Bless // To Know Him is to Love Like Him More

We are on our final week of this Knowing Jesus series.

Four weeks ago, we started off, and we were in Philippians 3, where Paul is looking at his life, all of the things he has accomplished, the things before he came to Christ, and I posited maybe even the things he did while in Jesus and all of his accomplishments, all of the things he has done.

He looks at all of them and says, in comparison to knowing Jesus, they're hot garbage.

All of my accomplishments are nothing in comparison to knowing Jesus.

Knowing Jesus is absolutely everything.

It is not just an add-on, it is the thing that was most important to Paul.

We at West Village want that to also be the same case for us.

We want knowing Jesus to be the pinnacle of what we are pursuing.

It is the highest good in doing so.

When we know Jesus, we are going to grow as disciples, being fully orbed, well-rounded disciples who know him and grow in him.

So if we want to grow as disciples as we go, that means absolutely everywhere we find ourselves.

Well, how are we going to do that?

We want to do so through that strong foundation, right?

So we're talking about these foundations of discipleship.

This is what we have been doing this entire series.

Every week we've been talking about one of the five different posts that are holding up that foundation.

They are believe, belong, behold, become, bless.

So believe to know him is to trust him more.

Belong to know him is to be united more to him.

Behold, to know him is to be with him more.

Become to know him is to be like him more.

And then to know him is to love like him more.

So last week we covered become to know him is to be more like him.

Disciples take on every aspect of their teacher or their leader, to become like the teacher or the leader.

That's what a disciple does.

That's what a faithful disciple always does.

That is our goal is to be like King Jesus.

So we grow in his image and in his likeness in every single way, returning back to that original intent at creation, growing in Christ's likeness in all things, because Jesus has made a way for us to be reconciled and restored in him.

It is great, it is good, and that's what we covered last week.

So this week, our final be in the foundations of discipleship is bless.

To know him is to love like him more.

If you are a thinking person, and I know most of you, so I think you are, you might be thinking, okay, to be more like Jesus, to love more like Jesus, those kind of sound like the same things, right?

Jesus is love.

So thus, if I'm going to be like Jesus, I am going to love ta da.

Now we can all leave for lunch at Chipotle.

Like, that's where we're going, right?

Okay, yes.

But stick with me.

Stick with me, because, right, so here's where we're going.

When we love more like Jesus, we join God's eternal desire to bless the world through us.

Let me repeat that again.

When we love more like Jesus, we join God's eternal desire to bless the world through us.

All right.

So in that phrase, we're going to start with God's eternal desire to bless the world through us, and then we're going to work our way back towards actually the knowing Jesus, loving Jesus portion.

All right.

So we are going to fly through parts of Scripture.

The words of these passages will be above me.

We're going to fly.

So strap in.

All right.

Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.

Genesis 12:1–3

The Lord had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation.

And I will bless you.

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Okay, so God comes to his faithful servant Abram.

Later Abraham, so Abram, Abraham, same person.

And he gives this the he gives them this daunting command coupled with a massive, massive, massive promise.

Okay, so Abram, I want you to go from all that you know.

I want you to leave all your comfort.

I want you to leave all of your family wealth.

I mean, again, I cannot express to you the family dynamic, like who you were with is who you were, who you were was who you are with.

And so for God to say, leave all of that and go where I tell you was like severing everything that he knew.

He's walking away from it.

And God says, do this.

If you do, I promise you, I will make you a great nation.

I will make your name great.

I will bless you.

I will bless those who bless you.

And every person on the whole of the earth forever and ever will be blessed through you.

So trust me.

Believe in me, follow me, and these things will come true.

So the entirety of the world stands to receive a blessing through Abram and his offspring if he obeys.

Right.

So God has already promised, I'm going to bless you, but I'm going to bless you to be a blessing to everybody.

I'm going to bless you to be a blessing to everybody.

Okay.

Hold that thought.

Moving on, Exodus chapter 19, verses 5 and 6, part A.

Exodus 19:5

Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession.

Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

All right, so context.

Moses is about to call the whole nation of Israel.

All right.

So Israel, that is the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise that we just read to Abraham.

It's Israel.

They are to be this.

Moses is calling them to adhere to the covenant or a covenant, a promise of loyalty between two parties.

