the basic message #E366
10/1/05
There's one word that gets tossed around quite a bit in the Christian church today, and that word is "bless". While there are various iterations of the word: blessed, blessing, etc., you get the idea. Some prominent ministries in the world operate almost completely on promoting the topic of blessings, with Ken Copeland's entourage at the top of the heap. I challenge you to watch Copeland's broadcast with a stopwatch in hand. See how long it takes him to make a bold statement about what God is going to give you. Copeland asserts that God is here to give us basically whatever we want, and here's an example of Scripture that sometimes gets used:
Matthew 7:11
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
The premise is simple: Ask God for something and he will give it to you. Is it that simple? Only if you're simple-minded. God is certainly in the "blessing business", but only on his terms. Like what?
Acts 3:26
When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.
We materialistic Americans generally associate blessings from God as being something we can spend, something we can drive or something we can live in. In the passage above, we're told that God will bless us by turning us from our wicked ways. Oh, I know you're not wicked, but I am. I'm quick to judge, have frequent bursts of anger and am impatient to a fault. That's just for starters. If I could chose between God turning me from those wicked ways or getting a new Ducati motorcycle, what should I choose? Well, it depends on whether the Ducati is a 600 or a 999. Just kidding. If God will bless me with the ability to cease wicked living, it will be of far greater value than any material thing. Some of you reading this will simply scratch your head in puzzlement, but trust me, a day is coming when you'll understand.
Let's back up a bit and try our best to study why God does what he does.
1 Kings 11:38
If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you.
So we can see there are "strings attached" when God blesses us. They're good strings, but strings nonetheless. Personally, I think God is very generous in how he blesses us. "Just do what I tell you to do and I'll take care of you" is basically the pitch from God. It's simple to follow if a person will pick up a Bible to get an understanding on what God wants. It's of extreme importance to understand that many "blessings" aren't from God at all. Satan is in the blessing business as well, and believe me, he's handing out goodies faster than FEMA on the Gulf Coast. Let's take a look at a couple of examples of blessings and you tell me whether they're from God or Satan.
A young family man gets a promotion. Is it from God or Satan? Your answer should be: "not enough information". Let's flesh out the example a bit more. The man's wife has a career of her own, often having to spend long days at the office and has to travel frequently. The man's promotion elevates him to a national management position, requiring him to spend at least 3 nights per week on the road. They have 2 children, a girl and a boy, that are 8 and 10 years of age, respectively. Again, I ask, from God or Satan? If you look at some of the leading causes of the breakdown of the American family, you're bound to find careers will be near the top of the list. When people place their jobs ahead of their families, nothing good will come from it, other than being able to "bless" your family with material things.
Example 2: A pastor gets the chance of a lifetime to assume leadership in a large metropolitan congregation. From God or Satan? Again, you should be telling me, "not enough information". Okay- the pastor is in his early 30's and still has a certain amount of innocence still left in his spirit. His new congregation is heavy with successful business people and civic leaders. You can probably walk out into the church parking lot and find a dozen cars with Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar CD's in the player. These are the "movers and shakers" of the community, and they only want to hear what supports their agenda. In other words, the new pastor will need to refine his weekly sermon to only offer positive reinforcement of what the congregation wants to use as their standard for living. They probably won't sit still to hear anything on repentance or yielding to the will of God. His life and family will fall apart like a two-dollar suitcase if he tries to be the pastor they want him to be.
So what does God want? It's really pretty simple- God wants to bless us, but on his terms. If God blesses me with a good job with good wages, he simply wants me to pass some of that money along to less fortunate. If I have some extra money in the bank and I decide to replace my 2004 21 foot Ranger bass boat with a new 23 footer because I'm trying to outdo my fishing buddies, don't look for God to bless me next time around. Why? That's a blatant waste of God's resources he gives us. In every blessing God gives us, we should be trying to figure out, even if it's a tiny gesture, how to give something back to the Kingdom of God. Don't misunderstand- it's not a business deal between us and God. God loves a cheerful giver, not a legalistic "one for you and one for me" type of individual that's always looking for an angle. I've seen it in my own life dozens of times. If I give to God cheerfully and regularly, he will return it to me so quickly it's frightening. I know this is true because he's backed off of blessing me lately. My devotion to him this year has been, shall we say, lacking. I have plenty of good excuses, but what it really comes down to is I've made some choices that weren't good for the Kingdom. Thanks be to God that I can turn from my wicked ways with the help of the Holy Spirit and get back on track. God is watching me right now typing this. I can almost hear him saying, "You know what you need to do, my child, so just do it." You really didn't think Nike invented "just do it", did you?