Here For Him | Why The Church Seeks To Bless | Coleton Segars

The Lord has said Amen.

All people on earth through you.

Andrew Banger is a longtime friend of mine.

And uh thank you for reading the teacher.

Lord, you uh said in your word that we fully live by your voice and your words being spoken to us.

Um and so Lord, to hear from your word this morning and to be in a space where we just have the opportunity to be together and to process together and hear together.

I pray that you would speak and that we would experience fullness and more fullness of life just by uh your word being spoken and your word being preached.

Um ask that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Our primary experience in the world realistically is a world not a blessing, but a world of cursing.

Um I don't mean curse words, although you know, maybe you have been cussed out, um, but that's not primarily what I mean.

Um but I I think you see uh the the curse of sin and the thing that broke at the beginning.

I think there's just evidence of that in our world.

Um so the wars that are going on, the crime in Memphis, uh suffering and loss.

Uh even just this past week, yesterday was the anniversary of a friend of ours whose father passed away and just kind of tragically out of the blue.

And so it's like this this anniversary that should be a, you know, anniversaries are supposed to be happy things, and yet it was this space of anniversary where you're remembering the pain, you're remembering the loss, uh, you're remembering what that feels like.

Um and then Friday was the sixth-year anniversary of my sister's husband being shot and killed in the line of duty.

And so it was just a weekend of anniversaries and preparing for this message and thinking, like, man, I want us to have a culture of blessing.

I want the church to be this space where we experience just a we're defined by blessing.

Um there was just a lot of dealing with the age of the curse and the way that we experience that in our time.

I have another friend that we talked about on Wednesday that's younger than I am, um, who is a mother of four and is battling cancer and it's not looking good, and they told her she has like a year left, and it's like, man, it's just evidence of the curse of sin just breaking in.

Um but again, I don't I don't think it's it's necessarily it's always those things.

I do think we feel that.

Um, but John Ortberg said it it can also be this space where it's just like words that you hear and stuff like that.

One of the things that he said that I thought was really interesting, he said, I used to think that cursing someone meant swearing at them or putting a hex on them.

So it was pretty easy to avoid because I don't swear much or do hexes.

But I realized how wrong I had been.

You can curse someone with an eyebrow.

You can curse someone with a shrugged shoulder.

I've seen a husband curse a wife by leaving just the tiniest delay before saying, Of course I love you.

And to me, like when I read that, I was like, man, that is so true.

And I think we've experienced that many times and in many spaces, not just with suffering and loss and wars and crime, but judgmental looks you get about how your kids are behaving.

It can even happen at church.

You know, your kids doing something and people look at you funny.

I think it probably has happened at church.

It's like your kids should do better.

It's like, man, I'm doing the best I can.

I think it can happen to how you raise your kids, how what you feed your kids, what you eat yourself, what you shop or where you shop at, what you buy, and all the- I mean, just judgmental cursing glances, and if you post something on Instagram or whatever, you can see it in the comment section of like some people love what you do, and some people are like just angry, just hateful towards you.

Uh Rachel uh shared something uh about um what was that lady's name?

Julia Roberts, um, like posted a photo of like her and her cousin or her uh niece or something just playing a game, and the comment section on the post was just people are like, she's the best, and then it was like she's the ugliest human that's ever existed.

And then they started arguing with one another.

And like all the different, like, how could you say that about her?

And it's like, you don't even know this lady.

But the thing is, like, man, it's just this space of cursing that exists in the world.

I think you can feel this when you're driving, you get honked at because you didn't drive fast enough as soon as the light turned green.

In Memphis, for sure, you can be cursed at by being shot at.

I mean, like, while you're driving, like, there's just a lot of things going on.

Um in the South, you can be cursed by the words bless your heart.

In the church, you can be cursed by someone saying, we just need to pray for them.

It's like, okay.

And prayers can be can turn into gossip.

But our culture, our culture is just defined by cursing.

This has an up eventually.

We're going down right now, but eventually this is gonna go up, just so you know.

The news doesn't want to bless you with great information, they want to curse you with fear so that you tune in.

They act like you need to tune in, I got information for you.

It's like you're just trying to scare me so that I stick with you and so that your ratings go up.

You're not trying to bless me.

All marketing is cursing.

All more, any advertisement is let me tell you why you're terrible at life and why your life sucks.

And then I'll show you my product and how your life can get better.

Like, that's the whole thing.

It's like Coca-Cola, everybody's sad, and then you start drinking a Coke and everybody's like, and everybody's partying and it's thrilling.

And I've never cracked a Coke, and everybody showed up at my house with like balloons and stuff.

It's never happened for me.

And yet that's the way the marketing goes.

Like, let me tell you why your life is terrible.

I mean, let me make you feel awful about yourself and then show you why you need to buy my product and my thing and that kind of stuff.

It's a culture of cursing.

Advertising is cursing, just so that they can actually not bless you, but really just sell their own stuff.

This is the culture that we live in.

We we experience the curse of sin in the world in so many different facets, and our primary experience in the world is experiencing curse and not blessing.

And so, for us as the church, in a culture like ours, as a whole, I would love for our church, and I believe the church is supposed to be this space where the blessing and the kindness and the goodness of God breaks through in the midst of the curse and actually allows people to experience something that they were actually designed to experience, which is blessing and not curse.

And so the the church is supposed to be this space where it's like the goodness, the kindness, the sweetness of God breaks through in all of that and allows people to experience something that they actually long for, which is blessing.

And so, what I want to do today is really just look at three reasons why I believe the church should seek to be a people of blessing.

And when we talk about blessing, I'm gonna talk about missions and like going overseas and that kind of thing, or local missions here.

But realistically, the word is blessing.

We should be a blessing.

Missions exist because God seeks to bless the world.

And so when we're referencing some of these things, historically, I think the church has called it mission trips and mission work and living missionally, but realistically, it all ties into the same thing of God seeking to bless the world.

What he wants to do is bless the world.

And so, three reasons why we as a church and why the church is a whole, but we specifically, why we should be a people of blessing.

And then I want to look at a couple of ways of how you can do that practically.

But the first, the first reason we should seek to be a people of blessing is because the church or the collective followers of Jesus is uniquely called and equipped to bless.

The church is uniquely called and equipped to bless.

