Be a Blessing - Pastor Dan Cravillion

Be a Blessing

10-18-2015

Gen 12:1-3

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. 2  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. 3  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."

Abram was told to leave the country, his relatives, his father’s household (involved giving up economic security & inheritance) without a visible certainty of the future.

·      When God calls a person, He always gives far more than He requires. Gen 12:1-2, Mk 10:29-30

o    “bless”  is used 5x= Gen 1-11, 5x in 12:1-3.

§  God intervenes to do good things both temporally & spiritually.  

God gives a personal promise “I will bless you”. This is the foundation for National & universal promises.

·      A specific area of land become great nation (Israel).

o   Required faith: Abram was old & his wife Sarai barren. Gen 11:30, 15:5, Ps 127

·      What God would do in and through Abram would result in Abraham being long-remembered among men. Gen 12:2, 11:4, Jn 8:56, Gal 3:6-7

o   What Babel labored for & never achieved, God freely gave to Abraham.

§  A great name: good reputation & secure identity.

o   Abraham’s name is known worldwide to millions of people 4,000 years after he lived.

§  Jews, and Christians have Abraham as the father of their faith.

§  Islam: Abram 2^nd to Mohammed, reference is made to Abraham 188x in the Koran.

o   Abraham (not a New testament person), is an example of life of faith.

§  75 New Testament references to Abraham.

Greatest promise that Abraham personally needed the most & the world is desperate for is this - through the descendant of Abram redemption would come to all nationalities. Gen 3:15, 12:3, Mt 1:1, Gal 3:29, Rom 4:16, 9:6-8

·      Messianic promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, He is the true seed of Abram who brings salvation to the world.

o   The term “all blessed” is not proof of Universalism ie. everyone is saved.

Every time someone responds to Gospel, this promise is fulfilled.

Abram died without seeing the fruition of most of these promises. Heb. 11:12-16, Rev 7:9-10

·      God was faithful & fulfilled every promise beyond Abraham’s expectations.

o   Same promises are true for Christians: new home (heaven), new nationality (body of Christ), secure identity (Christian) & future with the lover of our soul, Messiah.

There is a ripple effect of being blessed by Lord which outflows into being a blessing for the glory of Jesus.  Gen 12:2, Lk 6:45, 1 Pet 3:9, Mt 5:16,

·      This is a command (Imperative) rather than prophetic statement.

o   Heb= “Be a blessing,” not “you will be a blessing.”

·      Be a channel of Lord’s blessing in practical ways: Eph 2:10,

o   Be an example, be Christ-like….in world but not of it.  LAST WEEK

o   Serve others…especially those in need: poor, widows, orphans. Gal 6:2

o   Speak encouraging words.  Prov 16:24, 1 Thess 5:11,

·      Primary focus here is to be a spiritual blessing. Mt 28:19

o   Share Gospel with local, regional & global neighbors. 

o   Disciple people to maturity in their faith.  Gal 6:1,

o   Pray for Christains & the lost.  Eph 6:18, 1 Tim 2:1

·      The call to be a blessing is for every believer both individually & corporately.

God's Call - Pastor Dan Cravillion

God’s Call

10-11-15

Gen 11:29-12:1

And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

12:1 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.

Genesis 12 begins a new division in scripture: It is the center point of promises of covenant of grace & intro of the great/godly Abraham.

·      1/4 of Genesis is devoted to Abraham’s life: it records 10 significant events.

·      Abraham is not the main character or ultimate focus in Gen 12-22.

o   Main story behind every Bible story always story of God & what He is doing, & why He is doing it.  

Abraham is an example of election & how God gives faith that leads to obedience.

·      God’s call to Abram is pure grace. No evidence Abram merited. Josh 24:2, Acts 7:2-4, Gen 15:7

·      On the contrary, his Father, Terah, was a pagan idolater in pagan city of Ur when God sovereignly called Abram to bless him, his descendants & whole world.

Everything in Genesis 1-11 leads to the covenant in 12:1-3 with context in Gen 3:15.

·      Covenant: An unchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God & man that stipulates the conditions of the relationship.

o   The promises are made & established by God but there’s always mutual obligation in a covenant relationship. Heb 6:13, 16-20,

Abrahamic Covenant (justified not by works, but by faith on basis of grace) is unconditional in the sense of it ultimately being fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s shed blood (New Covenant) but conditional in its immediate fulfillment. Gen 12:1, Heb 11:8

·      Leave the country, relatives, father’s household (involved giving up economic security & inheritance) without the visible certainty of the future…blind faith.

o   God was making a new nation, not revising existing one.

