Called Out for God’s Mission #3
#3: People Who are a blessing to the nations
OPENING: We are blessed to be a blessing to the nations.
Receiving God’s blessing vs. Becoming God’s blessing
1. Entering into the Blessing
“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.” (v.2)
“And God blessed them” (1:22)
“And God blessed them” (1:28)
“So God blessed the seventh day” (2:3)
The Vertical Blessings
The Horizontal Blessings
“If we are among the Gentile nations and have come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah of Israel ad saviour of the world, we have entered into the blessing of Abraham.” (Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God’s People)
2. Leaving to be released in the blessing
“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (v.1)
Leaving: Leaving and going aspects in order to fully experience God’s blessings.
“The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.” (Acts 7:2b-4)
3. Multiplying The Blessing
“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (v.3b)
Replicating God’s blessing wherever we go!
“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. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (v.2-3)
CLOSING: As we multiply God’s blessings, we experience even greater blessings.