Friday, September 22, 2006, Part 1

"Now the Lord had said to Abram: 'Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

IDEA: Sometimes God's temporal blessings can become curses when they get in the way of His eternal blessing.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see that how we respond to blessings can sometimes turn them into curses.

Would you argue with me if I said, "I feel that I am the most blessed person on earth"?  [No—I am!]

What would qualify you for being blessed?  [meaningful work to do, good friends, etc.]

I. God said that Abraham would be greatly blessed, Genesis 12:1-3.

God had given him enormous wealth, Genesis 13:2.

Was it because he was shrewd or righteous?

The wealth came as a mark of God's grace after his experience in Egypt, and also because Abraham himself would depend on the Lord, Genesis 14:22-24.

God had given him a promise for the future, Genesis 12:1-3.

II. Is it possible for the temporal blessings of God to get in the way of that eternal blessing?

That was a risk that God took with Abraham.

Abraham had a struggle with his nephew Lot over temporal benefits.

In later years his offspring quarreled over temporal things.

Can this happen to us?

Can good things become bad things because they get in the way of what is eternal?

The ideal is that when God blesses us with temporal things, we hold them in such a way that they do not get in the way of living for what is eternal.