Your Blessing

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Later, we are going to actually pray another blessing over all of the moms, but I want to share a story.

It's about a lady named Annette.

I read this story, and so she had a young son who was in soccer.

She was taking her young son to soccer practice.

So she pulls up, and guess what?

No one was there.

And she was very annoyed by this and says, uh, again, no one's here.

We're the only ones that are here.

Tells her son, you need to tell your coach, this is now the second time in a row we've been here and no one else is here.

The student kind of the kid kind of was like, uh, he'll probably just tell me the same thing he told me last time.

So the mom responded, which is, uh, soccer practice is now on Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays.

I know you moms have been through a lot over the years.

We love you for all that you have put up with.

We love you for all that you've done.

We know that being a mom is not easy, and so well done just in being a mom.

We love you so very much.

So, in this, we were, I was thinking and praying this week and saying, God, what is a message for moms that also applies that if you're not a mom, it's a message for you.

But then also it fits within this series, Jesus in the center.

I feel like God gave me a word for us this week, and that is every week it's been titled Your Something.

So it's been Your Stress, Your Prayers, Your Brokenness, Your Thoughts.

This week is your blessing.

Jesus in the center of your blessing.

And there are lots of ways that we can be blessed.

You can bless somebody financially, you can bless them with a gift, you can uh see something, experience something, and think, wow, that really blessed me.

But today we're going to be talking about speaking a blessing and blessing one another with our words and blessing them.

And what does that even mean?

So that's what we will be looking at today is how to bless one another.

So point number one is what is blessing?

What is blessing?

So the Greek word for blessing is a word that I have listened how to pronounce like 12 times, and it's not sticking.

I'm sorry.

But you can YouTube and just listen to this word if you really care about the pronunciation, but it looks kind of like a eulogio something, but it's not pronounced like that at all.

Like the G sounds like a Y, and it's just completely off.

And so I just want to talk about that.

This is the Greek word for blessing.

And so that word, if you break it down, the first two letters, E U, it's the prefix, which is a positive indicator that which means well or good.

Then you look at the second part of the word that looks like lego if you just lance at it, but it's not.

And it means to speak.

Now, some of us have, that's the verb, some of us have seen the noun, which is more logos, which means word.

So it means to speak well of, to speak a positive blessing over someone.

It also means that we are to ask for a bestowal of special favor, especially of calling down God's gracious power.

And so when we bless somebody, we are asking God's power to be on them in that situation.

So there are blessings all throughout scripture.

Genesis 2, 3, that talks about how God blessed the seventh day.

And as we continue to look through scripture, the word blessing is all throughout scripture, but it is also a blessing that is spoken, not just a gift or something that we experience.

When Jesus was with these young kids, he put them on his lap and he blessed them.

It's in Mark 10, it says, and he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Now, sometimes we don't necessarily necessarily see that which we don't see.

It sounds like very like something's wrong, but yet we don't see what we don't see.

Meaning everyone around Jesus probably saw him put these kids on his lap and lay his hands on them and bless them and thought, oh, that's cute.

Isn't that sweet?

Jesus loves kids.

But what was actually happening is something in the spiritual realm, and that's not what we do not see, and he was instilling in them a blessing by placing his name and power on these kids in the spiritual realm.

When we bless people, we are putting God's name and blessing them in such a way.

We can continue to see this, and so it is also the last thing that Jesus did.

Pastor Robert talked about this, and he talked about the last thing Jesus said, but now what is the last thing Jesus did before he ascended into heaven?

This is after the death, burial, resurrection, and then Jesus said something, but then he did something.

What is the last thing Jesus did?

He blessed.

It is very intentional that Jesus all throughout scripture is blessing one another.

So it is in Luke 24, it says, and he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

Now it came to pass while he blessed them that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.

Jesus was still blessing people while he's being carried up into heaven.

This is the last thing Jesus did before he ascended into heaven.

Did you know that we can bless the Lord?

Now, our Grand Prairie campus is before it was Grand Prairie, it was our Shady Grove, it was Shady Grove Church.

And that's the church I grew up in.

And so, shout out to the Grand Prairie Campus.

Now, I grew up in that church, but before we started attending that church, they had these bumper stickers that they had, and they would pass them out to the members.

It would say, Come bless the Lord.

Something my dad said, he saw that bumper sticker and thought, what kind of church is that?

That they think just by attending their church, they're gonna bless the Lord.