Same Lord that sovereignly called Abram to trust & follow Him by grace thru faith calls us to respond to Gospel by grace thru faith. Lk 9:23, Gal 3:6-9, Mk 1:15, 1 Pet 1:14-16, Heb 12:1-2

·      Leave behind idols, sinful words, deeds & heart attitudes; forsake anything (even good things) that are stumbling blocks.

o   Pursue holiness…holy” = be separate or set apart.

§  “go”  literally “go by yourself”…parting & seclusion often implied

·      Not a single act of leaving, but a daily denying self, taking up the cross, & following Jesus into the unknown, un-familiar places & situations.

o   Like Abraham, our faith is not in a plan/details but in a person.

§  By faith Abram believed God’s “I will’s”.

·      We need to believe what we already know.

God called Abram to be separate from world in order to be a blessing to world. Jn 17:14, Rom 12:2

·      God calls Christians to be distinct from the world so that He may use us as a channel of His blessing to lost/nations. 

Being in the world but not of the world is a challenge that can be overcome by becoming more Christ-like in all we say, do and even think. 

God's Plans Previal - Pastor Dan Cravillion

God’s Plans Prevail

10-4-2015

Gen 11:1-9

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.3 And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Next time you see the United Nations meeting on television take note of the headsets they wear in order to hear the translation of what is being said in another language, and remember Babel & God’s greatness.

·      Genesis (In the beginning) reveals the origin of & the reason for various languages.

    One hundred years after flood all men spoke common language.  Gen 11:1, 10:5, 20, 31

·      The idea of one language was not evil, but it made it easier for man’s sinfulness to express itself.

o   This is the 1^st recorded organized rebellion against God by man. 

Man wanted to have a good life on his own terms and in his own way so he “settled” in Shinar in defiance of God’s command to fill earth. Gen 11:2-4, 9:1, Jer 17:5

·      Man knew what God wanted & they refused to do it.

·      The city & tower were outward expressions of arrogance, rebellion, and pride against Lord.

o   William Henley once was quoted as saying,” “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

They put their trust in technology & their achievements to gain significance & to assure them of fame and remembrance beyond the grave.

·      We are all inclined to build monuments to ourselves.  ‘mid-life crisis’, workaholic

o   Even sometimes built to honor “God” yet more glory is given to us than God.

·      God measures fame by obedience not by making a name for ourselves.

As both punishment & prevention, God graciously shatters their unity to keep man’s pride from going too far.

·      Better to have division, than a collective apostasy.  Gen 11:5-9, LK 12:51-52

·      “Nothing is impossible” not technologically but morally.

o   We are often more arrogant & independent of God if we succeeded. 

God stopped the rebellion & broke their power by a divine act…miraculously He created languages & enabled people to speak, as well as understand them.

·      Languages are not a testimony man’s ingenuity or evolution, but a rebellious heart.

·      Next morning: There was total confusion, anger, fear & panic everywhere.

o   People gathered into common languages & scatter to fill earth against their will.

§  God does not act aimlessly: peoples & 6,500 languages and God sovereignly grouped with skills.

Man’s plans never thwarts God’s purposes.  God always wins.

·      This 1^st grandiose plan to unify mankind into a worldwide empire but not the last. 

·      babel is written in Hebrew 200x in Old testament & translated “Babylon” in all but few.  Rev 14:8-9, 18:3, 10, 21, 13:16-17, 19:20

o   “Babel” Hebrew = confusion, Babylonian = the gate of gods.

·      Babylon was a symbol of human autonomy, of organized rebellion against God.

o   Foreshadow: In the End times, there will be one world (Babylon), with one ruler (Antichrist).

By one miracle of tongues man dispersed; by another on Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit united people of different languages. 

·      In future one world, one ruler, one language, in city built by God for His glory.

·      In Babel man strove by human effort for a city & tower signifying their connection with the gods & a name that would provide a sense of immortality.

o   This was all they wanted, Christians have all we need in Jesus Christ.  Rev 3:11-12, 11:15, 15:4, 21:1-4