Title Be a Blessing / Genesis 12:1-4
be the content
Genesis 12:1-4, Ephesians 4:22-24
Today I want to talk about blessings. Who is blessed? Whom does God bless? This is our interest. The Bible consistently says one thing from beginning to end. Blessing is not in having something, but in becoming a person. It's not about how much you have, it's about being a blessed person. This is because a person who is blessed will become a person who creates happiness in any situation. A person who makes blessings--This is called 'a person who becomes a person' in today's Word.
The word 'become' is God's word to Abraham. According to these words, Abraham really became a person who receives blessings and a person who distributes blessings. How did Abraham become this man? If you look closely at today's Word, you will come to understand the principle of the Word that God has given to you.
There are three important words in the verse. The first is the word 'leave'. The second is the word 'go'. The third is the word 'become'. Following these words, we would like to hear the word of God given to us today.
1. go away
He says, 'Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's house'. The 'homeland relative's father's house' is a place where the memories and traces of Abraham's life are contained. It is the history of Abraham, the past of Abraham. However, God told him to leave the past, the foundation and root of Abraham's life. Because without leaving, you cannot go out to the place of blessing. Because without peeling off the skin, you cannot have the wings of grace.
Abraham obeyed God's word. A hometown that is cozy and comfortable like a mother's arms, a hometown where no one can say anything even if you shout with your bare body at night, a land where even stones rolling along the roadside are familiar. It was inevitable, but at the command of God, Abraham left mercilessly. It is a journey toward the future without being bound by the past.
You cannot receive God's blessing without leaving. The Israelites took 40 years to enter the land of Canaan, a land they could go to in 10 days. It's because we've been stuck in the past and revolved around the same place over and over again. If past wounds, past habits, and past failures weigh on your life, you cannot live like a man of God. To leave is to throw away. When you can throw it away, you can get it. When you can let go of the old, you can have the new.
He said, 'Put off the old self, which is the old way, which is corrupted according to the lusts of temptation' (Ephesians 4:22). Throwing away the old is the way to get the new. That's why God told Abraham to 'leave his father's house from his homeland, his relatives', which is his past. It was from obeying this command that Abraham was blessed and became this man.
2. Go to the land to be directed
If you have thrown away the old, you must embrace the new and move forward. In Ephesians 4:22 it is said to put off the old man, and the words immediately after that are this.
be renewed only in the heart
Put on the new man, created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. Ephesians 4:23-24
Brethren, I do not think that I have yet
There is only one thing to do: Forget what is behind and aim for what is in front of you.
I follow the reward of God's above calling in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
For Abraham, the 'land to show' was the future land that he could only go to by faith. Even for us today, the future is always a land we can only go to by faith. After all, it is not the time we have in our hands now, and it is not the reality we can hold in our hands, so we must go forward with faith and declaring the blessings of God toward the future. Don't let the past hold you back, let the future hold you back.
1) I am a person of vision.
2) I cultivate a healthy self-image.
3) I believe in the power of thoughts and words.
4) I will break free from the ghosts of the past.
5) I find strength through adversity.
6) I will live a life of giving.
7) I have always chosen to be happy.
These are all forward-looking and forward-looking titles and content. Without moving toward the future, you cannot have the best life, a successful life, or a blessed life.
It was called 'land to be directed'. It means that there is currently no land. It means the land of the future. It means the land that can only be seen by faith. That is why it is a land that can only be obtained by declaring blessings and moving forward. Abraham obtained the land because he went forward with that kind of faith.
3. Become this
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you
I will make your name great, and you will be Genesis 12:2
God told Abraham that you should be. It is said to be a fountain of blessing. It says to become a person of blessing in which others will be blessed because of you. Mentally because of you, people become happy, materially because of you, and to be saved spiritually because of you.
What makes people happy because of you mentally? A life that gives people joy and peace, a life that gives people hope, a life that makes people happy because you are there, and a life that makes people smile where you are. Isn't that a life that makes you happy?
What is a life that is materially rich because of you? I mean that my work is going well and many people get material abundance through my work. I mean that my business is getting more and more prosperous, and the people who are connected with me also have an abundance because of me, and the number of people who are enriched increases more and more because of me. At that time, wouldn't many people be blessed because of me?
What makes people happy spiritually because of you? If I say that more and more people are being saved by sharing the gospel with many people, what could be more blessed than this?
You may want to be blessed, but it is not easy. But God calls Christians to be a fountain of blessing. A Christian is not a follower of blessings, but a creator of blessings.
Abraham had a nephew, Lot. At first, as a family, we had a very good relationship. However, as the wealth increased and the number of family members increased, the quarrel did not stop. The two servants were shepherding the sheep, arguing for better pasture, and arguing for water first. Then, after much thought, Abraham decided to share for each other. And he calls his nephew Lot to a high mountain, looking at the wide meadow, and says:
"Look. Here is a wide meadow. You choose first. If you turn right, I will go left. If you go left, I will go right." (Genesis 13:5-13)
Abraham gave his nephew a choice first. Abraham set out on the other side after Lot had left for a fertile and grassy area. The land before him was barren and unsightly. But, was it not a life that started with faith, 'not knowing where you were going' from the beginning anyway? Abraham just started quietly with the heart of starting again.
But what was the result? Lot, who left in search of a good land, ran out without saving a dime when Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed, and Abraham continued to be a man blessed by God. God's blessing does not lie in the fertility of the earth or the favorable conditions of the land. When you become yourself, God's blessing is there. Blessings do not come by following or seeking, but when you become a blessed person.
The life of Joseph, Abraham's great-grandson, gives us the same message. Joseph was sold as a slave, but wherever he went, blessings came. Because God was with Joseph and he became Joseph. In the midst of his slavery, he prospered, and blessings came to his house, his work prospered in prison, and the people with him were blessed, and even the country of Egypt was blessed and enjoyed because of Joseph. And of course, didn't Joseph also receive the greatest blessing on earth to become Prime Minister?
When this happens, happiness will come. Don't become a person who pursues happiness, but a person who finds happiness is a blessed person. That's what it's called. When a saint becomes this, he is blessed.
Dear saints, become this. Blessed be the place where you are. Be among the people. Be this at work. Be a blessing at home. Be a fountain of blessing in the church.
Through God's grace, we believe that our Antioch Church will become our church by becoming the members of our church. I believe. I bless you in the name of the Lord that this grace overflows to you and our church.