Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us. Hi everybody. Great to see you this morning. Those in the room. My name is Evan, I'm one of your senior pastors also, wanna welcome those watching online. This is a fun day actually. This service is, is normal. We're only doing it in English as you might have been able to tell. Uh, but next service, our bilingual gathering, which usually meets in the chapel during our 10 30th. Pastor Gonzalo, uh, is gonna be joining with us at the 10 30. And so we're gonna translate live on the stage. So, uh, you're always welcome of course, to stay, uh, to hear this again, but also in ESP Spaniel. Okay? So, um, to help me get warmed up for the next service with translation, if you want, during my message, if it's a good point to say something like Gloria Aios, you can do that, but, um, you wanna try it, Ben, go ahead. Gloria ao, there you go. All right. My high school Spanish will come back. Hopefully by the time. No, I'm not, I'm not doing the translation. We have Gonzalo on the stage.
Speaker 0 00:00:59 Oh, well, as Pastor Ben said, it's, uh, about to be Thanksgiving and, um, you know, many people getting together with friends and family this week, uh, this Thursday. And I'm curious, are there things that are off limits as far as table conversations at Thanksgiving? Let me hear. What are the topics that they're no go zones. Politics. Trump. Okay, I see a theme here. Yeah. What else? Chiropractors, firefighters, fires. Chiropractors. Okay. <laugh>. I feel like there's a story there, Dom. I'll ask you about it later. <laugh>. What else?
Speaker 1 00:01:35 Overeating.
Speaker 0 00:01:36 Overeating. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want to, you don't, you don't want to shame anybody for what they put on their plate. Come on, it's Thanksgiving. Even if it's a green bean casserole. What else? Religion? Yeah. Yep. Twitter. No. Do we talk about that yet? It's a little dicey for some people. Um, there are things that we, we avoid, uh, because we what? We wanna have a nice harmonious, you know, pleasant holiday experience. And so we avoid things. I remember, um, years ago, my sister-in-law, Michelle, they've been married for I think 20 years now, but early on after they had gotten married, my brother, Ben and Michelle, they would come visit for holidays and, uh, it was Christmas, one of the first years, and we have our traditions as you probably do too, uh, for your family. And we did some Christmas carols with the guitar there, with the family.
Speaker 0 00:02:30 And after we were done singing, uh, Michelle looks around and she goes, do you guys always make such weird eye contact while you're singing at each other during Christmas? Carols, <laugh>? And we were like, that's just normal, right? She's like, it's not normal. It creeped me out, <laugh>. And we realized in that moment, like, oh, what's normal to us isn't always normal to everybody else, right? We all have these different, like, things that make the holidays what they are for our families. And every family is different. Every family's identified by their traditions and their, their cultural practices that make your family what it is, for better or for worse. Well, today I want to talk about this idea of, uh, blessing. I'm gonna call this message the blessing and the bread, and we're gonna go to chapter 12 of Genesis and talk about a family whose patriarch, uh, got a promise from God.
Speaker 0 00:03:22 And so if you wanna open your Bibles to Genesis 12, one, because of the translation of the next verse, we're actually not gonna have it on the screens today. Uh, but I will read it aloud and you can follow along if you have a Bible or a Bible app. Genesis 12, one, uh, the Lord has said to Abraham or Abram, leave your native country, your relatives and your father's family and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you'll be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. And all the families on earth will be blast through you. So Abraham departed as the Lord had instructed. So here we have, uh, Abraham receiving this, uh, word from God.
Speaker 0 00:04:11 God appears to him and makes this promise to him. Now, as Christians today, we look back on the Old Testament and we read these promises, but I want to encourage us that any time we go back before the book of Matthew in the Old Testament, that we are reading the story of a family that as a gentile, I'm actually not part of that family, okay? Um, God is speaking to the children of Israel. Eventually, right now he's, he's talking to Abraham who would, whose descendants would become the children of Israel. And he's having a family meeting. And we are not actually invited into all those family meetings. And so when we go back to the Old Testament, we actually don't go there by ourselves and just kind of crash the party. We go there with Jesus cuz Jesus is our access to the promises of God, to the Jewish people, to the Hebrews, the children of Israel.
