The Blessed Cycle

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Are you doing all right? Well, that little corny greeting identifies your friend, Dr. Cook, and I’m speaking with you as usual from the little room at the end of the hall on the second floor of the big white house. I’m glad to be with you. Before I go on the air, always I pray that God may put His love and His wisdom, His power, and His grace, somehow into my heart and in my voice. We can’t see each other or meet each other personally but somehow God can speak as we give out His Word.

And my prayer and hope is that we’ll be enabled to put a handle on it so that you can get hold of it for yourself. May that be true today. Look with me at Romans 15:29. Paul the apostle says, “I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” We talked about that the last time we got together and I want just to walk around in that verse a little while longer, if I may. What does it mean to be a blessing? It does seem that God connects Himself dynamically with what His servants say and what they do on His behalf toward others.

Did you get that? God connects Himself in power, that is to say dynamically – “in power” — He connects Himself in power with what His people say and with what they do on His behalf toward others. Our Lord Jesus said one day, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” meaning that good deeds done in Jesus’ name, as our Savior said, shall not fail of their reward. God notices what we say and do for others in His name and He deigns to connect Himself in power with those words and with those actions for the good of other people.

Someone said a good many years ago concerning a certain man, “When Jim says ‘God bless you,’ he means it and so does God.” Well, that’s, I guess what we’re getting at – the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now, of course, first of all we have to remember that Paul said, “It’s the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ”. Any blessing you give to other people has to come out of your own experience of the good news of the gospel. It’s pretty hard to be a blessing to others while you, yourself, are out of touch with God. You can be kind to others and still be an unsaved individual; you can be a person of integrity in your relationships with others and still be without the gospel; you can show a certain amount of human compassion toward others and still not be a candidate for heaven; but you can’t be a blessing to others unless you know the “blesser,” the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s that simple.

You may be helpful and you may be kind and you may be compassionate and still not be a candidate for heaven, but dear friend, you can’t be a blessing unless you know and are acquainted with and filled with the Spirit of the blesser, our wonderful Lord Jesus. And that’s why Paul calls it the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Do you know Him? Many of my friends by way of radio certainly do know the Lord and you write and tell me, your postcards and letters let me know that you really know the Lord and are trusting Him, I’m glad.

Somebody listening just now, however, may never have opened your heart and life to the Lord Jesus and invited Him to come in as Lord and be your savior. Before you’re another minute older, you don’t have to listen to the finish of this broadcast, just get in a place of prayer. If you’re driving your car, pull off the highway, if you’re in your own home, find a quiet place, get on your knees and say, “Blessed Lord Jesus, come into my heart right now. I want you to be my Lord and my Savior. I trust you now as my Lord.”

The Bible says, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Thousands of us this minute know that that works. You try it as well. Yes, you can’t be a blessing without knowing the blesser. It’s the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Having agreed on that, then what? To be a blessing means to bring something of the presence of the blesser into another person’s life. How do you do this? You do it by the person you are, the things you do, and the things you say. You do it by the person you are, the things you do, and the things you say in the name of and for the sake our wonderful Lord Jesus.

There are some people who don’t have to say a word, but you feel better when they arrive. Have you noticed that? Some people, just by walking into a room can make it a happier occasion. They are so filled with the blessing and presence of God that they don’t have to say anything. You just feel better because they’re there. That I think is the norm in Christian behavior. You and I ought to be so close to our Lord and so filled with His Spirit that when we come into any situation, people will sense His presence and be glad about it.

John says, “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” When the Lord Jesus came into the situation, everything was different. A moment before, they had been secretive; they had been locking all the shutters and doors. They had been speaking in hushed tones and whispers for fear of being found out and accused of being co-conspirators with the one who had been crucified. Now the blessed risen Lord appears in their midst, says to them, “Here am I. Behold my hands and my side, that it is I myself.”

And he said, “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.” His presence made the difference. And you and I, my friends, filled with the Spirit of that same living Lord, can make a discernible difference for good when we come into any given situation. Small thought here: have you learned yet that you don’t always have to say something? You come into a sick room, you make a hospital call and you think, “Oh, what am I going to say to this person?” You don’t really have to say a lot. As a matter of fact, a visitor who is too talkative wears the patient out.

Let the patient choose his own pace for the conversation. You just be there. Extend a friendly hand and sit down and just be there and let God bless the person through your own happy, gracious spirit, and if the patient wants to talk about how feels, let him. And if he doesn’t want to talk about how he feels, don’t bother him. If there’s anything you can do for him, do it. If you can straighten the pillow or fluff it up a little or get him an extra cover or whatever it is, do it. If he doesn’t want anything done for him, don’t bug him. Just bless him. That means be there in the fullness of the presence of the Lord and let Jesus shine through you. You don’t have to say a lot in order to bless people.

However, there is the sense in what you say that what you say is used of God to bring an impact into other people’s lives. And so we have the picture – if you go through your concordance, you’ll find Jacob blessing his sons; Joseph blessing his sons; Moses blessing his people; David blessing his people, Samuel blessing the children of Israel; so on. These are words of benediction and blessing that were spoken on behalf of God by God’s servants. Now, here’s a remarkable thing: when you are trusting the blessed Holy Spirit of God, He deigns to take the words that you say, many of them maybe stumbling or ill-chosen or awkward.

But when you’re trusting God’s Holy Spirit, He deigns to take the words that you say and give them an eternally valid impact on people’s hearts and minds. I’ve had people remind me of things I said a quarter of a century ago, things that I had long since forgotten but which they had carried in their memory and treasured. A chance remark made trusting the Lord was used to make a big difference in somebody else’s life. Someone told me that because I spent time with him, he turned toward the gospel ministry instead of into business.

Do you know for the life of me, I can’t remember what I said to that young man? Twenty-five or thirty years have now gone by and I still can’t remember what I said to him. I believe him when he says that the words I spoke made the difference but I can’t remember what they were. God used whatever was said to be a blessing and I’m grateful. Dear friend, you and I have the inestimable privilege of speaking on behalf of our Lord. Our Savior said, “It is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”

The Holy Spirit of God speaks through you and prays through you. Paul says in Romans 8 that “The Holy Spirit helps our infirmity because we know not what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us or through us, you may say, with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts — that’s God the Father — knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he, the Spirit, maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” And John the apostle says, “If we pray according to God’s will, He hears us and we know we have the answer”, so the logic of that is God will pray through you by His Holy Spirit in line with His own perfect will so that He can do His will through you and the blessed cycle then of divine intervention in your life is made complete.

Now, this same process works when you are speaking with others and interacting with other people’s lives. To be a blessing means to be a person full of the Holy Spirit, it means to speak what you do say in the enablement of the Spirit of God and it means to do what you do not just because it needs doing but you do it as unto the Lord. Someone said to me the other day after having done a whole wash and ironing for someone else, said, “You know, I do this as unto the Lord. I didn’t choose to do it today but I do it as unto the Lord.”

Well that’s exactly the point, isn’t it? “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” So do what you do for Jesus, say what you say as under His direction, be what you are for His glory, and God will make you a blessing, dear friend.

Dear Father today, make every one of us a blessing to somebody. We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!