Blessed to Be A Blessing

I want you to turn with me this morning to Genesis and chapter 12. We're continuing, I'm going to finish both this morning and on Wednesday night, I'll be finishing this series on the blessings of the Bible. There's a unique blessing as we have dealt with from part one on those that read the Bible, the word of God.

The Bible says blessed are those that read, not that you understand everything, but that you read the word of God. The Bible again says, blessed is the man that meditates on the words of this book. And also blessed are those that keep the words of this book.

And all of these things, we see that the blessing of God is upon individuals. You are blessed if you have this book, if you love the word of God, and if you keep it. Turn into Genesis chapter 12, and I want to bring us down.

I want to summarize here, and I want to bring us down to a final Sunday dealing with the wonderful blessings of the Bible. And saints of God, I want us to hear the simplicity of the word of God here this morning. And both now and on Wednesday night, I'm going to almost backtrack.

I should have maybe started here where I'm going to finish, but I believe it's been the right order. But I'm going to take you right back to the beginning of all things as we finish this series to look at the remarkable, unique blessing of God on individuals. Reading from Genesis chapter 12, verse one to verse three.

My message this morning, part 11, blessed to be a blessing. Genesis 12, verse one. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you, Lord God, that we are called the children of Abraham, that we are blessed with the same blessing that he was blessed with. That you said that through Abraham, through the covenant that you made with him, through the blessing that you placed on that man, that you're going to send that same blessing to every single family on the earth in Jesus' name. My message this morning, blessed to be a blessing.

The Bible says in Galatians 3 and 29 in the New Testament, and if ye be Christ's or belong to Christ or are born again, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. It also says in Galatians 3 and 7, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. It says in Romans chapter 4 and verse 11, speaking about Abraham, calls him the father of all them that believe.

And in James chapter 2, 23, Abraham is called the friend of God. You're going to see very quickly from the Bible that this man called Abram or Abraham is actually a very vital person in all of scripture. In the Old Testament, he carries a very significant place.

And when you come over to the New Testament, in Galatians, in Romans, in James, elsewhere in our New Testament, this man, Abraham, is noted uniquely in scripture. And so the real Christian, born again Christian, we are told that if we are Christ's, then are we Abraham's seed, that we are the children of Abraham and that he's the father of all of them that believe. It says in Galatians 3 and 8, and the scripture, the Bible, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abram, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed.

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. In Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1, when it begins with the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ tracing his entire family. You know, it's become a craze in this hour.

Rory's just had his DNA done and come back with his results. Now we know who he really is. Well, when I done my DNA, I found out I had 3.5% that went back to Greek Albanians.

And then I found the person themselves that married into the Malcolmsons. This is a recent craze of tracing your family tree, of finding where you came from. Who are you? What is your DNA? What is your family background? It is a worldwide craze of unfathomable extent.

But do you know what? The Bible deals like no book on the face of the planet with genealogies. In fact, it is utterly unique in tracing family trees. In Matthew chapter 1 verse 1, reference Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God's son.

Listen to what it says. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. What it's saying was Christ descended directly from both King David and then further back from Abraham.

In other words, according to the flesh, by way of Mary, he was a son of Abraham. He actually was born into a unique family, a unique genealogy. It was very focused, very narrow.

Not everyone belongs to that genealogy, but Christ amidst the whole Jewish nation actually had a direct line right back to King David and right back to Abraham. This man Abraham is very, very important in the scripture. Jesus also speaking about Abraham in Matthew chapter 8, verse 11.

He rebukes the Jews, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. He always came into a clash with the religious man. Those that were pernickety about morality and law and the outward, and yet inwardly their hearts were rotten.

Christ always clashed with them. Do you know the most judgmental people are those that are hypocrites? They accuse others and yet their heart is not right. That's hypocrisy, by the way.

If you ever find a hypocrite, they're more judgmental than the most of holy persons on the earth because you can't walk in holiness with God and yet be judgmental of others. It's a part of righteousness. Listen to what we have Christ say.

He dealt with the Pharisees. He dealt with the religious. Then he said, and I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

He was saying, you Jewish nation, you moral people, you radicals of the law, God's going to bypass you because of your hypocrisy and actually men are going to come from the very uttermost parts of the earth, the Gentiles, the pagans and sit down in the kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do you know one day I'm going to sit with old Abraham, my father in the faith. I'm going to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

I've got a promise here and I'm going to collect on the promise. One of these days I'm going to say, Lord, you said you promised I believed that. And I'm here to sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the kingdom of God.

The Bible mentions Abraham specifically by name over 300 times and the entire Bible over 70 times. He's mentioned in the new Testament because this man is so, so vital to the entire teaching of the gospel. You can't separate.

This is an amazing thing. This man that was not a perfect man, he got there in the end. God said, you're perfect.

Don't tell me there isn't such a thing as perfection. Oh, nobody's perfect. Who ever told you that? Have you not read your Bible? Because it's not in the Bible.

If you say, oh sure, we're all sinners. That's sayings that have nothing to do with scripture. This man walked with God.

He was a unique man, an unusual man. He failed God. He disobeyed God.

He was a real genuine man, just like you and us. And yet that man is integral to the gospel. In Romans chapter 4 verse 12, listen to what it says to you and I as Christians who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham.

