise to all of God's children.

You and I are grafted into that bloodline because of Jesus' blood.

And so you can read that scripture there with it.

He's saying to each of us, Zach, I'm going to bless you, that you're going to be a blessing.

Landon, I'm going to bless you.

Mar Landon, I'm going to bless you so you can be a blessing.

And all across the room, that's what that's what his intention and his goal is.

Abraham was never just the destination, he was the channel.

And so that same thing applies to us.

Neither are we.

The prayer can't be God just bless our church.

It's God bless our church in such a way that the city of Zachary knows that you have put us here.

Bless our families so other families can find healing.

Bless our children so another generation can know Jesus.

Bless our leaders so people are shepherded and taken care of.

God bless our finances so needs can be met.

Bless our gifts so ministry can happen.

God bless our buildings so the doors can stay open.

God bless our influence so ultimately Jesus can be seen.

We're not digging bigger ditches so we can hold more water.

We're digging bigger ditches because God intends for the water to reach farther.

So keep digging, keep evaluating, keep cleaning things out as God as God holds the mirror up and he talks to you.

Keep expanding.

Keep reaching the one as you're praying.

And when God sends the water, don't stop the flow.

Don't stop the flow.

Let's pray real quick, real quick.

Jesus, thank you for what you've been doing over these past few weeks.

God, you are recalibrating our hearts and you're you're you're you're you're taking us back to true root and purpose in this.

We don't want to build a great church to at the end of days say we we we built a great church and we had great church service and and and things were great.

But God, we want to we want to build a healthy church and an effective church.

And sometimes that means getting uh getting getting a little dirty, that means it getting a little uncomfortable, that means giving until it hurts.

That means that means reaching out to people who we may weren't really our ideal target crowd before, and God trusting you to supply every resource and need as we give back.

God, we're blessed to be a blessing and help us to understand that each and every day.

Help us in wisdom to know what you're blessing us with, but what you're blessing us with to give away.

Uh help us every day to follow in your footsteps.

And God, would you lead us to that one person?

Help that to become a part of our everyday prayer life.

God, who's my person today?

Who are you leading me today?

So, God, equip me to help them, equip me to speak into their life and equip me to pray over them in a way that that makes a difference.

And so each and every day, God, help us just small deposits, small deposits, small deposits.

And we're gonna watch over time what happens and what changes that.

God, anoint us to go out of this place, wake up tomorrow morning, and put it into action.

In your name we pray.

And everybody say in Jesus' name.

All right, you got us all agreed with me, so you have to do it now.

Amen.