Sermon: How You Can Inherit the Greatest Blessing

 

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03868,01.03.2016,HowYouCanInheritTheGreatestBlessing

 

How You Can Inherit the Greatest Blessing 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • January 3, In the year of our Lord, 2016

Persuasion: 

  1. Gen 1–2 – Beautiful Creation for Man 
  2. Gen 3 – Man Ruined It 
    1. Like soiling an expensive wedding dress intentionally
    2. Like introducing a deadly germ to a healthy person
      1. The germ is small, but
      2. it grows and kills the body.
        1. Gen 4–5 show
        2. that the small action of Adam and Eve grew.
          1. Cain and Abel
          2. Gen 6 – violence
  3. Gen 5 – Everyone Died 
    1. They lived long
    2. But they died
    3. God created the human body to be able to live forever
      1. with the help of the Tree of Life
      2. Would you like to eat from that tree?
  4. Gen 7–9 – Recreates 
    1. Tells Noah to spread over the Earth (9.1)
    2. Gen 10–11 man refuses to spread out
      1. As Gen 11 closes,
      2. we find Abraham moving from Ur to Canaan.
  5. Gen 12.1–3 – God Will Bless Man as He Desires to Do It 
    1. This explains why Abraham was moving, but
    2. it also laid down the foundation for the greatest blessing,

      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.
      2 I will make you a great nation;
      I will bless you
      And make your name great;
      And you shall be a blessing.
      3 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.”
      (Gen 12.1–3)

  6. Gen 13–50 – Waiting for the Land 
  7. Exo–Deu – Entering the Land 
  8. Jos–Mal – Living in the Land 
  9. OT – Preparing Israel to Give the World the Greatest Blessing 
  10. Matt–John – The One Who Will Give the Greatest Blessing 
  11. Acts–Rev – Living with the Greatest Blessing 
    1. The blessing revealed,

      8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed” (Gal 3.8).
    2. Further revelation,

      25 “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities” (Acts 3.25–26).

Exhortation: 

  1. You do not have to be a Jew to inherit the greatest blessing 
    1. You just need faith
    2. Then the Lord will separate your sins from you
  2. Here is how you show your faith,

    38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2.38–39).
  3. Do you know why this is the greatest blessing? 
    1. It gives you access to the actual Tree of Life in heaven
    2. Revelation 21 and 22 show who can experience the Tree of Life,

      21.27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 22.1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever (Rev 21.27–22.5).

      1. You have to have your sins forgiven
      2. Do you:
        1. Believe?
        2. Repent?
      3. Have you been baptized?
      4. Are you ready to live for the Lord?