Evidence of God's Blessing

I got a question for you today as we get started.

Have you ever looked at someone else's life and thought, man, that person is blessed?

They got a great family.

They got a great business.

Everything seems to be going their way.

And sometimes we look at someone else's life and we think they're blessed because they have a nice car and the car you drive is held together by prayer and duct tape and the check engine light.

Come on, somebody's got some cars like that.

And you think, Lord, did my blessing get lost in the mail?

Because we sometimes define blessing by worldly standards.

But blessing leaves evidence.

But we need to know, what evidence are we to look for that blessing leaves evidence?

behind.

In today's text, there's a guy by the name of Barnabas that visits the church in a place called Antioch, and he sees the evidence of God's blessing.

Let's find out what that evidence is so we can get that evidence in our life.

Y'all take some of that blessing of God.

Come on, let's stand up for the reading of God's word as we continue in our series.

There is more journeying through the book of Acts verse by verse and chapter by chapter.

We're in Acts chapter 11.

starting in verse 19.

Meanwhile, say meanwhile.

Meanwhile, the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen's death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria.

Remember that context, we'll come back to it.

They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.

However, say however.

However.

You're going to remember that one too.

We're going to come back to that significant for what we're going to look at today.

However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus.

The power of the Lord was with them.

And a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.

When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

When he arrived and saw this evidence of God's blessing.

He saw the evidence of God's blessing.

He was filled with joy and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord.

Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith.

What would the scriptures say about you if it had one sentence to describe your life?

That's one powerful statement right there.

Good man, full of the Spirit, and strong in faith.

And many people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.

When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch.

Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people.

It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.

Go ahead and just turn to three neighbors and say, you look like a Christian.

Go ahead and tell them that.

And you may be seated.

Let's talk about evidence of God's blessing.

Everyone wants to be blessed by God.

But is there a way to tell if someone is blessed or not?

Is someone blessed by God if they're wealthy?

Maybe.

Is someone blessed by God if they're not wealthy?

Maybe.

God's blessing, here's the big idea today.

God's blessing is not primarily measured by what we possess.

but by what God produces through our lives.

God's blessing is not primarily measured by what we possess, but by what God produces through our lives.

There are thousands and millions of people on planet Earth that possess a lot of worldly things, but they are not blessed by God because their life is producing nothing that will last for eternity.

But we gotta start with this foundation that blessing does come from God.

In fact, in the first instance of the Bible, in Genesis chapter one, it said God blessed them.

When he created mankind, God blessed them.

And it doesn't take a Bible scholar to know that God's desire is to bless people and the devil's desire is to curse people.

So we're back to Acts and it said, he arrived and saw the evidence of blessing.

God's blessing.

Now, blessing is not TV preachers telling you that if you give $100 now, God will give you $1,000 by the end of the week.

If that was the case, we'd all be millionaires by the end of the week.

That's not it.

But let's find out what blessing is.

Let's find out how we can have that blessing on our life.

And more importantly, I want you to know what blessing will do in you and through you and why you need it.

That's what's gonna happen today.

Okay, here's the word blessing in the Greek.

It's really familiar, isn't it?

You should have learned this just last week.

You should have learned the grace of God.

It is the word that is translated grace as well.

Favor, kindness, or a blessing given freely.

Active, dynamic, divine energy.

So Barnabas was sent by the church in Jerusalem to Antioch,

to find out, hey, check out what's happening.

We're hearing reports of revival in Walla Walla, Washington.

You got in Pendleton, Oregon, and the Department of Corrections.

Can I hear an amen to all of that?

All right, you gotta go check it out.

What's happening there?

Is this a move of God, or is it just hype?

Is this the move of the Holy Spirit or is it just emotionalism or something else?

Barnabas saw evidence of God's blessing.

What did he see?

Let's take a look.

Here's what he saw.

Blessing in spite of persecution.

The text starts with believers being scattered because of persecution after Stephen had been martyred for his faith.

Now, blessing does not mean that life will not be hard.

Because life is hard.

We need God's blessing in order to fulfill God's mission through our life.

So blessing isn't the absence of trouble.

Blessing is the presence and power of God in the middle of trouble.