Um Rani and I um I share a lot of stories about Rani and me.

Part of it is I want y'all to get to know us a little bit, and then part of it is they just keep coming to me, and I've only lived one life, and so this is all I have.

Um But Rani and I dated for two years, and then he like fantastically destroyed our relationship.

Like for the first two years was like basically we ran on infatuation and passion and love for one another in like a very fake way.

Um, and then two years in, it was like and we just exploded the whole thing.

It really felt like a like a house that you strip down to the studs and you're gonna restore the entire thing, except there was no restoration plan in process.

We were just tearing it down over the over those two years.

We didn't we didn't know how to be in a long-term relationship.

We had no idea how to actually do this.

Um we had no good habits, we had bad behaviors, we had no boundaries with other people, her with other guys, me with other girls, like just nothing in place.

And so two years in, just dating, not married, not not engaged, just dating, we just destroyed the entire thing.

And I've shared a little bit of this story, but we end up going to a counselor, and the counselor asked, like, hey, we can fix this if you want to.

We both decided, like, yes, we would actually really love to fix it.

We'd love to get married and not hate each other the rest of our lives.

Uh, because I've seen marriages like that, y'all.

I don't want one.

Um, so um we went to work and like we started going to see this counselor every week, uh, once, twice, three times a week, and we did that for years.

And the work that our counselor did with us was basically like just each time we were there, she was just adding a different practice, making us think about a different behavior, encouraging us to process things, reframe things, and and just slowly over time, in every single space, it was like she was building and restoring what we had destroyed.

Everything's been stripped down to the studs, the relationship's awful.

But going to our counselor every single week, it was like a little bit more restoration, a little bit more restoration, a little bit more restoration.

And to the point where we got to a space where it was like, look, we have this restored relationship.

Like, this is actually something really great.

It's no longer stripped down to the studs, it's actually a pretty good thing here.

And it was really wonderful.

And I remember talking to Shannon about it and just saying, like, hey, thank you so much.

Thank you for helping us, for fixing us and for restoring what we thought was really dead and gone.

And she was like, Of course, that's that's my job.

That's my job.

That's what I do.

I seek to restore broken relationships.

And to me, like, that's a perfect picture of what the church is supposed to be.

That's what we're called to do.

The world has been just ravaged and destroyed by sin, and brokenness is everywhere, and everything's broke.

And the church is supposed to be the space that God calls us into to say, like, hey, you're going to slowly, methodically, over time, just speak blessing and create blessing and move forward and create more and more flourishing and restoration in the life of this world and the life of people who are experiencing that brokenness.

That's the goal, that's what he's called us to, that's what the church is for.

We're uniquely called to that and then equipped for it.

God has always wanted a group of people to do that in the world and to bring flourishing in the world.

Adam and Eve, the first thing was like, hey, I created this world, I brought order from chaos, and now I've created you, and you're gonna go out into the world and actually do that and create order and flourishing in the world.

You're gonna bring restoration to this world as well.

And then they butcher it and it doesn't go well.

And so then you have this text that Andrew just read where the Lord says to Abraham, like, Hey, now I've chosen you and your family.

Your family is going to be the space where I bring order and beauty and blessing and restoration out into the world.

So the promise is given to Abraham.

Then you walk your way through the scriptures and get to Jesus, and Jesus is the offspring of Abraham, where now he fulfills that promise and he becomes the blessing to the nations.

Now, any nation through Jesus can actually be blessed with the fullness and wholeness and restorative power of God.

Anybody, race, gender, class, it doesn't matter.

Everybody can know Jesus and experience the restoration and the fullness, and it's called being reborn.

You can be recreated in the image of God.

And the things that were broken can be made whole again.

And so Jesus fulfills that promise.

But then he looks to us, the church, and he's like, and now because you've experienced that in the church, you've been restored by me, even though we still live in this space, you've experienced this from me.

Now you're gonna go out into the world and you're gonna bring the blessing of God out into the world.

This is what he consistently wants to do.

This is what he wants to do in the world.

Uh, Chris Wright in his book, uh The Mission of God, says this.

He says it's not so much the case that God has a mission for the world and that the church just needs to do it.

It's that God has made the church for his mission in the world.

Mission was not made for the church, the church was made for mission, God's mission.

And I it sounds like semantics, like, well, there's a mission and then there's the church, and it's like, yeah, but if you get these mixed up, you think that God was just looking, like, I don't know, I want to do some cool stuff and I'm looking for any volunteers.

That's not it.

The church actually, he's like, actually, I do have a mission for the world, but I created the church in order to accomplish my mission.

It's not like the church happened in this space where now they're gonna do it.

It's like, I created you specifically to be the conduit through which my blessing moves out into the world.

My kindness is experienced into the world.

This is what he wants for us.

Philippiensi says, we are, after all, Christ's body on earth.

He has no hands but ours.

The church, he has no hands but ours.

We are the hands, the feet.

We have turned into, he has made us his body.

And so we are the people to actually bring what he did in the New Testament and what he did in his ministry is like now been given to us.

This authority and this beauty has been given to us to be the hands and feet.

And it's all these cliches that the church says, we're the hands and feet of Christ, but it's actually real.

He has no hands but ours.

And so it's this space where it's like, not only did is it something that he does want to bring blessing into the world, but it's a space where he's like, I've created you for this.

What is your purpose?

It's like, steward my blessing and just out into the world.

Just take it from wherever you are out into the people's lives that you're in, and then beyond them and keep going with it consistently.

We are uniquely called.

No one else has this unique calling to be the blessing to the world.

And it's not just that we're called, but we're also empowered.

Like he has actually given us his spirit.

He, the spirit himself, has given us gifts of the spirit, and so now we have giftings that other people and non-Christians don't have.

We have discernment and we have prophecy and we have teaching, we have exhortation and encouragement.

Like we have things that the world longs for and that we actually are able to give them.

And not only like we have the spirit of God who sees and cares and is compassionate and all those different things.

So where the world is not compassionate, where the world doesn't see, where the world misses people, because we have the Spirit of God in us that sees those people, because we have the Spirit of God in us that wants to be kind to those people, we will notice people, we will notice needs that other people just miss.

And I'm not saying that non-Christians, no non-Christian does any good thing.

