GOD S ABUNDANT PLAN GENESIS 12:1-3 GOD S DESIRE FOR US IS THAT WE LIVE FULL AND ABUNDANT LIVES. I. GOD CREATED US FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIMSELF. God Wants To Be In A Personal, Passionate, And Intimate Relationship With Every Person. A. THE OVERFLOW OF LOVE TO HUMAN BEINGS B. NO OTHER GODS C. INTIMATE AND PERSONAL II. GOD CREATED US FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER God Wants Us To Love And Care For One Another. A. FAMILY B. THE OVERFLOW OF LOVE TO A NATION C. LAW III. GOD CREATED US FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LOST. God Wants To Reach Every Lost Person Through Us. A. BLESSINGS ARE MEANT TO SHARE B. THE OVERFLOW OF LOVE TO THE WORLD C. GOD S PROTECTION AND GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS IV. EPILOGUE
God s Abundant Plan Genesis 12:1-3 For the next series, I am going to preach through God s Plan of Salvation for us. When I talk to people about God and becoming a Christian, they often think of Christianity as a religion. They ask me what the rules, rituals, and regulations involve. I try and make it clear that Christianity is about relationship not religion. Listen to what Jesus said His mission was: I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10b / NIV). Jesus came to give us a full and abundant life. Jesus further went on to describe His mission in this way: 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 / NIV). God s desire for us in the next life is that we spend eternity in heaven with Him. So to summarize God s plan for our lives, we can say that His primary desire is that we enjoy a rich relationship with Him both in this life and the next. God passionately loves human beings. I think for me, when I explain this to people; they lock onto the word abundant. In our culture, we have come to value things in terms of monetary value, comfort level, and good health. So when I say that God wants us to have a full and abundant life, people immediately translate that to mean lots of money, good health, and a bump-free ride through life. However, God values relationship far above money, health, or anything else in this world. So for God, His desire for us is that we enjoy a passionate relationship with Him, a full relationship with family and friends, and a desire to see the lost find Him and start enjoying this rich relationship life now and forever. But I m afraid that even though many people aren t as clever and sarcastic as my friends, I think they echo their sentiments. I told one of my friends, Money doesn t buy happiness you know. He responded, But it sure enables you to look for it in more places. Immediately my other friend feigning to help me said, John s right you know, happiness can t be measured by someone s wealth. For instance, a person with eight million dollars may not be one bit happier than a person with seven million. Obviously I wasn t getting through to them, but this morning I hope I can successfully explain to us that God does have a wonderful plan for our lives. Abraham is considered the father of the Jewish nation. When God called to Abraham, Abraham wasn t a believer yet. God singled Abraham out to reveal His plan for human being. Let me read God s first communication with Abraham: 1The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your father s household and go to the land I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:1-3 / NIV). From Abraham came the Jewish Faith, the Jewish Law, and the Jewish Nation. And from the Jewish Faith, Law, and Nation, came Jesus. So I think a good place to describe God s plan for our life would be through Abraham s call. The main idea of this morning s text is this. GOD S DESIRE FOR US IS THAT WE LIVE FULL AND ABUNDANT LIVES. I. GOD CREATED US FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIMSELF God Wants To Be In A Personal, Passionate, And Intimate Relationship With Every Person. Just like for Abraham, God wants us to understand that He created us for relationship with Himself. In other words, GOD WANTS TO BE IN A PERSONAL, PASSIONATE, AND
INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH EVERY PERSON. If you stop and think about that, it s incredible. The One Who created and continues to sustain the entire universe wants to be in a personal, passionate, and intimate relationship with you and with me. How can that be? Who am I that God would want to be in a love relationship with me? Who are you that God should pay special attention to you? He controls and directs the entire universe, and yet has the desire to relationship with each one of us individually. I m not sure I understand that. I say it because the Bible says it and I believe it because the Bible says it. I believe it because Jesus said it. Listen to what Jesus said: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20 / NIV). A. THE OVERFLOW OF LOVE TO HUMAN BEINGS That is an open invitation to you and to me. Can you stop for a moment and think about that? Why would God create you and me, knowing that we would rebel against Him and ultimately His Son Jesus would have to come and die for us? The Bible s answer is love. There is no reason or logic for love. Augustine said that it was the