Positioned to be a Blessing
by Dan Gibson
February 18, 2021 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Psalm 1:1-3, 1 Kings 17, Hebrews 12:1, Genesis 12, Acts 16

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/dan-gibson--positioned-to-be-a-blessing
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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know you through the power of the holy ghost we give you praise and glory and we thank you for all that you're doing in our lives we give you thanks right now lord for what you're going to do in jesus name in jesus name everyone say amen amen it is good to be in church tonight amen if you're glad to be here say amen online as well amen but i i want to just dive right into our lesson tonight i know we've been we've been talking quite a bit about giving and this month is is giving month uh as far as our we want you to give and as a matter of fact if you're online and you want to give we welcome you to sign in and give amen that's that's a part of what we do uh but we want to dive right into our lesson tonight and we're still in the vein of of giving and uh i know last week we talked we talked a lot about the the heart of the matter and and what what's going on inside of us and and having the right spirit the right heart of giving tonight i want to talk to us on this simple subject and that is positioned to be a blessing positioned to be a blessing um and i'm just going to give you a little personal view here of of some things past this this past week my son-in-law was in from louisiana and we were just talking and and he's talking about his journey and what he does and what he does best and and i it took me down memory lane and i remember uh several years ago i was involved in uh the the medic and uh emergency and emergency response and was involved in all of that we rode ambulance and rode fire trucks you know every little boy's dream and so i remember those days and he kind of brought this back to me and and i remember going and laying my clothes out every night you know that was just one of the things that you did you laid your clothes out you made sure that your jump bag was ready you laid everything out in case of an emergency in the middle of the night we lived in a rural area and so most of our work was done by volunteers and so there was many nights that it was just one or two people that showed up and but i remember laying my stuff out and there would be those occasions when you know you'd be tired and you would not lay your things out and something would happen radio would go off and and you would wake up and you didn't you didn't know where your pants were you didn't know where this was and you just you did not have it together how many ever been that way you just didn't have it together and and i remember those days and as i was pondering those thoughts with uh with my son-in-law and him doing the same thing now i told him son you're going to wear yourself out you know but we was pondering those thoughts i i began to that evening began to reroute my thinking into what uh my lesson is about tonight and um one of the little takeaways from that is is that you know there is we must be ready at all times for whatever is going on in your life i know things happen and there is there's the emergencies and there's all kinds of things that happen but when it comes to giving we must be ready for whatever the case may be i know we all talk about about our our uh our funds that we've set aside and you know there's a lot of different thoughts out there on that but i really think that a person should plan their life they should plan for things for the future but not only that but in the very beginning of everything you must have yourself in a position to do whatever god asks of you whatever is asked of you my question would be tonight is are are we able to do what god asked think about it in the book of psalms the first chapter and we have oftentimes read this this scripture and the very first chapter simply starts off by saying blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the ways of sinner nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the laws of the lord and in his laws does he meditate day and night notice verse 3 and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth fruit in his season his leaves also shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper the scripture says that he would be like a tree planted by the rivers of water there is there is a plan that god has for every life the scripture tells us that he has a plan for your life it is not to destroy you it's not to tear you down but it's to lift you up it's also to see you prosper amen and if you're to do that you've got to make sure that you are placed in the right place to be able to do whatever god asks of you i take that tree as being we are placed there to feed from the waters to feed from the word of god to make sure that when we inquire of the lord of what is coming next that we are ready for that the scripture says that there are seasons as a matter of fact we can take it back and we can show you where there are seasons to plant there are seasons to pluck up there's see there's all types of seasons but these seasons there are seasons when there are plenty you've got a lot there are also seasons when when there is famine they're seasons that you don't have very much and in those seasons the question would be what do we do in a famine have you are you ready are you willing are you do you have yourself set for whatever is coming you say well you know you can't ever tell what's going to happen in a famine you never know what's going to take place so true we we see that in the scriptures uh quite often um as a matter of fact in first kings and i i i'm not going to read all of this but in first kings the 17th chapter we find a story there where the prophet of the lord has has come and he said he says there's going to be a famine he said it's not going to rain for a while and then after he makes that announcement he's made a lot of people mad the scripture tells us that the