SPEAK BLESSINGS
Scripture Reading: Job 22:28
We are what we speak.
Job 22:28 says ‘Thou shalt also decree (speak) a thing and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.’
Our tongue can direct our lives. When we speak what God’s word says, we activate God. When we speak what the devil says, we activate the devil.
Jan wants to work in the Foreign Service in Singapore. She doesn’t want to work in the Ministry of Education because she cannot picture herself teaching a group of students for the rest of her life. Right now she is teaching French in the Ministry of Education Language Center. Then she discovered that even though she is posted to the Ministry of Education, there is also opportunity to work in the foreign embassy one day. Working in the Foreign Service involves moving from countries to countries. Then two nights ago, as I was praying, God told me that my seed shall be upon many waters. Jan is definitely my seed and many waters are referring to many countries. I know it is a Rhema from God and I was excited to tell her. Because I believed it. When I speak what God says, I activate God. So I speak blessing to Jan.
Let us speak blessings! Use our tongue for good and not for evil. James 1:26 says ‘If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.’
Joy has a born-again classmate in college. Today she is attending quite a big church in Singapore. I heard about this church which is near my house and I drove to that church last November when I was with Jan throughout her examination. Today this classmate has a boyfriend and he happens to be the son of the pastor from that church. The guy is very committed to his church and it is this quality that attracted Joy’s classmate. But the thing that troubled Joy’s classmate is that he is always scolding vulgarity. Of course it came as a shock to Joy and to us because he is a pastor’s kid.
You see James is very clear. You may seem to be religious but if you always speak vulgarity, the bible says you deceive your own heart and your religion is in vain. Use our tongue to bless not to curse.
What can we learn from today’s key text?
I. The highest function of the human speech is to bless God!
The first part of James 3:9 says ‘Therewith bless we God, even the Father.’ Psalm 34:1 says ‘I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth’. Psalms 103:1 says ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.’
The phrase ‘To bless’ in the Vine Dictionary is to ‘speak well of’, and with regard to God it is ‘to praise’, ‘to celebrate with praises’ of that which is addressed to God.
Psalms 34:1 is an invocation to praise Yahweh. The object of worship is Yahweh. Psalms 34 is a psalm of thanksgiving for things, and a psalm of praise for a Person. That person is God. Some translation replaces the word ‘to bless’ with ‘to extol’ and to ‘to boast’. It is an invitation to glorify and exalt the name of Yahweh. To exalt is to raise it up in praise. The Psalmist was calling us to interrupt our activities and focus on worship.
Thomas Watson, the puritan preacher wrote, ‘In prayer we act like man, in praise we act like angels’.
The verb ‘bless’ share a common root with the word ‘kneel’. It is to kneel, pay homage. It promotes respect for the one being blessed, and in this case, the One being blessed is God. The word “bless” is reinforced with voices appreciation and gratitude. Someone says, ‘I just appreciate and praise God with my mind and I will be grateful to God in my heart. No you cannot do that. Have you ever helped someone and you kept wondering why that person didn’t say anything. Then one day you go to him and ask, ‘Did you get the help that I forwarded to you?’ ‘Oh’, that person says, ‘I am just grateful towards you in my heart’. I don’t think you will be satisfied with the answer.
The purpose of the praise is subtly hinted at verse 2, where the afflicted has seen deliverance from oppression and that occasion the Psalmist’s joy and praise. This psalmist thanks the Yahweh by magnifying Him and exalting Him because Yahweh has answered his prayer, provided his needs, delivered him from trouble, protected him from danger.
To bless the LORD means to delight God’s heart by expressing love and gratitude for all He is and all He does. Parents are pleased when their children simply thank them and love them, without asking for anything. True praise comes from a grateful heart that sincerely wants to glorify and please the Lord.
Pastor Lily doesn’t know what I am preaching today. But just yesterday while preparing my sermon; in the midst there was a brown out. So she came to the guest room and disturbed me. Chinese New Year is around the corner. She was recounting before she came to know the Lord, how difficult life was immediately after her dad filed for bankruptcy. Then she remembered when she was just a one year old Christian in Evangel Spore and how she spent her Chinese New Year. She was extremely ashamed of her house because it was very run down. They had no money to prepare for Chinese New Year during that year. They couldn’t have a very good meal that New Year’s Eve. They did not visit any relatives because they had no Ang Pow money to give to relatives’ kid. She was going shopping with her sister but she couldn’t buy anything because she didn’t have money at all. Everything was so tight. Her income was so meager. Pastor Chian was asking her to buy a new clothe for herself but she didn’t even have the budget for that. It was on the second year of her Chinese New Year after she was born again that things became better. How much have changed since 30 years have passed. Today, if she wants to buy new clothes she can just go and get one. Today, we can have a sumptuous meal for Chinese New Year. Our two children are so blessed and honestly they don’t really know what poverty is. When she recollected her past, it made her more grateful to God for turning things around for her today. Then she made a statement: “We must be grateful for what God has done for us and remember where we’ve come from and be humble.” Actually she was blessing God yesterday in front of me.
