Allen Jackson - Living In God's Blessings - Part 2
There’s a piece of territory at the end of the Mediterranean Sea that God promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a part of his covenant with them. And he could care less what the UN Security Council thinks. It’s a point of tremendous consternation in the earth these days. There is, lately there has been almost weekly some new public diatribe against the Jewish people. It’s illogical, it’s irrational, the only way I think it can be understood is as with a spiritual motivation. Again, that’s a little beyond the scope of this particular lesson, God’s promises.
First of all, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as a part of that covenant, they got a Promised Land. In the New Covenant, God gives to his people the land of his promises. Not a place on planet Earth. He didn’t say middle Tennessee is unique to a group of people but what he has given us is a life defined by his promises, the understanding of his covenants, his provision for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was complete, total, and entire. His provision for your life and mine is complete, total, and entire. Christians quibble about this.
Well, I don’t know if I should pray that God will bless me or if God will heal me or if God will provide for my needs. All that is expressing is a lack of awareness of Scripture. You can’t evaluate the depth of your spirituality by those things, but they’re a part of the promises of God. Look at 2 Peter 1 and verse 3: «His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness». Who wrote that passage? I mean, directed by the Holy Spirit, but it was Peter, the fisherman that Jesus recruited, an observant Jewish man. He keeps kosher. He celebrates the Jewish holidays. He’s kept the law of Moses since his youth, and yet when he’s writing this, he said, «God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness».
He’s not just referring on the covenant. He’s not ignoring the New Covenant. «Through these he’s given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires». Can we agree that there is corruption in our world caused by evil? I think we can agree on that. There’s two things in that, those two verses stated in perfect tense, which means they have already been done, they’re complete. There’s nothing to be added to them. There’s no amendments coming forth. It is a fait accompli, it’s done. The first it says he’s given us everything we need for life and godliness. He’s not gonna give you something else. Say, «God, I need help».
Well, his help is in his promises. We have to understand how to believe them, how to appropriate them. The land that God gave to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they had to occupy it. They had to fight for it. And you’ll have to occupy the promises of God. They will not fall on you like so much ripe fruit. We have a lot of language in amongst us that isn’t helpful. You know, «Whatever God has for me, I’ll receive it. I’m just open to whatever the Lord wants, whatever God, I would do just, you know. I, with all my heart is on it, I just want,» stop it. Do you understand you can go to hell with that attitude? The Bible very clearly says, «Unless you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you’re not saved».
So saying out of your mouth, «Well, I, you know, I’m just open to whatever,» that doesn’t help. You’ll miss the promise. Well, there’s some other promises. We’ve looked at several of them through this series. You have to forgive in order to be forgiven. Which means if you have been mistreated and you have. Some of us egregiously. You have to forgive in order to be forgiven. This isn’t optional.
Exodus 19, Moses has led the former slaves of Egypt into the wilderness. God’s fashioning a nation out of them. «Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him to the mountain and he said, 'This is what you’re to say to the house of Jacob. This is what you’re to tell the people of Israel. „You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, how I carried you on eagle’s wings, and I brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you’ll be my treasured possession“.'»
Sounds a lot like Genesis, doesn’t it? I’ve chosen you. «I’ve delivered you, I’ve crafted everything for your benefit. But it’s, there’s, it’s a, it’s conditionally, said, 'If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, although the whole earth is mine, you’ll be for me a kingdom of priest and a holy nation.' These are the words you’re to speak to the Israelites». It’s a covenant that’s being made. It’s not some arbitrary religious language. See, we have to decide if we believe there’s a God who created the heavens and the earth, that there is, and you can know him, that’s the greatest assignment of your life. There’s no greater opportunity. I’m not opposed to making money and having achievement and accomplishment.
Those things all have a place, but they all pale in significance to knowing God. I’m not talking about knowing church and knowing how to be religious, who cares? If there’s a God, get to know him. It’s an amazing thing that the creator of heaven and earth says, «You could know me. I would like to have a relationship with you». 1 Peter chapter 2, this is the fisherman again. «You’re a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, of people belonging to God. He called you out of darkness into his wonderful life. Once you were not a people». You were people, but you were not a people. See, the people of God are different. We’re at the center of his purposes. «But now you’re the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy».
What’s that mean? The mercy is the promises of God have been extended to you. You’re under the covenant. The promises are your inheritance. Once they weren’t your inheritance, how do you qualify for that? I’m gonna tell you before we go. Galatians 3: «Christ redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith, we might receive the promise of the Spirit». So the covenant God made with Abraham has an implication for all of us. Romans chapter 11 gives us a little more insight into that. Paul is using the illustration of an olive tree. And he’s saying that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob’s descendants are an olive tree. And he’s gonna describe the grafting in of a group of people who don’t share genetic material but who share a spiritual inheritance.
