Why God Can't Bless

We get to give.  

Not give to get.  

When we talk about blessed, we're not talking about just your wallet.

1. It Takes Two Legs to receive God's blessings which are generosity and stewardship.

If you are generous but not a good manager of God's money, you will give to the wrong things.

If you are a good manager of God's money, but are not generous.  You won't give it to the right people.

  

God purpose is to channel his resources through you to the right people.

  

You must be generous and a good manager of God's money for God to channel it through you. 

God has all the resources, and then there is all the needs in the world.  

What's in between?  

You are. 

  

Because God channels and directs His resources through His children. 

If God is trying to move His resources through you to those in need, but He can't. 

He'll move on to someone else.

Blessing us is God's idea not ours.  

Read what God said to Abraham. 

Genesis 12:2 NKJV

I will make you a great nation;I will bless you And make your name great;And you shall be a blessing. 

2. Why Talk About Money? 

Doesn't the Bible talk about money a lot?

Every time that someone worshiped in the Bible.  They brought an offering.

  

God put tithing in the Scriptures.  

Jesus talked about money and possessions 16 out of 38 parables. 

Was Jesus trying to get their money?  

Jesus didn't need their money. 

The money in your account is not your money anyway.  It's Gods.

  

Psalm 24:1 (NKJV)

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.

God is the owner of all things, but we are the stewards or His money managers.  

It's actually a blessing for you to learn how to give and be a good money manager. 

Jesus taught about money and possessions because He was trying to get their hearts. 

Matthew 6:21 NKJV

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Wherever you put your treasure, your heart will follow.  

If you want your heart in your church, put your treasure there. 

When we give people an opportunity to give, we are giving them an opportunity to be blessed, so they can be a blessing. 

3. Being a Blessing.  God blesses us for two reasons.  One is that He loves us.

There is nothing wrong about wanting to buy a house in a safe neighborhood, or to buy a car that won't break down.  

However, God also blesses us to be a blessing.  

I Chronicles 4:9-10 NKJV

9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 

10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory (income), that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain (not to cause pain, but a blessing)!” 

So God granted him what the requested.

Jabez asked to be blessed financially.

Was it an evil prayer?  

If it was an evil prayer, why did God grant it?   

Why would God call him more honorable for praying it?  

An honorable man, Jabez, prayed to be blessed, so he could be a blessing, so God granted his request. 

Is it wrong for you to ask God to bless you?  NO!   

It is not wrong to ask God to bless you, so you can be a blessing. NO!

It is not wrong to be a blessing and help others.  

You have to be able to manage your finances for you to be a blessing when God tells you to.  

Ask, What is the Holy Spirit saying to me through this message?

Robert Morris, Gateway Church

Video

http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/beyond-blessed-a-gateway-series/session/2019/01/12/living-beyond-blessed

From Broken to Blessed

We are all from a broken family because we have all been broken by sin.

1. Give me.

Every child starts in the give me stage.  It's all about me.  We start here spiritually too.  God doesn't resent it because He doesn't expect more out of babies.  

We get saved out of selfishness.  We get saved because we want God to get us out of the mess that we're in.  

Marriages start in the give me stage too.  We want our spouse to meet our needs.  Some of our needs only God can meet.  

  

Luke 15:12 NKJV

12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.

Matthew 26:14-15 NKJV

14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.

2. Use me.

Some of us want to be used so that we can be seen. We get saved because of selfishness; however, we ask God to use me out of selfish ambition. According to the Bible, ambition is self promotion.    

Philippians 2:3 NKJV

3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Strong’s: Ambition is electioneering for office. A desire to put one’s self forward, a partisan and fractious spirit. A self-seeking pursuit of political office by unfair means. Selfishness or self-promoting in your heart.

Acts 8:19 NKJV

19 saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

If another person cannot make us happy, then we do something to make us happy.  A lot of people divorce in this "use me" stage. A lot of times this happens about 10 years into marriage.  

God did not create marriage to make us happy.  God knows that the only way to be happy is to die to self.  God helps us to die to self through marriage.  We must surrender our rights to the other person.  Dying to self makes us happy.   

Luke 15:13 NKJV

13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

3. Search me.

Luke 15:17 NKJV

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

When the prodigal son searched his own heart for sin, he began to change.  If you want a blessed marriage, fix yourself.  I'm responsible for my own actions and  reactions.  God is focusing on what I'm doing not what people are doing to me that's causing me to react.     

Psalms 139:23-24 KJV

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

4. Make me (a servant).

Luke 15:19 NKJV

19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’

Luke 15:29 NKJV

29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.

The older son had the same attitude that the younger son had, but never left home. The older son was in the "give me" stage.  

Luke 15:31 NKJV

31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.

It's not what God can give me, but God wants to be with me.  Blessed means happy.  Some people feel guilty when God begins to bless them.  God wants to bless you because God loves to give.  However, He loves to be with you more. Quit thinking why would God want to bless me?  Start thinking why wouldn't God want to bless me because He is a good God? 

Ask the Lord what are you saying to me through these words?  We could be at the Stage 4 "make me" stage, and can drift back to a Stage 1 "give me" stage.  Holy Spirit, please draw me close to yourself.  Lord Jesus, be my Lord and Savior.  

Excerpts taken from Robert Morris, Gateway Church 

http://gatewaypeople.com/ministries/life/events/blessed-families-a-gateway-series/session/2018/10/27/from-broken-to-blessed