Each of us has been given a personal ministry of sharing the Gospel.  Chris Brannon concludes our BLESS series by talking about our story.  We need to be practiced and ready to share our story in the Gospel.  Your story is a bridge for others to come to Christ and without it, your just a good person.  We need to remember our story and feed off the power of that story for every day life.

Chris continues by talking about the components of your faith story and gives tips on how to craft your own faith story.

Who did you bless this week?  Chris Brannon continues in our BLESS series, talking about serving.  He’s not talking about serving in the context of inside the walls of the church, but out in the community.  We firmly believe and talk a lot about using your gifts to serve the purposes of God in through the church.  However, serving extend beyond our walls into the hundreds of families and tens of thousands of people around us in our community.

We all know that we should serve, but why?  The first reason is that serving opens doors.  It gives you a way to connect to others around you.  Another reason is that serving validates the messenger.  The last reason is that serving authenticates our message.

What are the barriers that keep us from serving and blessing?  One barrier is being exhausted.  We have made ourselves too tired to serve.  Another barrier is when we’re inwardly focused and consumed with our lives and our needs.  It keeps us from looking outwardly to others.  The last barrier is that we leave no margin in our life for serving.  We pack our schedules so full that we have no time to serve!

Chris challenges us to to ask the question,”How can I serve?”, rather than, “How are people going to serve me?”

Are you listening to others?  Jesus stopped and listened to others.  Chris Brannon continues in our series by talking about the listening and eating portion of our BLESS acronym.  Jesus stopped and listened to the blind man who cried out to him when others were telling him to be quiet.  He also listened to the woman at the well.  God’s love for us is 100% inclusive, with no discrimination and no judgement.  He has called us to do the same.

There are two requirements in order to employ the strategy of listening and eating.  The first is that you have to like to eat!  The second is that you have to like people.  Relationship is critical to this strategy.  Who we eat with is a powerful indicator and communicator of how we really believe and think.

Chris gives us some practical steps to make this a reality in our lives.  The first step is to begin with prayer.  Pray to receive the power, boldness and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.  You must also pray for repentance and the spirit of humility.  Lastly, pray for your eyes to be opened to divine opportunity.  The next step is the build a margin into your life for hospitality.  You have to make time to invite people into your life and invest in them.  Another step is to make the most of every Sunday service to meet, greet and invite to coffee or meal with a new guest.  The last step us to put yourself in a position of being around people who are different than you.

Could Cedar Springs be known as and be filled with men and women who will stop and listen to those around us? Could we extend ourselves in true hospitality to those who are outside of our normal, comfortable circles?

Who are you going to bless this week?

When we are tuned into God’s Spirit and His value system, we will lived blessed and naturally be a blessing to others.  Dan Bunker continues in our BLESS series by showing us how we should pray.  He walks us through the Lord’s prayer as an example of how we should pray.

How do you use your blessings?  Do you keep them to yourself or do you share them with those around you?  Chris Brannon starts a new sermon series about what it means to bless others.  He starts off by talking about how the Jesus mission is to reach, restore and reproduce.  He gives us five ways to BLESS our neighbors:

B – Begin with prayer

L – Listen

E – Eat

S – Serve

S – Story

Join us over the next few weeks and we learn how to bless others with our blessings.