We are told that if you're a real Christian, we, you and I walk in the very same steps of the faith of Abraham. Notice it doesn't say walk in the steps of disobedience. And there were some steps of disobedience that Abraham made, but we are actually to walk in the same steps.

When you're a kid, did you ever follow your father's footprints in the snow? I did. My dad was a big man, size 13 feet. He was a giant of a man, bigger than me and my two brothers.

He carried his weight very, very well, some 19 stone of him, but you never thought of him as overweight. He was a big man, a hardy man. I can remember in the snow trying to walk in his footsteps that he left for me.

Well, I want to tell you, there's a giant of a man on the Bible. His name is Abraham. And he left footsteps of faith for us to walk in.

In fact, it's so unique and unusual that if you don't walk in the exact same footsteps of the faith that he walked in, I would challenge if you're a Christian, if you don't know what he knew, experience what he experienced, make the steps that he made. I doubt your biblical Christianity. I don't think you've got any experience whatsoever with God.

You're very ignorant. But if you have a Bible, if you know your Bible and read your Bible, then you're going to study the life of Abraham. You're going to study these steps because there's throughout scripture.

And you know what? In the greatest writings of the new Testament and Galatians and Romans and James, you have Paul or so you have Paul, James and others holding Abraham up because his steps of faith are absolutely vital. Here this morning, I want to deal with blessed to be a blessing. Since we've dealt with a whole series, 10 messages so far on being blessed, the blessings of this book personally in your life.

I want to deal with here this morning, blessed to be a blessing. I actually believe no man in all of history and all of world history was blessed like Abraham. And for this reason, to be a blessing onto others.

That was the whole reason of God blessing them. You know why God is going to bless all the nations of the world through one man. I've got five points here.

Point one, the purpose of blessing. Let's read again our text, Genesis 12 one. Now the Lord said onto Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house and onto a land that I will show they notice carefully what he says here and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou should be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

The purpose of blessing. Do you know why God blessed Abraham? So that that same blessing given to him could go into a family. That it would go down to the next generation and the generation after him and embody an entire family and then a nation and then all the nations of the world.

If God is going to bless the entire world, every single family, every pagan nation, how would you start? Would you start by choosing one man? A pagan, an idolater, a man that doesn't know the scripture. If you were planning, think about this is God who created the sun and the moon and the stars, placed everything in their order and he has a plan to bless every single family on the face of the planet. Where does he begin? One man and not one man is sitting in Ur of the Chaldees, present-day Iraq, near Babylon, near the the tower that they tried to build onto the heavens.

Saints of God, this is where God began. He chose a man that was an idolater, bowing before statues. A man that was ignorant of the word of God.

A man that couldn't have children. His wife was barren and he was already just crossing into that age and would live the next 25 years in a state of old age. That's where God started.

Listen to me carefully. The purpose of blessing. Why does God bless a man, an individual? I'll tell you why he blessed Abraham.

He blessed Abraham because he was going to bless every man, every woman on the face of the earth. If you understand what I'm saying here very simply, you're going to understand an awful lot from this entire series. Do you realize God blesses you? Not that you keep it to yourself.

What happens when water flows into a pond or into a lake and there's no outlet? It becomes corrupt. Disease begins to gather there. If you're blessed and you don't let that blessing go, if you don't become a mere pipe through which the blessing of God can flow, you're going to begin to stink very shortly with the knowledge of the gospel, the blessing of God, the truth of God.

You'll become heavy on knowledge. You will literally become oversized and yet you'll have no impact on this earth. The Old Testament, the word blessed means to kneel down.

Now listen, this is what blessed means and how the word blessed is used in the Old Testament. First of all, it can mean to bless God. We had it in one of the lines of the songs this morning that we bless you Lord.

Do you realize in the Bible it talks about us blessing God? Now that term means praise and worship and adoration. In other words, the greatest blessing we can give to God is just simply to worship him and praise him and to bow down and begin to glorify his name. We do bless God and that's how blessing is used in the Old Testament.

Second of all, you can have men blessing other men. I bless you. I bless you.

That's another way but it's the third way I'm thinking of. It is God blessing men. That's when God actually blesses them.

The word barak or blessing here means to proclaim an audible proclamation of blessing and in those words a blessing can't be silent. It's gotta be heard. You don't bless anybody unless we understand what you're saying.

This is spoken about in 1 Corinthians 14. How do you bless anyone? Says this 1 Corinthians 14, the gathering of the church. If we don't understand you, then how do you bless anyone? It's gotta be understood.

It's gotta be interpreted. It's gotta be with a clear tongue. In other words, a blessing is an audible understood proclamation.

It reveals the will of God. It reveals the plan of God, the purpose of God, the desire of God. This is when God blesses a man.

Within that blessing is his entire plan, his purpose, his desire for the future. There's a prophecy within the blessing of God. There's an entire heart in the blessing of God.

Do you realize what God wants to do? He wants to bless you with many blessings and as he blesses you, since he does this at the beginning, he blesses you that you can become a blessing. He fills you with the blessing of God and those blessings are prophetic. I wanna do this in your life.

This is my will for your life. This is my plan for your life. This is my heart for you.

This is the blessing of God. And in a blessing, there's ultimate good. There's prosperity.

There's fulfillment. There is satisfaction. Three terms are used in our Old Testament.

Blessed, used 302 times. Blessing, used 67 times. And bless is used 127 times.

Some 500 times. This clear, distinct word of blessing. What's the purpose of blessing? God wants to reveal his will.

