Are You a "Blesser"? Shifting from Criticism to Grace

In this episode, Austin Gardner shares a personal revelation from his morning Bible study that challenged his 50+ years of ministry. Moving from the Old Testament priesthood to our role as a "royal priesthood," Austin explains why our words are the primary way God releases grace into the world today. If you’ve felt the weight of performance or the sting of religious criticism, this episode is a refreshing reminder that God is a Father of "sweet love" who wants to bless His people through you.

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Transcript

Numbers And The Command To Bless

Grace Filled Words That Build

The Tongue And Spiritual Outcomes

Turning Blessing Into A Practice

Scripts And Scriptures For Blessing

A Challenge To Study Blessings

Answering The Liberalism Objection

Recovering A Loving View Of God

Austin Gardner 0:26

I was just reading my Bible this morning. I'm going back through it again just for fun. Just because I love Jesus, love God, love his word. I know you do too. And uh I came across Numbers chapter six, verse 27. And uh the Bible's clear. They were supposed to bless God's people. Aaron and his family was supposed to bless God's people. And it just, I've I've talked, I've talked about that before. I've looked at that before, and it's it's blessed me. But then I just started, uh I went down a rabbit hole. I just started studying about that. And you know, what God is doing is authorized his people to speak blessing. And then his people, his leaders, and you and I, we're to speak it. And then here was what blew my mind. He acts to fulfill it. We don't create the blessing, release what God promised. God said, if you'll bless them, I will bless them. So we're agreeing with God and becoming a channel of blessing. So that got me to thinking about Ephesians chapter 4. Now, you know, you're in the Old Testament, so in my mind, I jumped to the New Testament, and we're to let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth. We're to speak what edifies, what builds up, what gives grace. That's what the Bible said. And, you know, grace comes from God. And so we're supposed to use speech that would give grace. We're to be a channel of God's blessing, a channel of God's grace. We're to use edifying speech, building up speech. He's saying you ought to construct people. You ought to build a structure in them. We ought to bless them. I mean, I get a hold of that. We ought to bless them. And that's what he's saying. It literally means that we're building them up. Then, so I'm I'm I mean, I'm going down a rabbit hole now, because I the other day I was talking to somebody and I shared what a friend had shared with me that when you when you uh the scientists have done some experiments and when you and when you uh curse a plant, the plant shrivels up and dies. And then when you bless the plant, the plant grows. And I was telling somebody that, ha ha ha, you dumb, dumb. You're you're dumb on you're dumb and all that. And so uh so I just kept reading and thinking. In Proverbs 18, 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. In other words, there are spiritual benefits. And then in James chapter 4 or 3, verses 5 and 6, the the tongue's like the rudder of a ship. It it directs outcomes. And Jesus connects words to spiritual uh reality when he says, by your words you'll be justified, and by your words you'll be condemned. Matthew 12, 37. The Bible often speaks about blessing and cursing. And in Romans 12, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. 1 Peter 3, 9, do not pay back with evil, but we're to bless. That's what we're called to do. So it's a kind of appears to me that it just might be a biblical principle that we are to release blessings through the way we talk. Now, I'm an old man now, and I got to just thinking about how, my goodness, I didn't think like that. I didn't, I was walking around outside just telling the Lord how much I can't believe. He's such a good God. He loves and blesses, he loves to bless, and he wants us to be blessers. I never thought of a preacher as a blesser. I really, I really, I don't mean that ugly. I never did. Uh the the official priest were to bless. Then we get to the New Testament, and we are the royal priesthood. So we are, I think, supposed to speak blessings or grace. And what that means is whether we strengthen their faith, we remind people of God's truth, we affirm their identity in Christ, we encourage them to persevere, we release peace. You know, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, the Lord give peace, give you peace. So it's a it's a beautiful pattern, and it's seen literally all through the Bible. I mean, I've spent my morning working on this, not even part of a message or anything. It's just what I was working on. And uh, so we are to speak encouragement and truth and identity and peace. We are not to slander, to be bitter, to tear others down. We're to build or not damage, we're not to damage spiritual life. And Jesus is the perfect example of that to us, isn't he? He spoke life to people. To the sinful woman, he said, your sins are forgiven. To the disciples, he said, peace be with you. To Lazarus, he said, Come out. He gave him life. Words in the Bible are never neutral, they are vehicles of spiritual reality. So from Numbers 6.27 to Ephesians 4.29, which is where I kind of did my little thing, God releases blessings often, and he