For some of us, the blessed life may look different depending on the skills, talents, and resources that God has given to us. But God has given all of us the elements in our lives needed to live a blessed life. In this week’s message, Pastor Ken talks about how our trust in God plays into having a life blessed by him. He shows from the story of Abraham that trusting in God is not always easy and sometimes we fail. We don’t understand how God could come through and so we bail on waiting for Him and try to work it out on our own. But God isn’t interested in keeping us from all difficulty. He is interested in helping us grow our faith muscle so that we can trust more and and accomplish the blessed life.

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MESSAGE NOTES

We are in the 2nd week of The Blessed Life series. I thought I had an idea of what a blessed life looked like and you probably did to… BUT I don’t know that our idea and God’s idea are the same.

What’s your idea of a blessed life? Most of us would answer: health, wealth, problem-free, comfort filled life or something similar. AMERICAN DREAM Jesus’ very first sermon – Matthew 5 God blesses those:

  • Poor and recognize their need for Him.
  •  Those that mourn.
  • Those who are humble.

Not EXACTLY my list for a BLESSED life!!!!! But the blessed life perfectly matches your God-given gifts, talents, personality, calling and purpose. Because the
blessed life is simply leveraging and risking those things so God can multiply your impact. Because we all have different gifts, talents, personalities the blessed life might look different BUT the elements of the blessed life are the same for all of
us.

Today we’re going to continue to look at the life of Abraham to see how God blessed his life and more importantly the path that you and I will have to walk if
we want to live a blessed life.

Today we’;re going to talk about a key element of the blessed life called TRUST.
I love Abraham’s story because he is a real person. He didn’t bat 1,000 when it comes to trusting God. Like us, he wavered back and forth between TRUST
and DOUBT.

Genesis 12:1 God said leave everything and Abram
does!!!!!

Gen 12:10-13 (She’s my sister)

“At that time a severe famine struck the land of
Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he
lived as a foreigner.  As he was approaching the
border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, “Look,
you are a very beautiful woman.  When the Egyptians
see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Let’s kill him;
then we can have her!’  So please tell them you are
my sister. Then they will spare my life and treat me
well because of their interest in you.”
This is comforting to me because I’ve not batted 1,000
in my life trusting God either.

-In high school I didn’t trust God’s plan for my life: I was in charge, I knew what was best for me.

– I’ve struggled with trusting God to provide for my
family in difficult times. (My solution was to use credit
cards).

What areas of your life do you struggle with trusting God? (finances, relationships, jobs, health)

When we look at Abraham’s life, there are several times when he strikes out.

Genesis 16 –Has a child with their house servant, Hagar. (Do you struggle trusting God when things don’t happen in your timing?)

Only one thing worse than waiting on God…wishing you had waited on God!”

Genesis 17:17 – God re-appears to Abraham to renew his promise to give him a son through Sarah, and he laughs at God. (Do you struggle trusting God when things seem impossible?)

  •  Moses – You have the wrong guy.
  • Gideon – You have the wrong guy.
  •  Me – preaching Wrong guy.

 

Genesis 18… 3 guys come walking up to Abraham and one say by this time next year
Sarah will have a son! But he doubts because of their ages.

Genesis 20 – again she’s my sister. (I feel better about my life).

3 Things We Can Learn From the Life of Abraham When It
Comes To Trusting God:

1. GOD GROWS OUR FAITH BY TESTING IT.

James 1:2-4
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your
way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you
know that when your faith is tested, your endurance
has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your
endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and
complete, needing nothing.”

Right after Abram started following God, God allows a famine so that Abram would have to go to Egypt, a place where he’d be scared.

God was testing and trying to grow his faith.

Faith works like a muscle; you only grow it by straining it.

If you want to get bigger muscles you have to work them to the point of strain,
which allows it to grow stronger. That’s how God grows our faith. He puts
us in situations where he strains us so that we can grow back stronger.

  •  We see the roadblocks or the bumps in the road as a sign we are on the WRONG PATH… NO it’s a sign you’re on the RIGHT PATH: Abraham.. I left everything now a drought!!!!! You started tithing and you lose your
    job! How is God going to provide for me now?

 

– Lost your job and then your car breaks down. He is testing your faith.

The Christian life is not about comfort; it’s about faith. Faith is an important muscle in following Jesus, and God is committed to strengthening it because God is committed to you living a blessed life.

2. IN TESTING OUR FAITH, GOD OFTEN BRINGS
US TO OUR LIMIT.

God could have given Abram a son immediately, but he didn’t. Instead he waited about 30 years before keeping that promise. Why did he wait so long? Because the blessed life is about the journey NOT the destination.

Let’s go back to the muscle illustration. There is something called Muscle Failure, it’s when you work a muscle till you’ve got nothing left, and then the muscle grows.

Everyone wants to be a state champion (destination) but not everyone wants
to sacrifice (process). Everyone wants the blessed life but few are willing to be pushed to the limit to grow the faith required to experience the blessed life.

That’s what God does to your faith, he pushes it to your limit and then it grows.

  •  Is God doing that with you, is he pushing you to your limits? Where?
  • Be encouraged you are on the right path

3. Confidence to risk for God comes from
understanding the commitment God has made to
us.

Genesis 15:5-10, 17-18

“Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith. Then the LORD told him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.” But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?” The LORD told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.”

“After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.  So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt.” We live in a written age…a contractor guarantees a price by a written contract.  If they try to come back with a different price you show the contract. In their day instead of a written contract they cut open
some animals, walked through the blood so that the blood would splashed on their robes saying…. If I don’t keep my end of the covenant, may this happen
to me. The Hebrew word for covenant literally means to cut. Try that with your contractor that tries to change the price on you.

So if God went through the pieces…who didn’t; pass
through? Abram.

The meaning is clear: If God fails to keep up his side of the bargain he will pay with his blood. But if Abram fails to keep his side of the bargain, God also will pay
with his blood. I want you to really think about this: God makes
himself responsible for both sides of this covenant. God says, I’ll pay the penalty if I don’t keep up my end and I’ll pay the price if you don't keep yours, either.

True confidence doesn’t come from within us. It comes from what was done for us.
In Jesus we see God’s commitment to see it through and that becomes our anchor to boldly risk for him.

Not only will he always keep up his end of the bargain; he will make up for where I
mess up.

God’s commitment to my marriage and family is greater than mine. Where I mess up he stays committed.

Proverbs 24:16
“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.”

SEVEN – Means completely, completion, perfection. Here’s what this means…. no matter where you are, or how badly you’ve stumble, you’ve completely messed up….. you can get up and keep trusting because God's commitment to you
has never stopped.

Your righteousness is not shown by never falling.

You falling and getting up is your declaration that where you falter, God is still faithful.

Abram fell 5 times. But God says get up! I have a plan for your life!

I know some of you have messed up badly. Get up!

You messed up your marriage, fell back into porn, made some horrible financial decisions, you’ve said some horrible things, made a really bad mistake.

Get Up!!! He will never give up on you!. God is serious about teaching you to live by faith, to trust him.

But before God can do something through us he’;s got to do something in us.

He has to grow faith within you before you can multiple that faith through you.

So where do you need to trust and wait on God? Career, relationships, time, abilities, resources.

Maybe you’ve wanted the blessed life but have given up because of the pain or bumps in the process of God growing your faith…. It’s not too late, get Up!

Trust God that the blessed life is the best life!