I'm not saying that, but there's a space in us that we are empowered by the Spirit of God to see with his eyes, to feel with his heart.

And we will see things and see things in people, all these different things that other people just do not see.

Because we're actually, we have his heart.

And so whenever you feel this space in you, or you're like, man, I'm just moved with compassion for this person, that's not something internal to you.

We don't, we're not born with compassion, it's something that's in given.

It's this thing that he has given to us that he wants to bless the world with those things.

And then on top of that, like we've experienced blessing.

Like we're uniquely able to bless because theoretically, if you're a Christian, you've actually experienced the kindness of God in your time.

You've experienced it for yourself.

And so you're not going like, I need to be a blessing, I don't really know how.

It's like, no, no, no, we've seen it.

Like we've seen someone pursue us in love when we were trying to run the opposite way.

We've seen someone who's taken our bad mistakes and didn't judge us and condemn us based on those things, but to go like, hey, we can bring life and healing out of that.

We've seen that happen to us.

That's the way he's treated us.

The world has not experienced enemy love, and so they can't love with enemy love.

Our culture is like free love, love whoever you want, love is love, whatever.

But they draw the line at loving your enemy.

Your enemy?

Oh, you cancel those jokers.

You cancel them hard and fast.

Love whoever you want, just not your enemies.

But we've experienced enemy love.

While we were enemies of God, he loved us.

And so we're actually able to move into the world and love even more.

Our culture says that it can love more than the Christians.

No, you can't.

You can't.

Because we're the ones who've experienced it towards the enemy.

And so because we've experienced that, we're actually able to pour that out.

And other people just cannot do it.

They won't do it, and they're not empowered to do it by the Spirit of God who loves his enemies.

We are uniquely called, uniquely gifted.

We can do more in the world than non-Christians can do.

And so become a Christian so you can bless the world more.

But in another space, it's like, I've realized there's common grace, and you're like, I've seen other people.

Gandhi was really nice, and I love Gandhi, great.

And he loved Jesus, or he really thought highly of Jesus.

But the point is, there's this space for us that the Lord has chosen a people, and he has raised up a people in the church who actually are going to follow him out into the world and then do what they've experienced to those around them and to the world around them.

We know how to love the poor as the church because Jesus was rich and became poor on our behalf so that we could experience the richness of God.

Like that's that's just something that we've experienced for us.

And so for us, like, why do we need to be a people of blessing?

The one of the most substantial reasons is because we are uniquely gifted, called, and made for that particular experience.

We're equipped with it, and he's just made us for this thing.

And it's really beautiful that we get to do that.

Um that's the first reason.

Blessing is what the church is just built for.

The church is built to bless the world.

So we should be a people of blessing, not only because it's our purpose, but because we are uniquely gifted with the ability to do that.

Second reason: we need to be a people of blessing because blessing reveals what God is like.

Blessing just reveals what he's like.

Um, I say this a lot, and I normally quote Brendan Manning, and I'm not going to do that today because I just quote Brendan Manning so much.

Um, but his experience with God was like God is wonderful, and most people don't think that.

And I think that's so true.

I think I think in the church, I think outside of the church, when people think about God, or they think about Jesus, or they think about Christians, they think about people who are hateful and not loving, who are judgmental and not accepting.

Like that's what they that's what they think and hear.

And so I think in this space, most people, what they think about God is not that he's a God that desires to bless.

I think when you were to talk about him and you said, like, oh, I'm I'm a Christian, or when you talk about like that, you're going to church, rarely do people think, oh, I bet that God desires to bless me.

Normally what people think is the God that you believe in probably is mad at me.

The God that you believe in is probably disappointed in me.

The God that you believe in seeks to punish, he's angry.

This is normally what comes to mind, even with people in the church that have been in church their entire lives.

This is normally what comes to mind is an angry God, a disappointed God.

What does he think of you?

He's like, ah, he's probably a little disappointed in me.

We rarely think of a God that seeks to bless us.

And so for us, when we bless in general, we actually reveal more of what he's like because from beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, God is constantly blessing his people.

And so I just want to give you, if you, if that's you, if you're sitting there going, like, I don't know, I don't see God as a God that desires to bless me.

I just want to just, we're gonna run through the scriptures real fast just to show you, like, this is what he's wanted to do, beginning to end.

So, Genesis.

Adam's created on day six.

The first full day of Adam on earth, the first full day is uh a day of rest.

It's like, hey, I've been working.

And he didn't say, like, hey, I've been working.

Uh you know, like you've done nothing.

Like, did you see all the stuff that I created for you?

Why don't you get to work?

He doesn't say that to Adam.

Rather, he creates him on day six, and then day seven is like, I'm blessing you with a day off.

He's like, I haven't really done anything yet.

It's like, that's okay.

Why don't you just take some rest and you just sit with me?

And we'll just have a day, a first full day of just being together.

And then we'll get to work on Monday or whatever it was.

And like that was the space, like begins with blessing.

And then the text here, first thing he does with Adam and Eve, God created mankind in his own image.

In his image, he created them, male and female, he created them.

And the first thing he does, and God blessed them.

First thing.

In Exodus, God delivers the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

And then he gives them the Ten Commandments.

And he's like, okay, here's some things you need to do.

And I think we think of God the other way, where it's like, he could have just leveraged it and been like, hey, if you follow these ten things, you're in a lot of pain right now.

If you'll do these ten things, I'll save you out of Egypt.

Like that's what we would do.

Like, we have supply and demand right now.

I'm filled with freedom, but you need to do, you have a demand to get that freedom.

I won't you do this for me, and then we'll see what I'll do for you.

And he doesn't do it that way.

He flips it.

And he shows kindness and blessing and salvation first.

And then from that, he's like, now, based on what I've done for you, I do want you to follow me.

But it's not follow me, and then you'll receive something good.

It's blessing first.

And we don't live to please him in order to earn blessing.

He wants us to actually experience blessing and then desire to follow him from blessing.

That's what he wants.

And so in Exodus, you see that I'm not going to leverage your pain to get what I want.

I'm going to bless you because that's who I am.

In Numbers, God commands Aaron and the priest to bless the people.

He's like, I command, I'm commanding you to bless them.

This is what he says.

The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron and the priest, his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites.

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

The Lord make his Face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.

So they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them.

