SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_00: Visit us online at the lookout.church.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, how are we doing?
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful day to be alive.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Well, so good to uh be with you guys here today.
SPEAKER_01: If you didn't catch the memo uh or put this together, we want to invite you to stick around.
SPEAKER_01: After the service, we're gonna have a bunch of food and some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we're not gonna push you guys outdoors.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll be indoors, um, but there will be a feast of sorts.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to invite you to come be a part, be a part with us.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if we haven't met yet, my name is Luke, and uh I'm just gonna share for a little bit today, and then uh we're gonna end with a time of blessing at the end of the service.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, starting a sermon is uh sometimes difficult.
SPEAKER_01: I uh came across the story that there's this young priest who is having trouble both writing and delivering his sermon, so he asked his bishop for help.
SPEAKER_01: The wise old bishop said, Well, you might start with something to attract and hold their attention, such as last night I was in the warm embrace of a good woman.
SPEAKER_01: That will get their attention, and then you'll go on to talk about how warm and accepting she was, and it and at the end reveal that she was your mother.
SPEAKER_01: And that it was great, and and that is a great for sermons about family love.
SPEAKER_01: And so the young priest decided to take the advice.
SPEAKER_01: The following Sunday, he got up into the pulpit and he said, Last night I was in the arms of a hot woman.
SPEAKER_01: He paused.
SPEAKER_01: The congregation was totally transfixed, no lack of attention now.
SPEAKER_01: But he forgot what came next, and so he stumbled on about how great she was and how good she made him feel.
SPEAKER_01: Then he had to think of a way out of his his introduction.
SPEAKER_01: So he said in conclusion, I well, I may not remember who she was, but she came highly recommended by the bishop.
SPEAKER_01: So let's read some scripture today.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles, we're gonna be in Ephesians chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're starting with uh today.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and yes, we are going to jump into the word and have some fun here today.
SPEAKER_01: So Ephesians chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read this together, starting in verse three.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, say it with me.
SPEAKER_01: Every spiritual blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
SPEAKER_01: In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself, his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he blessed us in the beloved.
SPEAKER_01: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Can somebody say, Amen, this morning?
SPEAKER_01: You have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to the person on your left and say, You indeed are blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't something you whisper.
SPEAKER_01: This is something you say with conviction.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to the person next to you and say, You are blessed.
SPEAKER_01: You are blessed.
SPEAKER_01: We are blessed in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Are you waiting to be blessed?
SPEAKER_01: That was a question, not rhetorically.
SPEAKER_01: You are to answer that question.
SPEAKER_01: Are you waiting to be blessed?
SPEAKER_01: No, you are blessed.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a one day I'll be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the sometime in the future I'm going to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the if I can just figure out how to get myself out of the situation, I will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: It's not once Friday comes and the paycheck comes, I'll be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: It's not once this physical condition is healed, I will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: You have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a blessing decided by Christ, entered into by Christ, initiated by Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Out of his obedience to the Father, he was determined in himself and by his own word and through his own life and death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: I will become a blessing and unleash new blessings so that all who call my name will be blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: If you get nothing else this morning, that should put a smile on your face that you have been blessed in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's a reality that is present.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a reality that is a pipe dream.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a reality we're waiting for, it's a reality we enter into.
SPEAKER_01: And that is the gift of God for us today.
SPEAKER_01: But the word blessing is really interesting because in church world it tends to be a little bit overused.
SPEAKER_01: Can we agree on that?
SPEAKER_01: The word blessing we kind of pepper in probably a dozen times already.
SPEAKER_01: You came into the room, somebody talked to you about blessings in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Or I'm blessed, I'm doing blessed.
SPEAKER_01: How are you?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Which is not necessarily wrong to say, but don't we use blessing in a lot of different ways?
SPEAKER_01: If you pay attention in church world, we use this word blessing.
SPEAKER_01: If, you know, again, somebody asks you, How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes that means that something went really well.
SPEAKER_01: Something happened in my life that I'm I'm blessed, brother.
