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Join Reverend Israel for his message entitled Being a Blessing, where we'll discover through the life of Abraham how God calls us to leave behind our pain, trust his promises, and become vessels of blessing to others.

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Today's scripture reading is taken from Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 9. The call of Abram. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Heran. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of More. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give you this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord, who appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abraham journeyed on, still going toward the Negar. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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God's word is like a seed when it is sown, and when the seed falls on a good soil, the Bible says that we will reap 30, 60, and 100fold blessings. I have just one slide for my sermon and that will remain there. I'm more of an interactive preacher, but as we read Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, if we would read that particular verse in isolation, we may not be able to fully grasp Abraham's true situation. Yes, the Lord very clearly told Abraham what to do, where to go, and who to leave, and which place that he needs to set foot on. But we have to read the prior verses in order to sink deeper into the context of today's passage. And I believe that the Lord has brought us all together, and today's message will inspire us, will encourage us, and will lift us up so that we could fulfill God's mandate for our lives. When we read Genesis chapter 11, verses 27 to 32, the prior verses to the text that was read for us today, we come to know the following truth. That Abraham's father, Abraham's father, his name is Terah. Terah had boys, and they were Abram, Nahu, and Haran. Haran had a son called Lot. But we read that Haran died while his father Terah was still alive. How devastating that could be, right? For a living parent to lose a child, let alone lose the child at a later stage of their life, is very painful. We know that the parents cry, many of us are here, parents, father, mother, the parents' cry is always, Lord, can you rather than take my child, will you not just take me? Let my child live. That is a parent's cry, isn't it? But Tara had to face the loss of one of his beloved sons. So Abraham lost his own brother, and he had to carry the grief of his living father. Abraham had to carry the pain of his other brother Nahu as well. And adding to this agony, Abraham had to care for his nephew Lot. One death in the family had caused a ripple effect to the entire family. And this was Abraham's first grief. First grief. And then both the surviving brothers, Abraham and Nahu, got married. Nahu married his late brother Haran's daughter, and uh the daughter's name was Milka. Then the Bible mentions that Abraham's wife Sarai could not bear a child. She was barren. For a woman, marriage and becoming a wife, and subsequently to bear a child is a great blessing. The fruit of the womb brings joy not just to the woman, but to the entire family around. And so for cultures and generations past, even till today, for a married woman to not be able to bear a child is quite difficult to face. So Abraham had to carry the grief of his wife, Sarai. Imagine they have to miss important occasions, they have to avoid weddings just so that people will not ask questions and they can run away from the crowd. This was Abraham's grief number two. While we often make reference to Abraham as being very wealthy and rich, what we fail to realize is the sorrowful situation of the entire family. This was one grief after another and after another. This was now a family in deep grief, led by the devastated grief Terah, the father, traveled towards Canaan. And this was not a vacation, it was not a holiday, but it was a family that had to face great pain. It was a very somber and painful journey. And the Bible says that Terah, the father of Abraham, dies. This was Abram's grief number three. And notice where Terah dies, he dies in a place called Haran. In fact, in the Hebrew, the word Haran means crossroads. It was in fact a place of crossroads. If we would now go back to Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, once again, the verse says, The Lord had said to Abraham, Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you. And today my sermon topic is being a blessing. And I would like to share three pointers with this text. Being a blessing, leave and go. Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 to 3. We see that in life we may not always have things work out in alignment the way we want them to be. We may pray, we may fast, we may desire, we may plan things out. Sometimes things don't work out the way that we had intended it to be. Abraham was grieving, he was grieving real hard. But God's promises came to him, to Abraham, at his most lowest point. At his most painful point, at his most grieving point, the Lord appeared to Abraham and gives this promise, being a blessing. God's command came first, leave and go. God's command to Abraham was not just to pack his bags, he was called to strip himself of all his past painful, sorrowful experiences, his disappointments, the plans that did not succeed, the failures that he had to face up to, the people that were looking down on him, the struggle that he was facing because people were now, the family were all looking up to him. But in the midst of all this, the Lord had something greater, something new. Hallelujah. God gave the command, and then came the promises. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. Six times at least. Six times at least. Oftentimes, brothers and sisters, we are quick to want God's blessings, but we do not want to receive his commands. Lord, just give me what I need and want, just give it to me, but do not tell me what to do. All I need is your blessings, but do not tell me what to do, just bless me. But from this passage, we realize that obedience precedes blessings. The Lord said, I will bless you and you will be a blessing. Hallelujah. But in order for that to take place, Abraham leave and go. All of us here, the Lord wants us to be a blessing. We are all here because we are blessed, and because we are blessed, we leave and go and remain a blessing to those around us. The question we can ask is what are some of the things that we have to leave in order to hear God and to be a blessing to all around us. And we can begin here right in church. We can start here. All of us here are familiar with church, we are familiar with the surroundings of the church. You know, as a pastor, uh when I when I when I stand up right at the pulpit, I will know who is seated here on this left aisle, on this this side of the congregation. I will know who's seated there. You know, I know what are our familiar and favorite places to sit, right? And that's great. But perhaps we can leave our places of comfort. Perhaps we could look out for someone who's new or someone whom we have seen but yet to speak, someone whom we have not greeted yet, greeted yet, or offered a smile or an encouragement. The Lord is saying, don't just remain where you are, leave and go. God wants to make you and I into a blessing, a vessel of blessing, a conduit of blessing. And if we would avail ourselves, someone else will be blessed. Leave aside our fears, our anxieties, our insecurities, leave them, leave them aside. Don't let it cling on to you, don't let it dominate you, don't let it rule you, but shackle them off, dust them off, put them aside so that we could go forth. Let go and let God so that people will be blessed by our obedience to God. What about someone who's crossing our mind day and night? Somehow the Holy Spirit is bringing before us a person whom we know or a family who's having some struggles, perhaps a couple who is facing marital issues, maybe your your colleague or or your friend, your neighbor who's having a relationship heartbreak. Will you reach out to be a blessing? Will we come out of our own pain and grief, our zone of grief and sorrow, so that we could reach out and go. Be a blessing. Brothers and sisters, unless we go, they cannot come. And so we have come into the house of the Lord. We sing the praises of the Lord, and we heard the word of the Lord that said that come boldly in the presence of the Lord. Come unto me, the Lord said. Come unto me, the Lord said, Come, those who are weary, come those who are hungry. But at the same time, we who come to the Lord, he is also telling us to go. When we come into the house of the Lord, we come with different emotions, different uh phases of life. Some of us will be coming with deep trouble in our hearts, our sorrows, our regrets, our disappointments. We may come with whatever we have in our hearts, but when we come into the presence of the Lord, we can lay it at his feet. And when we lay it at his feet, God gives us a new strength, a new anointing, a new empowerment, so that we can go forth to love and serve the Lord. And we can all say in the name of Christ, Amen. Abraham had a hard time, but yet he was faithful to the Lord. Being a blessing, leave and go. Hallelujah. The light is green. In fact, the altar linen is also green. The charge has been given. The Lord is with us. We shall be a blessing and leave and go. My second point is being a blessing left and arrived. Left and arrived. We see in Genesis 12, verses 4 to 6. Genesis 12, verse 4 says, So Abraham left. Hallelujah. Abraham left. As the Lord had told him, and Lord went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he set out from Haran. 