This covenant was given by God to the Israelites.

When they participated fully in what God had given them, they would be a nation above nations, set apart from everyone.

And they would be a kingdom of priests.

Now, don't miss this.

God is coming to Israel.

Israel was a group of farmers and herdsmen on the run from Egypt.

And he tells all of these agricultural wonders, you will all be my priests.

You will all be my priests, not a select few, not the elite among you.

All of you.

You will be a kingdom of priests.

You are going to represent me to everyone, all peoples, all nations, everywhere.

You're going to be my priests.

You are going to serve me, and you are going to be a blessing to everyone that I put you in front of.

Again, this is continuing to come out.

They are continuing to see how this is going to play out in the world.

God loves his creation and he desires to bring goodness into this broken world, and more so, that blessing is going to come through his people.

Okay.

So why did God make these promises?

Well, the promises point is God's blessing the world through us.

The whole goal of the promises of God, these covenants that He gave, the reason why we even call this step in God's story the promise.

The promise was that the world would be blessed through those who followed him.

The world would be blessed through us.

Okay.

If this is the point, now I do have to step aside.

I can't actually honestly say the whole point, the only point, singular point of the covenant was to bless the world.

There are other wonderful things that are a part of the covenants that God gave them through.

So please do not come at me later and say, is that the really the most important one?

Can I say maybe it's one of many important ones?

Yes.

But also, this is really a big part of it.

So highlighting it.

Great.

Now, moving on so you don't yell at me later.

If this is God's point, where?

Where will this happen?

Okay, Proverbs chapter 11, verse 10.

Proverbs 11:10

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices.

When the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

It's short enough, I'm going to read it again.

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices.

When the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

I feel that I cannot give this verse justice with a time that we have.

So I'm going to make myself feel better by telling you where you can go and hear more about this verse.

Please reference the book, Kingdom Calling, by Amy Sherman.

She writes this entire book essentially on that verse.

So if you want more, she killed it here.

I highly recommend it.

It is worth your time.

But I'm not going to cover her book.

The writer of Proverbs tells us that when, just follow this logic, when good people, the righteous, do good things, right?

They prosper in blessing.

Good is the observable result.

So they prosper or they succeed or blossom in their place.

Why?

Because the lives of everyone around the do-gooders, their lives are better.

Their lives have been impacted for good by the righteous.

Prosperity to the righteous means better lives for everyone else.

And then there's that second line about the wicked ceasing.

Okay, so if the wicked cease, then the actions, the bad actions done by the bad people are stopped.

So when the bad actions done by the bad people stop, good can flourish.

More good is coming about.

More good makes for more benefit.

So the blessings of the righteous that are seen by the city lead to more blessing.

And the people of the city are excited.

God's goodness isn't limited.

God's goodness is not limited to a heart-level thing.

So when we talk about God's goodness, when we talk about God's blessing, and we're doing so in a nice churchy space, this is not just a conversation about your internal heart-level goodness that is that's inside.

And you can say, I can feel God's goodness today.

It is in here, and that is as far as it goes.

The writer of Proverbs says, God's goodness should well up and it should fall out.

That goodness of God should actually be seen through the lives of the people who follow Him.

Those who are following Jesus should be about not just feeling that goodness of God, but doing the goodness, that every aspect of their lives should be impacted to bring that blessing to others.

Okay, now hold the idea.

We're gonna jump to Jeremiah for the context because it matters for some of these things.

The nation of Israel, the one, remember, Israel, we were just talking about them.

This was the nation that was going to be the place of blessing that was going to spill out to everyone else.

And these promises of them being priests to all the world that it would go through, right?

Um, this wonderful special people, they send their faces off for generation after generation after generation after generation.

They did not actually live into the covenant promises.

They have, in fact, rejected God.

And they live like the wicked.

As a result, they were exiled from their land to a foreign terror.

The Babylonians were the worst of the worst.

They were feared around the known world.

They were the wicked, they were the darkness.

And God exiles Israel to their land.

Things are not looking good for Israel.

And what does God tell Israel to do when they show up in the land of darkness?

Jeremiah chapter 29, verses four through seven.

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to those, I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses, settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce.

Marry and have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.

Increase in number there, do not decrease.

Also, seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I have called you into exile.