SPEAKER_01: I'm blessed, sister.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden that southern draw comes out, and your voice came out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm just blessed.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I'm doing, I'm blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Hashtag blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So we end our social media post with hashtag bless, which again means I'm pretty excited about my life today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm blessed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm blessed because of this, this, and this, and this.
SPEAKER_01: We say bless after somebody sneezes.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And then my favorite, bless her heart, just bless her heart, which we all know has nothing to do with actually extending blessing to that person.
SPEAKER_01: What it actually means is, can you believe how pathetic she is?
SPEAKER_01: Bless her heart.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Um but a lot of times when we say the word blessed, sometimes it we we can we can use this thing, I'm just feeling blessed today.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that really blessed me.
SPEAKER_01: We can do it in this really sentimental way.
SPEAKER_01: We've kind of over-senti-senalized the idea and the word and the language and the act of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: But when we actually look at the scriptures, when Paul is writing about being blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing, when we start turning the pages of scripture, we see that it's more than a simple idea to make you feel a little bit better, a little bit kinder, a little more encouraged.
SPEAKER_01: There is a there is a force behind blessing that when we understand that blessing is the unleashing and the projection of the goodness of God into the lives of the people he loves, into people and places and situations.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a light-hearted thing.
SPEAKER_01: That is a fierce, uh, heavy.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's something we want to hold open just not only today, but for the next few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Talking about the blessing of God, why it's not only so that we can live in the blessing of God, but to take up our position as agents of blessing in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that core to your identity as one blessed in Christ is that your identity has now been transformed to be primarily an agent of blessing in the world.
SPEAKER_01: That is why you exist.
SPEAKER_01: That is the purpose of our lives in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, to wake up every day saturated in the love and blessing of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that that's what God's called you to do?
SPEAKER_01: To wake up in the morning, the first thought of the day, to let a smile come to your face as you realize I have been blessed in Christ today.
SPEAKER_01: He has done something that has made a reality for me available right here and now, and I don't even have to nail it today.
SPEAKER_01: That's good news for us, right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't even have to get it right today.
SPEAKER_01: I could fail at everything and win at everything because I am blessed in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, our purpose is to wake up saturated in the love and the blessing and the affirmation of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: But number two, is to go on and live that day, seeing every person, place, and situation as the bullseye of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: That is God's call on us.
SPEAKER_01: And that was always part of his vision.
SPEAKER_01: That was always part.
SPEAKER_01: That's how it's the operating system.
SPEAKER_01: Blessing is the operating system that he designed the world to work with, he designed your life to work in the operating system of blessing, your family and your business, and your marriage, and all of your affairs to live in the blessing of God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he wanted it to go out from there.
SPEAKER_01: We see this in the very beginning when we look at the creation account, and we don't have a time to do a complete word study on blessing, but if we're just gonna just pick out a few places to stop in the scriptures, I'm just gonna point out a few things.
SPEAKER_01: That when we look at the creation account, what he created, the heavens and the earth, we we know that he would stop and comment on what he made, and and he would create the all of physical reality, and he'd stop along the way and say, Oh wow, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
SPEAKER_01: He would create and then say, It is good.
SPEAKER_01: How good is that?
SPEAKER_01: He was pretty stoked about what he was able to do.
SPEAKER_01: He loved his creation.
SPEAKER_01: He loves his creation.
SPEAKER_01: But it wasn't until about day four, five, or I'm sorry, five, six, and seven that he not only said he loved what he created, but he actually blessed what he created.
SPEAKER_01: So day number five, he creates the sea creatures and the whales and the birds of the air, and the scriptures say that he stops and he blessed them.
SPEAKER_01: He blesses them.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this word baruch, which actually means divine favor.
SPEAKER_01: It actually is a verb that oftentimes meant to kneel, which makes sense because a lot of the times in in the scriptures when we talk about the father's blessing, or when on the Sabbath a a father would bring all his kids, he'd have them kneel in front of them, and he they the their heads would be at the same uh right about the height of the father's hands, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he would put their hand his hands on their head and and bless them.
SPEAKER_01: And so blessing has this imagery of kneeling, of creation, bowing before the father, and he blesses what he makes.