Why did God come to Abraham? He wanted to bless him. God had a plan. But do you know what? He starts somewhere.

He needs a man. If he's gonna bless a family, and gonna bless a nation, and gonna bless multitudes of people, and then the nations of the world. Do you know where he starts? One man.

I cannot tell you the consequence of you being blessed of God. Of the blessing of God. Spoken proclamations of the will of God and desire of God for your life.

Of you hearing the blessing of God upon your life. I grew up when I was 12, 13, 14 under the ministry of a teacher who lived in Israel. And he would talk to the old rabbis.

And then I'd sit every year listening as a young man. I got baptized to the Holy Ghost under his ministry. I got called to ministry under his ministry.

He had a big impact on me. One of the things he said was, what's unique about the Jewish nation, or Israel, is every morning they'll line all of their children up. If they're a well-taught Jew, they line them up by age from the oldest to the youngest.

And they go down that family line, and they bless each one daily before they go out into the day, before they go to school, or before they go out into the activities of day. And they bless them. That child grows up hearing the blessing of God, the will of God, the desire of God, the purpose of God, the provision of God, the potential of being blessed by God.

That's why they say Israel today is one of the most naturally blessed nations on the face of the planet. It is financially prosperous, militarily prosperous. It is economically prosperous.

It is intellectually prosperous. The land has blossomed out of the desert. They took over marshes that were infested by all manners of fleas and disease, and they made the entire desert to blossom.

Saints, that comes out of something. That comes out of a family hearing about the blessing of God. You know what the old patriarchs of old would say? The Lord bless thee.

The Lord keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. You know, if I had a whole string of 12 kids, I think I would do the same.

Every morning, Jeremiah, you're first in the line. All the way down to Ruth, you stand straight now and would go through the blessing of God. Not a ritual, not a tradition.

This would be my heart as a father. I love you. I want God's richest blessing on your life.

Saints of God, we need to understand the purpose of God. This is amazing that God set his hand upon a man in Iraq. One man in Iraq, childless.

He wasn't a preacher. He was childless, and God begins to bless him. Why? God's going to bless the whole world.

Can you imagine how crazy this is? See, if you get a hold of this, you're going to realize God's dealing with you for the children and your children's children and the people in your workplace and the family around you and people in this city and people in this nation and maybe people in other nations. Do you realize the purpose of God blessing me as a child? I grew up quiet. I wasn't like all these kids.

I was as quiet as a mouse. You wouldn't have heard me in the house. I sat.

I was shy. I was timid. I was afraid.

You know why God started blessing me? Because this mouth is going to be open, and I'm going to bless whoever I can bless with it. Point two, separation is vital to blessing. Do you want to be blessed this morning? Because some people want blessed, but they don't want to be separated.

This is my second point. Separation is vital to blessing. The first time we read of a man blessed and identified with God is in Genesis 9, 26.

And he said, this is Noah speaking. Noah is blessing his three children. He's praying for them, blessing them, and prophesying.

He said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem. This is the first time ever God is connected to a man in a statement and called the God of Shem. First time ever in the Bible, but not the last.

This was the beginning of God being identified with individuals. He's now going to be identified with Abraham, the God of Abraham, then the God of Isaac, then the God of Jacob. We read in Hebrews 11, 16.

Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. Do you realize God joined himself to very imperfect men? He joined himself to Jacob and said, I am the God of Jacob. I'm actually identified with this man.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were men like you and I, but God was joined to them and identified. How does God start blessing? In Genesis 12, God is revealing, I'm going to bless you. I'm going to make you a blessing.

I'm going to fill you with blessing. Saints, do you begin to understand what real blessing is? God reveals his plan, his desires, and prophesies. He gives you his word.

His word is very clear. And he begins to pour this into you. To make you a person, an instrument, a vessel that can be a blessing everywhere you go.

God has a plan to bless you and this book is going to show you. It is a prophecy. If you neglect it, you will not be filled with the blessing of God.

To be blessed, you need to know the mind of God, the will of God, the plan of God, the prophecies of God, the will of God for your life. If you spend time in this book, you're actually ignorant of God's blessing on your life. But as you read it, you have faith.

You begin to believe God wants something out of my life. But notice this before he speaks of the blessing, what does he say? Genesis 12, one and two. Now the Lord God said to Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house onto a land that I will show you.

Before he speaks of blessing, he says, get out. Do you know what God does? God separates Abraham from his country, his family, everything of the old life. You've got to get away from the idolatry of your nation because I'm going to bless you.

Show me someone who doesn't separate from the world. Come out from sin and disobedience or come out from idolatry. They're not blessed of God.

You can't stay in the old places of sin. You can't rebel against God and say, but I'm blessed of God, but I love my old sin. Oh, I know I love God, but I live just like I used to speak.

Like I used to act like I used to think like I used to notice with Abraham, God separates them because it's vital to the blessing of God. He's got to come out. God makes promises to him.

I'm going to make your name great. I'm going to bless your life. I'm bringing you out from this world.

Do you know why? I'm going to pour blessings in on you. You won't get it out there. Saints, you will not be blessed in this world.

This world will curse you high and leave you empty. The devil will take you to the end of the road. He'll take you on a high and then he'll drop you into the deepest, darkest pit.

Look at this man, Abraham. When God first meets with them, this is the call of God to Abraham, Abraham. And that was his name before the call of God.