«If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now sharing the nourishing sap from the olive root, don’t boast over those other branches. If you do, consider this: You don’t support the root, but the root supports you». Do you understand the arrogance in the Christian community that says the Jewish people are irrelevant? That flourishes amongst evangelicals. Without the Jewish people, we have no Scripture, we have no prophets, we have no law, we have no Messiah. We have no hope. «You’ll say then, 'Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.' Granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith».
Heard that? Well, they rejected Jesus, like we haven’t. You know we tell Peter’s story about that night he denied Jesus. I mean, he denied Jesus under threat of arrest and execution, tremendous pressure. We’ve denied Jesus under threat of not being invited to a party. We’ve denied Jesus under threat we might lose a business opportunity. «Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God didn’t spare the natural branches, he’ll not spare you either». You see, we’re not separate from. We are joined together with. You’re not sure you believe me.
Look at Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 is the hall of fame of faith. The the great listing of men and women of the faith, and they’ve all come from the Old Testament. And they’re held out to us as these examples of what it means to be people of significance in the unfolding purposes of God. Remember our conversation, God’s purposes and God’s people, that’s where we wanna be. «Since these were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised». They had revelations of Jesus. They understood he was coming. «God had planned something better for us so that only together, only together with us would they be made perfect».
You see, we’ve read that and we thought they were incomplete, they were inadequate. They needed us. No, not really. They needed Jesus, they needed the Messiah. But the Scripture says only together. Together isn’t one sided. You with me? It’s not like together means well one’s more important than the other. Only together with us can we fulfill what God has. We’ve been arrogant.
See, I think the reason we haven’t had the kind of tenacity that’s often needed is we haven’t believed seriously the promises of God. We haven’t believed with the same tenacity that the Jewish people understand that the land of Israel is significant to their future. They’re very clear that without accepting the promise that God has given to them, they have no chance of survival. I assure you they understand that. And I promise you that unless we understand the promises of God for ourselves, we have no chance of survival. I have no question that there’s a force of evil in our world that hates the Jewish people. But I understand with equal clarity there’s a force of evil in the world that hates all of the people of God.
So the invitation is to believe the promises. The promises bring blessings, disobedience to the promises bring curses. It’s very plain language. I’m always a bit amazed at Christians that go, «You know, pastor, I just don’t know how I feel about that curses thing». Well, I’m happy that you have feelings, they make your life more full, but feelings can be wrong and when your feelings disagree with the Word of God, change them. Sounds like a country song. In Galatians 3, there’s a commentary on the blessings. «The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham». Did you know God explained to Abraham what he was gonna do?
«All nations will be blessed through you. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith». That’s Galatians 3. If you’re counting, it’s the New Testament. There’s a blessing that comes to us because of the covenant that God made with Abraham. In Revelation 22, in verse 3, it says, «There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him». That’s very near the end of the last book of the Bible. And it says the curse will be addressed fully. There will no longer be any curse. Up until that time, there’s been a curse in the earth.
Now some will say, «Well, it’s the curse that came with sin». You’re right, it’s the curse that entered the earth with sin, but when you and I choose to reject God and don’t cooperate, when we don’t choose him, what do you think comes to your life? Do you think the fact that you are a Christ follower eliminates you from the impact of sin? Do you think that a profession of faith completely eliminates the consequences of ungodliness? Then you haven’t read your Bible. There’s a blessing for obedience. Look at Deuteronomy 28, verse 1: «If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commandments I give you today, the Lord your God will set you on high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God».
You see, the challenge really isn’t to seek the blessings. The challenge is to seek God. If you will seek God, the blessings will come to you. Well, how do you seek God? By recognizing his promises and meeting the conditions. If you forgive those who sin against you, you’ll be forgiving your sins. How do you seek God? By purposefully, intentionally being willing to forgive people who have sinned against you. «Well, they could have done better,» I know. «They should have done,» I know. I’m not telling you to get back in line for additional abuse. I’m telling you you gotta make a decision to forgive them. There’s all kinds of promises. We’ve been accepted in the beloved. If your life has been tagged by rejection, and almost every one of our lives have. With the prevalence of divorce. I mean, just any number of ways, the rejection comes to our lives. We feel like we stand on the outside, that other people got the playbook and nobody gave it to me. I don’t really know how to fit in. I don’t know how to be a part. Feel pretty isolated.
Well, my Bible says that we’ve been accepted into the beloved, we are children of God, but I have to choose to believe that. So I have to renounce that spirit of rejection. You don’t have authority in my life, in Jesus’s name. I may have been rejected by people, but I’ve been accepted by God. See, it’s not enough to say I don’t care, because that’s not really true. I meet people frequently, «I don’t care what people think about me». Oh, stop. It’s better to be applauded than stoned. I don’t think you can afford to live your life in the breeze of public opinion, it’ll make you nuts. It’ll tear you apart. We shouldn’t pretend like we don’t care. I learned some lies as a kid that I had to unlearn as an adult that had me stuck. «I don’t care what you say about me».
