December 8, 2024
Why did God decide he needed to send Jesus to us? Today we’re starting a sermon series, “Why Christmas?” We’ll talk about the purpose of Christmas. Next week the sermon is on how Jesus came to show us what God the Father is like. The following week is on how Jesus came to help us close the distance between ourselves and other people, especially those we might have trouble getting along with.
Today, we’re talking about how Jesus came to bless the world. Do you ever look at people who have a LOT of money, and say, If I were rich, I would be better at being rich than them? They spend all their money on stupid things! Maybe you say, I’d only spend money on smart things: maybe travel or use the money to do fun things with or for people I love. Or whatever. And, you think, if I were rich, I’d be way more generous than them.
I’d be better at being rich than them. Most of us think we’re not rich. But if we were, we’d be smart rich. Really though, we are very blessed.
We see there are people who are richer. And the big mistake people fall for is whenever God gives us more, to think, it’s all for us! I think about myself. I have three closets of clothes. So much. But I feel like I have nothing to wear. What do I need? Do I need a bigger house, bigger closets? No, I really need to be rich toward God and other people, give some of my clothes away (I don’t wear many items anyway.) The blessings God has given me are not all for me.
Today we’re talking about blessing, and about a childless couple, and God tells them they will have a baby. But we’re not talking about Mary and Joseph. We’re talking about Abraham and Sarah. In the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, Genesis 12:1 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” God is making a big ask of Abram! God says, let me introduce myself! I am God, and I want you to leave the only home you’ve known, take your family and go where I will show you.
This is what God promised Abram in return in Genesis 12: I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and you will be a blessing. In fact, all people on earth will be blessed through you. To your offspring I will give this land.
Basically, God promised Abram, descendants, land, and he gave him a job! First God told Abram; you will be a great nation: the father of many people! God promised descendants.
God also promised a place; that Abram’s offspring will receive land in Canaan.
And then God gave Abram a promise that was also a job! He said, Abram, I will really bless you, so that all people on earth will be blessed through you!
God promises all this to Abram, not because Abram has done anything to deserve it. Then Abram just steps out in faith, trusting God’s promises. And God’s blessing is not all for the sake of Abram himself: God will bless him so that all the families of the earth will be blessed through him!
God chooses Abram, but the blessing is not just for him, it’s for the sake of the whole world. Abraham as he is later called, and his descendants are to be a channel of blessing for all the families of the earth.
Some of God’s promises to Abram take a long time. The promised descendants and land don’t come quickly. Abram himself doesn’t own any land, other than a burial plot, when he dies. The Lord’s blessing of land will come generations later to his descendants! And Abram, who is already 75 when God blesses him, will wait until he’s 100 years old to have a child with Sarai, a baby boy named Isaac. It is a happy day when Isaac is born! The last blessing, I also call a job. Abram already has a job, taking care of his flocks and so on. But the job he gets from God is to be a blessing that blesses the whole world!
How in the world would he bless the world? They didn’t even know where everybody in the world was at that point! That’s a very big job, to bless the world! When God speaks to Abram, he is demonstrating what kind of God he is. He is not like the other gods people worshipped, who didn’t care about humans. He is a God that loves all people and wants good for everyone. God wants us, his people, to be like him, to be blessers. God promised many blessings to Abram. Abram’s job in the relationship is to bless and bless and bless, bless the whole world!
At this point, Abram already has a lot; he seems to be wealthy before God comes to him. God is promising him more. But God doesn’t bless Abram just for his benefit. When God blesses you, it’s not all for you! It’s for the world.
We bless in order to follow God. We aren’t just believers in God. We are followers, who do what God does. God is a blesser, and so we bless. We don’t just bless those closest to us. We bless the world!
Abram was not a perfect person. But he and his descendants blessed the world. For example, Abraham’s great grandson, Joseph, (not Mary’s husband, but the Joseph with the coat of many colors) was blessed with wisdom from God. He kept Egypt and the surrounding nations from famine. He saved not only his family, but many nations. When God blesses you, it’s not all for you! It’s for the world.
After many, many, generations, Jesus comes and blesses the world. He is God’s son, and still, he doesn’t take that blessing and keep it to himself. He heals people, feeds people, listens to people, and tells them about how God is good and loves them. Jesus died for us. He was a blessing to us all. God raised him from the dead, and we have new life through him.
Why Christmas? Why did God send Jesus to live on earth? To teach us that God’s blessings to us, are not all for us. God wants us to follow in his ways and bless the world!
So, do we bless the world? I think so! The Christmas gifts you buy for the children at Hope Center or Bethany Children’s Home, or when you help a neighbor, or send a card to someone who might need their spirits lifted, you are blessing the world! God blesses us with more than we need, so generosity is a way we can bless. You can bless by sharing a skill you have like baking or giving advice on how to fix a car. You bless by listening to and encouraging others.
We are blessed by God in many ways. Our blessings are multiplied when you think of all of us together in church, and all the Christians around the world. Together we are big enough to bless all the world!
God blesses us, not just for us! To follow God, we need to pass the blessing on. My homework for you this week is to tell yourself, Because I have more, I will do more and give more.
Repeat after me: Because I have more… I will do more… and give more!
It can be tempting to think that when God blesses us with more, it’s all for us! But it’s not all for us. Blessing others is something God is inviting us to. The secret that not everybody knows is this: it actually feels great to be a blesser! You know you’re making a difference and making the world a better place. You know you’re a child of your Father in heaven, and a follower of Jesus, who came to bless the whole world! Amen.
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