Like, and actually, this is a song that they're singing.

It's not like actual words.

They were supposed to sing it over them.

So in Zephaniah, where it says, The Lord rejoices over us with singing, this is what they're referencing.

He rejoices over us with blessing.

And so, like, this is like, what do you want us to do?

What do you want us to tell these rebellious people?

They can't ever follow you.

It's like, I want you to, I command you to bless them in my name.

Put my name on them.

Let them know who I actually am.

So that they'll be blessed that way.

Numbers 22 is this space where, if you remember, there's like Balaam, the only place in the Bible where a donkey talks.

Balaam is going to Balak to curse Israel.

And Israel has just been terrible.

They've been like just doing all kinds of awful things, like just terrible, terrible stuff.

And so Balaam goes to curse them.

And as he goes to curse them, it turns into a blessing.

And Balak gets really angry.

He's like, I told you to curse them, and you just bless them.

And he's like, Let me give it another shot.

And then gave it another shot, bless them again.

One more time.

And then does it again and bless them again?

And Balaam eventually says to the king, he's like, Look, man, the Lord has decided to bless them.

This is all I can do.

He's in charge of blessing and cursing.

I can't curse them because he is determined to bless them and bless them alone.

And Balak had to be like, but they're terrible.

Like they're awful people.

They don't even love the God that is saying all this stuff.

And he is like, I don't know what to tell you, man.

He is just hardcore loving these people and is going to bless them.

I don't know.

I tried to curse them three times.

Sorry it didn't work.

I actually gave them like extra land or something.

I'm really sorry with the blessing I gave them.

Really sorry about that.

It's like, but he has just decided to bless them, and I can't go against them.

This is who he is in the Old Testament.

Then you get to the New Testament, you got Jesus coming in there, and he's going, the Lord has established me and filled me so that I can bring good news to the captives and free up those who are in prison and set the captives free and all these different things.

And then you see his ministry.

Jesus' ministry could only be defined as a ministry of blessing.

He just rolls into the people, people's lives, just blessing them with healing and freedom and freedom from sickness and all the different like demons and darkness and just people who are on the outside, but he brings in people who have no friends.

He's like, I will be your friend.

All these people that have forgotten, he's like, I have not forgotten you.

Just a ministry of blessing.

On the cross, Jesus becomes a curse.

He literally becomes a curse so that we could experience the blessing of God.

When the Old Testament laws was cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.

And so Jesus hangs on a tree to show us that, like this curse that established back in Genesis 3, that overran the earth, I will now take that curse on and be cursed by hanging on a tree, so that the curse will be swallowed up in me, and now victory and blessing can be poured out onto the nations.

Jesus has done this amazing thing.

The cross is the pinnacle moment of like him going, like, what is his heart for the world?

I want them to experience the blessing of God.

I want the curse that ravaged the land and their hearts to go away.

So I'll take it.

Curse me so that they can be blessed.

This is who he is.

Last thing Jesus does right before he ascends is he stands, arms raised, he gives a great commission, but then arms raised, and as he is blessing them, it says, He ascends into the heavens.

What an amazing thing.

What do you want the disciples to think of you last?

Blessing them.

Not go, but like bless you.

And then as he's ascending, they're like, that's who he is.

And then when Jesus left, he blessed us with the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit blesses us with a gift.

It's really sweet.

The Holy Spirit like shows up and like I want to come in and live within you.

Um, but I brought a gift, like a host or hostess gift.

Like it's this thing that we get that he's like, I'm gonna give you a gift.

And so thanks for letting me stay in your house.

I brought a gift, and I never knew that host or hostess gifts was a thing until I married Rainey, and she's like, Yeah, it's really rude for you not to show up to people's houses without a gift.

And I was like, wow, I've really offended a lot of folks.

A blessing.

We have to see it that way: that blessing is the way of God, blessing is what he wants.

And if that's not your picture of who God is, and we wind up in this space where we have this vision of God that's not very lofty and really not very good.

And who wants to be close to a God that just longs to curse and punish?

That's not who he is.

Blessing is what God does, this is what he wants to do.

And so when we bless from him, and the blessing that we experience or express to other people, we just reveal a God that people aren't expecting.

It's like, why did you do that?

It's like, oh, because I've been blessed beyond measure with what Jesus has done.

And so when we do that to other people, we reveal something that they're like, that's not who I think God is, and it's like that is who he is.

And when we bless, we give people a picture of that.

Um, I heard this story a couple of years ago of two missionary groups, and maybe some of you have heard this already.

Um, but there's two missionary groups go to Asia, and they this missions work, they're trying to share the gospel with people in Asia.

And so their plan is to open coffee shops and then just build relationships and then share the gospel, which is really cool.

Um, but one group takes on the way of doing it.

It's like, hey, I'm we're just gonna go direct evangelism.

Like, we're just gonna sell the coffee, start the conversation like immediately.

Like, here's your latte, it cost you three dollars, but your sin will cost you your life.

Do you want to know Jesus?

Like, just write in there real fast.

Like, I wrote your name on your cup, but Jesus wants to write your name in the book of life.

Like, I just just write in.

Those are pretty good jokes, y'all.

Those are those would those would those would kill at seminary.

But that's what they did.

Just like, I here's some substitutionary atonement on the side of your scone.

Uh that's what they that's what they wanted to do.

Thanks for laughing, mom.

Appreciate that.

That's why you have your mom come to church.

That's why.

It makes you feel good.

Um But that's what they did.

They just direct evangelism, just looking at, they're like, just right in there.

Um I'm not that way.

I'm not a direct evangelism kind of guy.

I'm like, hey, let's build a relationship for 10 years and then I'll let you watch me follow Jesus.

That's more my speed.

Uh but that's what they did, and they had converts and all the rest.

The other group, the other group goes into the coffee shop and they just took on this promise that we're supposed to be a blessing to the nations.

This thing given to Abraham, accomplished in Jesus, is now given to us.

And so we're gonna seek to bless first.

And so their whole strategy was we are gonna sell you coffee and muffins and scones and all the rest of it.

But the primary strategy was we're gonna seek to prosper someone first.

Just seeking to prosper them in order for that to lead to a conversation about Jesus.

And so it looked like a number of different things, but sometimes it looked like, hey, I'm just gonna give you a free drink because it looks like you need it.

