LEVEL UP - BLESSING

YouVersion Announcement

I had a phone call with Kord Walls the Church Partnership Manger at YouVersion this week and Journey has been invited to be a Content Partner with the YouVerion aka the Bible App. What does this mean? It means that we will start producing Bible plans for the app. This is a huge honor. Of the 2000+ churches that are in the app just over 200 have been invited to create content that will go out to the whole world. So praise Jesus. This is an honor.

Second, because we use some features so much we will be beta testers for new features. This is also huge because again out of the 2000 plus churches we are one of about only 10 churches invited into this.

If you are on the Youversion app and have not yet made journey church your home church you can do that by scanning the QR code in front of you or on the screen. This will help you connect with Journey on the app and you can receive the 5 day devotional.

God’s Blessing

God blesses us. There are over 400 passages that talk about God blessing people, nations, the work of His hands, creation, and so on. He blesses us with:

Life - Job 33:4

Job 33:4 CSB

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Our Path or Our Way

Psalm 1:6 CSB

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

A Relationship with Him

Psalm 33:12 CSB

Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord— the people he has chosen to be his own possession!

That was originally written to Israel but now the church has been grafted in to that.

Spiritual Blessings and gifts

Ephesians 1:3 CSB

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.

The list goes on and on. God blesses us. He blesses us every day. Even when times are hard, circumstances are difficult, life is challenging, or things just do not seem to be going our way we are still blessed by God.

Our call as disciples and children of God is to be like Him. I believe that one thing that can be missing from our lives us as we move towards leveling up is walking as people of blessing. Not as in receiving blessing, although that is true. Some people are not so good at receiving blessings, but in learning to bless others.

If it is in God’s nature to bless and He freely blesses then by blessing like Him we can grow and level up.

Blessings and Cursings

James 3:10 CSB

Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way.

We have to be honest that same mouth that can bless and curse from the same mouth. We can bring honor and shame. We can bring life and death. We can build up and tear down. This does not mean it is ok but we have to be honest about it.

Jesus says,

Luke 6:28–30 CSB

bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either. Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don’t ask for them back.

What does it mean to bless others?

Blessing others can look like many different things. It can be,

Giving a gift

Letting someone go before you

Calling someone

Sending a nice note

Texting someone something nice

The list can go on and on. Depending on your temperament, your ability, your resources, the form a blessing can take is as varied as the person doing the blessings.

I want to focus today not so much on the what but on the act. We live in a highly critical world.

Our nature is one that is quick to spot a deficit both in others and in ourselves. We see the flaw before the beauty. We hear the misspeak without the intention. We measure our own actions by motive and others actions by whatever seems right to us at the moment.

Yet the Bible tells us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. It tells us to examine our hearts before judging the motives of others. Where we see lack and a failed attempt the other person might have given it there all.

One of the best ways to correct this is to learn to bless because:

While blessing and cursing can come from the same mouth they cannot come out at the same time.

Our natural and instinctive reaction is to curse. To curse is to tear down, to insult, to insult. That is easy. That requires no thought and no intention. It just happens.

To bless on the other hand is to lift up, to build, to support. In the Bible one of the New Testament words for this is eulogeō and it comes from two words, eu and logo.

Eu means good

logo means word as in Jesus is the Word of God.

Put together these two words means good word. To bless then is to give a good word.

It is to give a good word, to good a good deed, to build up.

The Intention

When we think of blessing a lot of times our minds can go to gifts and this is good. Blessing with things or resources of some kind can be a great way to bless someone. I have both received and given blessings this way. There is nothing wrong with that but again if we base our blessing in the heart of God then we are reminded that God blesses us and we do not deserve it and we cannot earn it. The blessing comes from the heart of God and the intention is to bless for the sake of the other person.

Because of this a blessing can be almost anything!

One of the greatest blessings I have ever received was an encouraging note. I am not going to read it to you but my step son Marcus gave it to me when he was about 9 or 10. It was simple but it touched my heart. I still have it and in fact it is framed and I keep it safe.

The intention behind it was that he just wanted me to know that he loved me and he appreciated me. Of all the things I own this is one of my prized possessions.

The intention behind a blessing means everything. Whatever we do or say the intention bleeds through it. We see the intention, we can smell it, we can taste it. This is because to bless another is the opposite of our natural inclination.

So this week, moving forward when you frustrated with someone. When someone cuts you off, when someone takes something, take Jesus’ command seriously and bless them. Do not return insult for insult, instead bless. See how this changes your life.

If you are struggling in a relationship you have try blessing this person. Try showing them the love of God.

Remember to bless is to give a good word, to hold up.

It can be a prayer, a note, letting someone go in front of you so many different things.

Think about Moses. There was a battle raging on against the Amalekites. They were fighting and the battle was fierce. Moses was to lift up his hands and while he did this the Israelites were winning. When his hands grew heavy and they would lower the Amalekites would win. Aaron and Hur went with Moses and held his hands up when they got weak.

Exodus 17:12 CSB

When Moses’s hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat down on it. Then Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down.

Are there hands that you are supposed to be keeping steady.

Someone who is weak from the fight. Someone who is loosing their strength. Whose hands can you lift up. Maybe it is you. Maybe you are tired from fighting, from struggling. Maybe you feel like you can barely hang on at this moment. Maybe you have given it all you got and your hands are weak, your arms are tired. I would ask that you would come down and let us bless you.

CALL UP DIANA and PRAY

Invite people forward to be blessed.

April

I want to invite April up. April is retiring. Honor those who deserve honor and April is very deserving of honor. We will have a party after second service on 6/1. We will have food and some version of cake. If you want to bring a card or an encouraging note please do.

We will start looking at what it looks like to fill her roles here shortly so if you are interested or know someone who is interested in groups or pastoral care please let us know.