Speaker 0 00:05:09 Uh, we have this great friend, uh, we have this, this relationship with someone who's actually a rabbi. And he can walk us there and he can, he can have us sit at the table. He can introduce us to Abraham. Um, I heard one person say, one pastor, say, you know, uh, we go to the Old Testament, but not without a chaperone, <laugh>, we can get in trouble if we start rooting around in the Old Testament without having the lens of our invitation that comes through Jesus. And so when we read a promise that God gave to people in the Old Testament, what we do is we say, is this a promise that applies to us now in the age of grace, in the age of the New Testament? And so we check the New Testament. And yes, according to Paul, this Abraham Promise is accessible to, to us because of Christ.
Speaker 0 00:05:58 Galatians three 14 says this, Jesus redeemed us in order that the blessing giving to given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles. That's me. It might be you, uh, through Christ Jesus. So that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith, we might receive the promise of the Spirit that was promised all the way back when God spoke to Abraham. So I wanna talk about this idea of blessing, that all those millennia go, God would appear to a guy named Abraham and promise him that he was going to be a blessed person, that his name was gonna be great, and that through him and his descendants, all peoples would be blessed. And that we somehow, in the 21st century, sitting right here in this room, wherever you're watching from today, can say, there is something in that promise of blessing that applies to us that's heavy.
Speaker 0 00:06:55 That's cool. And we're gonna dive into this. So God appears to Abraham, and actually let me pray before we, we get into this. Lord, we thank you, uh, for your word today. We thank you for, uh, as as we're heading into the holidays, just a season of, of gratitude and thankfulness. Uh, we pray especially for those that, um, are experiencing struggle right now. Um, that your grace would be enough, um, that you would stir in us a sense of gratitude for what your Holy Spirit has done and the blessings that we can receive in Jesus name, amen. Amen. So God appears to Abraham, and, uh, based on what we learned in the verses that follow, uh, Genesis chapter one or 12 verse one, we find that Abraham actually has a lot of wealth and resources. He's got servants and livestock and money. People follow him.
Speaker 0 00:07:46 He's, he's a man of, of, of resource, okay? And when God comes to him, what God doesn't say is because you're so blessed, you are a good candidate. And I'm gonna use you to bless other people. He doesn't say, your resource qualifies you for my attention. That's really important. It isn't, uh, Abraham's success in her where he lives, that causes God to take notice. Instead, what God is saying to Abraham is, if you'll obey me, and by the way, you can actually take your stuff with you. We find out that he takes all his resources with him as he leaves. But if you'll obey me and leave the source of your security behind and the identity you've always known and step out into the unknown as Elsa, and what's the other one's name? Anna. Anna would say, thank you. Some of you were on it.
Speaker 0 00:08:41 You're like, yeah, I watched it this morning. It's a frozen reference. Folks, for those who have no idea what we're talking about, <laugh>, if you'll leave the source of your security behind and follow me into what you do not know as an act of obedience and an act of faith, there's gonna be blessing on the other side of it for you. And as we begin this morning, I want to tell you that the blessing is about what's waiting on the other side of obedience. And oftentimes, what God is going to do on the other side of obedience cannot be seen from this side of it. Wouldn't it be nice <laugh>? Wouldn't it be easy if God said, Hey, um, here's how that's gonna look when you get there. And if you do these three steps, then it's a guarantee. Instead God says, you're gonna have to trust me and your obedience is gonna get you into a place where I'm gonna be there.
Speaker 0 00:09:32 When you get there. I'm gonna be waiting on the other side of your obedience. And I wonder for, for when I think of my life, when I think of your lives, are there things that require a respons of obedience that are scary? Are there things that God might be asking you to do that that feel like a big risk, maybe too big of a risk? The promise of Abraham gives us this idea and this hope that there's blessing on the other side of obedience. And, and here's a a key point I want to really drive home today, that God's blessing is never actually about the stuff. God's blessing is never about the stuff. We have some family, friends and, um, this kid I grew up with, and when he was real little, his family, uh, found out through some ancestry, genealogy stuff that they, uh, were descended from this, uh, line.