We must never forget God’s goodness to us, or fail to be thankful for his blessings showered on us. Over a century ago, Northwestern University, located on Lake Michigan near Chicago, had a voluntary life-saving crew among its students. That means among the student body they had a voluntary life-saving crew. Then on September 8, 1860, just off the shore of Lake Michigan and near the college campus, the Lady Elgin, a crowded passenger steamer, went down. Answering the emergency distress call, a life saving team at Northwestern University immediately formed themselves into rescue teams and launched out into the waters. Among the students that perilous day was Edward Spencer, a young man who was preparing for the ministry. Seeing a woman clinging to some wreckage far out in the waters, Spencer threw off his coat and swam out through the heavy waves, successfully rescuing her and pulling her back to the shore. Sixteen more times that day young Spencer braved the fierce waves, saving a host of lives. Exhausted and spent, this heroic young man collapsed from fatigue. Spencer never completely recovered from the exposure of that near tragic day. With broken health he lived quietly for the rest of his life in relative seclusion, disabled, unable to enter the work of the ministry. Many years later R.A Torrey, Pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, was telling about this incident at a meeting in Los Angeles when a man in the audience called out that Edward Spencer was present! Torrey invited Spencer to the platform. An old man with white hair, he slowly climbed the steps to the pulpit as the applause rang out. Torrey asked him if anything in particular stood out in his memory. ‘Only This, Sir’, Spencer replied. ‘Of the seventeen people I saved, not one of them thanked me.’
Actually we did the same thing to God. Jesus said of the ten lepers who were healed only one came back to bless Him. Twice we are told to bless the Lord, twice in the first two verses of Psalm 34.
Psalms 103:1 says ‘Bless that Lord, All that is within me, bless the LORD’. ‘All that is within me’ means all of our inner being is focused on the Lord –heart, soul, mean and strength. We give thanks (or say grace) to the Lord before we receive our food, and this is right, but the Jewish people were also to give thanks after they had eaten and to remember that the Lord had given them their food.
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses admonished the people to remember the Lord and what He did for them and nine times he cautioned them not to forget.
In Psalms 103, the Psalmist lists six special blessings from the hand of the Lord, which exudes praise; forgiveness, healing, redemption, love, satisfaction and renewal. I mean aren’t we thankful that countless of times sin has twisted and distorted us, but we experience forgiveness because Yahweh is gracious. Aren’t we are reminded of our different and varied deliverance and how God rescue us when we are about to fall into a pit, and even the pit of hell. Also there were countless times we had almost premature death experience in mind and it is the tender mercies of God that we are kept alive.
Maybe you feel like me. Yes we are told to praise and glorify the LORD, yet when I read this psalm I recognize that the best I can do just doesn’t quite make it. My soul goes out to Him but not quite like it should be. I am going to make a confession to you. I can’t worship the LORD like I want to. Just last Monday, while shopping at the Atrium, thinking of the goodness of God, I just want to bless God, praise Him. But after maybe less than 10 minutes, I am at a loss for words, adjectives, phrases. Do you know why? This old flesh of mine can’t rise to that level. It is only by the Holy Spirit that you and I can worship the Lord to that level that it should be.
I really believe God knows that we couldn’t rise to that level and that is why He baptizes us with tongues. In Acts 2:4 the Bibles talks about people speaking in tongues. The Greek word for ‘tongue’ is ‘glossa’, the supernatural gift of tongues. Tongues can be heavenly languages, which are tongues of angels and also they can be human languages as well. Now why speak in tongues. It is not ‘gibberish’ but used praise to God. It is a source of power for the believer and it is directed to God. Tongue is of the Spirit, not the soul of man. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, to partner with us. Yes it is to build oneself up spiritually. But it is also to keep us conscious of His Presence, eliminates selfishness in our praises and expresses praise and worship.
There are four ways of speaking in tongues when it comes to speak blessing to God. It can be done devotionally, prophetically, for spiritual warfare and for celebration. Tongues are a wonderful tool God has given His people to enjoy His presence more fully and intimately, and to make us more effective in praising Him.
II. Speaking blessing upon a person
Not only are we to speak blessing to God, but we are to speak blessing to man. With regards to human, to bless is to invoke blessings upon a person, to bestow a blessing. It is to ask God’s blessing upon a person. The aim is to cause to prosper for that man, to make happy that man.