lord tells him hey i've got a brook that i want you to go and i want you to set by and i'm going to sustain you i am going to take care of you and so elijah goes and sets by this brook and there's birds that come every day and they feed him but there comes a day when when the birds go away they're gone and when they're gone he is told all right i've spoken to a widow there's a widow at zarephath that i want you to go and and she's going to she she's going to feed you she's going to take care of you so all through this we see the hand of god and the hand of god comes when we obey right it when we say yes to whatever god asks of us he's going to sustain you so if he asks of you to do something you do it and so he goes and and you know it kind of shows you there at the very beginning of when he shows up at this lady's house that she really wasn't expecting anything out of this she's just you know and god had spoke to this lady he says i i've spoke to this lady to take care of you and she she says uh he he says i want you to bring me some water and when she turns around to walk off she's going to get water and he said and i want to i want you to bring me some bread as well and she looks at him and says uh sir the only bread that i've got is this this little bowl here of wheat and i'm gonna go i'm gonna take this this stuff and i'm gonna put it all together and use the water and make a cake for my son and i and we're gonna die and the prophet spoke a word of faith and said if you'll do what i said do this will sustain you your your your oil won't run out you won't have a problem with flour you keep on you keep on bringing and until it rains you're going to have it and all of this happened because he was obeying and she was obeying obedience in a position of just saying yes lord whatever you ask of me now you know again when we start talking about seasons of life there are seasons when things are just rough there's seasons when you just don't know what's going to happen next and i think that some of you have probably felt that it over the last year or so you've probably felt i don't know how the turnout's going to be i don't know if this is going i don't know if this is going to happen next week i don't know if i'm going to have a job and i know those questions come about but when you are living for the lord and you are a servant of god you're you are obeying what god has asked of you it's simply walking by faith it's saying god whatever your will is i'm going to do that hebrews the first hebrews 12 chapter verse 1 says wherefore seeing we and this is paul speaking we're for seeing we also are compassed by a great cloud of witnesses he said let us lay aside every weight and sin which does so easily beset us the question again what kind of weights are we carrying around with us if god asks of you are you in a position to do what god has said and i know i bring a lot of questions with what i have to say today but i want us to understand that that this is a very in these are very important questions in our life is is in order for god to move in order for god to have the kingdom that has that he has he has much asked of us he's got to have somebody doing something right i mean if it's going to move you've got to be the legs you've got to be the arms you've got and so when god begins to deal with you the challenge what about a challenge the challenge is is when god lays something on your heart do you have do you have that yes lord whatever it is or do you have that saying uh do do i really want to say yes lord because i don't know what he's liable to say i i don't know what the next move will be i don't know if you see there there are many things that that block god's blessings and the majority of those things have to do with humans the majority of the things that would happen in a life would be simply that you just do what god's will is whatever he asks of you are are you setting in a position that you are able to move when god says move are you setting in a position to be able to hand over what is yours and what you have worked for but yet understand that it is given by god he has allowed you to have this in in the book of genesis we find also the setting there where abraham is spoken to by god and god speaks to him and says abraham i'm going to bless you but there's something that you need to do he says abraham i want you to get up and i want you to leave from where you are i want you to get your family and i want you to leave and i want you to leave your father's house i want you to leave everything behind and he says i want you to go to a land that i'm going to show you wow that's specific isn't it i mean god says that he's going to show you all right lord if you just can you tell me what direction can't can you just give me a hint what does it start with what what letter have you ever felt that way but but that is not the position that abraham was in abraham actually was in the position and he took his position as saying okay god whatever it is you want me to go and do i'll go and do it wherever it is whatever you have for me to do i'm going to just i'm willing to go and when he turns and and starts to to that place that he was going to be shown god begins to speak to him and we see that in chapter 12 we'll see this we'll see that that god begins to speak to him and say i will bless you but he also says you will bless others you're going to be you're going to be able to bless other nations so i want you to look at this god is blessing everybody hold your hand out god's blessing now what what is it going to take brother josh for us to bless others what would you think there you go god's blessing i'm blessing god's blessing and abraham had to exercise his faith in order for god to bless him in order for him to bless others and he began what did he become what did the scripture say a father of nations he he he became well known as the father of nations because he gave he get god gave he gave god gave he gave and this position is one of those i don't know if you get it or not but when you go to church and i challenge you when you when