Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, your eyes are on the righteous. Your ears are open to their prayer. Your face is shines upon those who love you. We love you, we trust you. You make us righteous through your son, Jesus. We believe it and so it is. Remember us and bless us.
Help us see your power manifest itself in every facet of our lives. We want to see it in our lives, the lives of the people we love, the lives of the people who hate us, the lives of people who give us grief. We want to see it everywhere we go. Father, let your will unfold here on earth as it is in heaven starting with us in Royal Oak. Change us. Change the way we think. Change the way we act. So we can be more like you. In Jesus name. Amen.
I’ve been praying for a while asking God to show me where he is moving his church, specifically us here at Royal Oak. What he’s been showing me is that God is blessing us right now, and he will continue to bless us, so that we can become a conduit of blessing others. And when I think about that some more, the reason God blesses us is for his glory. So that he could show us his steadfast love and faithfulness and his name and renown known wherever his blessed people tread.
In 2022, I want our church to be a blessing like we’ve never imagined or believed was possible.
1 Peter 3:8-4:11
3:8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For
“Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
11 let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
4:1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 3:8-4:11 ESV)
Have any of us received a blessing in our lives? I’m sure all of us have. Yeah, it could be a baby. It could be a meal. It could be a job. It could be money. It could be a friendship or a breakup. It could be a word of advice. Maybe even be a bad medical diagnosis. No matter what the specific blessing was, undoubtedly, the blessing changed your life, altering what our lives would have been.
First, what is “blessing” and how do I bestow it; likewise, how do I receive it? Let me give you the 30,000 foot view real quickly. The biblical definition of “blessing” is favor or a gift from God. It is directly correlated to the provision God gives. In the Bible, we see blessings categorized in one of three ways: fertility, land, and favor in relationship with God. All three are from God, by God.
It starts with Abraham in Genesis 12. God promises Abraham, an old man at the time, that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky—that’s fertility. Then God promises that the land that Abraham is sojourning would become his descendants’ territory–land. Then God continues to say to Abraham that his relationship with God will be so favored, that everybody else in the world will be blessed from the overflow of that relationship between God and Abraham.
Now, in the New Testament, the idea of descendants, territory, and relational favor with God connects the church to Abraham in faith. Abraham is the father of faith, and we are made children of Abraham because of faith. We are the product of the fertility promised by God to Abraham. You are the product of blessing.
Now, because of our faith, we received cleansing from our sins and became heirs of God along with Jesus, so we will inherit the kingdom of heaven—that’s land.
Then, because we received Jesus Christ as our Lord, we are placed right in the middle of receiving God’s greatest blessing – being with God himself. We have the Holy Spirit always. As such, God is with us and in our lives there is an overflow of God’s blessing. We need to see that because nothing that happens to us and nothing that afflicts us will change our status of being blessed as a result of our relationship with God.
Peter sets up here is one where a Christ follower doesn’t feel like his or her life reflects the blessings of God because of the suffering they are experiencing. He begins in chapter 3 talking theoretically about God’s blessing and then ends with practical examples of what it means to live out blessings in faith.
So I’m going to share two things that keep us from being a blessing to others in theory and in practice that we shouldn’t do and ask God to bless us so we don’t fall into those things; then I’m going to provide a mindset with some practical actions to take to embody the blessings of God to others, which we are called to do.
First thing:
Don’t allow sin into your life
Let’s go to chapter 3, verses 8 and 9.
3:8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. (1 Peter 3:8-9 ESV)
How do we theoretically stop allowing sin our lives, this is verse 8: Have unity, sympathy, love one another, be compassionate, and humble. When you embody that mindset, you will not allow sin to define your life.
Just a note about this mindset: these things don’t come naturally to us and no matter how hard we try, we can’t always embody this mindset. In fact, to embody this mindset requires God’s presence in us through the Holy Spirit. That’s because naturally we are individualistic, self-absorbed, narcissistic, uncompassionate, and proud.
We see in chapter 4 how God’s presence in us because of our faith causes us to cease from sinning as a form of blessing in our lives.
4:1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. (1 Peter 4:1-3 ESV)
Christ suffered in the flesh because he was constantly thinking about fostering unity with God, sympathizing toward people, loving people, compassionately healing people, and humbling himself. The God of the universe did not have to walk around as a homeless man, subjected to horrible treatment by his creation. But that’s what God did in relationship to us, as sinners to bless us.