As I was preparing this message, God brought me to a passage of scripture in Number 11 teaching us to bless people. In the passage of scripture the whole burden of the people of Israel was upon Moses. They were in the wilderness and they long for the fish which they can eat freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, and the melon, and the leeks and the onions, and the garlic. Interestingly I love fish, cucumbers, leeks and onions and garlic. But they could only eat manna. So they were murmuring and wept sore unto Moses saying ‘Give us flesh (meat) that we may eat. They wanted meat. And Moses was greatly stressed to a point that he wanted to die.
Do you ever feel that the whole burden of life, your family, and your projects weigh upon you and you want to die? Then God said, ‘Tomorrow you shall eat flesh (meat), not one day, two days, five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, but even a whole month shall they eat flesh.’ Moses started calculating in his mind to help God. So Moses said, ‘God the people among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen and you say, ‘I will give them flesh (meat) that they may eat a whole month’. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?’
This incident links my memory to this scenario in the New Testament when thousands of crowd thronged Jesus and they were also in the wilderness and not in the city and Jesus said to the disciple you feed them. Matthew 14:15 says ‘And when it was evening, his disciples came to him saying, this is a desert place, and the time is now past (very late; all shops are closing) send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buying themselves victuals.’ But Jesus said unto them, ‘they need not depart, give ye them to eat. And they say ‘We have here but five loaves and two fishes. Going back to Moses. Do you know what God says ‘And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Is the LORD’s hand waved short? Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.’ The rest is history. For one whole month, there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea and let them fall by the camp, (the area of the fall) as it were a days’ journey and it was so much that it was two cubits high’. What did Moses and Jesus do to feed so much people? They bless the people.
Moses uses his tongue and speaks blessings to his people, six hundred thousands footmen and they were fed with meat for one whole month. We can use our speech and speak blessings to our people. Who are our people? They are our children, our husband, our wife, our friends, our congregation, etc.
Of course to speak blessings, we have to train our tongue to work in God’s way, to be under the Spirit. How to train your tongue to work in God’s way, to be under the Spirit? God told me the way. It is in the church, your prayer closet, the word of God where we come under the Spirit and used our speech to bless people.
In Number 7:89 it says ‘And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with Him (the LORD, God), then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two Cherubims and He (God, the LORD) spake unto him (Moses). The tabernacle of courses refers to the church. So the church is not excluded from the place where God speaks to us. But the book of Revelation says one day God will tabernacle among us.’ It means He will dwells among us. So it actually refers to a place where God is with us, when we pray, when we communicate with God. Definitely it includes our prayer closet. Numbers 7:89 says ‘And He (God) spake unto Him (Moses, us) and we can testify the untold times God speaks to us when we have our prayer time with him. It also mentioned the ark of the testimony. The testimony is the Ten Commandments or the Word of God. God speaks to us through His words. It is so important to read the bible everyday.
Last HOF, in the movie, the Book of Eli, we are told Eli read the book everyday for more than 30 years. So where do we get our speech (the content of our word) and speak blessings to our people? When we are in the tabernacle (the church) in the midst of our prayer and from the Word of God. We have to train our tongue to work in God’s way and be under the Spirit and speak blessings. And it is powerful.
And if you are still not convinced, I’ll show you another portion of scripture about what God really wants us to do concerning our speech or our tongue. In Numbers 6:22 it says ‘And the LORD spake unto Moses saying, speak unto Aaron (High Priest), and unto his sons (Priest) saying, ‘On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying (again the speech) unto them, “The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. (Listen carefully the next verse). And they (the priest) shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I (God) will bless them.’ What we bless, God will bless. When our tongues are occupied with doing the positive things that God calls us to do – Blessing, Praising, Giving Thanks to God, they have little time to get into a lot of trouble. They are bringing God’s blessings into our lives and into the lives the other people we know. Use your tongue to bless others for God!
Many of us belittle speaking blessing. We say it is a hocus pocus. It is positive thinking. Do not speak against blessing. We negate the fullness of God’s blessings in our lives when we speak against them. God blesses us; regardless of how big or small our blessing how we receive and respond to it is critical.
I believe that God wants to bless His children and wants us to speak blessing to people, especially those of the household of God. Well many will say, ‘but these people don’t deserve the blessings of God’. Frankly who deserve the blessing of God? But these people are sinful, rebellious, disobedient, murmuring, complaining and therefore they really don’t deserve it. Well that is exactly what the children of God were in the wilderness. These are the same people in the church today. They are a real problem to Moses. Moses cannot change their slavery mentality, poverty mentality, worldly minded mentality. Remember they had no food, no water, and if they had food, they complained about its variety. Honestly they are much unsanctified. But very interestingly when an enemy came and wanted to curse them, God was on their side.