That’d roll out of me in a hurry, «I don’t care». Then I learned another one that added to it, «That didn’t hurt». I like sports, but I didn’t get crazy gifts. And I couldn’t jump over things. I wasn’t really fast. I was just stubborn and mean. That was my contribution. Which meant if you knocked me down, I’d get back up. You knock me down again, I’d go find an equalizer. 'Cause if the fight really matters, it’s not about being fair. But I had to overcome that because it did hurt. It did hurt to get your teeth knocked out. It did hurt, wasn’t fun. And I had this whole wrong sense of wasn’t honest. You see, we’ve got to come, we’ve gotta begin to appropriate the promises. It’s not simple. We have to choose to obey.
What if you don’t choose to obey? It’s not a neutral thing, and this is where I think we have missed a great deal. Same chapter, Deuteronomy 28, verse 15: «However, if you do not obey the Lord your God, and you do not carefully follow all his commands,» it’s not like no harm, no foul. «All these curses will come upon you and they’ll overtake you». You won’t outrun them. Say, «Well, I don’t like that». I’m not always thrilled with gravity but that doesn’t change it. You say, «Well, I don’t believe that». It won’t, you can say you don’t believe that ice cream will make you fat, but it won’t make you skinny when you eat it. I mean, we’ve adopted some goofy behaviors amongst ourselves as people of faith.
What the Bible is giving us is a blueprint. We can choose to be obedient to God, or we can choose not to be obedient to God. It’s our choice. He’s given us that privilege. But option A will bring blessings if we’ll appropriate the promises, and option two will bring curses. That’s the game plan. What’s God’s objective? He wants us to flourish in the earth. He’s given us authority over everything. But evil exists. So he’s addressed it. He’s given us a way to overcome it. Here’s the punch line and I’m done, Jesus accepted the curse so that you and I might have the blessing. This is why the promises are available to you and me.
Galatians 3:13, «Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us». On that cross, he became the curse. He exhausted the curse of sin. «For it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who’s hung on a tree.' He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit». I’ve said it to you on many occasions. On the cross, there was a divinely ordered exchange. Jesus exhausted the curse of sin. He took all the punishment that we deserved. So that we might have all the blessing that he deserved. We have to believe it, we have to choose God. This isn’t as complicated as we often make it. Let’s begin to choose to honor God.
See, we don’t just choose God so we can go to heaven, we choose to honor God so our journey through time is better. We had to teach our children to choose God. It’s countercultural, it’s counterintuitive. Most of the messaging that cascades over us, doesn’t really encourage that. You’ll have to use your voice. You’ll have to go to extraordinary measures to help your children and grandchildren get this. You’ll have to resist enormous temptations to coalesce and be like the secular culture. You’ll have to be willing to be different from many in your peer group. Choose God. Choose God.
I learned it as a young man and I don’t have an improvement on it. If you want God’s best, you have to want God’s best. Every day, «God, I want your best today». Wonder how many of you would say that to the Lord tonight. My time’s up. I didn’t bring you a prayer. I want you to make a commitment to the Lord, not in front of me or these other people. If you want God’s best, if you’ll choose him with your whole heart. And for most of us, that means there’s some places we have been holding out. We’ve been negotiating. We’ve been making excuses. We’ve been justifying. We’re doing all those things we do and we’re doing our own thing.
If you really would say to the Lord, «I’m gonna walk in the light of the truth that I know, I wanna walk uprightly before you». If that’s you and you mean it just stand with me real quickly. I wanna pray for you. We’re gonna go, we gotta go. There’s kids to pick up. That’s the ugly part of children’s ministry here when I go too long. It’s a serious thing. The Holy Spirit will show you. God will help you. He’ll show you attitudes that you need to address. There may be relationships you have to change. Stop making excuses. Get serious with it. Folks, remember where we started with the timeline. We’re closer to the end. Lawlessness is increasing. It’s all around us. You can’t be sloppy. Let’s pray:
Father, thank you for your Word, it’s truth, it’s power and authority. We stand in your presence tonight with the desire to honor you. We choose you. We choose you with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole soul, our whole body. We wanna honor you with all that we are and all that we have. Forgive us for our indifference, forgive us for our stubbornness, forgive us for our rebellion. Forgive us when we have refused to cooperate. We come tonight in humility to ask for your forgiveness, to repent of our sin, to choose a new path. Holy Spirit, help us. If there’s any ungodly way in us, make it clear to us. And grant us the courage and the humility to choose you. May your blessings fill our lives. For those who are standing in faith, Father, I pray you give them strength. That by your Spirit, you’ll help them to overcome, to persevere, to endure, to triumph. I thank you that nothing is hidden from your sight. And that we stand under your watchful care. I thank you that your blessings are writing our future and that we can trust you for all that you will do, in Jesus’s name, amen.