Pray to the Lord for it.

Because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Hear this like they heard it.

They have just been ripped from their homeland.

Fear is the air they breathe.

They are uncertain how they will ever be able to exist away from their homeland, away from the temple, away from the ways of worship that they are familiar with.

And out of this fear, God meets them and he says to them, build, settle, plant, eat, marry, increase, live.

And already, this is a balm.

It is a salve to their souls.

He is not abandoning them.

In fact, he gives them hope and a promise.

I have not abandoned you.

But but he goes on.

Because just when you think God has said the thing you want to hear, he says something a little bit more, and it kind of confuses it.

Seek the peace and the prosperity of your enemies.

Seek the peace and prosperity of your enemies.

Pray to the Lord for your enemies.

And while they're still kind of weirded out by that statement, like, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Wait.

We are in the land of darkness with the worst of the worst, and you want us to pray for them, to pray for their peace.

And as they're thinking through this, God adds this little line at the end if the city prospers, you will also prosper.

The wickedness of the wicked does not change God's call for his people.

Do you understand that?

Do we actually understand that?

The wickedness of the wicked does not change what God has called us to.

And if you are sitting here and you are part of God's people, if you have said, I have committed myself to Jesus, I am his child, I am in his kingdom, then that means you have been blessed to be a blessing, especially in the darkness.

You have been blessed to be a blessing in the darkness.

The people of God should live faithfully in that context and pray for God to bless these folks no matter where you are, no matter how bad they are.

And I am going to be honest with you, this is hard.

This is hard for me.

I struggle with this promise and with this prayer very much.

I think part of the reason why is because I kind of, well, sometimes I have amnesia.

I forget how rotten I am and how rotten I have been.

And I stand on this place of being made whole, and I look at those who are not yet made whole.

And I look at that and all the disastrous choices, and I fold my arms and I say, God, oh, how badly they live, what poor choices they make.

And God asks me not only to bless them with my actions, but to live to bless them in increasing measure, including to pray for their peace and flourishing.

I think part of the reason I struggle with this is because I'm so focused on myself and what I view as both good and what quote unquote they deserve.

But God's plans are so much broader than mine.

They are so much better.

He loves the world.

This is still always so crazy.

I will say this almost every time I talk about it.

God doesn't just want to do the good thing.

God wants to do the good thing through us.

He invites us to participate in that goodness increasing measure.

Things are going to go well and go better and continue to do so.

And we have been invited to participate in that.

And when the good things happen and we bless, and we've been blessed to be a blessing, and these people prosper, when they prosper, we prosper.

It's like it's like a cycle of blessing.

We prosper, they prosper, they prosper, we prosper.

It keeps on going because God has called us to it.

This is what God wanted from creation, for his creation to bring his goodness to everywhere he put us as we go.

This is what we've been talking about.

This is the context of our discipleship.

As we go, wherever he has put us, we have been blessed to be a blessing.

So at the start, I said the promises, the promises point is God blessing the world through us.

Well, our love.

Lives are the place where God blesses the world through us.

Point is to bless the world.

Where is that happening as we go?

It's in our lives.

It's everywhere that God has put us, not in one place, everywhere.

Now, we have just gotten to this point up on the screen.

Creation, fall, promise.

Line right there.

This is essentially what God has called his people to in the Old Testament.

This is before Jesus has arrived.

God intended his people to be the blessings that they were, to bring flourishing to the world, and they didn't.

Israel failed massively.

The Gentiles failed massively.

And if we are keeping score at home, most of us in this room fall into the Gentile category.

So we are not a part of God's blessings yet.

We were all waiting.

All of humanity was waiting for the offspring of Abraham to come, for the seed of Abraham to come, to bring that newness, to bring the promises to fulfillment.

Everyone is waiting.

And Jesus, God in the flesh, came from heaven to earth.

He didn't just come from heaven to earth.

Heaven broke into our mess.

As we have been covering, like before we did the Knowing Jesus series, right?

We have been in the and series through the book of Mark.

What do we see Jesus do?

Well, he heals people of their diseases.

He mends what is broken.

He casts the demons out.

He frees the feeble.

In the darkness, Jesus is the light breaking in.

John chapter 1, verses 4 to 5.

John 1:4–5

In him was life.