Abraham was 75 years old. Sarah was 65, a 10 year gap between them. I've got biblical backing for this.

Okay. Just thought I'd tell you that. He would be 175 when he died.

And at 75 years old, the call of God came on to him. And for 100 years, he was going to become a stranger in the land, journeying, moving, never settling in this world, always looking for something beyond this here and now, or this world. Saints, this is a man by the call of God, he could never settle again.

He could never be the same in this world. 100 years walking in the blessing of God. God was going to bless him to make him a blessing onto all nations.

When the call of God came to Abraham, it was about 300 years after Noah, after God made a covenant with Noah. 300 years later, God is calling Abraham and saying, I'm going to raise up a plan and a purpose. As I bless Shem, now I'm going to bless Abraham and make him a blessing.

It's 250 years ago since America as a nation was founded in the American revolution, 250 years. A lot's happened in our world in 250 years since Washington with 300 men stood against the mightiest empire on earth and conquered and overcome and prevailed 300 men basically. And most of the American settlers weren't for him.

He had a fight alone, lost every battle, bar one, and yet triumphed in the end. Oh, I love history. I want to tell you, but 250 years ago, and look at world history, a lot happened between Noah and Abraham, but God was preparing 300 years of history, but God sets his hand upon a man.

The Bible says in Isaiah that I called him alone and blessed him and increased them. Where did you find them? Isaiah says in chapter 51, he was digged out of the pet. We read about an act seven verse two, Stephen's message.

It said that God, the God of glory appeared onto Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia and Joshua 24, it says he was serving other gods. He was an idolater. He had his family around them, but God says, I'm not going to let you stay in your family.

I'm not going to stay in your own homeland. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to begin upsetting everything.

Since I want to tell you, if God's going to bless your life, it means separation. The call of God is going to come in your life to disrupt everything. He'll stir everything up in your life.

You know why he'll separate you from how you thought, how you acted, how you spoke to the old ways of life, because he wants to bless you. You can't stay as you are and yet be the same. It says in Hebrews 11 verse eight by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place, which he should have to receive for an inheritance.

Listen to what he did obeyed. And he went out not knowing whether he went. If you or I met someone saying, so what's God's will for you? Get out, leave.

Where are you going? I don't know. That way going across the desert. Are you sure about this? Yes, absolutely.

How are you going to get there? God's with me. 21 years old. I left my career after five years.

God had called me, my two brothers, intelligent, wise, bigger brothers, older brothers. My dad was dead. Decide to sit down and give me a fatherly talk.

They sat down. I'm 21. They're five and six years older.

They've got good careers. They've got their own houses. They've got cars, two holidays a year there.

They've got everything. And they sent me down the little brother. Well, well, Keith, what are you going to do now? Going to serve God? What about marriage? What about a house? What about money? What about this? All the time I'm thinking this, they'll never understand this.

I'm not going to persuade them, but I know God's called me to preach the gospel. They said, you're going to end up with nothing. I'm death free.

Saints of God, when you walk with God, there is wisdom in it. Abraham was called and he obeyed God. He went out.

He wasn't staking everything on nothing. He was following the call of God. I'm against foolishness.

And let me just say this because people run away on things. I'm the most practical man you'll make. My feet are on the ground.

I'm against all manners of foolish. Well, I seen a cloud, I seen a feather or the Lord told me or the spirit told me I'm against all of that. I'm a man of scripture.

I'm a Bible man. But I want to tell you when the call of God to be born again or to go into ministry is there, you are going to have to follow God. God is going to separate you from sin and idolatry and disobedience.

If you don't obey God, you don't have faith. If you don't separate from things that are contrary to God's word or obey God's word, you don't believe anything. Obedience can never be separated from faith.

Faith is evidence by obedience. You say, I believe in God. I love God.

Why aren't you keeping the commandments? Third of all, blessed but not in covenant. I'm going to say something here. Who is the seed of Abraham? How many seeds of Abraham is there? Number one, you have the natural physical children of Abraham.

Second, from within that group, you have a certain seed where God makes covenant with them. That's the second seed. The third seed is every believer in Christ.

The fourth seed is Christ himself. I say that because I'm about to say something that's very shocking here. Blessed but not in covenant.

Do you know you can be blessed of God, but you're not in a relationship with God? 30 years ago, my pastor said that statement and I'm still reeling from it. Let me prove it to you. Abraham had four different seeds that the Bible talks about.

Four different seeds. Abraham had eight children, not two and not one. He had one child by Hagar.

It happened through unbelief, disobedience, and the flesh. You don't want a Hagar in your life. Listen to me.

You do not want a Hagar. And if God ever called you, you do not want to birth a Hagar. And they're all through the church.

There are multiplied thousands of Ishmaels in the church. Maybe millions. So he had a child by Hagar.

He also had the child by Sarah, which is by faith. And then he had six children after Sarah died by Keturah. Six children.

And listen, those six children by Keturah, no one ever thinks about them. They went out and become the populations of Arabia, North Africa, and Assyria. They were physical descendants of Abraham.

So when we talk about the seed of Abraham being blessed, you listen to me, you can be blessed and yet have no relationship with God or inheritance to the things that matter. Abraham at the very call knew he was going to have a child. God begins to reveal his plan.

I'm going to raise up people up out of you. You're going to have a seed. I'm going to raise up a family, a nation out of you.

