Blessings Beget Blessings

Text: Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4

Feb. 27, 2005

Aldersgate UMC

For years, sat in church

a. listening to preachers use big words

i. to talk about God
ii. and righteousness
iii. excited to learn right learning

b. kind of like first adult conversation with parents you know the one I mean (birds and bees)

                    i. always nodded as if I understood
                    ii. but really didn’t have a clue

c. we try to look wise

i. even when we don’t understand
ii. hard to ask question that reveal how little we know

d. we all play this game

i. in the doctors office
ii. with lawyers
iii. but we need to ask so we can grow in faith

Instead of asking as the song does "What’s love got to do with it?" we need to ask, "What’s grace got to do with it?"

e. Simply put grace means that God loves you, there is no because

f. Just, God loves you, it’s that simple

g. How do the blessings of God’s grace affect our lives?

h. What are the blessings you receive from God’s grace?

i. Let’s tell stories of God’s blessing this week
ii. Let’s think about the blessings received as a result of God’s grace
iii. Let’s "count our blessings"

Blessing

i. In Latin is benedicare

i. Which means saying good things
ii. Means much more than simple compliments

j. To give a blessing is to say yes to a person’s belovedness

i. Goes beyond admiration or condemnation
ii. A blessing touches the original goodness of the other and calls forth their belovedness

k. To receive a blessing is to acknowledge your belovedness

Biblical references to blessings

l. Isaiah promises a day when God will bless all people

m. Acts

i. Peter charges all people
ii. turn back to God and receive the blessing God waits to give.

Colleague shared story of young son

n. Family at the beach

i. Son approached struggling with his bucket
ii. "What have you got in there?"
iii. "The sea"
iv. with a broad gesture to ocean, colleague said, "What about that? I thought that was the sea."
v. "I’ve got as much as I can carry, thank you."

That’s the way I feel about God’s blessing

o. The wisest and best informed can only stand at the edge and receive just so much

i. Carry away only a small portion
ii. Someone else may be able to carry a little more in a different bucket

p. But no one can carry away all the sea

q. God’s blessings are as limitless as the sea

r. More than enough to go around

s. however, I suspect that some do not feel bucket is full

Several reasons why people seem to think their blessing bucket is empty

t. May be looking for blessing in the wrong place

i. The Woman at the Well

1. in a sense, Jesus offers a blessing when he asks for that drink of water

a. he breaks through the human barriers of race and gender
b. he fulfills the new age of God by breaking down those walls

2. in doing so he blesses her life with living water

3. he offers a new understanding of God that transcends localities and tribes of people

4. her whole life is turned upside down

a. her religious understanding
b. her categories of judgment
c. her role as a Samaritan woman

5. we to can receive a blessing if we open ourselves to Christ

6. but we need to be prepared for some change

u. Or perhaps we have trouble receiving God’s blessing

i. Israelites from Exodus story had trouble receiving God’s blessing

1. Signs that God loves and wants to provide for them

a. Escaped Egypt
b. Crossed Red Sea
c. Received meat and manna

2. They make demands of Moses and through him of God

a. They quarrel with each other
b. And test God

ii. Loose site of these blessings in their quarelling about water

1. Their despair feeds on itself
2. Their memory of God’s blessing fails

iii. Their reluctance to receive God’s blessing is because sometimes blessings reverse our circumstances

1. God’s blessings brought them out of the life support of the empire

a. Egyptian imperial system offered steady supply of food and water
b. In exchanged for servitude

2. The cost of the blessing of freedom was the loss of that steady supply

3. They would have to find ways to live on their own and wait upon the Lord

4. God of the Exodus was not a great sugar daddy who jumps when the people ask

5. they were reluctant to accept the blessing because of the change it required

6. sometimes a blessing leads to new ways

v. The Israelites had lived in a system devoted to production and consumption that prevented them from seeing God’s blessing

i. Sometimes we seem to live in a similar system

ii. God is seen as the means to get what is wanted

iii. Tendency to hoard our blessings and they spoil

iv. This is not the God of Abraham and Sarah

v. Deuteronomy includes several references to God’s blessing

1. Blessing of people always carries a charge to share the blessing
2. God’s blessing leads to blessing others
3. Blessings Beget Blessings

vi. the God of the prophets Blessings Beget Blessings

vii. the God of Jesus Blessings Beget Blessings

viii. While in Nicaragua

1. discovered pleasure of sharing my blessings

2. one way is through offering

a. no longer with scowl or sense of obligation
b. with a smile

3. share all blessing with joy for the wideness of that sea of God’s blessings

w. We also struggle today because we do not know how to bless each other

i. AA groups are able to bless each other

1. Affirm you when you are able to stay sober or clean

2. Help you back to sobriety when needed

a. Don’t condemn
b. They’ve all been there
c. and know condemning doesn’t help

ii. Perhaps we could learn from AA groups how the unconditional love of blessing each other

x. Or just possibly we’re too busy to notice we are being blessed

i. so let’s take time this week to count our blessings
ii. to bless each other
iii. to open ourselves to God’s blessings that are as wide and bountiful as the sea