SPEAKER_01: And so on day five, he blesses the sea creatures and the and the and the whales and the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_01: Day six, he makes the land animals, and and then he makes the prize of his creation, the crown jewel, the apple of his eye, which is his image bears, Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: He he makes them, and it's in the scripture says that he blesses them.
SPEAKER_01: He blesses them for what?
SPEAKER_01: To be fruitful and to multiply.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives them authority to become agents of blessing, that all in their care, that they would be ones that extend blessing.
SPEAKER_01: That was part of the authority and the commissioning given to them that they would be ones who would do just what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: He would bless them, and now it's your turn to bless.
SPEAKER_01: And then, so that was day six, day seven, he creates an entire day, and this is the first time he blesses a non-living thing.
SPEAKER_01: He actually blessed a day.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Sabbath day, and it was a day set aside for everything, for all of creation, not just the humans, but for the animals, for everybody to kind of stop laboring and to actually enjoy the blessing of God that all would be well and all would be right, and they would live in the blessing of God.
SPEAKER_01: And can we just for a moment here today, as we're listening to the rain pour on the ceiling, almost drowning me out?
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want you to imagine the blessing of God and the heart of the Father being poured out over you today.
SPEAKER_01: Just listen, just listen.
SPEAKER_01: Saturated in the thoughts of God.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you will be physically saturated.
SPEAKER_01: You might feel the drop hit your forehead.
SPEAKER_01: It's because the Lord's in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Or there's a leak at the ceiling.
SPEAKER_01: Which, by the way, we're working on it, all right?
SPEAKER_01: We're working on it.
SPEAKER_01: Um we were created to live under the divine overflow, and that overflow would happen from heaven to earth and then from earth out.
SPEAKER_01: Dallas Willard writes about blessing, is that blessing is the projection of good into the life of another.
SPEAKER_01: So the Garden of Eden was a place of uninhibited blessing, the projection of good from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: It was the domain of heaven and earth coexisting completely as one.
SPEAKER_01: And then we read that when Satan deceived Eve, causing her to doubt God's intention and heart, it introduced to them for the first time a curse.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that God cursed them.
SPEAKER_01: It was is is we brought upon the curse to ourselves by removing ourselves from the truth and the affection and the affirmation of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, what was God's response to that?
SPEAKER_01: What was God's plan to us stepping out of the operating system of blessing?
SPEAKER_01: We read a little further on that he finds this man named Abram.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Listen, Abram, I'm gonna call you to go from one place to a new place.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make you the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_01: And you just gotta imagine how this conversation went once the once Adam and Eve and the curse of sin affected the human condition.
SPEAKER_01: God God was scheming up a plan to get things back on track, and and you've got to imagine what this conversation was like between him and Abram, where he says, Hey, I've got this, I've got an idea.
SPEAKER_01: What's that?
SPEAKER_01: What's that, God?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've got so just hear me out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to make you into a family.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, we're we're we're off to a good start.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we're gonna start there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna make you into family.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bless you so much that it's actually you and every one of the your family that comes after you for generations to come.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bless you so much.
SPEAKER_01: Get this, hear me.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, they're gonna be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's it.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: So, what I'm gonna do, just let here, we're gonna walk through step one and step two again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bless you.
SPEAKER_01: Got it?
SPEAKER_01: And then you are going to be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: That was the plan.
SPEAKER_01: That was the whole plan.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just I his his whole plan to get everything back on track was to call to himself a family and to unleash such torrents of blessing upon Abraham and the seed of Abraham and what would come through Abraham that it would reverse the curse and it would unleash an entire new world of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 12, 2 says it like this.
SPEAKER_01: I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you.
SPEAKER_01: I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: I will bless those who bless you, and him and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in that interaction, in that time frame, God changes his name from Abraham to Abraham, Abram to Abraham, which means the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_01: And then the operating system of blessing was back on track, and it was so desirable in this culture, it was so desirable to be blessed and to live a life that was blessed.
SPEAKER_01: That we read that even Jacob tricked his father into giving him a blessing that was reserved for his brother.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob wanted the blessing of his father so badly that he had to trick his father, and he actually deceived his father because they knew at that point in time everything is about moving forward, your life moving forward at the momentum of divine blessing and divine favor.
SPEAKER_01: Jewish culture gets this really well.