For some people, it was like, I'm gonna give you money.

I'm just gonna give you money to pay for your groceries.

Um, other people, it was just in conversation, just encouraging people with their words.

Sometimes it was helping people move houses, like, oh, you're moving, and then the coffee people show up to help you move your furniture, and it's like, why are you here?

And it's like, I have a great story to tell.

Uh, you know, like just being kind that way.

Uh sometimes it was opening the coffee shop earlier for people who needed to be in there and get their food or coffee early, or staying open later so that people could study for their exams or something like that.

Just using their coffee shop as a way to bless other people.

And um, what would happen is when they received blessing from the coffee shop without earning it, because it was like, I we didn't do anything to earn this, it would always lead to the question, why are you being so kind to me?

Why are you doing this nice thing to me?

Which would open the door to these answers where it's like, well, we've experienced kindness like this, undeserved, unearned kindness.

And it would always lead them ultimately to having this conversation about how Jesus has been that kind to them, how Jesus has blessed them in those ways.

And this is who he is.

And then it would normally lead to them going, like, I'd like to know more about this God that you claim that you follow and believe in.

And after five years, they took all the data of the two different uh coffee shops, and it was really interesting because the the one who blessed first had 50% more converts and 50% more people who wanted to follow Jesus than the other one.

And the other one had plenty, the direct evangelism people that are just like handing coffee and telling them they need to, you know, believe in Jesus.

They had converts that way because people respond to street evangelism or whatever that is.

But it's interesting, 50% more with from the coffee shop, it's like, but we showed them first who God was, and the blessing itself opened the door to a conversation to be like, why did you, why are you being so kind to me?

It's because that's what God wants to do for you as well.

He's done it for me, he wants to do that for you.

And so it led people in these spaces to have these conversations and to have a vision of who God is first and then inquire for themselves.

I want to, if God's like that, I want to know him like that as well.

And this is a really beautiful thing.

And I think the early church practiced this.

I think this is the way that we're supposed to practice some of these things too.

Not everybody can evangelize, not everybody can preach, not everybody can lead worship, but everybody can bless.

Everyone can display the kindness they've received, they can bless that out into the world and allow people to see God.

Alan Krider wrote this book that's brilliant.

It's called The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, which sounds maybe not that interesting, but it's actually really, really good.

But this is what he says about the early church and this idea that the pagans looked at the early church and saw them.

Um he says, What the pagan outsiders saw of the church was not the Christians' worship service, it was their way of life.

According to Tertullian, the outsiders looked at the Christians and saw them energetically feeding the poor, burying them, caring for boys and girls who lacked property and parents.

They were being attentive to the aged slaves and prisoners.

They interpreted these actions as a work of love.

And they said, Viday, look.

Look how they love.

The pagans said, look.

They did not say ade, listen to the Christian message from the pastor who has a bald head.

They didn't say that.

They did not say, Lega, read what they write.

Hearing and reading were important, but we must not miss the reality that the pagans said, look.

Christianity's truth was made visible, it was embodied, it was enacted by its members, it was made tangible, and people were drawn by this to approach the Christians, to approach the Christians and inquire about their faith.

And I just love that vision.

I was like, man, I don't know.

I don't know what I believe.

We lived in this Roman culture back in the day where there's tons of gods and all this stuff, but none of the Romans who worship their gods do any of this stuff.

We cast people out, we cast babies out, we do, we just put people on the sides of society and just trying to get them out of view.

The Christians are going to the side, these places where we're kicking people out and they're bringing them in.

What is this?

And they're like, V-Day, look, look how they love.

What is that?

And it led them ultimately to be like, man, I want to be a part of whatever that is.

And the church boomed, and the whole book is basically like, why in the world did the church grow as fast as it did?

They were killing the Christians.

How are they growing?

People should be running away and being like, no, I'm not gonna be a Christian.

They're killing all y'all people.

But it continued to grow, and it was like, why?

Because they experienced this God of love who seeks to bless, and they watched it actually lived out among their people, and they're like, well, they might kill me, but I really find that attractive.

I want to know more about that, and I've got to know the God that they serve.

And I think that's our opportunity.

We have this opportunity to bless people with no strings attached.

Not like the advertisements and markets of our day being like, here's how your life's terrible, and uh you should know Jesus.

Like, no, that's awful.

Don't do that.

People, I I heard that you've got to get them lost before you get them saved.

And if you've ever practiced that, that's fine.

I just disagree.

That's how we advertise.

Don't do that.

Just talk about the goodness of God, how he's just transformed your life and how beautiful he is and how wonderful he is.

Don't have to get them scared and then all of a sudden they're choosing not hell, but not really choosing Jesus.

We don't want that.

I want them to experience the blessing of God.

And I think when we bless like that, we give them a picture and a vision of God and going, This is what he's like.

And this is why we do believe that you should follow him and know him.

But it's based on how wonderful he is.

So that's the second reason.

When we bless, we give people a picture of God.

And then the last.

The third reason we should be a people of blessing is because people are just simply desperate to be blessed.

And maybe you feel that, but we are a people who are desperate to be blessed.

Paul says that all creation groans.

All creation, so us, my dog, the animals, the earth itself, all creation groans under the weight of the curse.

All of us feel that to some extent, and we talked about that at the beginning, but all of us feel that to some extent.

And yet, realistically, that's not what we were created to experience.

A creation was supposed to be the space where I created you.

Man and male and female, I created you and I blessed you.

Our primary experience should be of blessing.

We were not built to take on the weight of the curse.

We were no we were not built to hold that and to carry that.

That was never the original plan.

When God created us to hold things and to be able to carry things in the way that He made us to function, one of those functions was never make sure you can carry the weight of the curse of sin.

It was never that.

And so we live in this world where that's our primary experience, experiencing the curse of sin, the weight of sin.

And yet we were made to be blessed.

Dallas Willard says, our souls, our souls were made to be blessed and cannot survive without blessing.

Our souls were made to be blessed and cannot survive without blessing.

And yet we live in this space where that's not our primary experience.

And just as an example of like ways that we experience the curse, uh, that is just awful.

Um I read this quote that I thought it was interesting about our brains and just how like the brokenness of sin gets in there.

Uh I think we have it.

