Boundless Blessings
Notes
Transcript
Today, the secret to experiencing boundless blessings!
Today, the secret to experiencing boundless blessings!
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Three Questions:
Three Questions:
Q: Who wants to be blessed?
Q: Who wants to be blessed?
That’s easy. We ALL do!
Q: How many blessings do you want?
Q: How many blessings do you want?
ALL OF THEM! Right?
Q: What would you do to be blessed?
Q: What would you do to be blessed?
Before you say ANYTHING...
People have some strange ideas as to how to get God’s blessings… Did you hear about the guy who carried a pepper shaker around with him? Whenever he really needed to be blessed, he’d stand near someone and sniff the pepper. Sure enough, he’d sneeze and someone would say, “God bless you!”
Seriously, some seem to treat the Bible like some sort of a good luck charm. Rather than the living word of God. Throughout history mankind has come up with all kinds of strange rituals, rules, and doctrines to try to get on God’s good side.
After all, who wouldn’t want God’s favor, God’s blessing?
Before going to seminary, when I was in Bible College, our college president passed me in the hall and said, “God bless you, Mark!”
I replied, “Thank you, He is!”
At this, he turned and asked, “Oh, but as much as He wants to?”
Wow! I got the point. Almighty God loves us far more than we deserve and wants to bless us more than we want to be blessed!
Today, we going to take a look at God’s word to find out WHAT it means to be blessed, HOW to be blessed, and finally, WHY God would bless us.
We will see how:
God PROMISES His Blessings
God’s POWER in His Blessings
God’s PATHWAY to His Blessings
God’s PURPOSE for His Blessings
The Bible is filled with Blessings—it is a Book of Blessings! Five Hebrew words are translated bless, blessing, or blessed in the OT for a total of 333 times! In the NT, there are about 3 Greek words translated bless, blessed, or blessing about 88 times! That doesn’t count the countless teachings, stories, and psalms full of blessings! From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, The Bible is a Blessing Book!
Before we go too far, lets make sure we understand what it means to be blessed. I can hear someone saying, “Oh that’s obvious, pastor Mark, when you’re blessed you feel good, you’re happy, you are wealthy and successful, you are liked by everybody.”
Maybe, maybe not. Typically, when we say w are blessed we describe the good things God has done in our lives or the good things God has given us...
But God’s blessings don’t end there. When we say we are blessed, we should also be describing something infinitely more valuable than our possessions, something more precious than even our health, and something that lasts forever and ever!
in Scripture, the word means much more than just “being happy.” Above all, it means having God’s approval and his goodwill directed toward persons
In the NT:
What does blessed mean? The Greek word for blessed is makarios, and it is used to describe a person who is especially favored by God and who is therefore in some sense happy or fortunate because of it. [magnified by God’s favor? enlarged?] Our use of the word happy has to do with how we feel about something, and that is not the idea here at all. Besides, happy is based on the old Anglo Saxon word hap, which means chance, as in “whatever happens” or “happenstance.” Happiness is circumstantial; therefore, it is uncertain, temporary, and insecure. The blessedness of the Christian is not temporary or uncertain. It is unshakable. -Boice
transition… Our text today is a great place to begin talking about blessings...
1. God Promises His Blessings
1. God Promises His Blessings
Let’s take a quick look at this man God promised to bless - Abram. His father, Terah, took his family and left a place called “Ur of the Chaldeans” to go to Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there (Gen. 11:31). Notice this:
The New American Commentary: Genesis 11:27–50:26 (1) The Command and Oath (12:1–3)
Stephen’s sermon reports that God “appeared” to Abraham before he lived in Haran, showing that the Lord supervised the journey of Abraham, from the beginning at Ur to his final destination in Canaan (Acts 7:2–4).
*First, Abram, or Abraham, as he was later called, was not a worshipper or follower of the One True God.
*Second, God chose him before He sent Him
*Third, God commanded him and he obeyed
*Fourth, God made a promise to him
Wouldn’t you like to have been Abram!
How would you like the Lord to come to you and promise to bless you like Abraham?
*Hold on to your seat! God tells us we may be blessed like Abraham...
Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
So, God has promised to bless those who believe and trust Him, by crediting us with righteousness like Abraham! He has also promised to bless other through us like Abraham!
The New American Commentary: Genesis 11:27–50:26 2. The Promissory Call and Abram’s Obedience (12:1–9)
The divine oath is like an avalanche of blessing cascading in wave after wave on the patriarch and his children yet to come.
The New International Version (1984) The Genealogy of Jesus
A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
So, God chose Abraham and his children, the children of Israel to be the line bearing the Savior...
Oh, thank God, the coming of Christ, His work, His sacrifice, His resurrection, and His ascension has taken place and will never be needed to be repeated!
There will never be another Abraham, but are you ready for this? In some essential, vital ways… you and I can be like Abraham and we too may be blessed beyond our imagination!
*God promises to bless those who trust and follow Him today!
2. God’s Power in His Blessings
2. God’s Power in His Blessings
Promises don’t mean much if the person making them is not a person who keeps their word.. Or, does not have the ability to fulfill their promise! He not only promises to bless, but He is ABLE to bless...