releases grace through the words of his people to other people. We get to participate in the ministry of blessing. I think that's just blown my mind. You know, and then I got to thinking about some things I have said, but I should say much more. The Lord strengthen you and guides you. May God fill you with his wisdom and his peace. Let's declare what God promises to do. Let's speak about identity. You are deeply loved by God. God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a strong mind. The Lord's working in your life, even in this difficult season. Let's tell them the truth. I want to really begin praying over people at the end of every preaching service I should. I did it for a few weeks, and then I don't know. I since nobody does it, I kind of felt funny about it. But we ought to be speaking blessings and not criticism, good over God's people, praying for their well-being, even if they're against us, even if they're our enemies. And then we see that you know, we bless in our family. How do you talk to your kids? Are you blessing them and encouraging them and exciting them and letting them know their identity? Or are you harming them by the way you talk to them? A lot of blessing church services. Say a good word. That's a benediction. That's what it means. And how about this? May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. Or how about, how about I got others I'll I'll tell you, you know, in their life, everything is falling apart. But there is faith-filled speech, and that's what I want to give. I want to tell them I see God working. Your faith is inspiring. God has given you gifts that matter. You see, the blessings aren't magic. We're not manipulating God with words, but God did tell us to say it. God promises good, God's people declare these promises, and then God fulfills them. So we want to speak about God's character. We want to speak about God's promises, and we want to speak about God's blessings. How about this? May the Lord bless you and keep you and guide your steps, may He give you grace and wisdom in every decision and peace in every challenge. May his presence surround you and his grace strengthen you today and in always. You see, that's, I don't know, it's kind of a takeoff of Numbers chapter 6, verse 24 through 26. In 2 Corinthians 13, 14, a takeoff of it. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, the fellowship of the Spirit be with you. Ephesians 3, 16 through 19, may God grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you may know the love of Christ that suppresses knowledge and be filled with the goodness of God. How about Philippians 4, 7? May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. How about Romans chapter 15? May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. How about Psalm 121? May the Lord keep you from evil and keep your life. May the Lord keep you going and your coming from this time forth and forevermore. I could continue on, but I think it uh it might become a little bit redundant to you, but we ought to be blessing God's people. Boy, did God speak to my heart about that today. Can I can I challenge you to just dig in and study it yourself and see if I'm right? Dig in and see if if it, you know, I found, I think, 40 blessings in the Bible. And then I found that it works all through the Bible from the beginning to the end. And oh my, I'm not sure where, but if you follow my writings on Alignment Ministry and WAustergardner.com and then what I send out, you're gonna be able to read about those blessings. Um I think I'm gonna write seven or eight articles about it. We want to be blessers. We want to be blessers. It's a biblical thing. It's right. Now, before I close, I guess maybe I ought to say, I can just imagine what you're thinking. That's liberal. We're not blessers. We're not, you know, we need to call out to sin and we need to and you know what yes, I'm not denying that, but it ought to be that the gospel is good news, it's happy news. And it ought to be when they come that they hear God loves you and God wants to bless you. I'm afraid that's slipping, and we don't even call that real preaching. We call that liberalism or something. That's not liberal to know that God is love. He said he's love. God is love, God is good. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And if you want to know what God's like, look at the look at the Son. God is Jesus is the perfect revelation of God. I didn't have that picture of God in my heart and in my mind for a long time. I really didn't. Not how I saw God, not how I reflected on him, and not my attitude towards him. And and that affects the way you love your wife, and the way you love others, and the way you accept compliments, and the way you compliment. It just affects everything. I think, I think um we think of God more as the guy who calls our hand. He's like the referee, he's like the judge, he's like the coming after us guy, but that's not the biblical principle. The biblical principle is God loves us and he wants a relationship, and that's what he's wanted all along. That's what he's doing right now. I hope you'll think about this, maybe share it with somebody and get a hold of this that God is a God of sweet love and he cares and he's working, and let's give him honor and praise for what he's doing. If you get anything from this, share it, like it, help me get the gospel out, get the good news out that God loves and God wants to bless. Thank you very much.