But this is something that my dad had not seen in scripture yet or experienced that we as believers actually have the ability to bless the Lord.

And when we are worshiping, we are lifting up our hands, we are actually blessing the Lord.

Psalms 134 it says, Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.

So we have the ability to be blessing the Lord.

But I still haven't shared necessarily what it means to bless someone else.

So let's look at that.

And it is known as the Aaronic Blessing.

It's in number six, we're starting in verse 22.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.

Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

So they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them.

When we bless somebody, what we are doing is we are placing God's almighty powerful name and his promises on that person.

If we bless a situation, then what we are doing is we are placing God's powerful name and his promises on that situation.

So when we bless one another, we are putting God's name on the situation.

We're saying, listen, I don't know what to do with this, but God can handle this.

So I'm gonna put God's name on this situation, which is all power, and He will bless you.

That is what we get to do when we bless one another.

We get to bless somebody.

And so if you think that being blessed means that you will not ever experience any trials, struggles, any difficulties, that is not what being blessed is.

Being blessed is that even though you're going through trials and difficulties, that the Lord is blessing you in those times.

That even in the midst of hardship, you still have joy.

Even in the midst of hardship, you have God's wisdom, direction, guidance in your life.

Now, I've looked throughout scripture, and there is one word I have found that actually it's for believers that actually removes you out of this fallen world of all the difficulties, struggles, all the issues.

There's one word I have found whenever I started scripture, and it is pronounced like this Death.

Death.

When we die, that is the only way that when we are, and it's only for believers, then you go to heaven and you have no more pain, no more difficulties, no more stress.

However, while we are here on this earth, we still have those things.

However, we get to be blessed as believers in those times so that the Lord guides us.

He gets behind us and helps move us forward in those situations and give us what only God can give us.

He blesses us.

God called us to be overcomers.

God did not call us to be avoiders.

He's not going to pick you up now that you're a believer and drop you into a world of everything is perfect.

You will go through trials because Scripture says it will rain on both the just and the unjust, but in doing so, we get to walk through it in such a way that no one else gets to walk through it that way because we walk through it with a blessing.

That the Lord causes his face to shine upon us, that the Lord leads us and guides us in all that we do.

So this is something that we get to do is be blessed, regardless of whatever it is.

Now, there's a saying, you probably hear it more in the South, and it is, well, bless your heart.

And it doesn't always feel like they want my heart blessed in that moment, does it?

I know some people say it with the most utmost integrity, sincerity, and they really do.

But for some reason that's become like a little phrase, well, bless your heart.

That comes across more like, well, I really pity you.

I'm so sorry.

I can't believe you are going through that.

Or like, well, bless your heart, idiot.

Like, well, you put yourself in that situation.

Bless your heart.

But we get to bless one another to where it's not just bless your heart, but we actually get to put God's name, God's promises on the situation and say, the Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, the Lord guide you in all that you're doing.

And so it's more than just a bless your heart, it is God bless you in all that you're doing.

So point number one was what is blessing, but point number two is agree with God.

Now, years ago, Pastor Jack Caford, he's now in heaven, but years ago he would do these things called the School of Pastoral Nurturing.

And so I went to one of these, and they were a week long.

You spend all week with Pastor Jack, and he teaches you theology, he teaches you all about scripture, he teaches you all of these things.

But I remember I was a really good student.

There was only like 15 people in the room or so, and I was a good student, so I was on the front row, and this stood out to me.

He walked over to me, he picked up my arm, and said to everyone in there, So I have a question.

What is inside of here?

And I was too nervous to answer, but everyone else started saying different things like blood, bones, whatever, like ligaments.

And he goes, Jesus is inside of his arm.

And I was like, all right.

Then he started pinching me.

I was like, Well, if Jesus and now why are you pinching?

He goes, This is Jesus.

He goes, what we often think about is that when people invite Jesus into our hearts and lives, that we have these cute little like animated hearts, and then this tiny little animated like figurine of Jesus comes to live in our heart.

But that's not what scripture says.

It says that Jesus comes and takes residence over our bodies, that Jesus is fully in us.

God, the Son, is inside of us.

I can show it to you in scripture.

But this is extremely important because whenever we are speaking of blessing, we must realize that we have the authority because of he who is in us.

So in John 14, 23, it says, Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.

And my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

2 Corinthians 13 says, Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?

Romans 8 10 says, And if Christ is in you, 2 Corinthians, the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

In 1 John 4, 4, if he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, this is important for us to understand.