Kings are going to come out of you. Can you imagine his mind? 75 years old. Your wife's 65.

For the next 25 years, you're going to walk as a pilgrim. Still no child. Her body's getting deader by the day.

Sorry, ladies. Tell you what, she's beautiful because kings lusted after her. Something about that lady.

She walked with God and had faith and could still laugh when an angel says, you're going to have a child. I would laugh. Do you know in Genesis 15, you have Abraham speaking to God one night.

He gets up late at night and I can tell you Abraham's been in bed worried. I don't know where you've ever got out of bed and went out because you can't sleep. You're worried.

You're thinking about things. I've had that. That's what happened with Abraham in Genesis 15.

You know what God says? Don't fear Abraham. I'm your shield and exceeding great reward. God speaks to him in the night.

He's looking at the stars and he goes, I'm worried. I'm trying to work all this out, the plan of God. How's God's will, God's blessing going to come in my life because he's revealing his will and his purpose and his plan.

But my entire life contradicts it. My wife contradicts it. I contradict it.

My circumstance contradicted. Here I am wandering around. Listen to what he says.

I go childless. You're saying you're my reward. Thank you, Lord.

But I go childless. No seed. But one is born in my house, I've got a servant and he's had a child.

So he starts being the Lord. Maybe that's the seed. Maybe it's my servant's child.

He's a good man. I'm sure his child will be. Maybe I could adopt the child.

God speaks to him and says, no way. This is going to be a child from your bowels. He's going to be your heir, your child.

And you know what? Look at those stars. Listen to me, Abraham. If you hear me, I'm going to so bless you as a man, that if you can count all those stars, your seed is going to be more than the stars of heaven.

Can you imagine this man? Look at him. He's been called. He's been separated.

He is a being God. You can be blessed, but not in the covenant. Sarah suggests something.

Abraham's idea was no good. I'll use my servant's child. Hagar comes up with a plan.

Sorry. Sarah comes up with a plan. Why not take Hagar, sleep with her as a concubine? Very careful of advice.

Oh, I know God's will. Do you? Do this or it doesn't matter. God won't mind that in your life.

Really? Are you speaking from God? Do you know the word of God? Do you know if you're contradicting the word of God, giving advice? So I believe this happens all the time in churches and in this church. Oh, don't worry about that. It's fine.

Really? Where's that in the Bible? So Sarah encourages Abraham to sleep and they birth Ishmael, a child of the flesh. You can birth things. You can create things in God's kingdom.

And it never came out of faith. It was never the will of God. You could go and do things and spend your entire life on an Ishmael.

I do not want to do that saints. And I'll tell you what God will bless the flesh. Hope no one cuts that quote out and puts it up on YouTube.

Let me tell you something. God blessed Ishmael in Genesis chapter 17. God blessed Ishmael.

Listen to me carefully. He was of the flesh. He did his own thing.

He had no desire for God's holiness. God blessed him. He was the true physical seed of Abraham.

In fact, the blessing on Abraham was repeated to Ishmael. The exact same promises, very similar. Number one, I'll bless you.

God said he had blessed Ishmael. Second of all, I'll make you fruitful. I'll multiply your seed exceedingly.

Third of all, I'll make a great nation out of you. Third of all, 12 princes are going to come out of you. Number five, he was circumcised.

The mark of covenant with God. Guess what? Ishmael was blessed. The prophecy of God, the plan of God, words from God, but he wasn't in covenant with God, did not have a relationship with God, did not obey God.

I believe there's many people in the church that are going, I'm blessed. God's blessing me all the time. That's not the question.

Are you obeying God? There's many people in the church. I really, God believe God is blessing them. I even believe God's will is happening through them.

I believe even God is using them or raising things up or saving souls. And yet I believe that no relationship with God. They don't love holiness.

They do not obey God. They're not close to God. They're not in grace.

They're not in a covenant of grace, but they are blessed. Let me give you a warning. Never seek after the blessings of God by themself.

God will bless you if you walk with them. Pursue Christ. Look for God.

Oh, I'm blessed. But are you right with God? Oh, I must be right with God because I'm blessed. Everything's going okay.

That is bad. You ought to go to this book and go search it out. Say, Lord, deal with my heart.

Speak to me. See, saints of God, Ishmael was blessed, but he wasn't right with God. He was not a vessel of God.

God would never use them to bless the nations. No way. What about Esau, the brother of Jacob? He was the same, a twin brother.

In fact, the blessing on Esau was again a blessing from their father, Isaac. Both children were blessed and prophesied over. Remember how Jacob stole the blessing? And they said, what about the blessing? I've given you the greatest blessing.

Please bless me. Okay, son. It wasn't the same blessing.

It was a different blessing. Both were the natural seed of Abraham. Both were blessed and granted promises, but some promises were made to Jacob, not made to Esau.

You could be an Esau and blessed. Listen to me. You could be an Esau who's going to die and go to hell.

You could be an Esau that's lost the inheritance, lost your way, has no love for the things of God, but God is blessing you and protecting you and preserving you. Remember Esau, or sorry, Ishmael was going to die. Remember Hagar ran off and they're lying out there.

They're going to die. And an angel appeared and said, look, here's a well of water. You're not going to die.

God can bless you supernaturally. Oh, I've got miracles in my life. God answers prayer.

It must be okay. You could be an Ishmael. You could be an Esau.