But Isaiah Henkel in his book uh uh Black Hole Focus says this.

He says, our amygdalas, uh, it's the fear response center of our brains.

It uses two-thirds of its neurons searching for negativity.

Come on, that's terrible.

We're just looking for negativity.

Our brains now look for negativity.

That's awesome.

Uh once your amygdala finds negative information, it immediately transfers it into your long-term memory.

Awesome.

So good.

By contrast, positive experiences, so this is the good stuff.

By contrast, the positive things have to be held in your awareness for more than 12 seconds in order for your brain to do anything with them and transfer them into your short, short-term or long-term memory banks.

This is why most people instantly forget praises but can remember a single criticism for years.

Our brains are trying to kill us.

Like this is the space that we live in now.

Like, not like people can be so kind, and it's like, yeah, but my childhood still haunts me.

Like people can be so kind to us, and you're so successful, like CEOs, and they're they're we were talking about this at dinner the other night.

CEOs of these business retreats and all these different things, but they're weeping over what their dad said to them when they were four.

And it's like, what is that?

Like, oh, your brain has suffered the consequences of the curse and it's actively trying to kill you.

Like it's just constantly trying to depress you and bring you down.

I know made to be blessed, experiencing consistent weight of cursing and the weight of the curse.

And so we're desperate for it.

People are just desperate for it.

This is why people are addicted to their phones.

They just they're addicted to social media because they just need something to affirm them.

Something just give me one like, one share.

Will someone please notice me?

Will someone please say something kind to me in my comment section?

Will someone please?

And it's this space where it's like we're just we're just constantly searching for affirmations.

Our emails and our text make us remember that we're valued and we're needed, and so we can't stop working because otherwise we will feel like we don't matter, and then that's a curse, and that doesn't feel good.

And so we're constantly searching for ways to bless ourselves because we're so desperate for it.

This is why we overspend.

This is why we enter into relationships we shouldn't, because overspending gives us something to take our minds off of the cursing that we feel and makes us feel a little bit better with new dopamine being dripped into our brains.

New relationships make us feel like at least somebody loves me.

Like, great.

It's like, yeah, but that's a terrible relationship, it's gonna blow up your life.

It's like, yeah, but it feels okay.

Like, well, it's not, it's bad.

But we're desperate for it.

This is why we overwork, again, we don't feel valuable.

We used to, and we don't now.

And so we we overwork to try and compensate for this thing that we're longing for.

We're just longing to be blessed.

We're made to be blessed, and we can't live without it.

And so we go and search for it.

And so the church has this opportunity where people are desperate for blessing, and we're created for blessing.

And so now we get to move into the world with our words and with our actions and to give people what they've been longing for that they can't find anywhere else, and we can step in and we can ultimately do these things.

I think, in many ways, one of the most powerful things about Jesus' ministry were the times when he healed people without doing a miracle.

Like it was just, he just noticed them and had a conversation with them.

So the woman at the well, there's no miracle there.

He's just talking to a lady that nobody else wants to talk to.

And it's like, how'd this change your life?

And it's like, she's desperate for somebody to talk to her.

And somebody finally did, it just happened to be God in the flesh.

Pretty strong day.

Like, and it was like, man, there's just a conversation.

He she was trying to like argue with him, and he refused to argue with her.

He's like, I'm not gonna argue with you, I'm not gonna go down that rabbit trail with you.

I just want to bless you.

I just want to talk to you, I just want to do some of those things.

The woman caught in adultery, if you remember in John 8.

Like you have this space where this woman's like, they're they're literally trying to curse her to death, and Jesus is like, I don't condemn you.

I don't want you to sin like that anymore, but I do not condemn you.

And he sets her free.

No miracle, just kindness displayed in their life, changes her life.

Zacchaeus the same way, nobody wants anything to do with him, and Jesus notices him, nobody notices him.

He has to climb up in a tree to even see.

And Jesus is like, hey, I saw you up there.

And it's like, man, it changed this man's life.

He goes from this man who's cheating everybody to like giving back all this stuff.

And it's like, what was that?

He's desperate for blessing, nobody notices him, and Jesus finally just noticed somebody that everybody else had kicked to the corner.

And so it's the space where you actually see this take take shape in the people's lives where we're just desperate for it, and the smallest little conversation can change somebody's life.

Pete Schaziro in his book, uh, The Emotionally Healthy Leader says this.

He says, When we look for goodness, when we look for goodness and beauty in one another and speak honest words of life over one another, we become God with skin on for the other.

And then look at this.

He says, Affirmations heal wounds.

Affirmations cover shame.

Affirmations communicate how God actually sees us as infinitely valuable and lovable.

And to me, this is the the opportunity of the church.

Everybody else can get angry on social media this year.

That's fine.

They don't go to our church and maybe they're all worldly and pagan.

That's fine.

Argue on social media about the politic game.

We do not need to be people who enter into those conversations in a way thinking that somehow our anger is gonna change anybody.

Why would we ever think that dead things can bring other things to life?

They can't.

And so our words have the opportunity in our space to speak into things of blessing to actually bring life and not bring death.

And you will see a lot this year online and everywhere else in the news of a lot of death being spoken.

And they're gonna they're gonna frame it as blessing.

Like you, they're all terrible and all that, but if you choose me, and it's like and it's uh it's primarily cursing and then trying to loop in some blessing at the end.

But realistically, as a church, this is why we need to be stronger than our cultural movement at the time to have this space where it's like the blessing that comes from us is actually the space we're built for it.

We can say it because we've experienced it, and we can say it because we're empowered to do it.

And so that's our opportunity.

People are desperate for blessing, and God longs to bless.

Um the other day, I was at Teddy's school, and um I was just walking through the hallway on my way to leave, and I ran into a uh a friend of mine, and we were chatting, and just in my peripheral, like I saw this teacher who was really coming down on another student, like really coming down, enough to where I was noticing it and kind of talking to him and then looking over at how angry the teacher was.

But I couldn't see who the student was because the student was behind a door and the teacher was right there.

And so I was just like, man, this lady's mean, or she's mad and she's angry, and she's being a little mean.

And so I say goodbye to my friend and walk over to the door, and I was like, this is so awkward.

I gotta like pass this lady and she's yelling at somebody.

And so I like, I'm like, excuse me while you yell.

