0:00
Welcome to followed by mercy with Austin Gardner.
0:04
This is where we talk about God's grace and mercy
0:07
that meets us and follows us even in our lowest moments
0:11
and lifts us to hope again.
0:13
No matter what's been broken, here's love still heals.
0:17
So let's move from pain to praise together
0:20
because surely goodness and mercy does follow me and pursue me
0:25
all the days of my life.
0:28
There are five biblical forms of blessing.
0:31
So I just, you know, we've been talking about blessings
0:34
and I want you to work through how blessings work
0:37
and the Bible with me, if you would.
0:39
When we read the Bible carefully, we notice something fascinating.
0:43
Blessing does not appear in only one form.
0:46
God has worked it out and spent it through the Bible
0:49
and showed us what it's like.
0:50
There are several different types of blessings
0:52
and there's blessing language.
0:55
It is true that in all forms,
0:57
God is communicating a life and favor to His people.
1:00
I think it's wonderful.
1:01
I think it's just not something I was used to hearing.
1:06
It was always more like what to not be doing
1:08
or what I ought to be doing.
1:10
In fact, it is we had, you know, we had sins
1:13
and we did wrong, committed sins,
1:15
and there was even a word for sins that we didn't commit.
1:19
You know, but we didn't do the right thing.
1:21
I'll come up with that in just a minute.
1:23
That's 71 years of age.
1:25
It's just hit me pretty hard right there,
1:27
trying to consider what that word was.
1:29
And you're probably already thinking of it
1:31
because you're smart and young and you're still listening.
1:33
But let's go through the types of blessings right quick.
1:37
There's the calling on God to bless someone in the Bible.
1:41
That's the most recognized form of blessing.
1:43
It's the one that I'd love.
1:46
It is the one that we found in number 624.
1:50
The Lord bless thee.
1:52
Now, I do need to remind you that it was God who told his people.
1:59
It was God who was making it clear.
2:01
I want my people to be blessed.
2:04
And I want you to communicate not your blessing, but my blessing.
2:08
And that word, blessing there means speaking favor.
2:12
It means invoking divine goodness.
2:15
And it originated with God.
2:17
It was never just a polite phrase.
2:20
It's not just something that you say.
2:22
It's not how you're doing.
2:27
It was a genuine heartfelt from God,
2:30
believing that God heard it.
2:32
It was a calling from heaven.
2:34
And calling on heaven's favor into someone else's life.
2:38
And Jewish homes today, parents still bless their children
2:43
It's just before Sabbath.
2:45
The father of places hands on his child and speak priestly blessings.
2:50
For thousands of years, families have continued this biblical tradition.
2:55
It's not very common among us Gentiles, but the Jews still do it.
2:59
So it is a prayer spoken out loud over someone else's life.
3:05
And what I love about number six is it was commanded by God to the priests.
3:09
You pray that prayer.
3:10
I'm going to bless them.
3:11
Just go ahead and pray the prayer.
3:13
And then there's another kind of blessing where it's a declarative.
3:17
It's where God says these are the people who are blessed.
3:21
Like in Psalm 11, which we've already seen.
3:23
He said, blessed is the man that walks on the couch of the ungodly.
3:26
You're not asking for God's blessing there, but he's just telling you that
3:30
this is the kind of life that that man leads it.
3:34
It's talking about deeply happy flourishing.
3:38
Under God's blessing.
3:41
It's a life of God's favor, God working in their life.
3:45
And so it's described right there in that Psalm as a tree planted by the rivers of water.
3:51
It's roots near life giving water.
3:54
We are rooted in the love of Christ.
3:57
We are rooted in God.
3:59
And God made us for Himself.
4:01
And our hearts are restless, until they find rest in Him.
4:04
That was stated by St. Augustine or Augustine.
4:09
But he's our brother and Christ, if he trusted Christ.
4:12
And then there's covenant blessings in the Bible.
4:15
God promises through covenant relationships.
4:18
Know my blog on wosigarder.com.
4:21
I have a whole series.
4:23
You should really go.
4:24
I think it's seven articles.
4:25
I bet it's 10,000 words.
4:27
And it's going to be coming out in a free ebook that you can download.
4:30
But you should understand the covenants a little more.
4:33
I didn't understand covenants.
4:35
In Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse two, it says,
4:37
All these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee
4:40
if thou shalt harken into the voice of the Lord.
4:42
So the blessings were related to our relationship with our father
4:49
We don't really know what a covenant is in our day and time.
4:52
We are very familiar with contracts.
4:54
We just don't do much with covenants.
4:57
The closest maybe is a marriage covenant where we say,
5:00
I take you for good or bad in our today's society.
5:04
My wife and I have been married 52 years.
5:06
But today marriage covenant isn't kept very much.
5:10
But those promises then shape the relationship.
5:13
Imagine what Betty has gone through.
5:15
She took that promise.
5:18
And now I got all this can't try.
5:19
I take all this medicine.
5:20
And she's doing all that to help me.
5:23
And God's blessings over us.
5:26
He just continues on loving us.
5:31
They are beyond measure.
5:33
That's what God's doing for us.
5:35
Then there were kingdom blessings.
5:37
When Jesus began his ministry.
5:38
He started out by saying blessed are.
5:43
And what we call the be attitudes.
5:44
And it's about being spiritually.
5:49
Living in divine joy.
5:51
Jesus showed us that true happiness.
5:54
True blessing comes through humility and righteousness and mercy.
5:59
Not what we work to get.
6:00
It's what that produces in us.
6:02
The world says blessed are the powerful.
6:04
And Jesus said blessed are the humble.
6:07
The kingdom of God is not something that comes later.
6:09
It's something already among us.
6:11
That's what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said.
6:13
So as we are in our churches and in your family.
6:17
I just want to challenge you to consider.
6:19
Let's be speaking words of blessing.
6:22
And there's a there's a power of life and death in our tongue.
6:27
So bless God's people.
6:29
Bless your children.
6:31
According to what they've done.
6:33
According to who you are.
6:34
That's what God has done in our lives.
6:36
The second Corinthians 13, 14.
6:38
The Bible said the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God.
6:41
And the communion of the Holy Ghost.
6:45
Those blessings come at the end of the letters.
6:48
And they come in gatherings.
6:49
And they come in prayers.
6:51
And you're sending out God's people strengthened by God's presence.
6:56
I don't know that we're doing it today.
6:58
I want to challenge you to think about it.
7:00
For 2000 years, Christian services ended with a benediction.
7:05
We have a close in prayer nowadays.
7:07
But the benediction was God's blessing over the people.
7:10
We're preaching Jesus.
7:12
We're preaching him to them.
7:13
They can know how to be saved.
7:15
They can go out and enjoy life.
7:17
We are to remind people that Jesus is going with them wherever they go.
7:22
I just want you to take it to heart right here just a moment.
7:25
That we live in the day of blessing.
7:28
God is a blessing God.
7:30
And so I want to challenge you to consider that and bring that to play.
7:33
God bless you wherever you are.
7:37
And he wants his blessings to clear it on you.
7:40
And you let the world suck you into the stuff that God's not blessing.
7:46
So live in his blessings today.
7:48
Know that the Holy Spirit of God has moved into you and taking a presence.
7:54
He never forgets you.
7:55
He always hears you.
7:57
He is there for you.
7:58
Thank you very much.
8:01
Somebody else about this podcast.
8:04
Thanks for listening to followed by mercy with also garter.
8:08
If today's message spoke to your heart, share it with someone who needs to know.
8:13
God hasn't given up on them.
8:15
Remember, your pain isn't the end of your story.
8:19
In Jesus, it can become praise.