you're in church sunday wherever it be if it's in the living room god i i i know that the blessings are open but i'm gonna give them back to you god i know that you're doing a work in me and this is that top line top line the blessings flow whatever it is god whatever you have for me whatever direction that you have for me to go i don't want to be blocking what god has for my life there has been times that i know that there has been things that god has asked of me and i i'm not i'm not going to sit here and go down a list because sometimes sometimes lists can be shameful right but i know that sometimes that my breakthroughs in my life did not happen because i was withholding and it was it was just it may have been just something that i i i overlooked and sometimes i overlooked it and sometimes you don't you know and if you ask of god he'll show it to you it's right there every time right there right there and it's like you can't get around it but but so many times you you block what god is trying to do in your life because there there is those maybe unbelief that that that you're just you're not sure of what god is if god is going was that really god have you ever asked that question what was that you lord and then when you tried to figure it out on paper i mean you ever tried that it it just don't work as a matter of fact i learned a long time ago that that don't put it on paper just don't you just do what god's asked and it always comes out good it it always turns around and it's you say well yeah but what if it don't well god will take care of us the scripture tells us that that that he will never forsake you never seen the righteous forsaken nor seed begging for bread he's never going to leave us he's never going to to to leave you on the roadside that be the first to admit there's been a few times i've prayed over vehicles amen hallelujah that you know that you're doing all you can do and you're you're you're faithful and then all of a sudden something starts happening you know the first thing that comes to mind oh god what did i not do hey check make sure that we paid them tithes but that's life right that's those things that happen in life but then but then god gives me that that faith in him to say okay lord i know betsy needs to lay down but i want to say a prayer and and she can get me through another another mile i'll be okay and he helps you with that i i had a mother that believed in praying for refrigerators and gone for several years and that refrigerator as of last year was still still going because it just seemed to be quitting on her and she decided that god needed to intervene and uh if it's still still going and it becomes available i'll probably inherit it what what i'm trying to say tonight is is that we we must we must have faith in it don't allow fear to come in and it will it it will storm your mind when when things start happening and you start having those pressures in life and things start happening fear will come in and and you're saying god what why is this happening if you will position yourself god will begin to bless and you don't understand it uh i will share this and i try to not share a lot about my job and but when it's something good i'm going to tell you but things have been been transpiring at my my job and and as many of you know that i testified here a few weeks ago about the first shift and and just how that mysteriously happened and i still to this day i i don't understand it all um and so i just give god praise for it and then just just past week another there was another thing that popped up and and i started inquiring about why and they started telling me well this is why and it and it had to do with me and and my longevity of there and i was like oh okay and so i'm i'm looking at it and i'm thinking okay lord what are you doing and and then then again today i had someone uh come out to my truck started talking to me and uh again reconfirm some things that that was going on i i i felt that god you're in control of this and here's here's what i want us to understand and why i bring that up is is if you will start looking at the little things that is going on around you you will see you will see god's fingerprint all over them i mean we we've got a baby that had a surgery today god's fingerprint is all over it and he gets the glory for it there there are little things those little things now that was a big thing to mom but but there's all kinds of little things that goes on in our life and you can say there's god there's god there's god and when you start doing that you are positioning yourself for what god is wanting to do in your life he will blow our minds if we will allow him to just do what he's he's wanting to do with our life god where am i to go what am i supposed to do uh that's two one more thing and and again i i hesitate to talk about it but i was some years ago i was in lafayette louisiana and now my wife and i were just driving through and and i think i may have told this before in one of our lessons but i'm driving through and and i told my wife i said let's let's stop here at the bookstore that was when you had you had uh what is that big book store there books a million that was it they had books a million i don't know do we still have one we do at the mall but that you know that's just one of those things i like to do is go in there and and so i told her let's pull in here she said what are you looking for this time you know basically you know i don't know i don't know i'm just just want to go look around and say i walk in there and i get over in the christian section and you know just kind of looking at the the latest and greatest you know that they've got all of those and i'm just looking through and and there was a couple of there was a man and woman that was standing just a little ways down and they were talking about certain things in certain books that they heard about this and they heard about that and they were looking for a bible a particular bible and and well i heard so and so talk about this one and i'm hearing them talk about the bible and so they just