Oldest Strategy in the Bible for Reaching People Far from God | 5.17.26 | Blessed to BLESS pt.1
Believe it or not, I tend to get pretty shy with people that I don’t know yet. I know, that sounds strange coming from someone who regularly stands up in front of a large group of people, and who regularly meets new people. But it’s true!
I often feel shy or nervous to meet someone new or talk to someone that I don’t know well yet. And that can make it hard for me to do what Jesus tells his followers to do: which is to go and make disciples, to share our faith.
That can make it difficult to live out our New Life theme this year of Each One Reach One. Do you remember how we started the year with that theme? Each One Reach One, because Jesus tells us the story of the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to reach the lost One, so that he can bring it home rejoicing to be reunited with the rest of the family.
And because we want to join Jesus in his work, (because that’s what we were created for!), then we want to be reaching out to our own Ones. We started the year asking: who is your One? Who is someone who is close to you, but far from God?
All of us know someone who is close to us, but feels far from God, and they are a person who God loves! And God wants to reach them with his love… through US! And so, Each One Reach One became the theme for us this year, to be praying for our Ones, trying to show love to our Ones, inviting our Ones into our lives and into our journey of faith.
But if you’re anything like me, hearing “each one reach one” brings some PRESSURE with it. Right? Because now I’ve got to figure out if I’m actually doing it… am I actually trying to reach my One? Now I’m wondering if I’m doing it right? Now I’m trying to work up the courage to talk to them or invite them to church, but the whole time it feels awkward because it seems like I’m treating them like a “project,” doesn’t it? And most of us feel a little shy or awkward trying to talk to someone about our faith.
There was a nationwide study done in 2019 that asked people about sharing their faith. They talked to practicing Christians, and presented them with this statement: “Part of my faith means being a witness for Jesus.” What do YOU think? Do you agree or disagree? “Part of my faith means being a witness for Jesus.”
96 percent said they “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed.” And that was consistent no matter what age the Christian was.
Then they presented this statement: “The best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus.” Again, 96 percent agreed.
But there was an interesting contradiction in the study because even though practically everyone agreed that sharing Jesus is part of their faith, and nearly everyone agreed that getting to know Jesus is the best thing that could ever happen for someone… 28 percent (one quarter) also believed that “it is WRONG to share your personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share your same faith.” And if you ask people in their 20s and 30s, 46% of them believe that sentiment.
How does that make sense? *I think that the best thing that could happen to someone is to get to know Jesus, but then it’s also wrong to try and change someone’s beliefs?* ?!
Here’s how Pastor Dave Ferguson explains why believers are so confused and frustrated: “The inner conversation on this topic for many might go something like this: My faith has made a huge difference for ME, and I know it could help others… Jesus tells us it’s good news, and I should share it… But whenever I try to present the Gospel, I feel like I’m selling a [timeshare] or I’m part of a pyramid scheme!... So maybe [the people saying 'evangelism is wrong' have a point.]”
Ever find yourself thinking along those lines? Yeah, me too…
And so when we are reminded of the work that Jesus is calling us to (to share our faith), and when we’re reminded of the goal to pray for our Ones and reach out to them… sometimes it can feel like a heavy weight.
And the truth is that the idea of treating someone like a box you’re checking off, or treating them like a trophy to collect for your spiritual resume… that’s NOT what Jesus calls us to! That’s NOT what Jesus modeled. And that’s NOT what we’re talking about here at New Life!
In fact, sharing our faith isn’t something that should feel like a heavy “HAVE-TO”, because it’s not something that God is demanding of us in order to earn his love. His love has already reached out to us, and he has already poured his grace and love into our lives, and it’s the OVERFLOW of his love that we GET TO share with others!
[scripture ref]
And, this is the way that God has ALWAYS worked in and through people. In fact, this is the oldest pattern in the Bible: God blesses us so that we can bless others. So open your Bibles with me to Genesis ch12 (p???).
Genesis 12 picks up after the opening history of creation that shows how God created everything and gave humanity a mission to be in partnership with him. But people keep scattering and God keeps pursuing and people keep disobeying and God keeps reaching out to them with his love.
And it’s in this passage that we have one of the clearest moments in Scripture for WHY God keeps reaching out to us. Because he has a purpose, and he wants to include us in his purposes. So, with that, let’s RISE for the reading of God’s Word.
[Genesis 12:1-3]
[Genesis 12:1-2]
This passage is where we are taking the name of our series this month: Blessed to Bless. Because that word “bless” appears five times in three verses here. The Hebrew word is barak, and it’s not the kind of blessing that we mean when someone sneezes. Or when we pray before a meal and jokingly ask God to “bless this mess.”
