The Blessedness of Blessings
The Blessedness of Blessings • Sermon • Submitted
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Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
Illustration of the stranded retired navy captain
This week I meant a man that was in quite dismay. He had a brand new 28 foot camper and he had set out on an adventure from Roanoke, Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Somehow, he blew out one of his four tires and limped off the Parkway. When we met, the tire was completely shredded off and the rim was rolling on the pavement. I was able to get him some help and some tools to get the camper jacked up high enough that 3 of us could pull the shredded tire off and get the spare on that he had. As we talked we learned that he was a retired Navy captain who was now volunteering with Samaritan’s Purse. He was on his way to the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove for some renewal and relaxation. When he tried to pay us for our help, I said, “Sir, you have faithfully served our country and are faithfully serving our Lord. My payment is simply that you allow me to pray with you as you continue your journey.” He looked at me with tears rolling down his eyes and said, “Would you pray for me? This has made me quite weary.” I stood there in a parking lot held his hands and prayed for the Lord to bless his trip and the work that he was doing with Samaritan’s Purse. When I finished, he looked at me, tears still rolling down his cheeks, “You have blessed me! You have blessed me!” He embraced me, got in his truck and traveled on.
“You have blessed me!”
I don’t feel I did anything special. I simply asked the Lord to bless him and his journey. Yet, you would have thought I shared with him a million dollars! He was so appreciative of my words.
Have you ever thought about the power of a blessing? We say it when someone sneezes, “God Bless You!” We here people say “I am blessed!” Sometimes, I suspect that we do not fully understand what it means to be blessed or to give a blessing. What does it mean to give a blessing or to receive a blessing?
Blessings are found throughout the Bible. We have God blessings, we have God’s people offering blessings and we have God’s Son Jesus Christ showing us characteristics of those that are blessed in His Sermon on the Mount.
Our first introduction of Blessings can be found in and 2.
In the creation story we see how God spoke and created the the world into existence.
On the first day, God spoke and separated the darkness and light.
On the second day, God spoke and separated water and sky.
On the third day, God spoke and created dry ground to separate from the waters this calling it land and sea and then created plants that bore seed and trees that bore fruit.
On the fourth day, God spoke and created a great light to govern the day and a lesser light to govern the night. Both lights would help define seasons, days and years.
On the fifth day, God spoke and created animals for the land, fish and creatures of the sea, and birds of the air.
Then we see the first blessing recorded in the Bible:
God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”
God blessed the animals of the land, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea.
On the sixth day, God spoke and created man and woman and here we we see the second blessing:
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
On the seventh day, God had finished the work He had created and rested. This gives us the third blessing,
And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
These three blessings are strategically placed in these opening paragraphs of God’s word for a reason. You see, God will bless His own works and He will not forsake them.
He does it forever.
Ecclesiastes 3
I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
The power of God’s providence preserves all things just as His creating power produces all things!
Matthew Henry wrote, “Fruitfulness is the effect of God’s blessing and must be ascribed to it; the multiplying of the fish and fowl, from year to year , is still the fruit of this blessing.”
Job 12:7
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish of the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
Job
This week I was walking toward a piece of equipment and as I got closer, a Robin started going nuts! I realized that I had come upon her nest. Sure enough, there was a beautiful nest that had been constructed right on the boom of an excavator and inside that nest were 4 of the prettiest blue eggs. Not only was she being fruitful and multiplying, it was as if she was commanded to do so by our Lord and was willing to take me on to defend it! Guess what, she won! That nest is still there!
The blessing of animal, fish and birds is carried out in the New Testament. Jesus mentions this at least twice in the Gospels:
Matthew 6:
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Luke 12
Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!
Notice also that the all of creation was designed and developed by God before the creation of man and woman. Why do you think that blessing occured before they were created?
God’s whole purpose in creating this world was for man and woman to be in awe of Him, worship Him, and have a place that they could literally taste and see the goodness of our God!
God’s salvation is His blessing!
God blessed the creatures of the land and sea, the birds of the air, and the man and woman whom He had created. He told them to be fruitful and multiply. The added blessing to the man and woman was to fill the earth and subdue it. They were given stewardship over all the rest of God’s creation.
God is His great design, gave a blessing.
This third blessing He gives in this Creation Story, is for a day of rest and worship. Now it is very interesting to note that the word Sabbath simply means “to cease.”
God did not rest because He was tired.
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
Rather, He ceased from the creative works because the task at hand was finished. He had blessed the creatures and had blessed mankind. Now, as noted in
And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
God blesses this Sabbath by setting it apart as a special day. Notice that there is no commandment here for people to observe the Sabbath. We don’t see the idea of the Sabbath again in scripture until we read about it in where remembering the Sabbath is listed as one of the 10 commandments.
One interesting note is that since Adam was created on the sixth day, the Sabbath Day was actually his first!
God prepared all creation and blessed
So what do these first three blessings in God’s Word mean to us?
Glad you asked!
First and foremost, God desired to provide for us a place that would be so full of life and beauty, that when we realized the gift of this world He has given us, we can’t help but worship and glorify Him!
Secondly, when we understand that we are blessed, we also understand that with that blessing comes the realization that we have done nothing to earn it. It is a gift from God.
Thirdly, God’s blessing to mankind is sandwiched between the blessing of the living creatures and the blessing of a holy day.
On one side it is Fur, Fins and Feathers; on the other side it is Faithful Father and Forgiving Lord
b,On one side God said to man “I trust you to name” on the other side, God says in His Name I can trust!”
c.On one side man looks and says “Oh My Goodness!” On the other side man says “Oh My God!”
You see these blessings show you and me that God designed all of the world for us to enjoy and to enter into fellowship with Him! We are designed as God’s very best to enjoy not only the gift of His creation but the Gift of fellowship with Him!
We can learn so much from these blessings!