Passing On God’s Blessings - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, August 6th. Have you ever wondered why God showers His people with blessings? Let's continue the Life Principle series to see the main reason God shows His believers His favor. In these economic times, it's easy for us to get a little bit selfish and a little bit self-centered. And the reason is because we always have needs at some point in our life.

And we also have responsibilities. And so, the question is, how should we as followers of Jesus respond in these times? Well, the question I have to ask is this, what about in Jesus' day?

What did He say? What did He teach? And when you read the Scripture and you begin to understand what Jesus was saying and the Apostle Paul also and others, then you begin to understand what He taught them, not only worked for their day, but what He taught them works for our day also. And when you read the Scripture and you begin to understand exactly what He's saying, the truth is we're to live out our life today just like He told them to live it out in that day.

I want to talk about one of the Life Principles, which is God blesses us to be a blessing to someone else. And I want you to turn to two short Scriptures, one of them being in Ephesians chapter four. And here Paul is talking about the Christian life and how we should live and things we should avoid in our life. And he comes down to this twenty-fifth verse and he says, Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one body, speaking of the church.

Be angry and yet do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your anger. And then he says, listen to this, And do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, he must work, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. He said every person should work, and one of the reasons they should work and labor faithfully and diligently is that they would have something to give to others.

Now, if you turn over to the sixth chapter of First Timothy, and here again Paul is referring to this same issue. And if you'll notice what he says in the sixth chapter and the seventeenth verse, he says, Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us all with good things to enjoy. Then he says, Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

He says you don't steal, but you work in order to share. And if you're wealthy, you don't keep it all to yourself because God wants us to share that also. So, in thinking about that, I want us to think about this whole idea that God has blessed every single one of us. One of the things He had in mind when He blessed us is that you and I would be a blessing to someone else.

Well, let's talk about what a blessing is. If I ask God to bless you, here's what I'm asking. I'm asking God to intervene in your life in some fashion for your good, maybe your happiness, your joy in your life, or to meet some particular need in your life. That is, I'm asking Him to intervene in your life for something in your behalf. We say this all the time, we'll say to somebody, We'll bless you.

How you doing? What does that mean? So, we say, Lord, I just want you to bless Him and bless her and bless them. Well, I'm glad God's a good interpreter because that phrase, what do we mean by that?

It's a good word, but it's a word that we don't use intelligently. Because what you're asking is for God to intervene in somebody's life. So, if I say to you, I want to bless you, that means that I want to intervene in your life in some fashion to either help you meet some need I see in your life, or to give you something materially or emotionally or spiritually or whatever it might be. But I, in other words, I want God to do something through me in your life for your good. So, if I'm asking for God to bless somebody, that's what I'm saying.

I want God to do that. So, when we pray, for example, if you pray and you say, I just need you to bless me in this area. What you're saying is, God, I need you to go to work in my life in this area because I have a need and I know that you know how to meet that need. So, the next time you have a feeling, well, I'm just going to say, bless you, brother.

Remember what you're saying. You want God to intervene in that person's life to meet some need that you see or maybe something you don't see, but you sense that they need something in their life. Or it may be you want them to bless them, just make them happy and peaceful and thank God for what you're doing in their life.

But it ought to be some intelligent reason you say that. Because the truth is, that's what God wants us to do. He wants us to bless one another.

He said we're to share. We're to work and labor and we're to share with other people who don't have as much as we do. Think about why God saved you. If you ask the average person, well, why do you think God saves us? Well, why do you think God saves us? Well, why do you think God saves us? Well, why do you think God saves us?

Here's what they're going to say. Well, so we can go to heaven. That's not His reason at all. That's the end result, but it's not His reason. He didn't save you to keep you out of hell. He didn't save you just to be sure you got to heaven. He saved you for a reason.

He saved you in order, listen, to keep you from being destroyed by sin in your life. He saved you. He saved you. He saved you. He saved you. He saved you. He saved you. He saved you. And then He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to live a godly life.

