In today’s culture and society, it seems that being a butthead is a lot easier than being a blessing. Let’s just be honest. I mean can I get an amen?

People are posting terribly mean things, there’s a lot of emotional manipulation going on, families are being torn apart over an election, people are divided over Covid, the list goes on and on and on.

So with all that’s happening, I thought it would be timely to talk about how we can be a blessing even in the midst of all the controversy and arguments and anxiety.

So my last blog talked about the true meaning of blessed. I talked about how we are blessed, not because of our successes or victories or what we do, but we are blessed because of the relationship we have with Jesus. We are blessed by His presence. By His love. His embrace. His promise of eternity.

The worldly things we are #blessed with can fly out the window at any given moment, but the blessings that come from God are buckled in for the long haul.

I thought it would now be fitting to talk about how YOU can be a blessing to others. Because the blessing we have from our relationship with Christ is so good we should want to share it with whoever we can. 

And just like the blessings I talked about in the last blog that God focuses on in His Word, these are the blessings I want you to focus on as well. It’s not that we give people things. It’s that we give people Jesus. 

So today I’m going to dive into four things NOT to do that will bless people and show them a reflection of who Jesus is.

We’re going to be going through Matthew 23 to demonstrate this, and man, when I read this, I was fired up. Because this is a WORD for us today!! We need to hear it.

To set up the scene for you in Matthew 23, Jesus is addressing a big crowd of people along with a group known as the Pharisees. And the Pharisees were a religious group. This religious group was very legalistic and hypocritical, and they believed you had to do so many things and check off so many boxes in order to please God. They were full of themselves and were constantly trying to get Jesus in trouble.

And in Matthew 23, Jesus has had enough. He decides to address them. And from this, we will pull the four things we should not be doing.

Okay first thing is this:

Don’t be a hypocrite.

Matthew 23:1-3 “Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. ‘The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior…’”

Okay, Jesus! Go off!! He’s telling them not to be hypocrites!! He’s like, “Yeah, they know what to say. They know the difference between right and wrong and can tell you so, but they don't walk the walk. They don’t live the right. They don’t take those right things and put them into their hearts, therefore they do not live out what they say.”

And I just wonder if Jesus would warn people about you today if He were here. Do you live a life that would make Jesus go, “Oh, yeah, be careful around that one. She goes to church on Sunday. But boy, you do not want to see those other six days of the week…”

Or would He say, “Yeah, he grew up in a Christian home and wears a cross necklace, but he messes with girls’ hearts and does not reflect me when he’s in those relationships…” 

What would he say about you? Take some time to think about that.

Second thing is this: Don’t be prideful.

He goes on in verses 4 through 7: “Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’”

Verses 8-12 is where Jesus really brings it home:

“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let Him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and He’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”

Ooooooo man… that is a word for us today!!! Because some of you are disappointed with the election, and others of you are rejoicing. Some of you have put so much weight into one person that you are drowning in your sorrows or rubbing your victory in somebody’s face. The Word tells us right here: You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. We’re all on the same team!!! So do not let an election or a pandemic divide you and the ones you love and even the ones you don’t love right now. Because that is exactly what the enemy wants.

Quit letting social media be the expert speaking wisdom into your life. Quit letting your friends talk you into being someone that you’re not. 

The Word tells us that there is one Life-Leader for you and them: Christ. And if you don’t believe that, good luck with the rest of your life. Because with the world, there will never be a constant, consistent voice. But with Jesus, there always is.

Alright #3: Don’t judge.

Matthew 23:23-24 says, “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?”

Oh man, preach it!!! You can sit there and pick apart somebody else’s life, but when it comes to your own, you sweep all the crumby stuff up under the rug.

The tracking you do on everyone else’s life is impressive, but how about you focus on keeping track of your own? That’s what the Word tells us. He says, “Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.” How about you get back to the basics? Back to the basics of who YOU are in Christ.

Also, I just love that last line, “Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?”

Some of you have this mentality that you have it all figured out, but hmm.. them? They’ve got it all wrong. So you sit there, trying to write out what you believe to be the correct story, nitpicking over the tiniest of details… even though you’re the one who’s got the messed up story to begin with. Let me give you an example… 

One time I was serving a woman on a service trip who seemed ungrateful, rude, and mean. A lot of our group started having negative feelings towards her. We were coming into her house trying to do nice things for her, but we did not feel appreciated at all. But then our leaders had us take a step back and think about how she felt. With all those strangers coming in… flipping her house upside down... invading her space… how it must have felt to be at such a low point… to not have barely anything… and admit that you need help.

A change of perspective can do a lot for a person, and it was exactly what we needed. We went in that next day with a different mindset, and by the end of the week we saw her in a totally different way, and she saw us in a totally different way too. She was thankful, she was kind, she was thoughtful, and she used the little money she had to prepare goody bags for each and every one of us. She learned every single one of our names. Don’t judge. Get some perspective.

And this is the fourth and final thing I want to talk about: Don’t gossip.

Matthew 23:29-32 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.”

There’s not a whole lot that talking bad does. Talking bad can’t change the past. Talking bad won’t help the present. And talking bad is not going to typically bring a very good future.

These Pharisees Jesus talks about are basically saying that they’re better than their ancestors. That they never would have gotten into as much trouble as their ancestors did. And some of you think the exact same things:

“Oh man, things would have gone way better if I could have just handled it. We wouldn’t be in this position if all these other people knew how to act. I can’t believe she did that… I never would have done that.”

Stop. Gossipping.

It just brings pain.

I remember when I was young, and this girl was just super mean. And I remember one time I was texting and said something negative about her, and I accidentally sent it to her… I mean, let’s be honest - have you ever done this? Probably. So if you haven’t learned it yet, don’t text something or say something about someone unless you’re willing to say it to their face… because in the end, it probably will be told to their face. But it probably won’t be from you and it probably will be twisted from what you said.

So be honest. Be open. Don’t gossip.

If you want to be a blessing to other people, you need to start acting like Jesus. And if you want to know how to act like Jesus, you better get into His Word so He can teach you how. 

Many of you say you want to know God more, but you won’t crack your Bible open to learn more about Him. Many of you say you never hear God speak to you, yet you won’t make consistent time throughout your day to talk to Him. Many of you want to be a blessing to the world and you want to make a difference, but you haven’t even accepted the One who makes you different into your heart.

Being a blessing takes work.

In Galatians, God tells us that we will reap what we sow. Is what you’re giving what you’d like to get? Would you like to be receiving what you release to people?

It’s time to start thinking about how we treat people. About how we can be blessings to each other. Because this world is crazy. These times are chaotic. But we’re teammates. And we’ve got One coach who wants to see us all win.

So let’s help each other win. In life. And after this life. Let’s focus on being a blessing for each other instead of bickering over every little thing.