Speaker 0 00:10:26 And this, this clan, uh, in Scotland, um, that was a very powerful house in Scotland. So they actually traveled, uh, this is years and years ago, they traveled to Scotland and they, they toured this castle, um, that had belonged to their ancestors and their clan. And so they came home and they had this coffee table book, uh, with pictures of that castle in the grounds. And, and my friend, who was very young at the time, um, would sit there and he would, he would look through this, this coffee table book of this, this castle. And his parents were watching this like, man, he really loves history. This is really cool. He's so into this. And, and a couple days go by, he just glued to this book. And, um, after about about a day or two, he turns to his mom and he says, uh, when are we moving <laugh>?
Speaker 0 00:11:15 What he was doing? He is picking out his room from this book of the castle in Scotland, because of course, we are the heirs to this Scottish highland castle, you know? Uh, and so it was a big letdown when he realized, no, you're gonna have to stay in your, in our three bedroom, two bath, you know, ranch here. But there was this hope that, well, because now I, I realize my inheritance. Let's, let's go. And here's what we do. Sometimes when we, when we come into, uh, this understanding of blessing with God, we think, well, I I'm blessed. So where's the keys? Where, where's, where's all the things you know, financially and health wise? And, and where's the stuff? Where's the stuff that will reflect the blessing that God has promised to me? And what you'll find if you've followed Jesus for any length of time, that God's blessing is actually rarely about the stuff.
Speaker 0 00:12:18 The promise and the blessing that God gives us is not so that we can stand at some castle and claim our right to enter. It's that we know that we know that we have a new identity as sons and daughters of God. Remember what I said in Galatians, the promise to Abraham comes to us through the spirit of God. And Romans, a Paul tells us that the spirit of God is the spirit by which we cry, dad, we receive adoption as sons and daughters into this family. Money can buy you some real estate, even in Scotland. But what it can't buy is a place in the family. And through Jesus, we are now sons and daughters of the God of Abraham. And so we have blessing. And so the obvious question is, what does it mean to be blessed? And we've come through, you know, many decades of, uh, prosperity preaching.
Speaker 0 00:13:13 Um, it's a lot of prosperity. Gospel preachers out there that promise this idea well, you give your money and then God's gonna gonna pay you back in, in financial ways directly. And, and, uh, you know, if you're blessed by God, you're always gonna be healthy and you're always gonna be wealthy. Man, that sounds nice. But I've met too many godly people who are generous and wonderful and, and, and prayerful and thoughtful and love Jesus, who are also sick. I've met too many people that, that are, are following Jesus with everything they got, but they're also broke. And so our theology of prosperity many times runs into the reality that it doesn't always pan out that good people have just good things happened to them. That's a logical thing. Sometimes that's a fraudulent thing that's preached this idea that if you're good enough, God's gonna be good to you, doesn't work out in real life.
Speaker 0 00:14:18 You ever met a lovely person and then they get sick. Whoa, my, my theology just got completely blown up. Let's get a better theology. Let's get a better view of how blessing works than assuming we can look at someone's bank account or their doctor's report to find out if they're close to God. That is a terrible way to gauge someone's closeness to the presence of God and God's blessing on their life. If it takes a clean bill of health and a full bank account, then very few of us are actually blessed by God. And many who are blessed by God are terrible people. <laugh>, my goodness. So let's, let's just take all that theology with all its, its, uh, you know, massive gaps and just let's just set it aside. And today, let's look back into scripture and say, Jesus, what does it mean to be blessed by you?