In the OT, God’s blessings were revealed to be interconnected with the empowerment of His Holy Spirit.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
A. His power is seen in His AUTHORITY
A. His power is seen in His AUTHORITY
His Name… “Every knee shall bow...”
God is the Source of ALL blessings!
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
B. His power is seen in His INTEGRITY
B. His power is seen in His INTEGRITY
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
3. God’s Pathway of Blessings
3. God’s Pathway of Blessings
How to be blessed...
He set before His people Israel the way of blessing and the way of cursing (Deut. 27, 28) and let them know that He was the one who dispensed blessings for trusting and obeying Him or curses, the opposite of blessings, to those who did not trust Him (Deut. 30:1, 19). The Israelites simply had to choose the path they would take—the path to blessings or the path to cursing (Deut. 30:19).
A. Believe God
A. Believe God
Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
What has God asked us to believe?
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
“Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
The New American Commentary: Genesis 11:27–50:26 2. The Promissory Call and Abram’s Obedience (12:1–9)
Abram is called upon to leave both his past and his future in placing his trust in God.
B. Obey God
B. Obey God
v. 1 “Leave” v. 4a “So Abram left”
*22:1 “Go…land of Moriah”
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
Blessing is available to God’s people in Christ now. What was given to Abraham is now available to Christians (Gal. 3:14) through His Spirit. Not physical, but spiritual blessing are the special inheritance of God’s people now (Eph. 1:3, eulogia in Greek). As we act as God’s blessed people, we are now encouraged by Peter to return blessings upon both our friends and our adversaries (1 Pet. 3:9).
SO, we are about as blessed as we are willing to believe AND obey!
Let me interject this, likely some of you are hurting and the last thing you feel is blessed. I understand. I really do. All of us know what it is to be hurt—some more than others. I hope by the time we finish this message you will know how truly blessed you are. Far too often, we allow feelings to determine whether or not we are blessed. The blessings of God go deeper and last longer than feelings ever will!
I call this...
“God’s Paradox of Blessings” —AND GOD WILLING, WE WILL EXPLORE THIS NEXT SUNDAY!
4. God’s Purpose in His Blessings - Why does God bless?
4. God’s Purpose in His Blessings - Why does God bless?
We know true blessings originate with the King of the creation, the Great I Am, The sovereign Lord God.
Now, it seems fair to ask, “Why would Almighty, thrice-holy, sovereign God care to bless fallen, rebellious, sinful mankind?
The answer is as plain as day in our text today… We are blessed to be a blessing!
Look at God’s words to Abram again:
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
To be blessed as God wants to bless us, we must share HIS PURPOSE!
To be blessed as God wants to bless us, we must share HIS PURPOSE!
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
God does everything “on purpose”!
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
We all may have said, “What a blessing!” But have we ever followed that statement with, “Now, how does God want me to use that blessing?”
*We’ve heard people say, “I come to church for a blessing.” That’s true, but there is more. We are only blessed to the degree we bless God and fulfill His purposes of blessing others!
So much of our nature is self-centered, it goes against our nature to think of others and put others’ needs first. But this is one of the great paradoxes of the Bible—we are blessed by blessing!
Yes, we come eager to be fed the word of God and hear from Him, but these blessings are meant to initiate a transition of blessings to others! Only when we adjust our lives to Him and follow Him—when we join Him in His work reaching out and blessing others in His name—are we fully blessed!
We know from Scripture and the Holy Spirit God blesses us to bless others, but how often do we think about doing something just to BLESS GOD?
Do we sing TO GOD? Do we seek to bring a smile to His face?
Or are we too busy seeking His “hand” in stead of His face?
God certainly doesn’t need anything. We have nothing that we could give Him that could add anything to Him, still, the Scripture calls us to Bless or praise HIM!
Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
The Secret to Boundless Blessings
The Secret to Boundless Blessings
Blessings from God may remind us of ripples on a pond after a stone has been dropped into the water. The effect of that action continues to impact beyond the place where it started!
Ultimately, it was NOT about Abraham.
Ultimately, it was NOT about Abraham.
And, it is NOT about us.
And, it is NOT about us.
The favor of Heaven is not given merely for our “happiness.”
The favor of Heaven is not given merely for our “happiness.”
God blesses us to use us as channel of blessings!
God blesses us to use us as channel of blessings!
You want to be blessed? BE A BLESSING!
Could it be we are seeking the blessings more than the “Blesser”?
Like children playing marbles with diamonds, we often don’t realize and fully appreciate the real blessings.
You want to be blessed so you can be a blessing? SURRENDER!
Abraham was not blessed because He obeyed, but because He BELIEVED!
He believed God and He was credited with righteousness! THEN he OBEYED!
The New American Commentary: Genesis 11:27–50:26 2. The Promissory Call and Abram’s Obedience (12:1–9)
Abram is called upon to leave both his past and his future in placing his trust in God.
What is the greatest blessing one could receive?
What is the greatest blessing one could receive?
“Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
Everyone has been blessed by God, but only those who have their sins forgiven and covered is truly blessed!
We ARE BLESSED… But are we blessed the way God wants to bless us?
Are we a blessing to others to the degree wants us to be?
*Next week, Lord willing we will continue this theme and look at God’s Paradox of Blessings and meet someone God blessed who is still talked about around the world!