That's one reason. A second reason He saves us is He says, very clearly in the Scripture, in order that you and I might be conformed to the likeness of His Son. That is He saves us and indwells us by His Spirit in order that God would work in our life in order that He saves us. He saves us. He saves us. He saves us.

He saves us in whatever time we live so that each one of us would be a walking, living example of what Jesus Christ was really all about. A third reason He says He saves us and one that oftentimes people don't realize, in this second chapter of Ephesians, listen to what He says in this sixth verse of the second chapter. It says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, you've been saved and He raised us up with Him, seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is, listen, if you're saved, your place in heaven is, listen, it's an eternally settled deal.

You're going to heaven. And He says for all practical purposes, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, it says in Ephesians, that in the years to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That is, one of the reasons He saves us is this, that God wants to proclaim for all eternity the awesome power of His grace and in His kindness and His saving power to the most powerful, most powerful, most powerful, most powerful, most powerful, most powerful, most powerful. We're living examples of God's grace, living examples of God's goodness, living examples, listen, of God's mercy toward us.

There's not a single one of us who deserve to be saved. We don't deserve anything that God's given us, but that's what He's done and He says, and each one of you is a trophy of My grace and saving power. And that's why we're here today, because we're here today to honor Him and to give Him Himself glory. That is, our salvation is an honor to Him. But there's one other reason, and that is He saves us, watch this, in order that you and I may do His work on earth now that He's not here. He says we're the Body of Christ.

That is, you and I are to be the hands and the feet and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes and the eyes. And we're here today to honor Him to do something in your life and mine in order to do something through us. Now, when you think about the life of Christ and the way He saw Himself, we see Him as the Lord and the Master and the King and all the rest. When He came, here's what He said. He said, I didn't come to be served, though He deserved it. He said, I'm among you, and I'm among you as one who serves. And He said, I'm among you as one who serves. And then on another occasion, Luke the twenty-second chapter, He says that I am among you as one who serves.

That's the way Jesus saw Himself. And one of those examples among many is when He knelt at the feet of each one of His disciples and washed their sin defeat. He said, I'm among you as one who serves. And He said, I'm among you as one who serves. And He said, I'm among you as one who serves. And He said, I'm among you as one who serves. And the slave in the household who was on the bottom rung of the ladder when it came to authority was the one who met you at the door, took off your sandals and washed your feet.

He said, that's who I am. So, do you ever think about yourself as being a servant? Do you think more of what somebody's going to do for you or what you're going to do for somebody else? And that's why I began this message by saying it's very easy today to be selfish and self-centered because, you know, I don't know how long I'm going to have my job. I don't know how much money I'm going to have. I may outlive my money. I don't know what I may have health-wise.

In other words, we could think up enough possibilities to give us all a heart attack right here of all the things that could possibly happen to you, terrorism, all the rest. But in those days, Rome ruled with an iron boot. There was no mercy. It was absolute authority and submission at the cost of your life.

How did Jesus live in those days? What did He say? What did He teach? And what I want you to see is something that'll transform your life if you listen carefully, give you a whole lot more joy than you have and a lot more peace. And you know what?

You're going to feel better about yourself and everybody around you if you listen carefully. So, let's think about some things that Jesus did that certainly were expressions of a servant. Then when I think about His actions, for example, toward other people, let's think about it in this light. He fed them when they were hungry, five thousand at a time. He fed them when they were hungry. He saw their hunger. He was ready to perform a miracle and to feed them. He healed them when they were sick. Blind Bartimaeus set him on the roadside.

Jericho couldn't see. Began to scream out and call out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And the Bible says, and I love this phrase, especially to King James, and it says, And Jesus stood still. He stood still for a blind, poor beggar, and healed him of his blindness. He forgave people of their sins. When the woman caught in the very act of adultery, there was no question about whether she was guilty or not.

What did He say? He said, Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. He forgave her of her sin.

You say, Well, is that all it was to it? He forgave her because He looked into her eyes and saw the repentant spirit that she had. He forgave her of her sin. I think about Mary and Martha when they had called for Jesus to come because Lazarus was dying at that point.

