Sermon Conversations with Alex and Aaron

There’s only so much we can cover in a Sunday morning gathering!
Each week, you’re invited to tune into our podcast at 11 am on Thursdays – recorded (and sometimes prerecorded) for later, online viewing.

What can you expect? Pastors Alex, Aaron and the occasional guest, having a casual conversation diving deeper into ideas related to last Sunday’s teaching.

Ask questions about the sermon series, Blessings and/or Cursings

“I will make you a blessing” (Genesis 12:2)

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God makes our ways straight when we bless those who curse us.

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Luke 6:27-28

Kathleen Petersen, in her typically good natured and down to earth way, filled me in on my devotional writing assignment. Aaron was preaching on blessings and cursings based on Deuteronomy 28-30. God was giving the people of Israel the choice of blessings or cursings.  Blessings depended on obedience, so his requirements were not too hard to achieve. Then, Kathleen threw a curve ball — Jesus flipped the script on blessings and cursings.  He asked his followers to bless those who cursed them.

Cue deep resentment and a heavy sigh 

As a child I had been taught to not fight back when people hurt me — to absorb cruel words and attitudes. I was all for loving my neighbor, but I’d had enough of being a doormat. To twist the knife, I’d been dreading a meeting that very afternoon with someone I’ve  done a lot of volunteering with. On the positive side, she was Intelligent and passionate and had with a high-powered career, plenty of know-how. However a sharp tongue, a critical attitude, and sense of entitlement made me want to avoid working with her. At the moment, healthy boundaries and protecting myself seemed a lot more sane than meeting for coffee and working out what being a blessing to someone who seemed intent on making my life miserable would look like. Fortunately, Kathleen is a good friend and prayed for our meeting without judgment.

After some small talk at a local coffee shop, our conversation took a turn that I can only attribute to the Holy Spirit. Rather than asking me to absorb or ignore her unkindness, I felt the Holy Spirit was asking me to lead the conversation toward reciprocity. I had mentally prepared some talking points, but they came out much differently than what I had expected to share. . 

Instead of saying “I’m feeling frustrated that you’ve been expecting me to be available at all times including last week when i was driving on the highway and didn’t have time to respond to your demands” I said “I really appreciate the drive and passion you give to this project. And I also appreciate that you set boundaries around your time.  We’re all volunteers and this project is very stressful.  I’m learning from you that I also need to set  boundaries around my time. It’s great that we can have the reciprocal understanding that we will respect other’s needs for time to ourselves.”

Instead of saying, “We are an all volunteer organization and I’m not your help desk or administrative assistant. We are each the help desk.” I said, “The strength of being in an all volunteer organization is that each has the flexibility to problem solve and learn new skills, which keeps work flowing without having to go through a lot of bureaucratic channels. What we are doing isn’t perfect, but we are all learning a lot and becoming stronger and more resourceful all the time!”

We covered a number of topics in the same way; in what could have been a very uncomfortable conversation turned out to be very positive. Each and every one hinged on the topic of reciprocity and keeping mutual respect at the center of our working relationship.  I hadn’t absorbed the extra work she had been hoping to delegate to me and I hadn’t made her feel entitled or rude either. Somehow the Holy Spirit set healthy boundaries for a fair and neutral playing field that straightened out unhealthy patterns of behavior we kept veering toward.  He allowed our conversation to be focused on the truth that we each needed to be carrying our own load. Grace made the message go down in a palatable way. Thank God for his guidance and help in a situation that I didn’t have the wisdom or patience to take on by myself. 

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Deuteronomy 30

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,  then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.  Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.  He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.  The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.  The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today.  Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, If you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Offer of Life or Death

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.  It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life,and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30: 1-20

I have always loved this passage. It’s simple in a true and beautiful way, like a perfectly symmetrical and contemplated work of art. It feels rock solid, a promise that God won’t back down from, and enduring, the certainty that multiplicity of small choices over days and years will result in a generational blessing. 

Imagine my surprise when realizing, just now, that I hadn’t really understood this passage at all. I had completely missed the choice God was giving to his people. All the aspects I loved about the passage remained — the simplicity, the rock solid certainly, the endurance and promise.

There was one glaring issue that had somehow escaped me entirely — what God was actually asking his people to do. Somehow I had taken the ideas of the Ten Commandments and blessings and cursings, mixed them around in my mind and had come up with what was a toxic concoction for my spiritual health. It went something like this — God wants his people to be blessings to their neighbors — being a blessing takes a lot of effort and vigilance in noticing who around us is in need of a blessing. I had bought myself into a joyless, unachievable doctrine of works that was making me a worn out wreck and most likely a source of puzzlement to the recipients of my “blessings”.

Reading the passage tonight was a complete and wonderful revelation — God isn’t asking us to be blessing machines. He’s asking His people to have no other gods before Him, that we love him out of the deepest and most sincere parts of our hearts.  What an epiphany! 