And I looked over and it was Teddy.

And I was like, I'm about to cripple this lady.

Like, I'm like, I and so I I I was like, I was like, hey, uh, hey, man, are you were you trying, did you see me and you were trying to get to me?

And he was like, I uh and I was like, well, come on, come on, come on.

And so I walk him away from her and uh get and I was like, hey, what what happened?

He's like, well, you know, like just anyways he was like, my teacher sent me to go do something, and I was going to do it, but that teacher didn't believe me.

She thought I was lying, and so she stopped me at the door and wouldn't let me go through because she thought I was lying.

He goes, and then she'd ask me questions, and I I was trying to answer, but before I could answer and tell her what my teacher had told me to do, she would cut me off and wouldn't let me answer.

And it was this back and forth, and I was like, I just like you know, arms around him.

I was like, brother, I'm so sorry.

Like, I'm so sorry.

I was like, man, she was mean to you.

And he was like, she was mean to me.

Like she was so mean to me.

And I was like, I'm so sorry.

I was like, well, come on, let's like, let's like, bro, we'll just leave, man.

We'll just get out of here.

And he was like, no, I gotta go back to class, and like and like open the door and he had to go in.

He's like, he didn't want his teacher to get mad at him.

And so he goes back to class, and I'm standing there on the other side of this door, like I'm about to kick this Joker down.

Like, I don't even know.

Like, I want to go in there and like do something.

And help my child and hold him, but like I can't, you know, I couldn't, I shouldn't do that.

You know, I'm a dad and I shouldn't go and helicopter parent my kid and, like, hey, sorry, he got really in trouble.

Um, I didn't want to do that.

But what I wanted on the other side of that door is I wanted somebody else, one student, his teacher, somebody to just see him in pain, someone to see his tears and that he's holding back his pain, and someone just to notice him and be kind to him and encourage him and tell him it's okay.

I wanted somebody to just see him and to me as I felt that for him, and feeling powerless to do anything in the life of my kid, I just wanted somebody else to do it and to me.

This is what the father looks at the people of this world and going, I long to bless them.

Would the church please rise up and bless people who are desperate to experience something good?

They're longing for it.

Would y'all please go out and actually speak words of life into people?

Would you be this conduit through which I can be kind to the world?

And I think he is a father looking at his kids who are struggling and suffering and desperate for blessing, and he is desperate to bless them.

He just primarily wants to do that through us into the world.

And so for us, this is our opportunity, this is our space, this is what we get to do.

And I want us to lean into that.

I want us to be a people of blessing because it does reveal who God is.

It is the space that we're desperate for, but it is uniquely our calling.

We are built to bless.

We're empowered to bless and equipped to bless.

And so I want us to do that.

So how can we bless others?

I'm gonna roll through this rather quickly because this message has been a little long.

But this is like the very practical side of things.

But the first is if you want to know how to bless, I would just encourage you not to complicate it and just find a need and meet it.

Just find a need and meet it.

I think we do complicate it too much and go like, I don't know if this is my calling.

Your calling is to bless.

Find a need and meet it.

If you feel compassion for that person, that's because the Lord has placed compassion in you.

If you feel like mercy for this thing, like that's because the Lord has placed mercy in you for that thing.

If you feel it and you are filled with his spirit, he's feeling it for you.

That's not generating from you, it's generated from him.

He is leading you in that space.

And so you don't have to be like, I don't know if God really wants me to.

Just do it.

Find a need and meet it.

Uh, there's this group called the Clapham Sect that lived a long time ago.

William Wilberforce, who has a really difficult last name to say, but um, he wrote the hymn Amazing Grace.

Um, but it was like him and a bunch of different people who were very wealthy Christians, and they just took like all of their passion and all of their money and all of their faith and was like, let's just combine these things.

And so this group of people that did life together just started doing kind things in their society.

And so one of them was abolition.

They took on the end of slave trade and tried to uh put an end to that and did a lot of work in that.

Some of them were lawyers, so they took their expertise and just formed it into this thing of like, how can we bless the world through our money, our gifts, our talents, and our careers and things like that.

But they also took on things like child labor laws and pet laws of like, hey, you're you're riding your carriage horse too long, like stop that.

And like put some laws in, but like they just did random stuff.

They gave out loans at zero interest to people who didn't have enough food because if you got a loan and you couldn't pay it, they'd send you to jail if you couldn't pay it.

But then they accrued interest at such a high rate that they couldn't pay it, then they'd be in jail.

And then we're like, we'll just here, look, we got money, we'll give you a loan at no interest.

Go get your food, you can pay us back whenever you get a job and that kind of thing.

Like, they just saw a need and met it.

And to me, I want us to be people that just, man, we just see needs and meet it.

Colin is trying to do the AMPM studios, he's he's doing this.

He's taking his love for art and then his skill and passion and expertise and seeking to bless the community of Memphis and his love for Memphis and his love for Jesus.

He's seeking to do that by getting an art studio going that can bless the community.

Andrew Banker, who just read the teaching text, he has a heart for coffee.

Lord bless him.

He has a heart for coffee and like just loves coffee and then a heart for South America.

And so what he did when he had his other full-time job, he just decided he's like, I love coffee, I love I love Jesus, and I love South America.

And so he started going into South America and flying there to build relationships with small coffee farmers who would be overlooked by Starbucks and all these big conglomerate things.

And he just started building relationships with them and buying their and sourcing their beans so that their family had enough money to buy food and could actually make a living.

And then he connected them to local churches there in the area so that not only their financial needs were being met, but then their spiritual needs and then other things that come up.

And he sources their beans, and he's he's in all these different spaces in South America and he's trying to get into Ethiopia.

And it now it's such a big thing that he was able to leave his other job and and start this thing, and he does this now as a ministry and a mission uh to South America.

But like, just this is the thing that I care about.

I love Jesus and I just want to bless the nations with it.

And it's like, it's not this really um it actually is pretty unique that these guys are doing that, but it's it's just because they have this passion to do these things, and I love that idea.

They just found a need, we're passionate about it, and just started meeting it.

And I think for us, it can be something as simple as that.

Just going like, what do I care about?

And where can I bless the world with it?

Find a need and meet it.

Um, second is I would encourage you to serve with us.

Um, there are tons of opportunities.

