Today, Sammy Frame masterfully addressed the idea that we are all Blessed. If you were at PCC today, you were like me - sitting in a seat and hanging on every word. This wasn't the typical "you should count your blessings" kind of sermon - the one's we all hear every third week of November...the same sermon we've heard a thousand times. This was really different.
(By the way, you can see today's message by clicking here And if you weren't in church last week, you also missed a very good day. You can see that one by clicking here.)
What was striking to me was something I had not seen before. There is a tension between the first two concepts in this series.
On the one hand, we must all be willing to name our brokenness.
On the other hand, we must all be willing to name our blessedness.
Sammy said, "This blessing shouts to the world that you are created by God and you are good!"
Last week, I said that we have to be willing to say "I. Am. Broken." But this week, Sammy helped us to see that we need to also say "I. Am. Blessed."
Can you see the tension? It's a tension we must embrace. In spite of my brokenness, I am blessed.
We are both. Broken, yet blessed. Blessed, even while broken.
I talk to people all the time who lean into one while ignoring the other. They spend all of their energy talking about their blessed status, unwilling to acknowledge their brokenness. OR, they spend all of their energy wallowing in their brokenness and they lose sight of their blessedness.
Sammy helped us see our blessed status not in terms of quantity, which is the mistake we so often make. We typically feel blessed based on what we have. I feel blessed when I have money or I have a good job or I have a good marriage or I have kids. But what Sammy pointed out is that we are blessed because we are, not because we have. God created us in His image. And because we are made in His image, we are therefore, very good. When God looks at us, He sees Himself.
We are blessed because we have in us the very image of God.
Wow! Our blessed status is not a product of our bank account or the size of our house or the brand of our car. It's a part of our very birthright. It comes with humanity. It's apex is reached when we claim the truth of and the full relationship with Jesus Christ.
You do NOT want to miss the rest of this series. If you think it's been good so far, I'm telling you, God is really up to something. Change your plans. You really want to be in church for the next few weeks. These are the kinds of Sundays you'll look back and wish you had come.
See you Sunday!
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