Since I've thought on this for 30 long years, forgive me for emphasizing it. So I want your life to be blessed, but not outside the covenant. I don't want your eyes to be on the blessings.

Oh, I want to be prosperous and at peace and have everything okay. I want a wife and God, I want a house and I want a car. Lots of people in the church are prosperous.

They are blessed. I believe because they have followed scripture to a certain degree, there's great blessing there, but no desire for God. They are children of wrath.

Remember Ahab was the most wicked king of Israel. Remember God says, I'm going to judge you. I'm going to remove you.

He humbled himself, humbled himself, repented, none of his sins. God said, okay, listen to me, Ahab, I'm going to hold it up. I won't do it in your day.

So that's a blessing. I won't do it in your day. I'll do it in your children's day.

So you'll remain as king. Do you see how gracious God is? Even to an Ahab, he responds to his prayer and you think, you wonder if God hears you or not. Saints, listen to me.

You're there battling, I don't know if he hears me or not. I'm struggling to pray. Oh God, where are you? God listened to an Ahab when he got on his knees and said, will you forgive me? Oh God, hold back.

I humble myself. God responded to a humble heart that got down on his knees and cried out and said, oh God, help me. Don't judge me.

Okay. And you think, oh, the heaven's brass. Fourth of all, blessing always leads to covenant.

If it's a real blessing of God, it's going to lead you somewhere. Genesis 15, I go childless, no children. What am I going to do? I'm worried about the plan of God.

God brings them into a covenant. God makes a covenant with Abraham. You know what he done? He put him to sleep.

If it's a real covenant of God, a real relationship with God, it wasn't created by you. God always takes the initiative. Abraham, you prepare the animal.

You prepare the sacrifice. Go and read a Genesis 15 and there's Abraham. Birds come down to eat the sacrifice and he's there shooing them away.

Get away. Leave it alone. Then God puts him to sleep and he lies down.

You know why the covenant, although it's going to be for Abraham, Abraham is not the one who keeps it. And there's two furnaces of fire, two flaming burning fires that walk down the middle of the sacrifice. Do you know who it was? God making a covenant with himself in the midst of blood sacrifice and Abraham is asleep.

But in the vision, in his sleep, he has a vision of God making covenant with him and speaking about his seed, his children. They're going to go down into Egypt. They're going to be there for 430 years.

They're going to be greatly tried there. But when they come up, it's for a land. I'm going to give them a land.

Since God not only blessed Abraham, he blessed Isaac, his son. Then he chose Jacob, his son, the third generation. Out of him raised up 12 children.

This is the people of Israel. You know what God's doing? God's blessing a family. If you hear what I'm saying this morning, God wants to bless your children.

Do you realize every child born in a Christian home, God has a plan for your child. Why do you think that child's protected? Why do you think that you're there with a heart for them, praying for them, blessing them? You've got them in the house of God this morning. Do you realize that God has separated out your life, called you out of drink, away from drugs, away from idolatry, away from sexual sin and brought you in to bless your children and your children's children.

God wants to do that. He blesses you so he can bless them. If you're not blessed this morning, God help your children.

If you depart from the blessing of God, God help your children. They're not going to be blessed because of you. But here God is separating out a family.

And out of these 12 sons, he chooses one called Judah. Chosen, it's going to come through him, this seed. See, God's got a plan.

I'm going to bring the Messiah. This is a family greatly blessed. I'm going to give that family the scriptures, the covenants, blessings, promises, and prophecies.

The Messiah of the world is going to come through this family. Out of that family of Judah, he again at a certain point chooses one man called Jesse. Jesse has eight sons.

And again, out of those eight sons, he chooses one called David. He pulls him out and says, you are a chosen one. See how the blessing of God comes down through a family.

And listen to me, Israel as a nation entered a covenant with God. God made a covenant relationship to them and gave them a land. From the very beginning, God says, I'm going to bless you Abraham and see your seed.

I'm going to give them a certain land. Today, all across our world and politics and media, they're talking about Israel. They're arguing.

Does Israel, and I'm very sorry, Tucker Carlson's gone off on this and Candace Owens gone off on this. They've become anti-Israel. And then you've got a lot of politicians and nice Christians in America.

They're pro-Israel, but not pro-the God of Israel. You've got a lot of politicians. They defend Israel, but they have no love for holiness and righteousness.

They're not right with God. They just are pro-Israel. You've got extremes in this.

But let me say, God prophesied in the Bible, he was going to bless Abraham and through his seed, not talking about the Arabs, not talking about the daughters of Keturah, not talking about Hagar's son Ishmael, and not talking about Esau. None of them, the promise wasn't for them. The covenanted promises of God bypassed Ishmael, bypassed Keturah's children, bypassed Esau, and it fell on one family line.

What's God say? I'm going to give you a land uniquely, and he tells them about it in Genesis 13, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, 1 Chronicles 16, Psalm 105. I'm just saying this because lots of people don't know this, a lot of intelligent people, even preachers. Jeremiah 32, Deuteronomy 29 to 30, and the entire book of Joshua.

It's all about God giving the land of Israel, the land of Canaan over to a particular family, a people that were in covenant with God. This is my covenant with you. I'm going to bless you.

Isaac, I'm going to bless you, and I'll make the same promises, and it's for your children, not the pagans, not Ishmael, not Esau. It's for your line, Joseph all the way through. But do you know you can be in covenant with God and abuse it and miss out on all of the blessings? I'm sad to say that Israel, they're in covenant with God.

