BACKGROUND:
"The wise inherit honor, but fools he holds up to shame." Proverbs 3:35 (NIV) What does it mean to love an honorable life? A blessed life? That's what I want o talk about today.
Because this is so huge—and I would venture to say that 99.9% of you have never heard teaching, in-depth teaching, on this topic—because this topic is so monstrous. Also, too, know this: that this content, that this stuff is difference-making stuff. It will help you and influence you in every area of your existence. I pray that you find yourself in the spirit of prayer today, that you simply say, “God, I want to open my heart and my life to this teaching.”
Our God is a God who wants us, who desperately desires us to live by the truths and principles of His word. We, as followers of Christ, need to be God-hearted. We need to reflect and to mirror the majesty of who God is. If we know God personally, we should mirror who he is. We should have the character qualities, we should reflect the stuff that God is about.
Luke 6:38 (MB), sets the tone for this morning. It's foundational. It says, “Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.” Don’t you like that?
Give away your life. When you do, God will give back to you. God will bless you. God will meet your needs. God will make a way for you. Folks, the secret to life is giving, not getting. Giving is the key to unlocking the blessings of God. Giving is the key to the abundant Christian life that Jesus promised in John 10:10. And finally, giving is the key to understanding the heart of God.
Romans 8:31-32 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us? e who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Our God is a God who is generous. And because God is generous, we should be God-hearted. We should understand the fact that everything we have comes from God—our gifts, our aptitudes, our abilities, even the material stuff that we have. And because God has given it to us, we should reflect that.
In Mark 8:35, Jesus said -“Only those who give away their lives for My sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.” What is the key word in that verse?? GIVE! The word "give" is used over 1500 times in the Bible. Why? Because giving is the essence of God and it is the essence of Christianity is giving.
What are you expecting God to do in your life? How much do you want God to bless your life? How much are you expecting God to act on your behalf? If you want the answer to those questions, just look at your giving. Abundant living begins with abundant giving. That's the blessed life. That's an honorable life.
BTW, what does it mean to be blessed? Whenever I say the words “bless” or “blessing” or “God bless you,” here’s what I think. I think of the intangibles: peace, contentment, tranquility of the soul, love, joy. That’s what I think about. And that’s part of it. That’s part of blessing. Blessing, though, is deeper than that. But there's more...
Blessing means to be on the receiving end of the tangible and intangible favor of God. We understand the intangible part—the peace, the joy, the tranquility of the soul, love and all that. We understand that blessing is kind of about stuff we cannot taste and touch and smell and feel.
But, there’s more. God wants to also bless you in tangible ways—materially, financially. He blesses his people with stuff. Isn’t that something about God? He wants to pour out His intangible and tangible blessing in our life. God wants to bless your life. But to be blessed, we’ve got to be bless-able.
You might be thinking right about now, Pastor, what do you mean – am I blessable? I want you to open your bibles this morning to Philippians 4:19. This is one of the 5000+ promises in the bible, and in my opinion it is one of the greatest promises in the Bible.
It’s a promise from God to meet your needs. Listen - "And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." God says, "I will meet all your needs.I will bless your life" Pretty awesome huh? You ask then - Then why do people have needs? I see a lot of people who have tremendous needs. I see a lot of Christians who have tremendous needs.
Why aren't they being met? Is God a liar? Is His promise not valid? What's the problem? The answer to the question is that this promise is not for everybody. This promise is not for every Christian. SAY WHAT? With every promise of God in the Bible there is a premise. There is a condition that God says, "If you do this, I will do that."
People want to take the v. 19 promise and apply it to their lives while avoiding the premise/condition of verses 14-18. You cannot claim v. 19 unless you're doing what v. 18 talks about. The context is Paul is talking to a group of Philippians saying "Thank you. You have given sacrificially. And because you have given sacrificially, God is going to take care of your needs."
To understand this truth more fully, let’s look at a guy lived a long time ago. His name was Abraham. He came from a family of idol worshippers. Yet Abraham was a guy who God poured out His blessing on. Let’s read about his life. Genesis 12:2-3. God says“I’ll make you into a great nation. I’ll bless you. I’ll make your name great, Abraham. And you’re going to be a blessing. I’ll bless those who bless you. Whoever curses you I’ll curse. And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Let’s keep going, because Abraham was a man who was truly blessed. In fact, one of his workers said this about him: Genesis 24:35, he said—he’s talking about Abraham here—“The Lord has blessed my master abundantly and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.”
Abraham was blessed, if you read about his life, He was blessed occupationally, relationally, and financially. Abraham was a man who knew that everything he had came from God. Why did God bless Abraham?
There are several events in Abraham’s life brought out the blessing of God. I want to talk about one. Abraham was old. God said, “Abraham, you and Sarah are going to have a baby.” He was like, “What?” They became pregnant. They had Isaac, the apple of Abraham’s eye. Those of us who are fathers know about that special relationship we have with our sons. You know what God told Abraham to do?
“Hey Abraham, take the life of your son as a sacrifice to me.” Now, just put yourself in his sandals for a second. Here’s Abraham and his son Isaac walking up to the mountain for the whole sacrifice thing. His son is probably, I don’t know, 12or 13 and saying, “Dad, where’s the animal? Dad, where’s the animal? Where is he dad?”
And can’t you imagine the tears and the emotion that Abraham was dealing with? God’s telling him to take the life of his own son. I mean, that just seems weird, crazy. Right before he began to kill his own son, what did God do? God provided a ram, a scapegoat if you will, that Abraham used in place of taking the life of his son. Do you see the giving in Abraham's life? Do you see the sacrifice? This is why God blessed him.
You’d better download this story and truth into your life. Abraham was God-hearted. Abraham was generous with his abilities, and his talents, and his aptitudes, and his money, and his stuff. And the result? God blessed him. I challenge you today - live an honorable life - experience the blessing of God.
I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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