I want to tell you- If you are a child of God, you are really privileged and special and blessed. When Balak asked Balaam to curse them, God says to Balaam in Numbers 22:12 ‘Thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.’ Wow. Balaam says in Number 23:8 ‘How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy, whom the LORD, hath not defied?’ Look at some of the blessing that Balaam speak concerning God’s people. ‘Num 23:9 ‘the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations’ (that means God’s dealing with them is different from the rest of other people).’ ‘Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? (They are so numerous that they cannot be counted’. ‘Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his?’ (Balaam call them righteous and hopes his days will end like them). Balaam continue to speak blessing. ‘Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel’. ‘Blessed is He that blessed thee and cursed is he that curseth thee.’
2 Peter 1:21 talk ‘about holy man spoke as they were moved by God’. God wants us to speak blessing to those in contact with us. Therefore we have to declare that our tongue to be an instrument of God. Our speech belongs to God, to speak blessings. We must recognize the move of the Spirit in our lives. Recognize the voice of the spirit. There is a new law in our heart, which is the law of the Spirit. This new voice give us the word from the Lord and prompted by the Holy Spirit, we move in the supernatural, because it is going to part God and part us and we shall speak blessing to people that needed it most.
“Gifted hands” is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson from 1961 to 1987. At the age of 11 year old Ben Carson started out life as an African American child from a one-parent home with failing grades at school. When Benjamin Carson was in fifth grade, he was considered the “dummy” of his class. His classmates and teachers took it for granted that Ben would take an entire quiz without getting a single question right. His mother, Sonya, who dropped out in the third grade, married at the age of 13. Carson’s father abandoned the family after Sonya discovered he had another wife and kids, leaving his mother to fend for him and his brother. Because of the trauma of what her husband did to her, Sonya would go into depression with suicidal tendency and one time she had to check herself into a mental institution. But she always made this statement to Ben Carson whenever he was placed against anyone in any task. ‘My son, you can do it like them, but only you can do better.’ Against all odds, she believed in her son and constantly spoke blessing to him. When her boys needed to learn multiplication tables, she had them swear to memorize the whole multiplication table while she was gone to check herself into a mental institution. When she saw her two sons’ success hindered by TV, she forbade them to watch it and commanded them to read two books per week from the library and give her a book report; she also moved them to better schools. Ben’s came from a Christian home. Meanwhile as time passed, Ben learned how to multiply and to spell. He started to explore the world of books, and he grew in it. Ben had a temper problem, and there was one where Ben almost hits his mom with a hammer while arguing with her about what shoes he should wear for school. And he almost killed someone because of his temper; he realized that he couldn’t do anything about it. He ran to his room and cried out to God, praying that He deliver him from his temper. Because of Sonya’s faith in him, always telling him that she believed her boys could do anything what other boys could do, but only better, he became the top student in his eighth grade class, third in his high school class and with hard work and strong determination, he got a scholarship to college, passed the MCAT and went on to medical school. From Yale, he attended University of Michigan Medical School, where his interest shifted from psychiatry to neurosurgery. Carson’s excellent hand-eye coordination and three-dimensional reasoning skills made him a gifted surgeon. After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at the top-ranked Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. At age 32, he became the hospital’s youngest Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery. In the year 1976, Carson faced adversity from fellow doctors and students while working at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It was here where he performed an operation as a resident without supervision, risking his medical career to save a man’s life. Then in the year of 1985, he saved the life of a girl who has seizures 100 times a day, by removing only half of her brain. Then the movie goes back to where it began: the year of 1987. Ben is eventually convinced to operate on the two co-joint twins, and he managed to make the operation successful, and both twins were saved. But the gist of the story ends with this statement from his mother to him. ‘My son can do it like any guy, only he can do it better.’ By the way his other brother, who receives the same blessing from his mother, Sonya, became a very qualified engineer.
In conclusion when you are in trouble, do you feel discouraged and defeated? In conflict and affliction, do you keep running and running and running and it looked like it would never come to an end? Do you lose heart and think, One of these days, I will be finished, or be killed? Yet in the midst of life, God is speaking to you to say ‘I will bless the Lord at all times.” My friend, we do pretty well in praising the Lord on a good sunshiny day and when things go right, but it is not easy when things become difficult. Yet God is saying to us today. ‘His praise shall continually be in my mouth.’
Let us learn to speak blessing to God and to people. Even in our darkest hour, learn to bless God and our circumstance and we will activate the blessings of God.
END OF SERMON
Sermon of Pas Toh Nee
Preached at EFC Iloilo on January 30, 2011