And that life was the light of all mankind.

The light shines in the darkness.

And the darkness has not overcome it.

This darkness that Jesus breaks into, it includes us.

I'm not just talking about our world.

I'm not talking about our time.

I'm talking about ourselves.

We are diseased and in need of healing.

We are broken and in need of mending.

We are possessed or oppressed by voices and forces that want us to remain feeble and in bondage.

But the darkness has not overcome the light of Jesus.

His love smashes the chains and sets us free.

He is the blessing that brings our blessing.

And then, again, in all astonishment, he calls us to continue and join him in that blessing.

If we are looking at the story of God as it goes from creation to fall to promise to redemption, Jesus brings redemption.

And then he calls his people to actually participate and be that.

We see it's labeled church.

And you might see that, and that's a very, I don't know, boring word.

This church one is that we have been called to actually bring the promises of Jesus to everyone.

We have been blessed to be a blessing.

John chapter 8, verse 12.

John 8:12

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I, Jesus, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not be, will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Jesus is so kind.

So he comes to us as light in our darkness, and then he brings the light to remain in us.

It isn't just that he has the light, we go to the light, we say thank you for the light, we turn away and we walk and we leave the light.

That's not how it works with Jesus.

Jesus has actually given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, his constant presence within us.

And again, just as we were talking, this is not an internal only sort of blessing, but it is meant to propel us to bring God's blessings to everybody, everywhere, wherever we find ourselves.

Blessed be a blessing as we go.

Okay, so remember that invitation that God gave to Israel to be a royal priesthood back in Exodus, our author or the apostle Peter, he picks up on those covenant promises and he shows their fulfillment through Abraham's offspring.

That fulfillment is through Jesus.

And then it comes through us to the world.

So join me, 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 9 through 12.

1 Peter 2:9–12

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

By the way, just don't lose this.

This is you.

This is me.

Stuck and set free and called to more than we could ever dream.

Verse 11, dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners, that's definitely me, and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul.

Live such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Jesus called us into light so that we would know him.

We would know that light, and as a result of knowing that light, we would be changed forever.

Those in Christ won't have that internal change only, but that internal change works itself out to show up in the world how we live.

We live good, righteous lives like him so that the world can see it.

We live so that our goodness actually overflows to everyone around us.

We have been blessed to be a blessing.

I will say on a side note, okay, so the behold bee, that is my favorite bee.

The bless bee, this is number two for me.

Because I get very excited thinking about what it is going to look like for a body of believers who are going to come together and say, you know what I want to do today?

I want to see how I can show up to live as a result of the goodness that Jesus has worked in me, as a result of the blessing that He is giving me.

So this is something working from blessing, not for blessing, you've already received it in Christ.

But if there is a group of believers, not just on the West Shore, not just in the Greater Victoria area, all over the world, if everybody shows up to say, we have been blessed to be a blessing, so how am I going to show up today like that?

What is the way that I am going to bless my family?

What is the way that I am going to bless my coworkers?

How can I actually be a blessing to my classmates?

Or insert whatever sport or fun function that you do or participate in.

How can I show up to be a blessing to those people?

If our mindset was changed to that, the world would look more and more like Jesus has called us to.

Because we are little lights, we are little pockets of blessing, bright because of him showing up to bring his blessing.

We have been blessed to be a blessing.

Okay, I had a whole bunch of other things, and I'm cutting them because we don't have time.

So thank you, Tim, for reading that passage.

And I've now cut that entire passage.

We're not talking about it.

It's just very good.

Um, okay, so the promises point is God blessing the world through us.

That's why we have the promises, the whole point, God blessing the world through us.

Where is it going to happen?

Well, it's happening in our lives.

That's a place where God is going to bless the world.

If that is what He's calling us to, if it's where it's happening, so what do we do?

Every single action that we do, that's a means that God is going to bless the world through us.

God's promise of blessing is made real in you.

In you.

In you.

Every single one of us who have been called to Christ, that's where it's happening.

We get to participate in it.

So I'm gonna land the plane.

I have two areas I want to encourage you to step out in, and then we'll have our reflection questions.

So the first area where this goodness will show up, how we live this out, tell somebody about it.

If you have been blessed, tell somebody about the blessing you have received.