My absolute favorite thing that Alex often preaches goes something like, “The greatest gift we can give another is the person we are becoming.” That beautifully separates us from the idea that we have to work or perform or sacrifice who we truly are in order to please God and to love our neighbors. Obedience, rather than being a chore, leads to happiness and deep joy. As we rid ourselves of the idols that weigh us down and enslave us, we can fall deeper in love with God. We show up more sparkly and vibrant as that love washes through us and over us, and we can be a blessing to our neighbors.

I’m going to be doing a lot of reflection on this epiphany in 2024. It won’t be a resolution, because that would defeat the whole purpose of this new way of seeing. I think I’ll make it more into a prayer: Surprise me God! Surprise me with all the ways depriving idols of oxygen and encouragement can transform my life.  

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. John 1:1-5 CSB

Today, I begin with these amazing truths about Jesus. This passage should bring all of us to our knees with praise for who he is. Below are the first two verses of Psalms 103 and 104. In both Psalms, David begins by commanding his soul to bless the Lord and reminding himself of the benefits and majesty of the Lord.

My soul, bless the LORD,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
My soul, bless the LORD,
and do not forget all his benefits. Psalm 103:1-2 CSB

My soul, bless the LORD!
LORD my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with majesty and splendor.

He wraps himself in light as if it were a robe,
spreading out the sky like a canopy,  Psalm 104:1-2 CSB

Because we are made in the image of God, we can bless him like no other creature. I might be slightly inaccurate thinking God especially enjoys the blessings and praise he receives through our music. Of course, obedience to his Word is the highest praise he can receive, but voicing our praise runs parallel to heartfelt conformity to his commands.  

Unless you are a worship leader, you may not be aware that before the first temple in Jerusalem was built by Solomon, King David instituted a formal music worship system organized in groups of Levites. Details appear in I Chronicles, primarily in chapters 17, 23 and 24. This formal worship took place day and night while the temple was an active place of worship. 

I believe David, who was a skilled musician, understood that our earthly worship should reflect what we will experience throughout eternity. Here is a taste from the Apostle John’s experience recorded in the book of Revelation:

After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

Salvation belongs to our God,
who is seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!

All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, saying,

Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and strength
be to our God forever and ever. Amen. 

        Revelation 7:9-12 CSB

Does this make you want to join that heavenly chorus? (Okay, I know music isn’t mentioned in these verses, but it’s easy to imagine.) Here is a wonderful piece from Handel’s Messiah that has allowed generations of Christians to engage with each other in blessing God. 

Take a moment to thank God for the musicians who lead our worship services.

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Gateways to God’s Covenant Blessings vs Gateways to Devilish Curses

In our “information age” we encounter a kaleidoscope of ideas about blessings, including those of media celebrity preachers championing techniques to obtain God’s material blessings. In John 6:22-40 Jesus expresses his eternal truth regarding those who seek mere material blessings. In verses 26 & 27 he says the efforts of our search must go further:

“Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”

Jesus thus claims he is the Bread of Life — the one we must pursue to receive blessings worth having. Later in John’s gospel he says he is the gateway to blessing/abundance and therefore, the author of the New Covenant of life and abundance:

Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.  John 10:7-10 CSB

You likely know this about true blessings. But if I asked you about curses, have you dismissed the concept as primitively superstitious? I encourage you to consider three important Biblical Covenant gateways to both blessings and curses. The first is the Adamic Covenant where every blessing intended for man was found in God’s perfect creation. 

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Genesis 1:31 CSB

Later God warns Adam about the first significant gateway to the curse of death (our first and last enemy).

The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the LORD God commanded the man,
“You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:15-18 CSB

The second significant gateway is the Abrahamic Covenant which lays out both blessing and curse.

 The LORD said to Abram:

Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Genesis 12:1-3 CSB

The third significant gateway is the Mosaic Covenant which is much more explicit in delineating both blessings and curses. The most notable concentration is in Deuteronomy chapter 27:14 through chapter 30. In this Covenant, God acknowledges the influence of the Egyptians on his people during their exile there and anticipates the pull of idolatrous practices of the nations who will surround them as they settle in the Promised Land. He emphasizes the gateway that leads to his marvelous blessings, but warns them of the myriad of gateways leading to curses fashioned by the enemy of our souls.

As you think about God’s concern for his people in highlighting blessings and curses, it’s all the more important to realize that Jesus’ New Covenant of Life and Abundance (the supreme gateway) does not leave us ignorant of gateways to curses engineered by the devil, whose mission is to steal, kill and destroy. For example, read all of Apostle Paul’s treatise on curses that come through idolatry and sexual immorality found in Romans 1:16-32. Here is Paul’s closing statement:

…because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

Although we who pursue the New Covenant relationship with Christ, experience and share his compassion for broken souls who surround us, we cannot join or applaud lifestyles that open us to the curses of corruption and destruction. 

Contemplate the meaning behind these images and descriptions of the “Gates of Hell” in Caesarea Philippi (where Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah), in contrast to the gates and doorways in this replica of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem. Ask God for Biblical wisdom to reject deceiving lies interwoven with gateways to curses, so you may fully embrace Christ’s singular gateway to Life and Abundance.

Note. To access scripture links that don’t appear in the email version, read the web version in your browser.