Because if Jesus is living inside of us, which I know it's kind of hard to believe at times, because we know we are still so flawed, but Jesus chooses to make himself live inside of us.

So when we bless someone, we're actually using the authority of Christ in us to bless them and place his powerful name on them in the situation.

That is what we do when we bless one another.

There is this evangelist that was traveling to different churches and doing ministry, and so after he was at this small church, he went out to dinner.

And there was probably 20 or 30 of them, and they rented kind of a little room at this restaurant, and they were all eating.

Now, when this evangelist came, the order, uh, he ordered pizza, he ordered banana split and a milkshake.

Then, in all sincerity, whenever all the food came, he stood up to pray and said, Now I'm going to bind up all these calories and I'm gonna cast them out in the name of Jesus Christ.

This little lady in the church reached up, put his her hand on his shoulder, and said, Excuse me, I believe this is only cast out by prayer and fasting.

I say that because Jesus is in us.

And I'm not saying that it's just it's a name it, claim it, blab it, grab it, say it, date it, whatever, and we get to say whatever we want, and then it happens.

I'm saying, though, when we come in alignment with the one that lives in us, we have power and we have authority that we are able to speak a blessing to one another.

That is what we do when we bless one another, is that we actually come in alignment with God, and then we speak the blessing of the Jesus who is in us.

So uh something else uh that I've seen is just people with such a propensity to just speak things and say, Well, now it's gonna happen.

It's now it's gonna happen.

But what we ought to be doing is saying, Lord, what is it that you want?

And now let me speak that.

In the same way, when we bless, we really pray and say, God, what is it that you want to say over this person?

What is it that you desire to say over this person?

So, point number three is to bless one another.

Bless one another.

Now, in Hebrews 11, there in baseball, there's the hall of fame.

All of these people have done something very great.

They've hit a certain amount of home runs, pitches, something to get in the hall of fame.

Well, in the Bible, this is that there's the hall of faith.

And it's all of these people that have done something so tremendous that they make it into the hall of faith book.

It's in Hebrews 11.

Now, some of these people you think, wow, that is absolutely incredible, some of the things they did.

Moses is in there.

Moses is in there because he was just as a baby in the Nile River, but then he ends up going through the ten plagues, parting the Red Sea.

He does all of these amazing things to help, and then he goes in the desert, feeds the people, mammon, all these things.

Then you have Abraham.

Abraham is in there, and it said that Abraham was such a man of faith that he was willing to give up his one and only son for Christ, for God.

So he was able to give up his own son, he said, is was willing to do that for God.

You have Sarah that in her old age believed God so much so that she was 90 years old when she had her child.

God opened her womb, but she continued to believe God that God would use her and give her a child.

Amazing.

So you have Enoch, Enoch never died, he was just taken up into heaven one day.

So you have all these amazing things, but then you have Isaac.

Isaac made it into Hebrews 11.

But what is it that Isaac did that was so amazing that he got into Hebrews 11?

Well, let's look at it.

It's Hebrews 11, verse 20.

Hebrews 11:20

It says, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.

By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.

After all of the amazing things that all these other people did, all of the things what did Isaac do?

He blessed somebody.

That's the highlight of his life.

Could you imagine that God has given us the ability to bless one another?

And potentially one of the greatest things we do here on this planet is actually blessing someone else.

That we can speak of blessing, and that might actually, that blessing might actually be one of the greatest things that we can do on this planet.

That's amazing.

Isaac makes it into the greatest moments of faith because of the way he blesses someone else.

It's remarkable.

Now, all of us, we are called to be a blessing.

We are called to also bless one another.

It's in 1 Peter verse uh chapter 3.

And it says, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing.

Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

We are called to this.

We are called to speak a blessing.

And when we do, it is a blessing to us.

So I have a question.

If we have a bad boss, now, if you're self-employed, it's real bad if that's the case.

But if we have a bad boss, do we end up blessing our bad boss or do we end up cursing our bad boss?

When we end up cursing our bad boss, we come in alignment with what the enemy is saying about that person, and then we speak that, and it actually we end up cursing them and it ends up cursing us.

Or do we bless our bad boss and then we come in alignment with what God is saying?

And when we bless them, it actually makes them to be a better boss, and it makes it bless you.

God blesses you when you bless that bad boss.

And what are you doing?

You are placing God's powerful name, God's powerful promises on them.