I'm preaching better than your amen and you...

So when you look at somebody's life and you judge, man, God's blessed them because it seems trouble free.

That doesn't mean that's the blessing of God.

You could look at somebody else's life and go, man, they've had so much trouble in their life.

I just wish God would bless them.

Maybe he is.

Maybe he is sustaining them with his supernatural manifest presence and the power of God to endure through everything hell sends their way.

The church wasn't blessed in Antioch because persecution stopped.

The church was blessed because persecution couldn't stop the gospel.

There's this guy in the Old Testament, and maybe you've heard of him.

You could miss him if you speed read through the genealogical records of people.

You could miss him if you're just like, oh, this is the boring part, and I just gotta, I wanna get through this in Chronicles.

But there's this guy by the name of Jabez, and he stood out from among those in seemingly insignificancy.

He was not a great prophet.

He was not a great preacher.

He was not a great ruler over some great nation.

He was not famous on the field of battle.

He didn't have a podcast.

He didn't have a platform.

He didn't have 100,000 followers on Instagram, but he did have a prayer.

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers and his mother called his name Jabez.

Here's the thing you gotta know why I'm even bringing it up in the context of this.

His name means pain.

Because his mother called his name Jabez because I bore him in pain.

Every woman, every mother that I've ever met that's given birth, come on, gave birth in some pain.

I mean,

Anyway, I'll hold back on that.

All right.

And Jabez, so he starts off in trouble.

He is born in trouble.

He is, could you imagine going to elementary school?

It's like, hey, there's pain.

There's, you know, and just all of the, Jabez called on the God of Israel in the middle of the persecution.

In the middle of it, oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil that I may not cause pain.

So God granted him what he requested.

He is remembered because he was bold enough to believe.

that it was God's will to bless him in spite of persecution, in spite of his own mother naming him a pain.

He asked for God's blessing.

May we cry out for the blessing of God on our life, not because we want a bigger house or a nicer car or worldly desires, but rather because we want to advance God's mission in the earth to the greatest degree possible.

We need the blessing of God on Life Church.

We need the blessing of God on our families.

Listen, God is the one who blessed Jabez.

God is the one who blessed the church at Antioch.

And if you go through the history of Scripture, God is the one who blessed Joshua.

and told him what to do in order to make his way prosperous and successful, even though he was going to have to fight many wars to take the promised land.

God is the one who blessed Noah even though the world was going to be destroyed by a flood.

God is the one who blessed the children of Israel while they were in bondage and multiplied them in the middle of persecution.

God is the one who blessed Joseph even though his journey took him to a pit

took him to slavery took him to the prison and eventually to becoming a prince when god blesses someone they can be thrown in a fiery furnace and not be burned when god blesses someone they can be in a boat on a stormy water sea that would otherwise kill them and them not sink

You can be blessed by God and only have one meal left with thousands of hungry people and never run out of food.

When you're blessed by God, you can plant in a dry season and still bear fruit.

We need to be blessed by God because in this life, this is exciting, you will have trouble.

And we need the blessing of God upon our life.

So God will turn every plan of the enemy against you into blessing in the end.

We read this.

It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.

We think, oh, that's so nice.

Historical evidence suggests that the term Christian originally started as a mocking nickname.

or a form of verbal harassment, rather than a polite identifier.

The residents of ancient Antioch were famous in the Roman world for their cynicism, sharp wit, and love of inventing derogatory nicknames for groups they found strange or counter-cultural.

Christian translates to little Christs or Christ handlers.

It was meant as a sarcastic insult, essentially mocking them as brainwashed groupies or slaves of a crucified criminal.

Isn't this exactly the way culture spins Christianity today?

Culture spins homeschool parents in a particular indoctrinating, brainwashing way.

Or they say, oh, Christians, they're so narrow-minded and bigoted.

And culture spins things in a very mocking, derogatory way.

Oh, Christians think that babies in the womb should have human rights.

They're so brainwashed.

Well, wash your brain too.

So, but eventually, the church actually just embraced it.

They embraced it.

It's like, they embraced it.

In fact, Peter said it like this.

He said, it's no shame to suffer for being a quote unquote Christian.

Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name.

Ha!