SPEAKER_01: There is a blessing for almost everything in Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_01: They bless the food, they bless the eating, they bless the working, they bless, they have blessings for sleeping, they have blessed blessings for Sabbath, blessings for marriage, blessings for pickleball, whatever, right?
SPEAKER_01: Just find something new.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna bless it.
SPEAKER_01: Everything you do.
SPEAKER_01: Let's bless it, let's find a way to bless it.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna create a prayer and we're gonna bless that thing because that's what we do, and that's that's what it is like.
SPEAKER_01: Because the big principle is this we were made, you were made to live in blessing and from blessing.
SPEAKER_01: You were made, it's a it's it's what you're wired for is to live in blessing and from blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So in the old covenant, the problem was this the blessing was contingent upon their actions.
SPEAKER_01: And so God made this covenant.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna bless you so that you become a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: But in order to live in my blessing, you gotta kind of live a righteous, upright life.
SPEAKER_01: You have to follow my commands, you gotta do your best.
SPEAKER_01: Turn turn your eyes towards me.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, when we read the scriptures, we know you just turn the page one time and it just goes completely flat.
SPEAKER_01: All of their intention to live towards God, they could not be good enough.
SPEAKER_01: They could not white-knuckle themselves into the blessings of God.
SPEAKER_01: Good enough.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you know what that feels like to live every day, hoping that you can live good enough and well enough and behave at your best and to live righteous enough to earn something from God, which is why God sent his son Jesus, because he knew we couldn't live good enough to remain in his blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So he sent his son as a propitiation for our sin to remove the curse, to remove that, so it would our blessing would not be based on our own merit, but based on his merit and his righteousness, so that today, you and I, it doesn't matter what we're doing today, we can be blessed in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That is the gospel of grace, that's the gospel of mercy.
SPEAKER_01: It's the gospel he invites us into.
SPEAKER_01: That blessing is a reality for all of us who trust in the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So the curse of sin ensnared the people.
SPEAKER_01: They needed the curse to be broken, and so Jesus came to break that curse.
SPEAKER_01: But even Jesus came as one who needed to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And even Jesus desired the blessing of his father.
SPEAKER_01: We see that before he starts his ministry, he goes into the Jordan to be baptized.
SPEAKER_01: Not that he needed to repent of anything, but it was that he would fulfill all righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And he's baptized in the waters of the Jordan by John the Baptist, and we there's an audible voice from heaven that just breaks through the sea, and the clouds open up, a literal dove comes down, and then the father, this just amplification surround sound.
SPEAKER_01: This is my son, in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: This is my beloved, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: And you can just see Jesus saturated.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming up, he's dripping in the waters of the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's dripping in the affection and the blessing of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't want to start, he didn't want to do anything.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't want to start his ministry unless it was going to be blessed and come from a place of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: It's what we are made for, and it's the work that That God's given to us.
SPEAKER_01: The thing is, every human heart craves to be seen and to be known and to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: The world doesn't know how to offer blessing.
SPEAKER_01: You realize that?
SPEAKER_01: The world cannot bless you.
SPEAKER_01: Blessing comes from the Father, and he blesses his sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_01: He blesses us and then calls us to unleash blessing.
SPEAKER_01: When we look for blessing in different places, it doesn't get to the core, the craving of our heart.
SPEAKER_01: We crave at such an intrinsic level to know that God looks at us with tenderness and affection and affirmation.
SPEAKER_01: So we have, we can say, we can do good work, but there's a level of blessing that only comes from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And it's why we have to recover the work of living in blessing and taking up the work of being a blessing, like live literally arranging our lives to unleash the most amount of blessing in every step that we take, everywhere that we go.
SPEAKER_01: This is the work given to us by God.
SPEAKER_01: And when you do that, you know that it's meaningful.
SPEAKER_01: You know that it is moving heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_01: I and you probably had an experience of somebody, not even in the church, but somebody that you were able to be and have a conversation with, and you were able to look them in the eyes and speak something to them about their identity that they needed to know.
SPEAKER_01: They needed to be called out and affirmed at the core of who they are.
SPEAKER_01: This has happened many times.