Go to the next slide here.

Tons of opportunities that we have just as a church.

Um, if you attend our church and you're a part of our church and you call our church home, I'd encourage you to serve with us.

We go to Calvary Rescue Mission every quarter.

Need like six people every quarter just to go and serve homeless men and to feed them, cook for them, feed them, and then host a worship service for them.

And we'll talk about that more as we get closer to May.

Um, Mick Wright is trying to, he's an attender of our church.

He's trying to get a C3 blood drive going as a sign-up online because there's a national blood shortage.

Again, just somebody that's like, I don't know, I noticed a need.

I'd like to meet it.

Maybe our church could help.

I'm like, what a gift.

We're called to be a blessing to the nations.

And the nation has a blood shortage.

Maybe we can do something about that.

I have no idea, but let's add it and be a space where people can sign up.

Uh Karoon got a Parthi, he's in the back there.

Uh he works at St.

Francis Hospital, right?

I got that right.

Yeah.

Um and there's all these opportunities to volunteer and like hold Nikyu babies at at the hospital and like just to pray over them and sing over them, and like no one's holding them, but you can like show up and like just hold babies and volunteer in that way.

And like, what a gift.

You can do that.

All of that stuff's online.

You can apply and do that.

They're gonna background check you pretty hard.

So if you won't pass that, I wouldn't apply.

Because you're gonna be literally holding babies.

But uh, but like, I mean, it's just random stuff that would like, man, great.

We talked about you know coming up with our good ideas versus great ideas, and like they just came up with these great ideas like, hey, I think this is a space that we can serve our city.

What do you think?

And I'm like, awesome, dude.

I can't run all of that, but we can absolutely get it on the website and get these things going because I do think our people are called to be a blessing and they will want to plug into some of these things.

We're going on a mission trip.

I mentioned that earlier.

That's globally.

Uh we'd love for you to be a part of that.

If you can't go, you can support us financially.

Uh, and then we have missionaries as a church that we support.

Um, go to the next slide.

As a church, we support these three missionaries.

Mary Heard has an orphanage that feeds children who are hungry and that don't get any meals, and sometimes it's the only meal that they get.

Um, she's down in Honduras.

Um, we're actually, we talked a couple weeks ago about getting a mission trip together.

She's like, well, I'd love a team from your church to come out here and help serve and all these different things.

And I was like, great, let's do that.

I don't know when the last time we went to Honduras as a church.

Uh KUS serves church planning, training, leadership in Africa.

Uh, Edgar, church planning, discipleship training, um, and leadership training in India.

Edgar's stuff, if you go on our website, Edgar's stuff, I can't even put anything on there because they're being so severely persecuted as a church that they've had to like send some of their pastors' kids away because of the persecution that's happening uh on them.

So there's not a ton of information about Edgar.

If you want personal information, I can bring actual physical copies.

Um, but it's just a very real thing for them.

But like we serve these missionaries.

So if you give to our church, we send them money every single month, and it's doing work, it's seeking to bless because we feel called to bless the nations.

And a lot of these people were Larry's really close friends uh, you know, early on in ministry and got connected.

And we're seeking to add to this idea.

We don't just want to serve just three missionaries, but continue to build that up.

And so those are the ways that you can serve, whether you can pray for these people and do those types of things.

And the last, and we'll close, Zach, band, worship team, whatever you're called, you guys, you guys can come on up.

Um last thing I would encourage you is just to be expectant.

Just be expectant in terms of like if you are called to do these things, if you are uniquely equipped by God to bless and to serve, you have this space where wherever you're at, if you're at some gas station, if you're at a restaurant, if you're at a grocery store, whatever, you are a person in that space that God has uniquely gifted and called to be a blessing to the nations.

And so at any given moment, you can live with the expectancy and the expectation of like, what does he want to bless today?

What does he want to, who does he want to bless at this table in this restaurant?

Who does he want to bless through me here and now?

Who does he want to do that thing with?

And I think so many people live with an expectancy of fear in Memphis, and I think the church could live with an expectancy of like, what an exciting way to live that at any moment I can be a blessing to the nations.

And so my encouragement to you is just to be expectant in that way.

To not how have fear of Memphis be the primary experience of like, I'm living expecting somebody to break into my car, but I'm living, expecting to actually have this space where I can move into somebody's life with the blessing of God.

So that's what I want for us.

Let me pray.

Father, um, would you bless your people?

Um you've done that for us.

You have moved into many of our lives and transformed things.

God, I pray that you would continue to do that, that you would speak to us in the midst of uh what you're longing to do in our city, what you're longing to do in our families.

Would you just uh remind us and encourage us uh that we are actually built for this.

That we are your hands, your feet.

We are the people that you want to bless the nations through.

And so uh God, I pray that we would rise to that column.

I pray I pray that our church would be uh just a culture and a church defined by blessing.

Um not just with our finances um but with our words, with our actions, that we would just find needs and meet it.

And so, God, I pray that you would do that among us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Uh we're gonna move into a time of communion, and um communion is a space where we get this opportunity to just remember consistently the blessing that Jesus has had for us and done for us.

So his body was broken for us, so ours won't have to be.

His blood was shed for us so that ours wouldn't have to be in order to take away our sins.

And so we have been blessed in order to be a blessing to those around us.

And so my encouragement to you is as we go to take communion, as we process this, just take some time and just be reminded.

We have experienced kindness, incredible kindness in multi-different ways than than one another.

But we have experienced the kindness of Jesus breaking into our lives.

And I'd love for us to have this space where we just remember during this time that it was his body, his blood.

He blessed us by changing places with us so that we could experience the goodness of God in our time.

And so take some time and remember that.

Let's say this liturgy together.

The bread, Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

And then the blood, the wine that represents his blood.

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make us whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Take some time in your seats and then come as you feel led.

If you help serve communion, please come.

And then also, Barbara is our deacon over, we're adding deacons to our church.

She's our deacon over prayer.

And so she's gonna have a number of people uh just on the corners here.

Uh if you want to receive prayer during this time, one of the blessings of our of knowing Jesus is that He hears us.

And so if you would like to uh have people pray for you if you have a need, go talk to Barbara or one of her team over there.

Uh, they'd love to pray for you.

Um you can do that during communion or during the response song.