This word carries with it the idea of transferring life-giving power. It imbues the favor of God. It declares God’s flourishing.
This is what a father does for his children when he blesses them with his authority and gifts. This is what a good leader does for a nation. And five times in three verses is a lot of repetition, and it shows that God is SATURATING this moment with his blessing: this isn’t a singular “dose” of blessing. This is an overflow poured out, like the waterfall of God’s grace dumping into a cup.
And notice that even though Abraham is the one that God is blessing, Abraham isn’t the end goal. No, God is choosing to partner with Abraham, to bless him IN ORDER to bless the world. Abraham was blessed TO BE a blessing to others.
Because God’s love doesn’t stop with us. It pours into us in order to flow through us to shower on others.
[Galatians 3:14]
And this principle shows up all throughout Scripture. In fact, in his letter to the church in Galatia, the Apostle Paul closes the loop and shows that the blessing that God poured through Abraham… the be a blessing to all the families of the earth… God perfected it and brought it to fullness through Jesus, so that the blessing given to God’s people can overflow and extend out to all the other peoples of the earth.
That means that God’s mission of blessing his people in order be a blessing to others was reestablished through Jesus, and it has now included US in God’s blessings and his purposes!
[Luke 19:10]
And looking carefully at Jesus’ ministry, we see that this was always his plan. Jesus didn’t just come to announce God’s blessing. He embodied it.
This story in Luke ch19 is when Jesus meets the tax collector named Zaccheus. And in this story, he has dinner with Zaccheus and treats him with compassion and love, because he came to seek out the person that everyone else in the town has written off.
“[I came] to seek and save the lost.” Notice that he didn’t come to “close the deal.” He came to seek. To reach. To bless.
And Zaccheus’ life is changed, and it overflows to be an incredible moment of reconciliation and healing for him and that whole community. Doesn’t that sound like Jesus’ blessed him in order to bless others?
[John 20:21]
What started in Genesis wasn’t just used as a single tactic by Jesus a couple times. It’s been the plan from the beginning, and Jesus gives the same marching orders to his followers (and to us) as his time on earth was coming to a close.
It was after he spent three years teaching people about what it’s like to follow God as your king, and after he died an unjust death for our sake, and after he defeated death and rose again… He turned to his people and said, “As the Father has sent me… [with a mission of letting his love and blessing flow through me towards those he’s trying to reach]... so I am sending you.”
The pattern of the mission that started in Genesis 12 runs through Jesus, and now it continues through us.
I hope that by now, you’re seeing that this is not some new program. This is the oldest thing God has ever asked of his people. And he’s still inviting us into this type of life today. But we need to start with understanding WHAT “blessing” actually means.
[blank]
Because most of the time when I hear the word “bless” or when I think of people who are “blessed” nowadays, it carries a certain connotation with it. Usually, when we talk about someone who is blessed, its referring to feeling grateful for what you have.
“My family is my biggest blessing. So-and-so just graduated, #blessed!”
And when we talk about blessing someone else, or being a blessing to someone else, we usually are talking about a sense of niceness, or random acts of kindness.
And both of those have aspects of truth in them, but they aren’t really carrying the full weight of what Scripture is referring to when we hear that God has blessed us in order to be a blessing.
Because we’re not talking about trying to pay for the bill for the car behind you the next time you’re in a drivethrough. And we’re not talking about just trying to randomly brighten someone’s day.
To truly BLESS someone is to love them with the love of God that overflows out of you towards them. It means that we don’t just receive God’s love like a bucket, but we act as a CONDUIT of God’s love, like a hose that allows the love to flow through us towards others.
To truly BLESS someone is to show them God’s grace, and to help them experience the invitation to the fully alive life that Jesus offers.
And so being a blessing to someone means the focus is on THEM, not on me. So I’m not just trying to recruit strangers to MY thing. No, the people that I’m trying to bless are people who are already in my life who God loves. They are people that he is already at work in. They are people that God wants to reach through us.
But that brings us to the unspoken anxiety that we rarely say out loud…
Because when we hear things like “each one reach one,” we immediately start scanning. We start running mental calculations. Is so-and-so my One? Is it that person that I see regularly, but I don’t even know their name yet?
Am I supposed to learn their name? Am I supposed to invite them to church? What if I do it wrong? What if they think I’m weird?
What if I’m just USING them to feel better about my own spiritual performance?
And underneath all of that is this assumption that we’re treating this person as a “project” that I’m supposed to complete somehow.
Maybe you’ve had that experience, where you’re sitting across from someone at lunch and instead of actually listening to them, you’re running the pros and cons in your head: Is this the moment? Should I bring up Jesus?
