BACK TO SCHOOL BLESSING 2007

Click here to listen to this sermon.

This is the fourth year for the Back to School Blessing at West-Ark. I am so thankful that we take the time for this event. I appreciate the fact that students and teachers and school workers report that they feel blessed not only from this event, but from knowing that someone is praying for them all year long. [On your way out, please pick up a refrigerator magnet that contains the name of a student, teacher, or support person. Pray often for them.]

Words of blessing are so rare in our times. In our society we often give awards; we praise achievement and accomplishment. But that is not the same as a blessing. A blessing pronounces God’s favor on another simply for the sake of the other. To speak a blessing is to seek the good of another simply for the sake of the other.

God blesses in this way ...

• God intended to bless Abraham so that through Abraham and his descendents all people might be blessed.
• God instructed Aaron in the way of speaking a blessing upon the people.
• When Jesus began his ministry (Luke 4) he read from the scroll of Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. To proclaim release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
• Jesus opens his Sermon on the Mount by proclaiming God’s favor on those who had not earned it or achieved it, but simply on those who were the recipients of God’s gracious blessing.

We have a choice as to how we will live under the blessing of God. Certainly cursing is not an appropriate choice ... Cursing is more than saying bad words. It is much more serious than that. Cursing is the opposite of blessing. It seeks the downfall and promotes the harm of another. Sometimes the purpose of the curse is to humiliate or condemn another. Curses are spoken out of anxiety, fear, and anger – not the grace of God.

The people of God are called to be a source of blessing, not curses.

Blessing of Students

Blessing of Teachers/Workers

For Students:
We love you and we ask the Lord to bless you. We promise to pray for you ... Someone will be praying for you this year when you are having fun at school, and even when you’re not having fun. Some one will pray for you when you are sick and can’t make it to school. Someone will be praying for you if others are acting mean toward you. And they may be praying for you when you’re not acting as nice as you should. Someone will be praying for you when you feel left out, and also when you have the chance to make a new friend.

Sometime this year someone will be praying for you when you’re taking a test, when you’re playing sports, when you’re performing. Sometime this year someone will be praying for you by name when people are saying bad things about you for no reason, when you’re on a date, whenever temptation is strong. Sometime this year someone will be praying when you are praying on a retreat, when you are reading your Bible, when you are thinking about your place in God’s church.

For Teachers, School Personnel, PTA and PTO, and Tutors - -
We wish to bless you because you have such a wonderful mission. The one who gives a blessing must know that he/she is blessed. To all of you who serve as teachers, principals, school workers, counselors, and in many other ways I don’t even realize I offer you this pledge: someone will be praying for you when you have those victorious moments and the children “get it!” Someone will be praying when it seems they don’t. Someone will be praying for you when you’re convinced that this is your last year, and when it really is your last year. Someone will be praying when you wonder what you are going to do about a student in trouble. Someone will be praying for you when an opportunity to minister open up before you and you feel the awesome responsibility of the moment. Someone will be praying for you when a red-faced parent blames you for their problems, and someone will be praying when a student shares with you his or her dreams and thanks for what you have done for them. We will all be praying as a student gets closer to Christ because of your influence, whether you know it or not. We lift you up before God as our partners in healing this land.

a. Charge the church to be in prayer
b. Give them instructions about the prayer magnets

God’s Power at Work within Us – Ephesians 3:20

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 26 August 2007

 Link to next sermon

 Link to other sermons of Chris Benjamin