Why Become A Blessing?

Introduction

Last week we discussed about God’s purpose for us, to become a blessing. Today, we will discuss about the benefits of becoming a blessing. This will answer our question, “what is it for me in becoming a blessing”?

Before we go to the details of becoming a blessing, we have to understand that God designed the whole system with a WIN-WIN situation. Following the rule of “Blessed to be a Blessing,” God did not design the system to be only in favor of one side.

God see to it that the whole system works for the benefit of everybody. In fact, if our church only follows the whole system, I believe that we will be reaching the point that “NO ONE IS IN NEED”.

Is this impossible? The fact is, it did happen in the life of the first church that “no one is in need”. Let us see what the Bible says in Acts 4:32-35.

32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

As a result, of becoming one in heart and mind, they try to share “everything they have” and as a result, “there were no needy persons among them”, everybody enjoys. Now, you may see that those people, who gave, lose something. The passage did not mention about losing something for those people who gave.

You can never see in the Bible that those people who gave losses something except the next passage, Acts 5:1-11. A couple was among the believers who sold their land to offer it to the Lord (note that giving is more like offering to the Lord). This is what happens. After selling it, they kept some of the amount for themselves (maybe just to taste what they have labored for), and gave the rest to the apostles.

What happens next? Peter rebuked Ananias and after rebuking, he fell dead. After 3 hours, his wife came not knowing what happened, Peter asked her if it was really the price Ananias got for the land. Sapphira, lied (maybe to protect her husband’s dignity). After Peter rebuked her, she also fell dead.

Now let us go to the benefits of becoming a blessing.

Benefit 1: You gain friends / brothers in Christ (Luke 16:9)

9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Becoming a blessing help us to gain more friends. The more you gave, the more you have friends. Try to look at those people who do not know how to give? They are those who have fewer friends. In fact, it is difficult to have a friend if we do not know how to share our things with them.

The story of the shrewd manager is one of the best examples that we can quote from the Bible in using the worldly wealth to gain more friends. Note, that Jesus himself is the one who said, “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Did you ever see those people who never gave as a result they have few friends? I have seen people who is almost like a parasite who wants to be blessed, but never became a blessing. All of us, should put in mind that we have to be a blessing. Sometimes, people only thinks of themselves that they need to blessed. Thinking to be blessed is not the way to be blessed; it is thinking to become a blessing.

Benefit 2: You will have a good harvest in the future (2 Corinthians 9:6).

6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. The Bible is very clear on this, the more we sow, the more we reap. This is not only true in the Bible; this is also true in reality. We have to sow seeds well in order for us to have a good harvest.

No one harvests bountifully with a little seed sown. This is a truth that many people were not able to understand well. No matter how many times we preach about giving and about God’s economy, as long as we do not absolutely understand and practice the real meaning of this passage, our harvests will always be lesser than what we are suppose to have.

Well of course, if we are merely looking at the passage, it is easy to understand what it says. However, if we are to look at what it says to us, it is there we start to have some problems. For many people, it is hard to understand that giving and becoming generous is a form of planting seeds.

This one is true to human beings; human beings are by nature self-centered and self-focus. This is why Adam and Eve fell into temptation at the first place. They want to gain something what is not theirs, thus leading them to God’s discipline.


The same thing is true to us. We want to consume things that were not intended for us. We want to spend things for our own while God intended for us to sow This is why many of our fellow brethrens were extremely in need because of the self-centered thinking. They want to reap, but never wanted to sow.

Benefit 3: You practice obedience to Christ (Matthew 5:42)

42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. As we all agreed, becoming a blessing is obedience to Christ. Jesus himself keeps on instructing his disciples to learn how to become generous at all times. The passage above is just one of the examples that we can quote that Jesus indeed teaches on becoming generous.

The Old Testament really imposed to the Israelites to give the tenth part of their income to the Levites so that there will be food in God’s temple. This practice was not abolished in the New Testament. The book of Galatians teaches us that the Law of Moses became a tutor for us to obey God. And the fact is, through the Law of Moses, people also ought to learn generosity.

Again, generosity has been one of the main themes in the Bible. We have more than 1,700 passages that mentioned about the idea of giving and offering. Of course, this is only one area of obedience.

Benefit 4: Overflowing blessings (Malachi 3:10).

10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” The Bible NEVER lies. It very in the Bible that God blesses those who faithfully return their tithes to the Lord. Note the assurance of what God said, “See if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

The “storehouse” that was mentioned in this passage is the storehouse of the Temple of the Lord. This Temple is what God considered as his house. If therefore we bless the house of the Lord, is there any reason that God will not bless you?

Not only this, one of the main reasons why many people are in extreme poverty is because God cease to bless abundantly those people who have not been faithful in returning their tithes. If we try to continue the passage, not giving tithes is the same as robbing God.


Note that even of this truth; God never forced his people to return their tithes. This is why as you can see, God just say; “test me in this”. Even if not giving tithes faithfully is a sin (as what the passage suggests), God did not make it too mandatory nor really forced his people to do this. He wants his people to learn this by heart. And perhaps, so that it will be a defense of the ministers who teaches this noble teachings, that believing God is not all about money.


We know that there were people who say we try to convert for money. They say that we teach people to give tithes for self-enrichment. No, this is not true, because the Bible never forced anybody to give something for the benefit of someone but for the ministry of God. However, we cannot stop them because they have seen that there were some groups who do terrible acts which deserves judgment from the Lord.

Benefit 5: Bonus Benefit – You invest something for your children.

This point is not explicitly stated in the Scripture, but the Scripture implicitly explained that all these teachings must be passed down through generations.

The book of Deuteronomy 6:7-8 says, 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.


This is what we have to work on with our children. We have to see to it that they are learning the commands of our God. We are to impress them, which means to teach them fervently the teachings and the commands of God.

Ephesians 6:4 says, 4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. We parents should see to it, which our children have been brought up in accordance to the Lord’s commands. We have to see to it that we grow them in love and in the training and instruction of the Lord.

To go back to our main point, isn’t it worthwhile that our children know about this? If we really love our children, and want them to go well in their lives, then we have to teach them everything Christ commanded.


Faithfully working on our tithes and offering, as our children sees it, they will see how God’s economy work. In return God, will continuously bless our lineage, even up to 3rd and 4th generations.

Conclusion

Becoming a blessing indeed brings up many benefits more than we can grasp or imagine. God’s economy is totally opposite to our economy. If we really are concern of honoring God, perhaps we need to start honoring God with our wealth.

Enjoying our wealth is not bad at all. But it is always better to enjoy our wealth for our Lord.

Start becoming generous by buying me a cup of coffee…


Get Totally FREE Sermon Outlines and

Step-by Step Guide on How You Can Further Develop It

  • Free sermon outlines where you will not have to worry about plagiarism. It’s my personal sermon outlines made for the past twelve years of experience.
  • Freedom to develop the sermon outlines to contextualize it in your own situation.
  • Freedom to use it where ever or when ever you need it.
  • Freedom to develop it and produce your own teaching materials.
  • Ste-by-step way on how you can effectively improve it and use it in your context.
  • And much much more…

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Shares