And when you do that, it's gonna make them be a better boss, and it's gonna bless you.

So we get to speak blessings to help our bad boss, though, especially if you are the one that's self-employed, but bless them in such a way that it actually helps you and them.

That this is what we can do.

We get to bless our bad boss.

Now, uh, I've also heard many that say things like this when they go to bless somebody, is I don't know what it is in them, but they go to bless them and they say, you know, I feel like the Lord has something for me to give you.

I want to encourage you.

But before I do, I don't want you to get too big of a head.

I don't want you to think you're too great or powerful, or I don't want you to think too highly of yourself.

But may the Lord bless you.

It is not our job in Scripture for anyone's job to have the gift of bringing people down.

And you might think, well, I have to then do this so that they don't have such a big head.

That's not our job.

Our job is simply to bless them.

Our job is not to bring them down.

Our job is not, we don't have the ministry of humbling people.

It shouldn't be our ministry, it should be nobody's ministry to humble them, be like, man, I'm really grateful.

They humbled me good.

Like, that's not the case.

You have two options in humbling in scripture.

You humble yourself, or God humbles you.

Our job is to lift them up and bless them.

Something else, whenever you're blessing somebody, is it is a hard, vulnerable moment to bless somebody.

I understand that.

And sometimes you like work up the courage, and then you're like, all right, I, you know, I just want to speak a blessing over you.

And then the other person might respond, oh, absolutely.

I'm blessed and highly favored.

The Lord is with me with everything I've got.

He is with me, but he's before me, behind me, everywhere.

And you're like, well, excuse me.

Mr.

Too Blessed, I'm sorry, I wasted your time.

I say that to say it is both the gift to bless one another, but it's also to receive the blessing.

That we have to be open to what is it that the Lord is doing in this moment, and I want to receive the blessings.

And we don't push them off because Jesus, if they're a believer, Jesus is in them and will speak through them in order to bless you.

And then what you do is you get God's name, his power, his favor, his promises put on you in that moment.

So let's receive that, right?

So we get to receive God's blessing.

Now, Scripture tells us to bless our enemies.

That's hard because they're your enemies.

You don't like them for some reason, and you think, well, why would I want them to be blessed?

But scripture tells us to bless them.

Acts 3 tells us this.

To you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you.

So Jesus came to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.

When we bless somebody, we are placing Jesus' powerful name on them.

And when Jesus' powerful name is on them, then it actually turns them from their iniquities.

The best thing we can do for our enemies is to bless them.

Because when we bless them, we say, Lord, I put your name on them.

And then that turns them from their iniquities.

In the same way, when God blesses us, it turns us from our iniquities, if it's a true blessing from the Lord.

That his name is put on us, his power, his glory.

And in that moment, it actually turns us from our iniquities.

Now I want to talk about a Shabbat.

And I know that at Gateway, we talk about how we're to the Jew first and how uh every month we actually do a Shabbat service.

Well, Pastor Greg Stone has invited Bridget and I and my family into his house to do a Shabbat.

And a Shabbat is something that happens every week, and it is, if you haven't experienced it, it is a remarkable experience.

Now, also, I will just say, because we're talking about Shabbat, all of this stuff that's going around about the anti-Semitism grieves my heart.

And at Gateway Church, we are pro-Jewish people.

Now, to be a pro-Jewish people, you don't have to be anti-somebody else.

We are for all people.

But I want us as a church to be praying and lifting up our brothers and sisters that are Jewish people and say, Lord, be with them.

Cause your face to shine upon them.

Remove this evil spirit that's coming against them in Jesus' name.

And so that is what we get to do.

In fact, I just thought of a story, so wasn't planning on sharing this, but we uh we did a Shabbat service at Pastor Greg Stone's house, um, and he gave us all the uh Jewish hat, the kippah, right?

Or yarmulka?

Yeah.

Yarmica.

And so he gave us, and so my son loves it.

And so he wears it all the time.

All the time.

And then we were at tractor supply, and he's running around, and Mitchell is the most active social person.

If you're within 50 feet of him, you will meet him.

And so he was just going around meeting everyone, and so then we were checking out, and he's wearing his hat, and all of a sudden the person behind the counter asked us a question and said, Oh, are y'all Jewish?

And have you ever been asked a question that you've never thought how you would answer it?

He said, Oh, are you Jewish?

And I said, No, we're just really big fans.

Whoops.

I've been thinking through my answer to try to give a better response next time, but we're just really big fans.