Ultimately, the early church didn't fight the insult.

They embraced it, transforming what was meant as a derogatory slur into the ultimate badge of loyalty to Jesus.

God's blessing isn't proven by how easy our life is, but by how powerfully God is working through our life.

Is anybody convinced yet you need the blessing of God?

I do, I want it.

So Barnabas saw the church flourishing in spite of persecution.

What else did Barnabas see?

He saw the blessing of transformed lives.

It says this, many people were brought to the Lord.

Said it again, power of the Lord was with them and a large number of these Gentiles.

So twice, twice.

The author Luke wants us to see what Barnabas saw.

People's lives being transformed by the power of the gospel.

Is there anyone in these rooms we're gathered in right now that is thankful that Jesus has transformed your life?

Man, I'm shouting with you.

I'm grateful.

Barnabas was probably hearing story after story going from one house to another and hearing people's stories about, man, I went from idol worship to Jesus worship.

I went from self-centered lifestyle to a God-centered lifestyle.

I went from addiction to freedom.

And he's hearing story after story.

And that's why the author is writing, man, many people's lives were changed and large numbers of people.

Now listen.

The greatest evidence that God's blessing a church isn't how big the building is or how good the music is.

And by the way, man, I like worshiping together with you today.

The greatest evidence of God's blessing upon a people is transformed lives.

It's changed lives.

There is no greater evidence of God's blessing upon a group, upon a family, or upon a person than their life being born again and transformed.

The greatest blessing on someone's family is when the entire family is transformed and serves the Lord.

The greatest blessing of God upon a city is when a city begins to turn to the Lord and serve him.

When we pray, God bless America, what we're asking for God to do is turn everyone's hearts back to God.

Years ago, many, many years ago,

I, in prayer and just in Bible reading, God began highlighting one verse to me.

And it just kept, I mean, it was one of those like, if I threw my Bible down on the paper, on the table, the angels of the Lord would just, and it would just stop right here.

I just kept seeing it, kept seeing it, kept seeing it.

And it was in Psalm chapter 87.

And I knew God is saying something about a promise for what he's gonna do in our church.

And this was it.

Regarding Jerusalem, it will be said, everyone enjoys the rights of citizenship there, and the Most High will personally bless this city.

When the Lord registers the nations,

He will say, they've all become citizens of Jerusalem.

I knew the Lord was giving me a promise of his blessing upon our church.

And I remember the day.

I remember it.

I've done, I don't even know how many altar calls for people to give their lives to Christ.

But I remember this one, it's marked in my mind.

Because it was the beginning of the answer of this blessing.

I remember what I was preaching on.

And I don't hardly remember what I was preaching on six months ago or three weeks ago until I'm in the book of Acts because it's by chapter by chapter, but I remember that.

But I remember what I was preaching on because it was God's fulfillment.

He goes, I'm gonna bless this city.

And when I register, there's gonna be all kinds of citizens of heaven.

They're gonna come because of my blessing upon this house.

And since that day, since that day, we have seen over 6,000 people be registered

in heaven because of god's blessing so are you ready for god to bless your entire family are you ready for god to bless your place of employment your school your friends is anyone absolutely convinced you need the blessing of god yet i need it i need it transformed lives

power and presence of God to endure through whatever hell would turn against us.

And we would have the power and presence of God to make it through so that God will turn everything the enemy means for evil into his good and the advancement of the kingdom of God.

What else did Barnabas see?

He saw this blessing of cross cultural unity.

The ultimate blessing was that Jews and Gentiles who traditionally despised each other were eating, worshiping, and living in peaceful harmony.

However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus and the power of the Lord was there.

Wherever people are united and of one heart.

Amen.

The blessing of God is resting upon those people.

You need to know that.

The blessing of God is seen through unity.

The curse of the devil is seen through division.

If you're tired of going home to a house full of strife and disunity, ask for God's blessing.

Ask for the blessing of God.

Jews and Gentiles had historically stayed away from each other like oil and water.

They just didn't mesh well until God breathed his blessing on them.

This is one of the strongest evidences of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early church.

They were of one heart and of one accord, not the car.

They were living in harmony, caring for one another as if they were blood relatives and deeply honored and loved each other.