overflow of love in the Trinity that caused God to create. In other words the overflow of love between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, bubbled up and overflowed, and caused God to create human beings in His likeness and image. We are created in God s likeness and image so we can have a relationship with Him. B. NO OTHER GODS Abraham didn t love God before God called Him. In fact, Abraham didn t even know God. But God knew him. God initiated the relationship with Abraham. God was about to take Abraham on a wild and exciting journey. But the one thing God would not and will never tolerate is other gods. God wants to be our first love. He asked Abraham to give up his country, his extended family, and friends behind. The point is that God has all sorts of relationship blessings He wants us to enjoy with Him, but we must give Him first place in our lives. If we want to enjoy this abundant life, we must give up everything and enter into this incredible love relationship with God first. Since He is the ultimate power and person in charge of all that is, it is critical that our relationship with God is right. Peace and joy don t come from material riches, status, or power. Peace and joy do not depend on any human circumstances. In fact the Bible promises that peace and joy belong to God s children no matter what our circumstances are. C. INTIMATE AND PERSONAL God wasn t sending Abraham out on his own. The Bible is clear that God goes with His children everywhere. A relationship with God is intimate and personal. Look at these three verses. God said to Abraham, I will show you, I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. God is the One Who will travel with and look out for Abraham. Again I want to emphasize that a relationship with God is the foundation for all of life. We may find ourselves in good circumstances or horrible circumstances but nothing can disturb our relationship with God. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote: 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-30 / NIV). That s the stuff that love songs are written about. God s relationship is passionate and personal because He lives in us through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. God s plan is to live in each one of us. When we give our lives to Jesus in faith, immediately God the Holy Spirit enters our lives and settles down inside of us. In fact the Apostle Paul described our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. So the first part of living a full and abundant life is to embrace this truth. GOD
WANTS TO BE IN A PERSONAL, PASSIONATE, AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH EVERY PERSON. Unlike the world we live in, it doesn t matter if you are rich or poor, educated or uneducated, successful or unsuccessful, weak or powerful, God wants to embrace you in a personal and intimate relationship. II. GOD CREATED US FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER God Wants Us To Love And Care For One Another. But secondly, we can live a full and abundant life only when we embrace God s second purpose. God created us for relationship with each other. God s command is clear. GOD WANTS US TO LOVE AND CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER. A. FAMILY The first place we learn to love and care for one another is the family. God told Abraham that he would make his name great and make him into a nation. When God restates this promise later, He elaborates on it with this explanation: 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore Genesis 22:17a / NIV). Family is the basic unit where we learn about loving and caring for one another. That s why parenting is such an awesome responsibility. The Bible commands us to love our children like God loves us. Are we husbands as loving and patient with our wives are as God is with us? Are we parents as patient and loving with our children as God is with us? God built up Abraham s family and ultimately Jesus came from this family. B. THE OVERFLOW OF LOVE TO A NATION Just as the love of God overflowed into the creation of human being, the love of Abraham s family is supposed to overflow into the creation of a great nation. We know that Israel did become a great nation. In our day, the overflow of God s love into our lives is meant to be the foundational motive for God s calling us out of the world, calling us His children, and gathering us together into a family that He called the church. Because we live in such a self-centered society, it is difficult for us to function in the church with the kind of love God demands of us. Listen to how the Apostle Paul summed it up: 1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-11 / NIV). Life in heaven is going to be singularly focused on love; love for God and love for one another. If that s the case then the church is a place where we are to prepare ourselves to live in heaven. Our model is the selflessness of Jesus Christ. I would say that after 30 years in the ministry, I would have to say the two things that threaten to destroy the church in the United States are sexual immorality and self-centeredness. These are the sins of our culture and they are the sins of the modern day church.