It says in Romans chapter 3 verse 1, it says, what advantage then has the Jew? Because listen to me, you could be blessed as a nation, blessed as a family, and Israel were. They were redeemed as an entire nation. But according to Hebrews chapter 3, 1 Corinthians 10, numbers 14, Israel amidst the entire nation, there was many that didn't believe.

They are the physical seed of Israel. They have the sign of circumcision. They are in covenant with God.

They are blessed as a nation. They have the word of God. To them pertain is the adoption and the glory of God, the covenants of God, the law of God, the service of God, the promises of God, the fathers and the Messiah, the seed of the Messiah.

As an entire nation, they were blessed. They had a nation, but they had the word of God. They had the scriptures.

Listen to what it says in Romans chapter 3. What advantage then has the Jew? If the Jew is rejected because they're not born again, is there any advantage in being circumcised? Chapter 3 verse 2, much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Why was Israel as a family and a nation chiefly blessed? The Bible says because God entrusted to them the oracles of God, the written scriptures, the spoken word of God. It says this was the chief blessing upon them.

The first, the primary, the main one, the number one. If you want to know what benefit does Israel have? The word of God was entrusted. The Bible was given uniquely to them as a people.

Saints of God, I'm telling you something here that they as a nation are tremendously blessed in so many ways. They're undefeated since 1948 and they will not be defeated. I can tell you what's going to happen in that nation.

Yes, they're sinners mostly. Yes, they're new agers and atheists still, but I want to tell you something marvelous is going to happen with Israel. God is going to come to that nation again.

There are prophecies. There are blessings, even though individually they're in covenant with the Bible of God. They're a unique nation.

They've been put back in their land after 1900 years, and yet you've got people there. They don't even believe there's a God in heaven. Homosexuality is rampant in Tel Aviv.

It is a capital of LGBT. They walk the streets cursing God. See, you can have all these blessings, but you do not know God.

Fifth and lastly, let me finish. The ultimate true blessing is only in Christ. I don't want you to be someone outwardly blessed, religiously blessed, blessed by your environment, blessed by the preaching of the word, and yet you don't enjoy the blessings of God.

You may claim things like Ishmael or claim things like Israel of old, like the Sadducees and Pharisees, and yet inwardly in your heart, there's dead men's bones. Oh, morally, you go, I love God. I'm clean outwardly, and yet you're rotten according to Jesus Christ.

Fifth and lastly, Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one unto thy seed, which is Christ. Do you see Paul writing? He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

He said it's one seed ultimately, and that seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ. He is the promised seed going all the way back through the centuries, and all the promises in him, and all the covenants are about him. To seeds there are many, but concerning Christ there's only one, and it says, and this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ in the law, which is 430 years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect.

The law is given 400 years after the promise to Abraham. The covenant with Abraham, the law comes 400 years later. Saints of God, the Bible's very clear that this covenant made with Abraham promised a Messiah.

It promised a seed. In this book, the covenant scripture inspired of the Holy Ghost was speaking about a coming Messiah that was going to suffer for sin. Isaiah 53 is a prophecy given to Israel talking about their suffering Messiah.

One is going to come, he'll die for the sins of the people. He'll be a lamb slain. He's going to bear the sin of many.

He is going to justify many by his death. When you begin to look at this, you see that Christ was uniquely of the line of Abraham. He came down through the seed of David.

He had to be born of that family. He had to be born of Israel. He was prophesied and promised, and God's hand is still upon Israel.

The land is still theirs. They're still in the land today. No Palestinian has a right to the land.

Ireland is the most pro-Palestinian country in the world, outside the Arab world. They hate Israel. Our politicians hate Israel.

They speak with violence against Israel. You know, we've got a political party, Sinn Féin, that for years have defended terrorism, bombing, shooting. I can tell you things that you won't know about terrorism, because I know things that never were put in the media.

Sinn Féin always defended it, but they talk about Palestine and Gaza. Utter hypocrisy. Saints of God, I'm telling you, we're living in a very unique hour, but we better realize what the true blessing of God is in this hour.

It's not defending a natural nation of Israel. I am not pro-Israel this morning. You know what I am? I'm pro-God.

I'm pro-the gospel. Every Jew will die and go to hell if they're not born again, washed in the blood, justified. They have as many things in their heart as any Palestinian or any Irish man or woman.

You know, the only thing that makes a difference is that you are born again, ready to meet Jesus Christ. You're either a child of wrath, child of the devil this morning. I don't care how nice you are.

Oh, I'm a nice moral person. You're a child of wrath. You're under the wrath of God.

All of us were born sinners unless you become a child of Abraham after faith. What is the real blessing of Abraham? Listen to it. And the scripture for seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preach before the gospel unto Abraham, saying in thee shall all nations be blessed.

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. The blessings of Abraham were justification by faith. If you read Galatians 3, Galatians 4, Romans 3, 4, and 5, you begin to see what the true blessing of Abraham is.

This is the blessing that we described earlier this morning. David described it. The real blessing is when a man's forgiven of his sin.

When he has received justification by faith, Abraham believed God and he was made just or righteous. All of his sins were forgiven. He didn't work for it.

He didn't earn it. He believed God. And you know what? He had received imputed righteousness.