I am not asking you to have the Romans road memorized and go attack somebody and make sure you figure out how to work Jesus into the conversation and say, and now I want to tell you why you need to be a Christian.

I'm saying look to people in your life and bear witness to what Jesus has done in you how has Jesus blessed you.

Tell someone about that blessing.

Tell somebody how Jesus has blessed you.

And then the second thing, show someone how Jesus has blessed you.

Like I said, I cut an entire passage from 1 Peter, but so much of the Bible, especially the New Testament, is making that goodness of God visible to other people.

Do good so that they can look to those good deeds and say, oh my goodness, I really want to be frustrated at this person, but they're so kind and they're blessing me all the time.

And why are you blessing me?

Right?

We need to live like that.

And so, so I'm going to invite you to do two things of the living out that blessing.

The first is it is quite literally today.

This is an invitation for obedience today and tomorrow, and then it's done until next year.

It's Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Lots of folks are celebrating today, lots of folks are celebrating tomorrow.

Do you have room for one or two more at your table?

Could you go and grab another chair or two from the garage?

Bring people around the table and bless them.

I am certain that there are people that you know who don't have a place for Thanksgiving today or tomorrow.

I am actually certain there are people in this room who don't have a place for today or tomorrow.

Say hello after the gathering and just make sure.

Hey, do you have a place for Thanksgiving?

Today is a way that you can live this out.

Are there people where you live, learn, work, or play that don't have a place for Thanksgiving?

Invite them.

Bless them.

Seek them out.

The second is what Tim kind of that's a really good graphic, by the way, Nathan.

I really liked it.

It was like right on the edge of creepy, but not creepy, for a Halloween blessing.

We want to show up as the people of God who have been given the light of Christ and show up in the darkness and say, we want to love and bless you.

So on Halloween, like we talked about last week, we're looking for five to six houses, places that we can have throughout the community where brothers and sisters, you might not live in that area, but you might want to help support the efforts.

And we want to show up there and be a blessing to those parents, to those kids.

We're gonna give out to full-size candy bars.

We're going to give, I don't know, hot dogs, chili dogs, apple cider, hot chocolate, uh, popcorn, you know, fresh popcorn machines.

There's I really want to encourage you all.

If this is something exciting, like how can I bless my area?

How can I be the house that people go home and say, it was a great night, but that was my favorite house.

I felt like I was just so happy to be there.

Let us show the love of Christ on Halloween.

Let us bring light into the darkness.

So I'm looking for five to six houses.

So far, I think I've heard of one, maybe two, two houses that we've got.

So let's increase it.

We can talk about this in more weeks, but I'm I'm wanting you to say, okay, how can we live out this blessing mentality on this day that is celebrated around Victoria for entirely different means?

I want us to get excited and say, I cannot wait to bless the socks out of everybody who comes.

This is going to be great.

As we close, band, if you want to make your way up our reflection questions, the things I want us to pray about as a result of what God has done in us, the life that Jesus has invited us into as a result of that.

Here are the questions.

One, who is God calling you to love more like him this week?

All right, let's move from the arbitrary to the specific.

Who?

Who?

What name?

What face?

Who is God calling you to love more like him this week?

And the second thing we want you to pray about what is the good work that you can do to bless them?

Right?

This is kind of one of my favorite parts of the gathering where you go to God and listen for his answers.

You see what he has to say to you.

What could he be calling you to?

What crazy wonderful thing could you do as a blessing to this person?

Let's lean on him.

Let's look for his answer.

So I'm gonna stop talking so we can get to it.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Jesus, open our hearts, open our minds, speak clearly over the next couple minutes, Lord.

Who do you want us to bless and what can we do to bring a blessing to them?

Speak now, Lord.

Jesus, there's just so much you want to say to us.

Every time we come to this part, I feel it is just paltry, paltry amount of time to hear from you.

Spirit, I trust that you're moving, and I ask, Lord, that you emblazon those faces and those names in our minds today.

Lord, I pray that you speak to us creatively.

Let us see what is the what is the thing that you want us to do to bring a blessing.

But Lord, let this not be a one Sunday cycle.

Holy Spirit, please move in our hearts so that you change how we view those you have put us around.

That we see that you have blessed us to be a blessing.

In your name we pray.

Amen.