SPEAKER_01: I think my favorite time, the most significant time, I remember this happening, was when we were adopting our son Asher.
SPEAKER_01: This is about 10 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you guys know that we uh we we did an open adoption because we wanted Asher to know his story, we wanted the ability for him to be able to interact with his biological mother and father.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and so before he was born, we got to meet up with the birth mother, and we met up with her and her parents, and and obviously it's it's a very, it's kind of a little bit of a tense time.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's a little nervous, there's a lot going on, and for her, this was very weighty.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's walking into something, she's making a very difficult decision to both give birth to her baby and then find a family to place this baby with.
SPEAKER_01: It takes a tremendous amount of courage, it takes a tremendous amount of resilience and fortitude.
SPEAKER_01: She was scared, she was alone, she felt like she had messed up.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we met with her, her parents were there, and obviously her parents were not particularly thrilled with any of it.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't thrilled that she got herself in this kind of situation where she was giving birth out of wedlock.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't thrilled with the position that put them in as a family.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't thrilled that they were, she was about to give the baby outside of the family to another family, um, uh from a Latino family to a super white family, right?
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and that was just there was a cross-cultural thing going on.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so we walked in this room and the anxiety was palpable.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was like it was like, whoa, you could cut it with the knife in the room, just what was going on.
SPEAKER_01: And you could we could tell that the parents at this point in time, they wanted us to know how disheartened and how uh uh you know, how disappointed they were that she would get herself in that kind of situation because they wanted to somehow remove herself themselves from the predicament that she got in.
SPEAKER_01: So when we're talking with them and getting to know Gabby and her parents, what happened was we just we just noticed that the conversation was really degrading and it just kept being about how she the decisions could have been better or made better, or we wish that things were different and all these things, and you could just feel Asher's mother, we could just feel her just kind of sinking in her chair, and she was just becoming invisible, and she was just like you could just you could just feel it.
SPEAKER_01: And I just remember something in that moment inside of me, just like just it just kind of rose up from within me because I'm like, this is not right, this is not okay, it's not good, it's not right.
SPEAKER_01: And so the conversation flipped, and I was able, we were able to look at look at her and uh look her in their eyes and say, hey, listen, we want you to know we are so proud of you.
SPEAKER_01: We are so proud of you.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing great, you're doing good.
SPEAKER_01: We're so proud of you for carrying Asher.
SPEAKER_01: We're so proud of you for making a decision, the courage to actually make a decision to place your child with us, and we want you to know that you are you are such a good mother.
SPEAKER_01: This is love.
SPEAKER_01: What you're doing is full of love, it's full of life, it's full of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing good, you've got this.
SPEAKER_01: And you could tell, like as we started speaking that into her eyes, something began to, something began to reform.
SPEAKER_01: It was it's kind of hard to, you guys can almost imagine.
SPEAKER_01: It was almost like what the words that were coming out of her mouth were just kind of like being lobbed inside of her spirit, and you could see her all of a sudden just kind of growing up into who she who she was and who God always intended her to be.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what blessing does, right?
SPEAKER_01: What bless what words of blessing do, when they're from the heart of God and through the hearts of those who have been have tasted forgiveness and tasted the adoption of the Father, when we speak the words of blessing, do actions of blessing, what it does is it calls people into their identity that was set forth from before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: This is why blessing is not lighthearted.
SPEAKER_01: Blessing reverses the fracture of this world and institutes and brings to earth all of the goodness and the realities of the kingdom of heaven when we become people who walk and live and move in the blessing of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it starts with this, it starts with us settling into this reality that I have been blessed with Christ, blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing, blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Blessing starts for us with knowing that we are the recipients of such forgiveness and such mercy.
SPEAKER_01: That even in my sin, I am such, I am so forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: I am adopted, I have been blessed in the beloved.
SPEAKER_01: And then what happens is that just begins to overflow.
SPEAKER_01: That becomes the substance of everything I do and say, and it starts to mark your entire life.
SPEAKER_01: It starts to mark every place that you go, it starts to mark all of your interactions at work.
SPEAKER_01: When you live as a person a blessing, it means that you live on assignment wherever you go.