He didn't show up. And so, when He did show up and Mary and Martha came out to meet Him, especially Martha, one of the wonderful things about Jesus, what we think is a mistake or He's late oftentimes is such a perfect example of His being on time. Because when He did come, He told her something that I'm so glad is in the Word of God.

Because here's what He said to her. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, the life. He who believes in Me, he will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. When some died, He raised them from the dead. What I want you to see, He's continually doing something. For example, when He saw that they needed comfort, He comforted them.

Here's what He said. He said, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told you.

I'm going to prepare a place for you. When I do, I'm coming again to receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also. That was the night before He was crucified. They needed to hear that kind of comfort. Then, of course, He assured them when they were confused. You remember the night before He was crucified in that fourteenth chapter of John, and here's what He's saying. He's saying, Look, I'm not going to leave you as orphans.

They were confused about what He said. I'm going to be crucified. I'm not going to leave you as orphans.

I will come to you. That is, in confusion, He was making it very clear of His promise of His presence. Then, of course, when they were lost, He saved them. And it's a beautiful example in the fifth chapter of Mark of the Gadarene demoniac. He lived out in the cemeteries, and He was yelling and screaming, screaming at nighttime, yelling, cutting Himself with stones, just totally demonically controlled.

The Bible says that Jesus quieted him, cast out the demon, saved him, turned His life around. And then, of course, He was patient with those who didn't understand. Nicodemus, very, very skilled, very knowledgeable Pharisee, came to Jesus and Jesus said, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He said, Well, what does that mean? Do you mean to tell me that I have to be born again after my mother's womb?

In other words, he didn't understand any of that. Jesus didn't say, Shame on you. He just took the time to explain to Him what it meant to be born again.

And by the way, that's still the truth. Except a person is born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. There's no other way to be saved, no matter what you think or what you say or what you've been taught. The truth is, Jesus the Son of God said, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by Me.

And somebody says, But I don't believe that. I understand that you may not believe it, but listen carefully, your unbelief does not change the eternal truth of the living God. And then, of course, when they were troubled, he gave them peace. Remember what he said again in that fourteenth chapter of John, one of the most beautiful in all the Bible. He said, My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled.

What I want you to see is this. Jesus not only said, I am among you as one who serves, I just listed a number of times when He was doing exactly what He said. When He saw a need, He was willing to meet that need. Does that mean that He healed everybody that was sick? No. Does that mean that He met every single solitary person's needs?

No. But it's amazing because you see, the Bible says that He knew the heart of every person. But if you look at His life, His life is one three-year period of giving, giving, giving, giving, sharing, sharing, sharing Himself. And when He went to the cross in His dying moments, what was He doing? He would stretch that on a cross between two thieves, almost naked. And what was He doing? He was giving Himself away to all humanity as the ultimate final sacrifice for the sins of all mankind so that anyone who comes to Him and asks for the forgiveness of their sins based on the fact that He was dying and paying the price for man's sin could be saved. That's who He was. Now, if I should say to you, are you a follower of Jesus Christ?

Yes. Well, let me ask you a question. How much of your life do you spend giving it away to other people or is it all about me, myself and I? You see, most of the time we think about giving, people think about money. And so, I could have said at the beginning of this message, now I'm not going to talk about money today, but I figured you'd find that out.

Sooner or later, I'm not. I'm not going to talk about money today. I'm not going to talk about money today.

And so, here's what I discovered. The happiest people I know are people who are generous and giving of themselves, have a servant spirit. They're the happiest people I know and I know a lot of folks. And I also know that when people have a servant spirit, you don't have to beg them to give anything. You don't have to give anything. You don't have to give anything. You don't have to give anything.

You will give. And a person's refusal to give to the Lord's work is an expression of something wrong in their life. And so, just begging people to give, give, give, that's not the ultimate goal. Listen, the request is not give, but the request is obey God. Just do what He says to. And in the Scripture, it's very clear. And if I'm going to be a follower of His, I must be a sharer and I must be a servant. Thank you for listening to Passing On God's Blessings. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.