Welcome to the Blessed life (2)

We are in our series Under the Hood, in the book of Romans and we are looking at the Gospel of God…

This time of the year many college students are getting acceptance letters to various colleges around the country… You may remember the feeling of getting one of those letters. you go to the mail box… and you slowly open the letter and there are the words “we are pleased to INFORM YOU that you have been accepted into our academic program.” It’s a good day when you receive one of those letters.

What the acceptance letter is saying is that you have been invited to share in to all the privileges, benefits, expertise that they offer... as a college or university.

This morning message is entitled Welcome to the Blessed life…

Salvation is an invitation to live an abundant life… The invite is to experience all the benefits and blessing that God has provided for us in salvation…

Ephesians tells us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places… we have at our disposal all the recourses of heaven and the blessing of being sons and daughters of God.

Blessing is a major theme in the Bible… God created Adam and Eve and Blessed them and commission them to, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

For a period in the garden of Eden… Adam and Eve enjoyed “Abundant life.” They had unhindered fellowship with God, eternal life and dominion over all His creation.

Then we are told that they were tempted by the serpent and they gave into temptation as a result sin entered the world. Something happened in that defining moment… we no longer had innocence and no longer had the ability to have fellowship with God… Sin affected everything.

Paul describes it like this.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

With Original Sin came consequences that not only affected Adam and Eve but the whole human race…. Instead of Blessing there was toil, pain, sickness and death....

From Genesis chapter 3:15 You have the Story of Redemption the Reversing the effects of the fall.

· Beginning with Adamic Covenant … God address promise that the woman’s offspring was going to crush his head of the serpent. …

· Then in Genesis 12 and 15 God makes a covenant with Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed through his line of descendants…

Genesis 12:2 ESV

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

What is Blessing?

• The concept of blessing in the Bible is the declaration of God’s grace, God’s kindness, and His generosity towards us.

· The Hebrew word Barak means “to Bless” — God is the (pronoun) pronouncing blessing (verb) on person (object).... We his people become the object of his blessing.

· The English equivalent of the word bless is the word EMPOWER…

· In salvation God empowers us to live an abundant life…

In Genesis, the word blessing is focused primarily on producing Children and producing wealth… if you were to stack up cards every time you heard the word blessing in Genesis there would be sack of cards in the pile of children and wealth.

The reason is that is that was the immediate focus of blessing… But something much bigger at stake, “the purpose of blessing” and that was the extension of the Abrahamic covenant. God says to Abraham I will bless you, I will make your name great… and you will be a blessing… that every person on the earth would be blessed through Abraham and in turn be a blessing to others. We learn early on that God’s plan of salvation include Blessing.

1. God desires to bless his people

2. The blessings that God gives is us for a purpose…. It is a pipeline of blessing – not a bucket!

As God blesses you and I -- so you in turn we are to becoming a blessing to others in the World.

T/S If we are going to be a blessing –the first thing we need to understand is that..

1. God has chosen you as a Candidate for Blessing

When Paul wrote to church in Rome it is still fragile in its understanding of Christianity… You have both Jews and Gentiles meeting together who come from totally different worlds.

Paul is careful in his letter to the Romans to build upon the foundation of the Old Testament Scriptures. The gospel doesn't replace the Old Testament… The New Testament is not more inspired than the OT… they are equally inspired and both are to be understood as one unit.. What Paul has been telling us is that..

What is Promised in the OT is now fulfilled in Christ in the New Covenant.

What is revealed in the NT is that the righteousness of God is found apart for the law… We are now declared righteous (justified) by faith. This is not a New teaching but the revelation has been made clearer in the NT…

This is the point that Paul makes in Roman Chapter 4… He begins with Abraham the Abraham Lincoln of the OT… the founder of the Faith

Romans 4:1–4 ESV

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.

If there was anyone who the Jews respected it was Abraham. the father of their Faith. Abraham had lots of influence and wealth.

Genesis 13:2 ESV

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

Paul tells us that, Abraham had much he could boast about, especially by the world standards.... When it came to flocks and gold and silver… He was self-made man. A kind of Bill Gates. or Steve Jobs … We reverence people who are successful… they must know something we don’t or possess powers we don’t have…

Well Abraham looked like he had everything.

Paul adds but. ‘But Not before God.” God does not value those things and it was not the reason Abraham was Chosen.

In fact, Abraham in many respects was a weak candidate, especially when it came to his ability to have Children… That is the position God was filling… God was looking for someone to be his reprehensive of Blessing… which involved bearing children and starting a nation.

It was in his weakness that God chose Abraham…

If God had asked Abraham build something he had enough servants. money. resources. He could have probably done it.. If God had asked him to support a missionary… he could have done it..

But… God asked Abraham to do the impossible something that required faith.

“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends.” George Muller

There is a pattern we find in Scripture - God often calls the weak… to show himself mighty.