kind of looked up and saw me standing there because i had uh intentionally made my way down let me ever do stuff like that but they saw me standing there and and so they inquired of bibles and and i i began to talk to them a little bit and found out that both of them had they were newlyweds and they had just had went to one of the churches there locally and and had been baptized and they were they were just talking just so energetically just excited and and i began to talk to them about some of the things that that the bible had to say and i we were just doing a little highlight bible study and then when we got through they were they gave me their names and and of course you know you want to always keep up with people for a little while and so you know and then i walked back out and my wife was sitting in one of those chairs and she was looking through i don't know what but she was looking at something and uh i told her something we're ready to go she said well you didn't buy anything i said well you know how it is but but again it was those it was those moments that you have god puts you in positions in life so that you could be a blessing to others financially and i i encourage you to do this and and i'm not i'm not sitting here just telling you stories but but in my wallet i encourage you to do this just slip whatever it is that ten dollar bill that you feel like putting in the back of your billfold i mean let's just say ten dollars but it's it's been sitting there for a while put that in the back of your billfold because there there comes those moments again i i want to be standing on the edge god what is it that you have for me to do you know we're so accustomed to saying uh i carry debit cards now i don't care you know that that's usually what we do but but god whatever it may be it may be something that an individual is going through at that moment and and i've got to make a move it could be life or death it could be something that a person is getting ready to to step into eternity i want to make sure that i have everything and i'm geared up ready to go and whatever is going to happen i'm ready for whatever is going to happen i i want to be i mean strapped it strap it on get ready get get your gear on and say okay god whatever today holds we oftentimes pray it and i think it's very important that we do so but we pray god that you order my steps the steps of a good man are what they're ordered by the lord he orders them in whatever direction you're to go whatever there's going to come times in your life and i challenge you to do this god whatever it is that i need to be doing you're walking around walmart you know what all 16. we're going down aisle 16. how many of you believe that that happens i i've seen it but i challenge you have a have a mind made up god today i want to spend the day and i want to spend the day doing whatever your will is take that time out go out and and and walk the walk the paths in in in the uh in the mall whatever it is maybe in the park whatever it may be god will he will lead you he will guide you and he'll show you those things so many times we're we're afraid though that fear sets in and we're saying god i just don't know unbelief and maybe it is maybe it it's guilt sometimes that could be the case sometimes it's not only guilt but it's sometimes it's just unforgiveness there are things sometimes that we we neglect to do the will of god because because of what happened in the past yeah you know and i don't want to wade off into too deep here but but so many times we we have been left with scars in our life we've been left with wounds and wounds and we don't know we don't know what direction to go i challenge you if you will position yourself and and the most important position in life is on your knees at an altar i told an individual just a few weeks ago i told them i said i said you need to get your knees underneath an altar and stay there most important part of our life is what we spend in knowing who he is god i want to know your heartbeat i want to know who you are we've often times talked about and and and i know that all of you probably seen the picture of the last supper i mean you remember that and it you know you go through the uh you go through the little museum and it's got their names it pops it up there this is this and this this but there's there's always one that intrigued me and that was the guy that had his head laid over on the lord's chest that man's name was john whether or not it's in the scripture i don't know but that's what they depicted him as being the man that had and then if you'll notice all the way down to the end of the table you had peter down there if you ever notice he's just that prim proper guy sitting up real tall but john's laid over on the lord's chest makes you wonder why in the scripture that the lord would say peter do you love me why didn't he ask john that because john was right here and if there is a position that we need to get is to listen to the heartbeat of god and say what what is it god what do you have for me to do and i i know we're talking about giving that is that is what we're doing and that is the that is the whole purpose of what we're talking about here is for me to be a blessing i have got to be positioned right i've got to make sure is there any weights that are on me that are keeping me from doing god's will is there is there anything in my backpack that needs to be unloaded is there is there am i and and forgive me for saying that but this but but we have we are living in a generation that that we're so easily and i told you kathy this earlier we we're so easy to just just go out and do forgive me for saying stupid stuff we we just do you know we blow money here we we decide we want to do this and we won't do that just go do it and the truth is where's the kingdom of god in all that at a general conference and this has been many years ago back when i was in bible school i had a uh one of my teachers he's and i a precious man but he he was there at general conference and one of the guys had graduated several years before i did he