Here's a foundational truth that you got to understand in order to experience the blessing of unity.

Wherever humility exists, God shows up with blessing.

Wherever pride exists,

The devil shows up with cursing.

Boop.

He gives grace generously as the scriptures say.

God opposes the proud.

Trust me, you do not want to be opposed by God.

You try an arm wrestling match with him, you ain't winning.

But he gives grace to the humble.

The Greek word for grace is

It's the same Greek word used in Acts 11, 23 for blessing.

God gives blessing to the humble.

When is the last time you acknowledged your sin?

your sin, you acknowledged your shortcomings, your part of the problem in the home, in the classroom, in the workplace, or in church.

Some of you have been praying, you're thinking this, you're going, but they are wrong.

And they will think that what they did was okay if I apologize and talk about my side of the problem.

Remember this, God resists the proud, but gives blessing or grace to the humble.

Do you want God's blessing or do you wanna be stubborn?

Some of us have been praying, God, bless my marriage.

And God's going, apologize.

Apologize.

I rebuke you, devil.

Oh God, bless my... Will you have them apologize?

You first.

But they're more wrong.

Humble yourself.

How many of you enjoy the cross of Jesus Christ?

This is it.

This is it.

You don't actually have a literal cross.

You have things like this.

Die to yourself.

Die to your pride.

Sometimes the greatest obstacle to God's blessing isn't the devil attacking us.

It's our pride preventing us from walking together.

Psalms says how wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony.

For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron's head and ran down his beard onto the border of his robe.

Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion.

And there, where, where there's people coming together, the Lord has pronounced his, what is it?

His blessing.

He has pronounced his blessing.

What else did Barnabas see when he saw this is evidence?

Evidence of God's blessing.

People are getting along.

Jews and Gentiles are, man, this is the blessing of God.

What else?

The blessing of joy.

Listen, any church that can't laugh and can't have fun and can't smile doesn't have the full blessing of God on it.

Because, listen, look at this.

When he arrived, Barnabas, saw this evidence of God's blessing, there's the Greek word, he was filled with joy.

Do they look familiar?

Yes, because these two Greek words are of the same root.

God's blessing obviously leaves the evidence of joy because the root of blessing is joy.

When Barnabas saw God's blessing in Antioch, he didn't say, why isn't God doing this in Jerusalem?

Why isn't God doing this somewhere else?

No, he rejoiced.

When God blesses someone else, can you rejoice?

You and your friend, you're both praying for healing.

They get healed.

You haven't got your healing yet.

Did you rejoice?

Yes.

You and your singles group and four of the 10 have met their mate and they're getting married and they're sending out invitations and they've all asked you to be in the bridal party.

And you're smiling.

I'm so happy for you.

When God is moving, heaven's response becomes our response.

Heaven rejoices, I rejoice.

I rejoice when you rejoice.

Joy is one of the greatest evidences of the blessing of God.

And experiencing God's free favor naturally unlocked the exact joy it was named after.

So what do we do?

What do we do?

How do we get it?

Thank you for asking.

Here it is, here it is.

Align your life with God's will.

I said, pay attention to this word.

We're going to come back to it.

They preached the word of God, but only to Jews.

However, shout however.

You got to remember the context.

We just got done talking about Peter and Cornelius.

Angel visiting Cornelius, a Gentile Roman soldier, centurion.

And God giving a vision to Peter.

Don't call anything unclean that I've called clean.

And God made a change that was always in his heart.

The gospel is open to the entire planet now, not just Jews.

I started with you, now I'm going to the rest of the planet.

Look at this.

Some preach the word of God only to Jews.

That's not what God was doing anymore.

However,

Some people aligned with God's will.

The people who aligned with God's will began preaching to the Gentiles and it says, and the power of the Lord was with them.

Some of you are like, God bless me.

And he's like, but you're so out of alignment with what I want to do in your life.

You're asking for me to bless a dating relationship that I made clear in the scriptures to not be joined with.

And you're asking for my blessing, but my blessing is in alignment with my will.

You're asking for me to bless your finances, but you don't give the first fruits of your finances to me.

And I say clearly in the scriptures that can a man rob God?