75 years old when he set out from Haran. So Abraham left. His father Terah set out with his grieving family to reach Canaan. But he was at a crossroads in a place called Haran. He couldn't continue. He died there. The fate of the family was buried there and then. But yet God is faithful to those who obey. Abraham went further than where and when his father had gone. God is faithful. And that is another heart's cry of a parent. What is the heart cry of a mother and father? I want my child to live better than me. That is the heart's cry of a father and mother. I want my child, my son, my daughter to have a better life. I don't want my son, my daughter to struggle or be sorrowful. I want them to be better. God is faithful. Remember when Abraham left the place called Haran, Sarai was still childless. She was still childless. What does this teach us, brothers and sisters? This teaches us a life lesson that we are to obey God in spite and despite. Whether we have it all or whether we have none at all, whether we feel like it or we do not feel like it, whether we are well or not, whether we have been richly blessed or we are still in lack, we choose to obey God at His word. We choose to follow His directions and instructions. With that, God will open up the doors of blessings. If Abraham had stopped in self-pity and grief, he would not have reached Canaan. And we will not have been called as people who are heirs of Abraham. Isn't that so? We worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are heirs of Abraham. The lineage comes from there. You and I are called to not look out at our own lack and shortcomings. If we would look at our own lack and shortcomings, we will fail to arrive where God wants us to be. Today, God wants us to arrive where He wants us to arrive. We want to be where God has it for us. Be at the center of His will, even when things go wrong and things don't form up the way that we had intended it to be. And you know what? I believe that my God has eyes to see and ears to hear. And he's sensing, he can feel our heartbeat. I believe that God was watching Abraham's, Abraham's every single move, every move, every step, and even every half step. God sees our every move, every motive and intentions. And remember, Abraham was not yet shown the skies and the stars. God had not asked him to look up at the stars yet. Abraham had not been given the blessing of a child yet. Some of us are still at a yet period. Isn't that so? Lord, how long? When, Lord? How long am I to wait? Why this disappointment? Why this pain? Why this delay, Lord? Why, Lord? Some of us in our faith journey are in the yet, not yet point. But God will accomplish whatever He has told us and He will fulfill His promises. Obedience to God does not mean we will arrive at a spotless place where everything will be smooth and beautiful and rosy. Not at all. You know what happened when Abraham obeyed God? When Abraham arrived at Canaan, the Bible says that the Canaanites were there. The Canaanites were there. The idol worshippers were there. It was not cozy and nice and beautiful yet. Just because we obey God doesn't mean everything will be smooth sailing. No, not at all. The storms may come, things may not form up yet. But the question is, could Abraham be a blessing even then and there? Can God use us to be a blessing in a place that is hostile, that is dangerous, that is not pleasant, that is messy, that is corrupted, that is full of politics. Can God still make us a blessing even there? The answer is a resounding yes. God used Joseph at a place was so difficult. God lifted up Joseph because he was obedient. Your light will shine the strongest and the darkest darkness you are facing today. Yes. God's light will shine in and through us. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. God will fulfill it. God often sends us out in the blessing as a blessing right in the middle of a spiritual desert or a stressful environment. Don't be too quick to ask the Lord to remove you from that place. No. He wants us to bloom where we are. Where we are is God's plan and purposes. Bloom there. Bloom there. The psalmist says, stay in the land and do good. Stay there and do good. Stay there. Sometimes we think that the grass is greener over the other side. There is a better church there. There is a better family there. There's a better parent there. But the Lord says, where you are, be a blessing. Where you are, be that blessing. Yes, it can be painful, it can be tedious, but there, there, God will cause us to be an immense blessing. Bring peace in a hostile work environment. Bring joy in a dull space. You and I are the chosen ones. Hallelujah. Jesus said, I am the light of the world, but not this dead. He said, You are the light of the world. Hallelujah. Light in the darkness. Arise, shine, your light has come. We are overcomers because of Christ. Abraham left and he arrived. Praise the Lord. Be where God wants you to be, even when it's difficult. Even the family situation is tough and divided and in torturous. Maybe. Maybe your ministry is not flourishing. Be there. Bloom there. Be patient. Arrived. You have arrived. You have arrived where God has told you to be. And He will provide everything that you need so that you can be a blessing. Praise the Lord. No wonder we all are not in the same company. When we go back to our works, not in the same school. God has distributed us in different places. Like it or not, brothers and sisters, we have an answer for the world. We are the answer because we have Jesus. Where you are is God's purpose for you. God will fulfill his purpose in and through you. My last point is being a blessing. Build and continue. You see it in Genesis 12, verses 7 to 9. Genesis 12, verse 7 to 9. We see that Abraham arrives at Canaan. He arrives at Canaan with his family. But the Canaanites were there and they were stronger. But what did Abraham do? Abram, he doesn't build a fortress to secure, to defend himself. But rather, Abram builds an altar to the Lord. Praise the Lord. You see it in Genesis 12, verse 7 and 8. I'll just read it out for us. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said, To your offspring, to your offspring, to your offspring, I give this land. To your offspring, I will give this land. You know, when God looks at us, he looks at the generation. Hallelujah. We may not, we may not always see with our own eyes. But sometimes when we pass on, our children talk about us. It's a bit too late, lah, but then we talk about the legacy the father has left, the mother has left. We want to make a legacy for the Lord. You are you are a generation. I am a generation. If I build an altar to the Lord, God will somehow form my children and their next generation, and they will walk in the ways of the Lord. Never underestimate your walk with the Lord. You may not always see things forming up well, but Abraham built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. Praise the Lord. God appears to him and gives instruction and promises. Abraham, one hand is not enough. He extends his other hand. Draw near to God. James 4, verse 8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. When the Lord appears, he speaks. Our responsibility, here I am, Lord. I don't want to just pass by. I want to linger in your presence. That is why, not just once, twice, but further on, Abraham continually built an altar to the Lord as a public declaration, as an indication of his dependence on not on people around him, but on God, on Yahweh alone. It was a lifestyle of worship he had with his God. Someone said on Sunday it's all glory, but Monday is another story. Our worship should continue till our last breath. We will continue to praise the Lord and worship him and obey him at all costs. Abraham built the altar, he worshiped God, crying out to the Lord, and then he continued the journey. And he built again and he continued his journey. What does this show? Abraham was consistent in his gratitude, in his faith before God. His everyday life was formed around God. It was always about him. He was always around, surrounded by his thoughts about his God. He kept his thoughts, his ideas, his formation all around God. Praise the Lord. You know, when we have an occasion, the last uh church camp, I remember, I mean, nowadays you have this thing where you stand at the center and then there's a phone there, and the thing will circle, right? You move around and then the picture is taken, right? Our life should revolve around God. Hallelujah. Amen. And that's what Abraham did is always. And because of that, we can see all things had come from him, and because of that, we can give it up to him. Building an altar to the Lord, making Christ as Lord, remaining in Christ, and he will remain in us. And when we do that, we will produce fruit, fruit that will last. The book of John, chapter 15, we see Jesus said, When you remain in me and I remain in you, you shall bear much fruit. And this bearing of fruit is a regular, consistent. You may our journey may be like that, but we don't stop. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We may be up there, but sometimes down, but we don't stop. We keep going because we have put our Lord right before us. David said, I've set the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand, I shall never be shaken. He never lost His focus, his vision. Each one of us, brothers and sisters, each one of us, children, youths, young adults, seniors, elders who are gathered here this Sunday. We have various roles and responsibilities that are huge. Sometimes we are unable to bear those huge responsibilities. But right where we are, God is wanting us to be a blessing. Be a blessing. As a father, as a mother, as a child, as a teacher, as a doctor, as a homemaker, whatever, wherever, however, God has made us to be, be a blessing. I leave us with this thought. What is our posture to God's blessing on us? All of us would agree that we are sitting here because someone has actually blessed us. God has used someone else to bless us. That is why we are seated here. God has used someone to bless us. It may be finance. When we started our family, financially would have been tough. But God used someone to give a monthly blessing. It may be clothes, it may be guidance, it may be prayer, support, or maybe a word of encouragement, or a pat on the back, a handshake, a hug. It may be a visit. It may be a short phone call, or perhaps buying a meal for someone. It may be helping someone else with the groceries or extending a love gift to a needy family, paying for the tuition fees, supporting the church with our talents and our gifts. Or just being around. We may have nothing, no money, no talent, no gifts, but just being around, just being there is a blessing. Sometimes I'll tell my congregation members: don't miss church because it's not just about you, your presence encourages someone else. God wants us to be a blessing. And may we continue to be a blessing. God will use us mightily for his purposes.

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