Speaker 0 00:15:13 What does it mean good news? Jesus actually tells us in Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five, Jesus goes up on the mountain and he gives what is his most famous sermon, his most famous address, the Sermon on the Mount. And in Matthew chapter five, he says, this is what it means to be blessed. I'm gonna read just some portions of this. Matthew chapter five, God blesses those who realize their need for him. God blesses those who mourn. God blesses those who are gentle and lowly. God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice. God blesses those who are merciful. God blesses those whose hearts are pure. God blesses those who work for peace. And God blesses those who are persecuted. Man, God, that doesn't sound like a lot of fun. <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:16:13 I would prefer the things that say, and God blesses those who are the heirs to the castles where they will get more castles and more castles. He says, bless it to the poor and spirit actually is them who are gonna inherit the kingdom. God blesses those who find themselves in a place where they're hungry for him. You're blessed as Eugene Peterson paraphrased when you're at the end of your rope. Now, I've done my best to follow Jesus for over 30 years now, been at this a long time, and I have found this to be true. And I've seen this play out again and again in conversations and spending time with you and, and that Jesus comes and he actually blesses the weakest parts of our lives. Do you realize this?
Speaker 0 00:17:08 That the things that you're most proud of and your strengths, and, and those are wonderful and those are gifts from God. But many times when the presence of God comes, it comes not to just magnify your strength, it comes to use the weaknesses that you think, um, are so shameful you don't want anybody to know about. As I've said before, grace comes to fill the lowest places of our hearts and our histories. It's the work of redemption that Jesus does in the weakest parts of our lives. It is how his blessing often shows up in our lives. In this way of Jesus blessing is when the weak inherit the kingdom God, when God turns it all around for those who have lost everything, when it's not the loud and angry who get God's attention. But the humble and those who are hungry for his presence.
Speaker 0 00:18:03 Naturally, Jesus spent a lot of time with hungry people. Um, he ministered in the really rural areas of Galilee in his three years of ministry. Uh, these were not, you know, hills filled with the wealthiest and the the most well to do. Many times he was working with, uh, you know, um, fishermen and, and, and people in agriculture and, um, really the peasant class who had been just crushed by Roman taxation. And, and so many times he was talking to people who were physically hungry as they're listening to him teach. And I always think, man, when he is telling these parables about like the seed and the sower and these feast, I mean, it's kind of mean, right? <laugh> all these hungry people. And he is like, now I want you to imagine the best feast you can imagine <laugh> thinking, I wasn't hungry until now. Jesus, thanks a lot, man.
Speaker 0 00:18:53 Um, but he spends all this time with hungry people. And in John chapter six, uh, we have a record of when he feeds 5,000 people miraculously. And this is actually, uh, one of the few miracles that's this listed and, and told in all four gospels. And, uh, I won't tell the whole story, but, uh, you, you probably have heard it, that there's no food for these 5,000 plus people out in the mountains. And so Jesus says to disciples, this is your problem. Figure it out. And so they, they scrounge the crowd and they find, uh, a little boy who's willing to share his lunch. And Jesus takes that little lunch and he, he blesses it. He prays over it, he breaks the bread, and then he hands it to its disciples and they begin to distribute. And they find that the, the little lunch that the boy had so sacrificially offered, never runs out and never runs out after this happens.
Speaker 0 00:19:47 The crowd is so pumped, <laugh>, they're like, this Jesus guy. I mean, it was cool when he was healing people. You know, we saw that from a distance or whatever, but, but now we can, we can really know this guy is the real deal because we actually ate what he provided. And so for a hungry people, they're thinking, this is our guy. He can feed us whenever we need it. We'll be unstoppable. And they try to make him their king. And so he actually escapes from the crowd and he gets in the boat and he goes across the lake and they follow him. Like original paparazzi stuff. They follow him across the lake. Why? To ask for more bread. John chapter six, verse 34, they say, sir, they said, always give us this bread. And here's what really is the, the heart and soul of where we're gonna end today. It's when Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. And whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. And I imagine that these people from the crowd listening to me like, so yes or no on the bread thing, <laugh>,
Speaker 0 00:21:02 Cool, cool. Do you have more? We're still kind of hungry. We're gonna need food for this week. Is, are we, are we good with this or not good with this? It says later in that chapter that from that point on, many left him, many wanted blessing, but they didn't want the blessing that he was actually offering. And so then he turns to his disciples and he says, many have left. Will you leave also? And Peter famously turns to Jesus and he says, where else can we go? You have the words of life. And when we understand what Jesus is offering, we come to this decision point. We all have to come there. We all have to get to this moment where whatever we thought was the guarantee, whether it was that we'd never be sick, or that we'd always have enough money, or the, you know, we, we'd live in luxury or always have security. When we, when we realize that the blessing he offers is not about the stuff, but it's about him and his presence given to us, it causes us to pause and make a decision. Will we leave also, my hope and my prayer is that we would have the response to the disciples that say, where else can we go?