So in the Shabbat, it what is the most powerful thing, there's so much about it, but something that I think is so powerful is that in every single time they do this, the husband puts his hands on the wife, the mom, and blesses her.

He then puts his hands on the kids and blessed them.

I know in some I've seen uh houses that they often speak scripture over them, Proverbs 31, and there's a part that says, and the children will rise up and call you blessed when blessing the mom.

And I know that some of the kids all stand up and then start blessing the mom in that moment.

And can you imagine every single week being a child and seeing your dad bless your mom?

So many people have grown up, seen, experienced, maybe it's on a movie, but maybe it's just going to a friend's house.

A dad uses their hands and their words for violence.

But that's not what God intended.

They may have even seen a dad hit a mom or something.

And then imagine going into the house of this Jewish family and actually seeing the exact opposite of the husband standing up and laying hands on the wife and speaking a blessing over them every single week.

That's what God's intended us to do, is that we are so intentional to bless the moms, to speak life over them.

And as we move on, I want all of us to be that intentional to use our blessing to bless one another, to speak life over someone.

And sometimes it may just be a scripture, a word of encouragement.

I know I've talked to Pastor Greg, and he says, you know, sometimes I just lay my hands on her and I just start telling her how I love her, how I care about her.

But we get so busy sometimes, we get so preoccupied by everything else that we forget the power and the authority that happens when blessing someone.

And when we realize that we have Jesus living inside of us and that God is blessing us, but he's looking for a conduit from a person to a person to pass that blessing on to somebody else.

And then we get to actually partner with them and allow God to work through us in order to bless somebody else.

It is a powerful, amazing thing that we get to actually lay hands on one another and bless them.

We get to use our words to change things in the spiritual realm.

So today, I'd like to do that with our moms.

That we don't just pray for them, but that we speak a blessing.

And your mom or your spouse may be here, and I want you to pray a blessing over them.

But in the same way, you may need to call your mom after.

It may feel awkward, but you may need to bless them.

Use your words for life to encourage.

You may have a scripture that you want to say over them.

But let us bless our moms and this be an example of God's ways of blessing one another.

And so I'm gonna in just a moment ask all the uh moms to stand up and bless them.

But also, if you have wanted to conceive, if you want to conceive, I want to ask you to stand up as well, and so that we can bless you and bless the womb and bless the pregnancy.

And so we'll ask all of you to stand up so that we can pray a blessing over you, because God can open the womb.

So if you have a mom or you want to get pregnant, then would you please stand up?

Now, I will say, I hope that you're in unity with your husband on this.

This is something that my dad has done for years, is he's prayed for those that want to get pregnant.

And one time he just said, if anyone wants to get pregnant, I want to pray a blessing over you.

And oh, wife stood up and the husband pulled her back down, said, We've got enough.

So I would just want to pray a blessing.

And if you're next to a mom, would you just lay your hands and agree that we are going to bless the moms?

We are going to agree and not only just pray for them, but we are gonna put God's name and God's promises on them so that we can see all that God wants to happen in them and through them.

So, Lord, thank you so, so much for every single mom.

Lord, thank you for what you've done in them.

Thank you what you what you have done through them.

And Lord, we bless the moms right now.

Lord, we pray that you be with them in everything they do.

Lord, may all these blessings come upon them and overtake them.

I pray they will always obey the voice of the Lord God.

Blessed shall they be in the city and blessed shall they be in the country.

Blessed shall they be the fruit of their body.

And we pray blessings on every woman that wants to conceive.

We bless the womb and say, Lord, bring life.

We ask for healthy, strong babies.

I ask for miracles and healings to take place in their bodies.

Blessed shall they be all that you have given them, everything, Lord.

We pray, Lord, that you bless them.

We pray that you bless their finances, you we pray, pray you bless their household, every single aspect, Lord.

We pray you bless it.

We put your name and your promises on them.

Blessed shall they be when they come in and blessed shall they be when they go out.

The Lord would cause their enemies to be defeated, and the enemy will flee seven ways.

Lord, command a blessing on their home and in all that they put their hands to.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Lord, we pray that you give them what only you can give them.

And Lord, whatever they're thinking about, any burden, we pray that you remove that burden and you bring peace and joy and fulfillment.

And Lord, if there's a mom that's praying for a child that is not following you, Lord, we pray right now that you bless them with the gift of kids that pursue you.

In Jesus' mighty name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.