blessed to be a blessing

In Genesis 12, God calls a man named Abram (later God changes his name to Abraham which is how most of us know him) and promises him amazing things.  God tells this man, a wandering shepherd, that he will give him a new and wonderful land and that he will give him many children and make his family into a great nation!  It's almost too good to be true (in fact Abram's wife Sara laughs at the very idea when she hears it because it's so outrageous). 
 
But, Abram isn't blessed just because God likes him or because he did something deserving of all these gifts...God blesses him for a reason.  In verse 2, God says that Abram is blessed to "be a blessing."

You see Abram isn't supposed to keep these blessings to himself, he is supposed to share them (and this relationship he has found with God) with others; that's actually the whole point.  Abram is a conduit of God's blessing.  He is blessed, but only so that he can be a blessing to others and so that the blessings of God will continue to grow onward and upward to all people of the earth.  In fact, you and I are part of that line of blessing that started with this very promise to Abram.  

This week we will start a new sermon series called #blessed based off Jesus teachings in Matthew 5 where we find that the people Jesus calls blessed don't look like the people we might quickly consider to be blessed by our standards.  But as we learn what it means to be blessed in the way Jesus teaches, remember that God's blessings are always meant to be shared...that we are to be conduits of God's blessings to others; just like Abram.  We are blessed to "be a blessing."
 
In Christ,
Pastor Scott