Speaker 0 00:22:29 I always think about this one. Thanksgiving. I was a teenager and we were at my uncle and aunt's house. And uh, you know, the crescent rolls, the buttery crescent rolls that come in the can, they pop, and then you, you know, you know, they made a ton of baskets and baskets of these crescent rolls and I'm, you know, 13 or something. And, and I just keep eating these things. They're so good, they're so buttery, so delicious. Why stop at 4, 5, 6, just so good. And then we have all these bottles of sparkling cider on the table. Why stop at two glasses, three glasses, four glasses? Do you know that, um, science project and school where with a volcano and the baking soda and it reacts. I was doing a little science experiment myself on the inside, <laugh>. Here's the thing. Sometimes we think we know what we want and Jesus says, I'm not gonna do that for you. I know you're ask. I know you're asking for more bread. Let me give you something better. Let me give you myself, let me give you my presence. So, you know, maybe what the world needs is, is not just security and, and a sense that everything's gonna be okay. You say, man, the world's crazy. If God could just come and settle everything down. Sometimes he says, maybe that's actually not what you want. What what you really need is my enduring presence.
Speaker 0 00:23:54 I read this quote, rich Belos pastor in New York, said it, in a world torn by rage and anxiety, one of the greatest gifts, followers of Jesus are called to offer is simple, non-anxious presence. Maybe we should change that for Thanksgiving week. On a Thanksgiving torn by rage and anxiety, one of the greatest gifts, followers of Jesus are called to offer around their tables a simple, non-anxious presence. He is the presence, he is the bread, he is the blessing. As you know, as we head into the holidays and we're launching, uh, the Giving Tree this week. And, um, I think last year we, we served over 800 kids, uh, providing Christmas for, for families in need. Amazing things. Every month we, we host a, a food market, free food market where we give away, um, hundreds and hundreds of pounds of food. And there's so many ways to be involved, serving, giving, caring for people, giving of your time, having conversations that you don't really have time for, but you pause inviting people into your home, around your table, <affirmative>. And I want us to remember that in doing all of that, it's actually never about the stuff.
Speaker 0 00:25:13 The stuff plays an important role. Hungry people need to be fed. It's wonderful to give kids Christmas, but what we are doing is actually we are transmitting and allowing the real, non-anxious presence of Jesus to flow through us as a community to those around us. The non-anxious presence of Jesus today. It would be, uh, really fun if you know under your chair there was a key, like it's a castle, it's all yours, you know, Oprah style. But man, we have something better than that. We have the real presence of the bread of life. We have the real presence of the spirit of God with us. And so Jesus, today, I pray that we would allow that presence to first infiltrate our hearts and our minds.
Speaker 0 00:26:13 That the bread of life would be something that we would receive and take in today. And then as we head out and, and whether we have big get togethers, small get togethers this week, whatever the holidays begin to look like as we serve and we give and all these things that at the heart of everything we do, that we would be a blessing to all people because we've been blessed not just with physical stuff, not with with just physical resources, but with your real presence, the presence of the bread of life, and that we would carry that into our conversations and our relationships, and that we would be a reflection of the presence of the one who is redeeming all things. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