Since we know that is a blessing from God, we begin to understand that the method of sinning for human beings has not changed in the last 2,000 years—basically, you allow sin into your life by doing things you’ll regret tomorrow. The things he lists in verse 3 are what people typically say their lives were like before meeting Jesus. They partied too hard, they got drunk too often, they slept around too much, and in general were involved with the wrong people.
Since you are blessed by Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, we should not feel obligated to allow sin into your life because God blesses us with the Holy Spirit to have a mindset like Christ’s– filled with unity, sympathy, brotherly love, compassion, and humility.
Let’s pick up Peter’s next point on how we keep ourselves from being a blessing to others. I’m going to start with the practical application, since we’re here. Verse 4.
With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:4-5)
Don’t be discouraged when your faith is maligned
Isn’t it funny that when you become a blessing to other people because God has blessed you, that people start criticizing you for what you are doing because you’re not doing what they’re doing? And then we take this blessing we receive and hide it. We shy away from it. So many missed opportunities to bless other people because we’re so afraid of what they may think of us. The reason you are sitting in a church is because our ancestors in faith did not become discouraged because of our faith. If you look at any of the twelve disciples, they all died prematurely under persecution except one, where the persecutors tried killing the man, but he survived and gone on to write the book of Revelation. In fact, when our ancestors were persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, they continued to place their hope in him even more and God brought more into his family as a result. Right now, in the world, places where Christianity is persecuted is also where Christianity is growing most rapidly instead of a place like where we live where we have freedom to think and exchange ideas.
That says something about us. It says even though we are very blessed, we act like the blessing we receive in faith is not real enough to peg our hopes on because we’re discouraged when people who are not Christians or in our camp of Christianity malign what we believe.
Neither of my parents were Christians by birth. My dad’s family was Buddhist. My mom’s family sometimes went to the local Catholic church. When my mom professed her faith in Jesus Christ as savior and not the Catholic Church, her very Catholic family kicked her out of the house. That’s discouraging!
At some point my Buddhist dad met my Christian mom and she became a blessing in his life. But when he gave his life to Jesus and started trying to be a blessing to his family by sharing his faith with the rest of his family, it wasn’t met with kindness, or even tolerance. He was disowned by his family, along with his wife, and kids. Straight up, erased from the actual family tree. No phone calls, no postcards. Just deafening radio silence.
My parents could have been discouraged by that malignment as a result of their faith. And if it were just up to their human nature, they would have disavowed their faith. But what’s clear is that the Holy Spirit gave them conviction to stick with their faith. Faith is a blessing given to us by God when there is no hope.
Don’t forget God has blessed us with faith. Go to 3:9-12, I want to show you why and what happens when we don’t get discouraged from others because the blessing of faith:
9b On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For, [this is a quote from Psalm 34]
“Whoever would love life
1 Peter 3:9b-12 ESV, with my own emphasis added
and see good days
must keep their tongue from evil
and their lips from deceitful speech.
11 They must turn from evil and do good;
they must seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Psalm 34 concludes this way, let me read it to you:
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
Psalm 34:17-22 ESV
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
The intent of this Psalm is simple: we are blessed by God with his presence—we have hope! We are not discouraged when we experience setbacks and malignment from others. No, we don’t become discouraged because we are blessed by God. So with the blessing of God upon us:
We are called to engage the world
Peter says in 4:6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
We are blessed with the good news of Jesus Christ to change us, because once we too were dead in our sins, but have been made alive and what a blessing it is to be alive in Christ. That’s the reason we engage the world with our faith. We can do nothing more than offer the world the same blessing we have been given by God through Jesus Christ.
Look at what Peter says in 3:13 –
13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1 Peter 3:13-17 ESV
We engage the world, because our calling as God’s people, is to bless others despite how we are seen or treated. This is the model Jesus gives to us. The Son of God, in his holiness, and in his blessing from God, the Father, engages the world, a world that doesn’t deserve God’s blessing of love.
The reason people who are being baptized share their testimony is precisely in the hopes that those stories of favor from God bless others who may not have yet received Jesus and placed their hope in him.