And now you’re not even paying attention to the person in front of you, because you’re trying to figure out the potential spiritual transaction you’ve been dreading.
If you’ve ever felt those things or asked those questions, you’re not the only one. But that version of the mission, where we treat people as a means to our own end, that’s NOT the way of Jesus.
That’s not what he modelled with Zaccheus. That’s not how the Father treated Abraham. And it’s not what Jesus is asking of you today.
That pressure that is so common to feel when we talk about sharing our faith and loving our neighbor is coming from the wrong motivation. So we’ve got to establish a better foundation for this life of being blessed to be a blessing.
[People aren’t projects]
Here’s what we need to remember: People aren't projects. They're the ones God loves, and he wants to bless them through you.
When we talk about how we are blessed to be a blessing… when we talk about how Jesus invites us to reach the people in our lives… when we talk about sharing our faith and loving our neighbors… We are not expected to be the “closer” on some sales process for the afterlife!
In fact, you are not responsible for the OUTCOME of sharing your faith and loving your neighbor. Because it’s the Holy Spirit who calls, who convicts, who draws people to repentance and transforms their hearts. That’s not our job!
Your job is much more simple and more beautiful than that: BLESS the people around you. Love the people God has put in your life. Obey what he tells you to be and bless them.
And this isn’t something that we muster up on our own power. Because God is the waterfall that continuously delivers a never-ending supply of love and grace and blessing to us, and we’re just called not to keep it to ourselves. Just like Abraham was blessed to be a blessing, God is continually blessing us so that we can BLESS others. We’re a conduit of what God is pouring into us so that it can overflow to others.
But without some practical steps to take, it can feel ambiguous and undefined on exactly HOW to bless others. That’s why I’d like to introduce to you the BLESS acronym, which are five simple ways to love your neighbor.
[BLESS]
These come from a book called “BLESS”, which I would highly recommend to you. And we are going to be spending the next few weeks looking at each of these simple rhythms that all of us can immediately apply to our lives, because we want to be intentional with doing what God tells us to do.
And how do we BLESS people without treating them like projects? Jesus showed us, because each of these five rhythms are ones that he demonstrated over and over again. These are rhythms of life that are the natural shape of how he loved people.
B: Begin with prayer, because you can’t bless people that you haven’t noticed. And so prayer is how we ask God to open our eyes so that we can see the people he’s placing around us.
L: Listen with care and compassion. The most Christlike thing you can do sometimes is to ask a question and then stop talking so that you can actually hear the answer and actually connect with the person you’re listening to.
E: Eat together. All throughout Scripture, the table is one of the most powerful places of grace. And all of us eat multiple times a day, so it’s not too hard to begin to use our mealtimes with intentionality to bless others by sharing a meal.
S: Serve selflessly and sacrificially with no expectation of return, because when we meet the needs of others with no other agenda, it’s one of the most practical demonstrations of the love of God that has reached out to us.
And finally, the last S is Share your story. It’s only AFTER praying for them, listening to them, sharing a meal and hospitality with them, and serving practical needs that people are actually open to hear what we have to say.
And when that time comes, we don’t have to regurgitate some formulaic presentation of religious doctrines. We simply share our story of how Jesus has impacted us. Or we share something we learned from God recently. Sharing a God sighting or a Jesus story comes naturally when we’ve already built a friendship through the other steps.
And we’re going to spend the next five weeks unpacking each of these. But all five of these rhythms begin in the same place: with a PERSON that God loves. Not a project… a person.
[write down]
People aren’t projects. They're the ones God loves, and he wants to bless them through you. And so here’s what I want you to do this week: Write down three people you want to start blessing.
Who is God putting on your heart? Who is someone who is close to you but feels far from God? Who is someone you could Listen to this week, or share a meal with, or show up for?
Maybe it’s someone you already know really well. Or maybe God is putting someone on your heart whose name you barely know yet.
Ask God. He’ll show you.
And then write down their names. That’s it. That’s the first step. You don’t have to rush to “accomplishing” something with them yet. You’re just asking God to help you think of three people to bless. And then spend each day this week being open to showing them love the way God does.
[END]
We’re not creating something out of our own power. We’re not performing some task. God has been inviting his people into this work since Genesis ch12. This is what God does: bless people through people, drawing the world back to himself.
He did it through Abraham. He did it perfectly in the person of Jesus. And he wants to continue doing it through YOU.
Not because you’re perfect. Not because you have it all figured out. Not because you’re equipped enough or bold enough or have the right words. Those aren’t things that he expects you to have before he can work through you.
No… HE’S the one who is continuously delivering his endless waterfall of grace and love and power, and he’s inviting us to let it overflow out of us to others.
Isn’t that good news?