drove up and he had again a rolls royce fancy driving a really fancy car and he pulls up and my my instructor was walking down through there and hey brother and he called him by name and he says how you doing he said doing all right you got to know this guy i'm talking about he said he said nice fancy wheels there yeah the lord blessed me and he's going through how the lord blessed him and my instructor looked at it and said yep he said one of those hubcaps would send a missionary to the foreign field and i know that sounds comical but when when you start talking about material things where where have you where's your heart at and i know we've been using the key verse where your heart is there will your treasures be also where where have you laid up treasures is is have you positioned those treasures above what god's kingdom is all about have we have we measured what we have gained in this world and and i i thank god for for degrees i thank god for that i i thank god that i was able to finish school praise god hallelujah i was able to get my degree and and i thank god for all of that but but i don't want to ever place it to a place that it is is higher than what i see god god your kingdom is far above what i can do your kingdom comes comes way way far above what i am able to do in this earthly world because the truth be told when we get to the end of this when our final time is is through you know what all of that gets left it's here it's just stuff and we're going to stand before god and he's going to look at us and he's going to say what have you done you can't bring any of that with you so you can't talk about those credits all you're going to be left with what what what have you done for my kingdom thy kingdom thy will earth as it is what whatever you do here is going to affect what happens there god help me to be positioned right to be a blessing to somebody else i i don't want to ever let it be said that i have not helped along the way i i don't want to ever come to the place of where i look at it and say god you know i tried that but but they wouldn't listen it's okay it's okay i i think it's okay when people don't listen because you're just doing what you're told to do if god told you god said it go do it you may never you may never see the outcome of that you may never see something that comes in because of that but that's okay i did my part because if you receive a reward here you can give it up it ain't gonna happen over there but what you do and you do it well god i did it all for your kingdom i did it all for your glory so ask again what where where have you what have you loaded yourself down with is there anything that you feel that you have you have loaded yourself up with god has a way of putting us in the right place for the right season in the right time he knows what he's doing i'm oftentimes thought i've often times thought about just before paul and silas is thrown in prison that that event that takes place right there before them there's a lady by the name of lydia and lydia she's a she she sells materials she she is she's a career lady she she does things well but she doesn't really know who the lord is and paul you know how he is the lord begins to speak to paul and says hey through a vision he sees some man i don't know who that man was but through a vision the man says hey come over to macedonia now again i'm talking about a guys that asleep and there's some guy stands up and said come to macedonia it happens so he goes to macedonia because he's been shut up everywhere else he says somebody over there needs to know the lord and there's they're sitting there listening to some folks pray and here's this lady named lydia she she don't really understand what's going on but she wants to understand more about what paul's got to talk about and she is filled with she's baptized and god begins to move on her and she she has this experience with god now take take all of that and i know i just paraphrased what went on in the book book of acts the 16th chapter but paraphrase as i paraphrase that i want you to take and think about it god put paul in a place for a specific reason let me tell you something you're not going to always have people in your life that stay there forever there are people that comes into your life and they're there for a reason and a season and you learn all you can from them or you do whatever you got to do to get them to where they need to be and then there's times that god just moves you on now now some people with with that personality they start saying oh i'm so sad i just hated to lose that friend well it's four season and we have to utilize the seasons that god has given us because he's put us in positions for a reason paul was put in this position so that this lady would know the lord and now god has done his work glory i i don't know and again i i repeat myself what what are we doing where are we and what are we doing for the kingdom of god have we done all that we know to do that when he calls our name god i'm doing my best thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven glory everybody say amen would you pray with me right now in the name of jesus god we love you we thank you lord for all your many blessings we thank you lord for what you are speaking into our hearts tonight we ask god that we we position ourselves to do whatever you've asked of us whatever you come and ask of me god let me be willing and able to do what you have called me to do and god we give you praise and glory we thank you for it we thank you for your many blessings we thank you lord for your word and god bless each and every one it is here today god that those that are online god i pray that you would touch them that you would speak into the lives of men and women today to understand that we must be doing what you have called us to do that we position ourselves so that we could be a blessing to others in jesus name and everyone say amen god bless you appreciate each and every one of you for being here tonight and i i hope that you have a great rest of the week in the name of jesus you're dismissed