SPEAKER_01: So when you pull into your neighborhood, you're not just pulling into Kenosha Farm or whatever, Vista Ridge, or whatever the cool subdivision name is, you're pulling into the field of God's mission.
SPEAKER_01: When you guys pull into your neighborhoods, does something flip within you that this is the place that God has assigned me to unleash the torrents of blessings of heaven upon?
SPEAKER_01: When you step into your work, when you step into or when you log into your call, or you step into your office place, is there something that wells up inside of you that says, this is a place of assignment.
SPEAKER_01: God has sent me here to reflect something of what he has done in eternal places, something he's done in himself to unleash the goodness of God into this place.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it should do for us because when we live in blessing, we live on an assignment with God.
SPEAKER_01: Blessing is more than a good word, a good deed in a kind word.
SPEAKER_01: It may come as a good deed or a kind word, but it's a it's a it's a it's motivated by the belief that someone deserves to encounter the goodness, grace, and mercy of God.
SPEAKER_01: I love that Bill Johnson, he said it like this we owe the world an encounter with God.
SPEAKER_01: We owe the world an if you have been if you have been forgiven, if you have, if you actually believe, if we believe that something has happened towards us that we did not deserve, then we owe the world an encounter with the living God.
SPEAKER_01: Which means that we walk differently, we talk differently, we move differently, we don't degrade our work, we don't degrade our neighborhood, we don't move out in indifference, we move out with purpose and meaning because this is what God has been doing and what he is doing through us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what sets Christians apart because as recipients of God's blessings, we have no option but to overflow blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus even takes it further.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you.
SPEAKER_01: Say what?
SPEAKER_01: Bless those who what?
SPEAKER_01: Who curse you.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for those who mistreat you.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on to say, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
SPEAKER_01: Big deal.
SPEAKER_01: If you love those who love you.
SPEAKER_01: Even sinners love those who love them.
SPEAKER_01: So what sets Christians apart is that we extend blessings not only to those who like us, but those who are unlike us.
SPEAKER_01: William Temple said it like this: the church is the only organization in the world that exists for the good of its non-members.
SPEAKER_01: So good.
SPEAKER_01: The church is the only organization in the world that exists for the good of its non-members.
SPEAKER_01: We exist, guys.
SPEAKER_01: Get this.
SPEAKER_01: We're singing, we're praying, we're preaching, we're barbecuing, we're doing the things.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, all of this is about living in a in the substance of the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: That when we go out, we go out as sent ones, believing that God has called us in, as each of us as missionaries, to extend the blessings of God to those who are not yet in these walls.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the big idea here is the extension of blessing means that we have to take up, we have to, we have to be filled with the Spirit and take up our missional calling in every place we go.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: How do we extend blessing?
SPEAKER_01: No, we're gonna talk practically over the next few weeks about ways that we do this, all right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna roll through a few different things.
SPEAKER_01: It's speaking uplifting and encouraging words that benefit those who listen.
SPEAKER_01: It's living authentically and honestly, it's being kind and compassionate.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's being hospitable, it's eating a lot of food, making a lot of meals, inviting people around your table, making them feel warm and welcome.
SPEAKER_01: It's sharing of resources to meet needs, financial and otherwise.
SPEAKER_01: It's answering kindly to those who speak wrongly about you.
SPEAKER_01: It is praying for your enemies.
SPEAKER_01: It's doing good to those who have done wrong to us, it's forgiving those who have wronged us.
SPEAKER_01: It's praying with gratitude and letting people know that you're praying for them.
SPEAKER_01: Because when one person is blessed, everyone is affected.
SPEAKER_01: When just one person is blessed, there is a ripple effect where everyone is affected.
SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther King Jr.
SPEAKER_01: says it like this whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
SPEAKER_01: I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
SPEAKER_01: This is the interrelated structure of reality.
SPEAKER_01: I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
SPEAKER_01: We live as people of blessing to even bless one, and when we bless one, it blesses us back because this is the ecosystem of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why does all this matter for us here today?
SPEAKER_01: A couple of months ago now, um, we changed the name of the church.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you guys caught that.
SPEAKER_01: We changed the name of the church, Church of the Lookout or the Lookout for Short.