When Samuel was choosing a King for Israel… He looks at the oldest son of Jesse, Eliab who tall and handsome… He looked the part... God says to Samuel – “man looks on the outward appearance, but the God looks at the heart”

God Chose Abraham because of weakness… God was going to show himself strong through Abraham… Blessing is all about God’s ability….it is God empowering us to live the abundant life.

In Genesis 15.. God Appears to Abraham in a vision and tells him that he is going to be the father of many children… Abraham BEGINS to DOUBT… He reminds the Lord that He IS OLD and he is past the child bearing age... When you are 100 years old… you starting to think about retirement homes… not about starting a family.

Abraham makes a referral how about my servant Eliezer….... Lord there is a stronger candidate … Eliezer is young, has vigor and he has good genes… he is the guy…

God says to Abraham this Eliazer will not be your heir.

He then points him to creation… Look upwards towards heaven and begin to count the number of stars… that is how large your family is going to be. Now you thought three or four kids were a lot?

It must have been quite a moment… taking in the vast amount of heavenly bodies… then having the realization that this thing that God was calling him into was much bigger than Abraham could have imagined.

The next thing we read is simply, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as Righteousness.”

This is what Paul picks up on in Romans.

Romans 4:3 ESV

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

The Hebrew word translated believed means “to say amen.” God gave a promise, and Abraham responded with “Amen!” It was this faith that was counted for righteousness.

This is what Paul is saying in Romans 4 … The promise that God gave Abraham was so overwhelming… so huge… that all he could say amen.

God has chosen you and I as candidates for blessing. Sometimes we begin to push back… because we struggle that God would use us… The truth is that you and I are all part of the blessing…

There comes a point where we need to quit negative thinking about ourselves that we are not good enough and that we don’t match up… to this standard....

We need to acknowledge the truth, “that you are not okay and I am not okay.”

John Newton the Ex Slave Ship captain and trafficker and author of Amazing Grace...wrote these words.

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”

― John Newton

At the end of the day it is not about your gifting or abilities… It is not about your power but it’s about his power that is at work in us… Abraham had much to boast about but not before God…

One of my favorite benedictions is Eph 3:20 --- God is able to do.

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

When God places a calling upon our lives… He will also equip you for the task.

T/S If we are going to be a blessing –the first thing we need to understand is that..

1. God has chosen you as a Candidate for Blessing

2. God’s wants you to experience His Blessings.

A pastor was addressing a group of men and held up a piece of paper with a black dot in the center of the page. He as the men what they saw on the paper.

One person quickly replied, “I see a black mark.” “Right,” the preacher replied. “What else do you see?” Complete silence prevailed. “Don’t you see anything other than the dot?” he asked. A chorus of noes came from the audience. “I’m really surprised,”. “You have completely overlooked the most important thing of all—the sheet of paper.”

The point he was making is that it is easy to get distracted by the small dot… our disappointments, our pain, our schedules, that we forget the innumerable blessings that life gives us.

When you start to take inventory of all the blessings they add up.

The blessings of parents, the blessing of Marriage, the blessing of Children, The blessing of friendships .. blessing of mentors, the blessing of a church family… blessing of gifts, kindness, creation... List is endless.

God, want you and I to experience his Favor.

Favor comes us in two ways… Grace – unmerited favor - Mercy – Not getting what we deserve. Paul points out that both Abraham and David – received Grace and Mercy.

Romans 4:4–6 ESV

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

Paul uses a metaphor from the market place to illustrate the problem of trying to earn favor or blessing with God.

We go to work 5 days or more a week and put in a 8-10 hour work day and at the end of our pay period we receive wages for what was earned…

When you fill out a time card you are literally earning the wages that are due you.

Blessing works completely the opposite…

Faith has nothing to with earning… (It’s a different paradime)

Abraham couldn’t have earned the honor of being chosen even if he had tried… He wouldn’t have applied for the Job in the first place..

Similarly, you and I have no way of earning favor with God…

Favor is simply about an Experience blessing because God chose you... That is grace—unmerited favor…

True story. Two pastors were on their way to Atlanta, Ga. for a large Christian men’s gathering. One of them had never been in the south before. After staying in a motel overnight, they stopped at a nearby restaurant for breakfast. When their meal was delivered, the pastor who had never been south before saw this white, mushy looking stuff on his plate. When the waitress came by again he asked her what it was. "Grits", she replied. "Ma'm I didn't order it and I'm not paying for it". "Sir, down here you don't order it and you don't pay for it, you just get it."

That is Grace.. You just get God’s favor..

Paul tells us there is another part favor and that is mercy. Mercy is not getting what is deserved.

Paul want us the readers to consider the life of David… if you took a general overview of his life. You wills soon discover that God blessed David life apart from David’s works… and it was a good thing because David made some serious mistakes…

· David Committed Adultery with Bathsheba

· David arranges for the Death of Uriah (Bathshebas husband)

· David failed to discipline his son Amnon for the rape of Tamar.

· David took a census of Israel when advised not to by his commander Joab.