The first 10% is mine, so you will always remember I am your provider and you honor me with the first fruits.

And you're saying, God bless my business.

God bless my finances.

And he goes, I want to so desperately.

But if you will just align your life with my will.

Some of our problems are not demonic resistance.

They're just out of alignment lives.

Oh, the devil's just beating me down with all this credit card debt.

You did that to yourself.

It came from unconfessed sin of envy.

So what I see the blessing of God on the church in Antioch is because

They were in alignment with the will of God of what he was doing in the earth.

Come on, church, let's align our lives.

What is God asking of you today?

What is the Lord, what has he been talking to you about?

What have you not confessed?

What are you not letting go of?

What is it that God wants from you?

Give it to him, align your life.

Because blessing isn't like this, like, okay, well, God just randomly goes, oh, I'll bless you.

Nah, not you, not you, not you.

Nothing personal, by the way.

But I'll bless you, I'll bless you.

And it's not like he's just randomly going, I'll bless you.

Blessing is like this.

Blessing is like, if I'm going to take a shower, I got to get under the spout.

I can't go turn the shower on and stand in the living room.

You know, God, why can't I get clean?

And he's like, go get where the water is.

And when you do that, then do this.

Ask for it.

And I think you have a more biblical definition of why you should ask for it.

If there's anything in you that is repelled from asking for God's blessing because of weird teaching in the past, get rid of that.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

God's first thing he did was bless mankind.

And then in Acts, God's blessing was there.

You need the blessing of God in order to advance the purpose of God through your life.

You need it.

Your family needs it.

This church needs it.

And listen, this city and these cities in the Pacific Northwest and the Department of Corrections needs the blessing of God on our lives to advance the purpose of God, to see more lives transformed for his purpose.

So I'd like you to stand with me in every location.

Let's stand together and let's pray the prayer of Jabez out loud.

You ready?

Let's pray this together.

Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.

So God granted him what he requested.

Can I hear an amen to that?

Amen.

Church, there is more.

More than a bigger house.

More than a better job.

More than financial increase.

There is more of God.

There is more people coming to Jesus.

There is more marriages being restored.

More families coming back together.

More prodigals returning and running back to the house of God.

There is more unity in his church.

There is more joy in his people.

And there is more evidence that Jesus is alive.

Amen.

God bless me, but not just for me.

Bless me so that my life becomes evidence that you are at work.

Bless my family until my family becomes evidence.

Bless this church until this church becomes evidence.

Bless this city until this city becomes evidence.

Lord, let there be more.

Father, we come before you today and we thank you for the power of your word working in our hearts and working in our lives.

Today,

We ask for the blessing of God, for the praise of your name, for the honor and the advancement of the name of Jesus in every sphere of influence that you have granted this church to have and these people to have.

With every head bowed and every eye closed.

If you're in the sound of my voice in Pendleton or the Department of Corrections or in this room right now, and your life is not in alignment with God, you have not made Jesus Lord of your life.

You are not sure that if you were to die today, you would stand in heaven with Jesus.

But you want to leave this place knowing that you're right with him.

You are one sincere and honest prayer away that says, Jesus, forgive me of my sins.

Come into my heart and become Lord of my life.

If that's you, in Pendleton, the Department of Corrections, or here in Walla Walla, we got leaders in every room.

Would you look up right here in Walla Walla, in other rooms, would you look up if you say, Bob, that's me.

I want to pray that prayer with you.

Lift your hand high until I can catch eyes with you and say, I'm going to pray that prayer with you.

right now.

Will you put your hand in the air?

I'm going to know.

Thank you very much.

Thank you over here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now, if I miss you, if we miss you in these rooms, Jesus doesn't.

Church, you know what to do.

All of us are going to pray this prayer.

Mean this from your heart and Jesus will do what only he can do.

Repeat after me.

Dear Lord Jesus.

Amen.

I come to you today in need of forgiveness.

Forgive me of my sins.

Come into my heart.

Become Lord of my life.

Fill me with your spirit that I'll live for you and your purpose all the days of my life.

I pray this now in Jesus' name.

Everybody shout amen.

Come on, we give him praise.

Thank you, Lord.