SPEAKER_01: And we we do believe that as a as a church in this season that this change, with this change would also come an increase of perspective, an increase of perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Just as this building is located on a hill, we would be a people who together we come up higher, you know, in prayer and worship, in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: But then we also, as we come up higher, we look further, we to join God and what he is doing outside of these walls.
SPEAKER_01: And all of that, as we come up higher, as we look further, all of that we believe is to result in to love deeper, to become a people of awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just say those words, we believe that that's what God is doing among us.
SPEAKER_01: He's making us into a people of great love that reflect his love, that enter into his love and reflect his love.
SPEAKER_01: And I love uh we had some leaders actually, as we changed the name of the church, some leaders sent in some letters and some videos.
SPEAKER_01: One in particular, her name is Janine Rodriguez Everard.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you can remember Janine from uh she's she was with us several years ago.
SPEAKER_01: She may be coming later this year.
SPEAKER_01: Um, she's in Idaho right now.
SPEAKER_01: Um, she does a lot of uh itinerant ministry, she does a lot of uh equipping for both dream interpretation, biblical dream interpretation, prophetic ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but unsolicited, she sent us this thing and just to affirm what she was seeing in the life of this church.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just read a little bit of excerpt from it.
SPEAKER_01: She said this she said, You will be known for value valuing the one.
SPEAKER_01: And she's referring to all of us, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: She said, You will be known for valuing the one, the one person who comes in who needs to hear from God about the future, the one person who is hurting and needs to know what God thinks about them, the one person who does not yet know Jesus but is appointed to meet him in your midst.
SPEAKER_01: God's design is for this to not just be for the leaders of the church who are on the lookout, but for one such as these, or uh for ones such as these, but for the whole church.
SPEAKER_01: God will open your spiritual eyes to look out out of the four walls of the church to see the needs of the community, and he will give you spiritual eyes and ears to hear his strategies for seemingly impossible projects that will bring heaven to earth, turn hearts to Jesus, and glorify the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we're coming into the summer, we do believe this is something God is highlighting for us, that we are a people of extra worship and prayer, but He's also giving us new keys, I believe, as we go through the summer and into the fall, to see with eyes of compassion, to live with a holy burden, to live with the fire of the Spirit, with the wind at our backs, that that just as the Spirit of God met powerfully the men and women who met in the upper room as they waited on the Holy Spirit, that I believe that there's a new scattering of seed that's gonna come, and the wind of the Spirit is gonna scatter us out like seeds going into the field of God's harvest.
SPEAKER_01: And God is sending us out in new ways.
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of this, guys, begins with us continuing to remain on assignment.
SPEAKER_01: That you're not we're not going on vacation this summer.
SPEAKER_01: We are living on assignment.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we will take trips.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we will go to the mountains.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we do, we vacate, right?
SPEAKER_01: But listen, we never vacate our identity, we never let go of what God has called us to do.
SPEAKER_01: We never stop living on mission, we never leave the assignment of blessing.
SPEAKER_01: We are blessed to be a blessing, and that never stops.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: And so the next few weeks, we're gonna talk specifically about living into a life of blessing, ways to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Today, I just want to plant a seed with us.
SPEAKER_01: If you are blessed to be a blessing, who this week are you, is God sending you to to bless in unexpected ways?
SPEAKER_01: The beginning of this year, we invited everybody for midday prayer to kind of make a small list of people that you would hold in your heart this year, those who do not have a relationship with Jesus, they have not experienced, tasted forgiveness yet.
SPEAKER_01: They have not experienced the relentless affection of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: They haven't yet experienced and encountered the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: We invited you to pray for to have those and pray for them every day.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been doing that, maybe others you've kind of lost the groove of that.
SPEAKER_01: I want to call you back into that, but I just want to ask you this week who is one person that God is calling you to announce identity to, to announce destiny, to proclaim who He is and to call them into who they were made to be, to tell them maybe what they have forgotten and to call them back into the good work that God has prepared for them.
SPEAKER_01: Who is that person that God is sending to, sending you to?
SPEAKER_01: Because God has given you those people.
SPEAKER_01: God has given you each and every one of you.