Instead of getting what David deserved – He received God’s mercy…

One of the greatest blessing in Salvation is that our sins have been forgiven. We are the most fortunate people walking on the planet, because the question of their sin has been settled forever. When God forgives us he has removed the sin..

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12)

Paul makes the point that Grace and Mercy on just New Testament teachings…But we see grace and mercy through both the Old and New Testament.

T/S If we are going to be a blessing –the first thing we need to understand is that..

1. God has chosen you as a Candidate for Blessing

2. God’s wants you to experience His Blessings.

3. God wants you to live daily in the arena of Blessing.

Charles f. Kettering was the heard of General motors and from time to time he would call a meeting to work on a problem. He tells of a practice he would have when calling these meetings. “I’d place a table outside the meeting room with a sign: LEAVE SLIDE RULER HERE. If I didn’t do that, I’d find someone in the meeting reaching for his ruler and he would soon be on his feet saying, “we can’t do that.”

When Paul taught on Faith apart from the Law… and then apart form works… you can just imagine all the rulers coming out… This is impossible…. How can this be?

Paul continues his argument.

Romans 4:9–12 ESV

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

The question on every Jews mind is who are the true sons of Abraham? Jews or Gentile..

Paul goes to the rite of Circumcision which was considered sacred in Israel. They took a lot of pride in being circumcision. Paul listed circumcised on the eight day… top of his resume… he was proud to be a Hebrew among Hebrews… but first of all he was part of covenant.

Circumcision was proof that you were an heir of the promises and blessings of Abraham.

Paul makes a huge point in this text and that is that Abraham received Righteousness before circumcision… He was the part of God’s chosen people before he received the rite of circumcision.

In fact, to Jewish tradition there was an interval of some twenty-nine years between the time when Abraham was accepted by God and his actual circumcision.

Paul is saying that Circumcision itself is not the proof of being one God’s Children… The true Children are those who walk by faith..

Dr. Harry Ironside (teacher theologian), pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, attended a Sunday School class while he was on vacation.

The teacher asked, “How were people saved in Old Testament times?”

After a pause, one man replied, “By keeping the Law.”

“That’s right,” said the teacher.

But Dr. Ironside interrupted: “My Bible says that by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”

The teacher went on, so he said, “Well, does somebody else have an idea?”

Another student replied, “They were saved by bringing sacrifices to God.”

“Yes, that’s right!” the teacher said, and tried to go on with the lesson.

But Dr. Ironside interrupted, “My Bible says that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.”

By this time the teach asked Dr Ironside, “Well, you tell us how people were saved in the Old Testament!”

And Dr. Ironside explained that they were saved by faith—the same way people are saved today!

Twenty-one times in Hebrews 11 you find the same words “by faith. “The blessing depends on faith and it rests (rely) grace of God… and belongs to all of us who believe..

Romans 4:13 ESV

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

God had a purpose of making Abraham the father of all those who would follow… (in all generations). All of us who follow come to Christ based of faith not on any human mechanism like the laws and circumcision....

Conclusion

T/s how do we walk by Faith..

What Faith does?

Paul describes the righteousness by faith.

Romans 4:17–19 ESV

as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.

1. Acknowledges God is the giver of life

God created out of nothing Exo Nilo in creation… there was no periodic table when God created… he spoke and elements in our universe formed.

Abraham believed God who brought things into existence that were never there before…Think about this that Abraham believed in Resurrection thousands of years before Christ… Who gives life to the dead…

God can make dead things live. Faith operates in the realm of the impossible… It is not faith in a person or faith in faith but it is Faith in God the source -The giver of life.

2 Faith Believes against hope…

The that Paul is talking about is Hope in the sense of being a sentiment… Hopefully, I will recover from this sickness. Abraham’s body was as good as dead. but against hope he be believed God’s word that he would become the father of many nations. Clement of Alexandria said “Faith is voluntary anticipation.’

us in prayer ever closer to his heart Will God?

3. Faith imitates those who Persevere.

Abraham persevered in Faith and did not weaken in faith… Abraham is the example of Faith for all believers. You don’t have to follow the latest preacher who is doing miracles in a crusade.. We have the example of Abraham.

He Considered - his 100-year-old body as being as good as dead… he did not ignore the facts… If you are sick you don’t ignore the symptoms…

Abraham basicallly did and anaylisis of himself and Sarah and came to a few conclusion… When he looked as his body he thought there is no potential in this body.. it is good as dead… and

Then he looked over at Sarah (you have to be careful when you do this) and he considered baroness of Sarah’s womb.. (baroness literally means death.)

Despite what Abraham saw in the natural world… He did not waver in his faith. Abraham AGREED WITH WHAT GOD SAID… NOW THAT IS THE KEY TO FAITH…

James 5:14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned,he will be forgiven.

Abraham grew stronger in his faith and continued to by give Glory to God…

“being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

This is Biblical Faith… Faith that rest fully on the promises of God…

Here is the good news that these words are not just for Abraham but for all of those who follow… The promises is for the Believer that puts their hope and faith in him today… Blessing of Abraham still stands.