Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
One of the unique things about reaching spiritual maturity is that God starts to use you as a channel of His blessings. Your outreach is Holy Spirit driven. Some times you are oblivious to your life being a blessing to others, and other times you realize your contribution to others.
Have you ever thought of temporal blessings from the giving point of view rather than from the receiving point of view? Our Lord said to his disciples in Luke 14:12-14 that it is better to help those who cannot reciprocate than it is to help those who can. From Acts 20:35 Paul uses this example of our Lord’s teaching and practice. Jesus Christ had the practice of helping others who could not help themselves. What our Lord conveyed by his actions states that “it is better to give than to receive”. This godly principle is part of our message today.
We are speaking on the imputation of God’s earthly temporal blessings to the spiritually mature believer. Your mental attitude and understanding of Bible doctrine positions you to grasp the wisdom of these messages. Your personal advancement in Bible doctrine and its subsequent work of conforming your life into the character of Jesus Christ qualifies you for God’s personal blessings. Prov.8:17 “I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me.” Heb.11:6 “But without faith [which comes by the word of God] it is impossible to please him, [God] for he that comes to God must believe that He is [that He exists] and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Your faithfulness in learning Bible doctrine [God’s biblical teachings] benefits others with whom you come into contact. For those who are perception oriented, instead of performance oriented, Bible doctrine is their life saver, and it also becomes a source of great refreshment and blessing to others.
Understanding that we are here as ambassadors for Jesus Christ motivates us to be the best witness we can be, both overtly and covertly, both in our homes and in public.
To be able to bless others through your spiritual maturity perpetuates the plan of God during the days of your life.
Your spiritual heritage actually lives on long after you are gone. When Israel was being formed as a client nation under God she was promised that she would be a blessing to other nations simply by their association to her. Gen.12:3 “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
As we can readily see from God’s word, an individual as well as a nation can be a blessing to others if that individual or that nation abides by God’s word.
Your integrity and character form the anchor to your family and friends; Prov.31 details this in the life of the godly woman. She is a blessing to her home and her community.
You are a key part of your company’s success, even if you may not contribute a lot to the ideas or plans of a company, but because God himself imputes blessings to that place of employment simply because you are there and nothing more. As a mature believer you represent faithfulness and honesty. You are not perfect, but you do strive to live a holy life. God will bless a business or place of employment in spite of themselves simply because you are there. Their blind arrogance will refuse to accept your contribution to their success, but God will bless you any way, not just in time, but also in eternity.
Often times people will admire you from a distance for what you stand for until they realize when they move you up closer in position and responsibilities that you continue to stand for the same godly principles even among them. Your family may not recognize you as being a factor contributing to their blessings, but you are. If you were a lesser man or woman you very well could be just as underhanded and thoughtless as the worst of sinners.
But Jesus Christ has forever changed your life and you continue to allow him to mold his image into your thoughts and actions. Never forget that true spirituality is not what you do for God, but what you allow God to do in you and with you.
Eph.4:17-25 details to us how a believer could live, and how a believer should live.
Prov.20:7 “The just man walketh in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” Even if your children never believe in the Lord they are still blessed by association with you.
The advice you give to your family and friends and co-workers is sound biblical advice. It will be given out in compassion and love. A people in a local church will be blessed by their association to a spiritually mature teaching pastor, both directly and indirectly.
The knowledge received from his teaching can save a marriage or restore ones right perspective over a troubling issue in their lives. The depth of his doctrinal teaching with all of its principles and precepts are taken by the Holy Spirit and sent down into the deep recesses of the congregation’s soul. When allowed to do its work a great peace and understanding pervades that local church and the homes of those attending. There is no bickering and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in a grace oriented doctrinal church.
No program can replace these blessings.
Every mature believer will demonstrate the image found in Ps.1:1-3. You will mean so much to people, some of whom you do not know. You see, the people you affect will also bless others. When your influence is refreshing and honest it spreads seeds of the same among others.
Your presence at every level in society is important. From the way you rear your children, to the way you interact with your family and friends, each one affects your society. When you are an honest business man or woman God will make up the gap you need to get by in the hard times. You do not have to steal to get by. As a public official you stand for principles of integrity and God blesses because of that. Your vote is earned, not paid for by some special interest group.
Being the spiritual salt of your family and friends and co-workers causes that same salt to spread out to others. That preserving, and healing salt is a blessing to those associated with the mature believer. When heartache and tragedy befall a family you are the rock they turn to for comfort and direction, Matt.7:24-25.
We need a Christianity that is actively blessing the family, and blessing the community, and the nation. For that to happen we need biblically informed saints. We need saints who are students of the word of God. We need saints who have the humility to sit under the authority of the word of God under the God given teaching authority of their right pastor-teacher.
It all starts with positive volition toward the word of God, even when you do not fully understand everything the pastor is teaching. The pastor has to teach and preach to many spiritual levels of maturity in his congregation.
When everyone understands they are in church to learn the word of God with everything else being secondary, then blessings will abound in that fellowship.
When competition and approbation lust and power lust pervade a local church there is only cursing by association. If you are in a local church where there is constant bickering and competition then look to the leadership of that church and see if the pastor is fulfilling his calling of preaching the whole council of God’s word. If he is not then the people are not being conformed to the image of Christ. Instead they will constantly be trying to conform their local church family into each ones individual image. Chaos and cursing by association ensues where truth is forsaken. No excitement and hype from of a worship service will ever satisfy the maturing saint because this believer is always; I mean always listening for the voice of God from the word of God. This believer lives by faith, not by feeling. Faith comes by the word of God, not feeling and activity.