SPEAKER_01: He's given you people that he said, I have sent you into their life.
SPEAKER_01: And there is no other you in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, you're the only you in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You may be the only Christian.
SPEAKER_01: You may be the only Bible-believing, spirit-filled Christian in their life.
SPEAKER_01: You are responsible.
SPEAKER_01: You owe them an encounter with God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's what we're made for.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01: As we're ending, we're gonna end, and then we're just gonna throw down good old-fashioned potluck style here at the church.
SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want to do today.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, it's been a while since you've actually been blessed.
SPEAKER_01: You've experienced a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: You've had somebody lay their hands on you and bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do this every week at the end of a service, we say this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's the prayer of Aaron in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_01: May He make His face to shine upon you.
SPEAKER_01: May He be gracious to you and give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: This word may is such a powerful word when it comes to a blessing, because the word may, it may reign.
SPEAKER_01: The word may is a word of possibility.
SPEAKER_01: So when we pre when we bless each other with the word may, it unleashes the possibilities of heaven into each other's lives, right?
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want to try.
SPEAKER_01: So yesterday was something really fun.
SPEAKER_01: We had had this event, uh, this equipping training thing in here called the Kingdom Ministry Boot Camp.
SPEAKER_01: Who was a part of the boot camp yesterday?
SPEAKER_01: Give me make some noise.
SPEAKER_01: Make a little noise.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, sweet.
SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
SPEAKER_01: It was almost 40 of us here in this room, and we just spent the better part of the day um talking about what it really what we're talking about here, what it looks like to move out, to pray for people, to bless people, to pray for healing, to pray for, you know, to pray uh for um clarity, to pray, you know, to against the work of the enemy, but to unleash the blessing of God in people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and we ended with the time of blessing each one and commissioning each one.
SPEAKER_01: And it was just a really it was it was an awesome thing because I just think it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_01: We all, guys, listen, all of us, we have to be ready and willing in this season, ready and willing, both here and when we leave, to be ready when somebody needs to be blessed by God, that we're ready in that moment to pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit to call what what is not yet, call what is, uh whatever the scripture is, to call what is not yet into existence, believing that the possibilities of the kingdom of heaven are at hand.
SPEAKER_01: We must become people of faith ready in and out of season.
SPEAKER_01: And so today I want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: I want to invite, if you were part of that boot camp training yesterday, and you're willing to be a part of this, I want to invite you to be a part of this blessing as we end our service, because you all deserve to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: We all deserve to be blessed before we leave.
SPEAKER_01: So if you were a part of that boot camp, I want to invite you to maybe some of you come up here on the front, some of you come up uh on the side, and maybe just come up, a few of you on the sidewalls.
SPEAKER_01: And what we're gonna do, if you are in this room and you want to be blessed, if it's been a while since you've been actually prayed for and blessed, I want to ask you to come to one of the individuals and just allow them to pray over you the blessings of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, and let's and together we're gonna go out in the strength of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All right, let's all stand together, all stand.
SPEAKER_01: If you were part of that boot camp yesterday, and we're gonna put on some music and the whole thing, if you're a part of that boot camp, yeah, you're gonna see them go into the sides, um, elders or other leaders you can go to.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna get some practice.
SPEAKER_01: They learned a lot of things yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, guys, as you're praying for those who come to you, bless them in the name of the Father and the Son and Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Bless them however, whatever the words you want to give.
SPEAKER_01: And if if you have any other needs or prayer requests, come to these guys.
SPEAKER_01: Just let them know can you pray for this specific thing in my life?
SPEAKER_01: Let them pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: And guys, let's believe that God is moving through us, he's moving among us, and he's doing great things for us and beyond us in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so I'm gonna pray for us, and then you find someone to go to, and then we're gonna go from here.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, thank you today.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you have blessed us in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you, Jesus, that we are the recipients of every spiritual blessing in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And as we end our time together here today, as we move out into a community time, I just thank you for an explosion of life and joy and grace and peace as we're called in our words and our deeds to reflect who you are and to live into the reality of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We love you today, Jesus, and we bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All right, go find somebody on the right of the room.
SPEAKER_01: Let's bless each other.