C. LAW The most important part of love is getting the proper definition of love. Abraham, his family and the nation were required to submit to the Law of God. God is the author of love and so we must submit to His definition of love. I have described this concept before so I ll just state it. Our culture defines love as the amount of pleasure I can derive from someone or something. And so again, we define love based on our self-absorption and self-centeredness. We love those people and things that give us pleasure. When they no longer give us pleasure, we no longer love them. God s definition of love is found in the Bible: 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8 / NIV). Love in the Bible is never dependent on the lovability of the other. Love is a commitment we make to one another out of our God s love for us and our love for Him. We love God and one another because God loved us first. Listen to how the Apostle John put it: 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (I John 4:7-12 / NIV). True love must be defined by the Bible and must be built on and fleshed out according to God s commands. For Abraham, the sign and commitment of the individual to the community and to God was circumcision. When parents circumcised their children, they were committing themselves and their son to the community of faith. When we dedicate children or baptize people, they are publicly committing themselves to the community and to God and promising to submit to the truths of the Bible. There is no doubt about this command of God. GOD WANTS US TO LOVE AND CARE FOR ONE ANOTHER. Let me just summarize Jesus view of this: 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. 37 Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? 40 The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. 41 Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 45 He will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. 46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life (Matthew 25:31-46 / NIV). Jesus made it clear in this passage as He talked about the final judgment that how we love and care for one another matters a great deal to Him. In fact, how we conduct ourselves in church becomes a demonstration of our love for God and our faith in Him. III. GOD CREATED US FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LOST. God Wants To Reach Every Lost Person Through Us.
A. BLESSINGS ARE MEANT TO SHARE God made it clear to Abraham that He loved Abraham a great deal. He promised to bless and care for Abraham in many ways. However, God did not intend to bless Abraham and the Jewish nation just so they could hoard and enjoy God s blessings for themselves. God expected them to become a blessing to all the nations of the earth. God created us for relationship with the lost. In other words GOD WANTS TO REACH EVERY LOST PERSON THROUGH US. The Apostle Peter describes the heart of God: 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (II Peter 3:9 / NIV). God sent Jesus to die so that all human beings could find salvation and be in a right relationship with Himself. The first thing Abraham had to learn was that blessings are meant to share. It seems that Old Testament Israel never got this concept. And I m ashamed to say that the modern day church doesn t get this either. The main purpose of the church is to win the lost for Christ. Yes the church is a place for believers to find salvation, to grow as Christians, and to find healing. But these blessings are ultimately meant to be shared with the lost world. We exist as a church not so we can come here and socialize with one another. The church doesn t exist for our own agenda s or even to make us feel good. If we are Christians, then we are ambassadors of Christ. If we are not evangelizing and winning this neighborhood for Christ, then we have no reason to exist. The Apostle Paul described our role like this: 20 We are therefore Christ s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ s behalf: Be reconciled to God (II Corinthians 5:20 / NIV). B. THE OVERFLOW OF LOVE TO THE WORLD If we have truly given our lives to Christ and now enjoy the joy, peace, and contentment of being in a right relationship with God And if we have given ourselves to the Christ by becoming part of the church and have experienced the fellowship of other believers, then the overflow of love out of our relationship with God and His church should motivate us to bring others in a right relationship with God. If Jesus died for the sins of the world, then shouldn t we be telling the world about this love of God for them? I know that modern day churches are involved in all sorts of programs. But somewhere along the line, the modern day church has forgotten its main purpose of evangelism. When was the last time you or I presented the gospel to someone? Listen to how Jesus put it: 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20 / NIV). Jesus told us to win people to salvation, to train them and disciple them so that they in turn win other people to Christ. C. GOD S PROTECTION AND GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS But I don t want you to miss the phrase Jesus ends the command with. He said, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. We cannot accomplish anything on our own. God is the One Who opens the eyes of the lost. We are responsible to love people and present them the Gospel. It is God the Holy Spirit Who opens their eyes and leads them to salvation. It is our purpose as Christians and as a Christian church to reach those who are headed for hell to reach them with the message of God s love, His definition of and His promise to give us a full and abundant life. GOD WANTS TO REACH EVERY LOST PERSON THROUGH US.
IV. EPILOGUE Abraham did become a great man who fathered the great nation of Israel that produced the Messiah Jesus. God wants us to be in a relationship with Him, with one another, and the lost. GOD S DESIRE FOR US IS THAT WE LIVE FULL AND ABUNDANT LIVES. There is a little booklet called Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws? The booklet starts out like this, Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe, so are there spiritual laws that govern your relationship with God. They go on to define Law #1 like this, God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life. God had a plan for Abraham. He had a plan for Israel. He had a plan for the church. He has a plan for you and me. Jesus came to give us life to the full.