The righteousness of Jesus Christ was made his. And I want to tell you this morning, the real preaching of the gospel was made to Abraham. He was a sinner on his way to hell like every other man.

But God found a man that would believe him, that would cherish the scripture, that would obey his word. And you know what? When God came to him, he said, if you believe me, I'll make you perfectly righteous. I'll make you holy.

I'll make you as righteous as my son, Jesus Christ. The perfect righteousness of Christ will become a gift to you. All your sins will be forgiven.

All your sins will be washed away. Abraham looked forward onto Jesus Christ. We look back here today.

I look back to the cross by faith. I look back and say, I believe the word of God. I believe Jesus died for me.

I believe all my sins can be forgiven. I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, his righteousness was offered as a free gift to me, not by good works, not by learning, not by years of striving to be forgiven, not by ritual, religious, candles, confessional, or anything else. The mass is an abomination.

To say that Jesus Christ is crucified afresh is against the gospel. It says in Hebrews chapter 6, if Christ be crucified again, that's apostasy. It's a false gospel.

Anyone who says Christ can be re-crucified, it shows they've fallen away from the faith. Catholicism in its basic doctrine is an apostate system. It denies the finished work of the cross.

They deny imputed righteousness. They don't believe what Abraham believed. Can you believe it? The dominant religious system in this land denied the gospel that was preached to Abraham.

Abraham believed God and was made righteous, forgiven of his sins, made a friend of God, walked with God, and he held tight to the promises of God. If you and I are going to know the reality of the blessing of God, saints, this is the entire purpose of God. He's going to bless you to make you a blessing.

Please stand with me. I believe as a church, God is blessing us. God has blessed us.

God's going to continue to bless us. It's for this reason to make us a blessing unto many others. Why do you think he chose Abraham? Why did you think he uniquely moved on him? You know, the Bible actually says that when God was going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, he was going to pour out fire of judgment and wrath.

Do you know the only man he went to to tell Abraham? Jesus Christ, the angel of the covenant, the son of God turned up with two other angels. The two angels with him were going to go to Sodom and Gomorrah and judge it and destroy it. Remember, they pulled out Lot.

But they're in Abraham's tenth verse. They're going to have to go rescue Rod. He's too righteous to die in Sodom and Gomorrah.

But before they go to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue Lot, they stop off at Abraham's tent. They sit with them and they say, and this is God's word, will I hide from Abraham what I'm going to do? Do you know why? Do you know why? Do you know the biblical reason? Do any of you know why? Why did God reveal to Abraham? This is it. Because I know that you're going to command your children after you in the way they should walk.

That's why I'm telling you about Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment. That's why I'm giving you an opportunity to pray. Listen to me.

As we're closing here, I want you to see Abraham was blessed of God because he thought in a certain way. I'm going to obey God. I'm going to raise my children right.

I'm going to teach them the word of God. I'm not going to hide anything from Abraham that I'm going to do in this generation. Wouldn't you like to be a church or a family unit that God says, because I know how you think, how you act, how you'll raise your children.

I actually will show you what's going to happen in this last generation amongst the nations. I won't even allow a second Sodom to come. You know why? Because you'll teach your children.

You haven't done it yet, but you will in the future. Do you see how God thinks and operates? You're going to teach your children. I've got to tell Abraham.

He's my friend. I share my secrets. We're in covenant together.

I do not want to be an Ishmael. I don't want to be an Esau. I don't want to be Pharisees that know the law, but don't know the living Christ when they're staring at them.

I want to be a man. I want us to be a church where not only the blessing of God's here, but God's covenant is here and his secrets are here and that he pours his blessing out. You know why? That we might be a blessing to many others.

I believe in part God's already showed us how he can bless this world through a group of people at the edge of Ireland who seek him, who pray, who walk in the word, who edify one another, who seek to be a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ. But since we're about to come into the last era of world history, everything is closing down. All the nations of the world are arming up for Armageddon.

All of them are preparing. All of the leaders, and it wasn't happening 10 years ago. It wasn't happening six years ago.

All the leaders in Europe are saying, military leaders, political leaders, and institutions are saying, we're heading for world war. All the presidents, prime ministers in the EU, they're saying, get ready for a war, for a third world war. Right in the midst of all of this, it may happen or it may not happen.

But what I'm telling you is there's got to be a people who are blessed of God to be a blessing one last hour. We're at the very end. What are you going to do with your life? How are you going to live your life from here? How are you going to raise your children? Why do you think God's got you here right now, here in the word of God, blessed in an environment like this, where your children, you're not out in drugs, you're not out and drink, you're not out in sexual immorality, you're not caught up in a religious cult, you're not just sitting at home watching television, but you're actually here preparing yourself.

You know what that is? God is blessing you to make us a blessing. Amen. Hallelujah.

Father, we pray right now as a church, as a body, we need your blessing. Saints of God, pray right now. Lay hold of God for your family, for your children, for those around you.

Saints, God can bless you and pour out his blessing. We need it in this hour. This city of Limerick needs the blessing of God.

But there's got to be a people who walk with God, who touch God, who pray, who seek him. Even this morning, Saints of God, in this entire series on blessing, we want the blessing of the Bible. We want to walk in the blessing of God.

We want to hear the will of God. We want to obey the Bible. We want to experience the power of the blood of Jesus.

We want to enjoy righteousness and justification and imputation. And the only way is by this Bible, in Jesus' name. Hallelujah.