You may be mocked for your morality or your ethics, but perhaps it’s so you can bless your mockers. That goes for the people who disagree with your view of normativity– you bless them. It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle they sit, or how they vote—just bless them. Engage them. Don’t remove them from your life. Our tendency is to avoid, attack, defend, or to convert. But bless them instead by engaging with them like Jesus did. He is the example!
So how are you blessing the people around you?
I know we haven’t actually covered what it means to embody blessing or being a conduit of blessing, so here it is. Being a blessing is to
Boldly love people the way God would
Jesus is our example of loving others and blessing them. His life, death, and resurrection are all examples of God’s infinite love and purpose for our lives and the lives of the people around us. It’s why we are a blessing. Let me wrap it up here in chapter 4, verses 7-11:
7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
(1 Peter 4:7-11 ESV)
Peter concludes how he started in chapter 3, by saying our mindset, our prayers, need to reflect a mindset of blessing. Not compelled or distracted by sins or discouraged by suffering, but self-controlled and sober-minded, meaning that we are alert for opportunities to create unity, sympathy, loving one another, compassion, and humility—or blessing others. Here are the actions he recommends to foster God’s blessing around us.
First, love one another. Our world, culture, and neighbors need love like never before, just look at all the division along political parties, economic view points, vaccine mandates. We need to focus on who Jesus loves, not how unlovable we think they are. Because you and I are equally unlovable, but are loved. That’s God’s blessing us.
As God’s people of blessing, we cannot lose our sense of love. Don’t focus on loving just those who agree with us. There’s an entire world out there that needs the blessing of God’s love.
There’s this thing called compassion fatigue, which is the emotional and physical exhaustion leading to a diminished ability to empathize or feel compassion for others. It’s why most of us are under-involved, and unaffected by the trauma of others. I get it. You have way too much to care for that the capacity to care for other things isn’t available.
I was so compassion fatigued one night a few months ago that I snapped at Kate, while her two year old self was expressing her sadness, I said to her, “no whining” while wagging my finger. That’s not a father blessing his daughter. But it gets better: the next day she tells one of her other two year old friends, “no whining” while wagging her finger. Now she tells me when there is even the slightest hint of sadness in my voice, “no whining!” while wagging her index finger at me. That’s like getting the middle finger. There’s so much trauma to feel, but what are we blessing people with if we can even sympathize with them, we’re not even at empathy.
Peter says, if that’s you, then show hospitality. Hospitality is simply receiving people without judgment. The reason we get compassion fatigue and feel stressed out from people is because we’re judging them and their situations and their stories. Receive them without judgment to your whacky standards. When we do that we bless them the same way God blessed us as he welcomes us home.
Third, serve one another. Meet a need. That’s such a straightforward way to bless others. You don’t need even need to get into the deep end with people, or even start unravelling their dark issues. All you need to do is anything to meet a need somebody has. Bless them through your service.
Lastly, encourage others. Let it be God’s words that permeate your mouth. There would be no division if you would encourage people instead of cutting them down. I know criticizing is much more our thing. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t correct people if they messed up. But even correction could be encouraging if you did it with the heart of blessing them instead of criticism.
When Jesus died for us, to bless us, we saw the glory of God as the penalty of sin was paid. When he was resurrected, we experience the blessing of God as sin loses it’s power in our lives. So we bless others with our words and actions this year because that is our calling, our purpose, and our identity: blessed child of God. God is going to bless this community, this city, this state, this country through your actions of faith in Jesus Christ this year. He will get the glory in 2022.
Closing Prayer
Father in heaven, thank you for blessing us so richly with every spiritual blessing. We know your spirit rests upon as and that is why there is an overflow of blessing in our lives. If there are those of us here who don’t feel blessed because of the suffering we are experiencing, God help us see that our refuge is in you, that we are so close to you. That you love us much more than we can understand in these moments of suffering.
Lord, we choose a life of blessing others as our purpose. We want to be a blessing because your love transforms all things and we need to see this world transformed just as you continue to transform our lives. We know it’s a challenge to experience and become this type of blessing, but we are ready for it. It is exciting just to taste the goodness of your blessing and we look forward to the opportunities you have laid out before us to taste your love tangibly in opening our hearts and minds to you and to others around us.
Thank you for loving us and sending your son to save us and becoming the greatest blessing we could have. We pray these things in your Son’s holy name. Amen.
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