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Blessed to be a blessing Full Gospel message is giving back not stopping at receiving Galatians 3:8

Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14 The Great Commission began in Abrahamic Covenant Most of Church stops at Is 53 and does not go to 54 Gossip Envy Greed
Walk Away: repentant of not blessing, people see that tent of God must be enlarged, strengthened stretched.

Genesis 12:3 (New King James Version) 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. Genesis 12:3 marks the beginning of what we commonly call the Great Commission. This is also referred to as the Abrahamic covenant and is again mentioned in Genesis 18:18, 22:18, 26:4, 28:14 The apostle Paul referred to this correlation in Galatians 3:8 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. This covenant is the beginning of the Gospel. The Gospel was preached to Abraham as a precursor to what was to come. Laying the foundation for the Gospel of Jesus was the Abrahamic covenant which was described in Genesis. So how does this apply to us today. First it gives a clear indication that the Commission of reaching the lost has been in progress before Jesus walked this earth. Along with this, is the command that we are blessed to be a blessing! Churches across this nation have presented the message of Christ based on Isaiah 53. Lets turn there. However, we often stop at chapter 53 and forget to continue on to see what is next. Look at Isaiah 54 now. This covenant of peace is also called the heritage of the servants of the Lord in verse 17. These promises of mercy, kindness and peace are ours now that we are grafted into the lineage of Gods servants. These are the blessings that the Abrahamic covenant was talking about. Lets take a close look at verse 2. This

will be our key text. After looking at the perpetual commandment which began in the Abrahamic covenant, we see that there are 4 specific commandments given to us in Isaiah 54:2 Isaiah 54:2 1) Enlarge the place of your tent The Hebrew literal meaning of this is to make wide or to increase the space of your dwelling place, home or tabernacle. The word tent is from the Hebrew word O-hel which means a tent (as clearly conspicuous from a distance) a) The tent must be conspicuous. Our dwelling place, our tabernacle must be conspicuous. Without being conspicuous nobody will be able to see who we are. Example: Sometimes young people will go and cover themselves in tattoos, piercings, or they will do something crazy to their hair. This is so they can be identified as someone, to have unique individuality. They are conspicuous. We also must be conspicuous. The thing that is different about us, is the light of Jesus within us. Our tabernacle must be conspicuous. As Paul explained 1 Corinthians 12, we are the body of Christ. We should be identifiable from a distance. b) We are to make our tabernacle wider and therefore be more conspicuous. The word of God warns us to be doers of the word and not only hearers. The church is filled with people who want Sunday morning entertainment. All around the nation, people hop from church to church looking for the perfect worship, the most exciting and energizing preacher and the most cutting edge youth programs. How can a tent be enlarged when it was never anchored in the first place? How can you enlarge your dwelling place when you cannot be content with where you are? Did you know that most churches in America are started from transplant members? c) God wants us to make His tabernacle bigger! His tabernacle is the precious bride of Christ. We are the church, and we are to enlarge it!

2) Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings

The curtains here are actually the walls of the tent. The way the sentence is constructed leads me to believe that there is extra slack in the materials. This curtains or walls of the tent are more like draping and sagging rather than being pulled tight. God has created within us the inerrant ability to grow, to expand and to multiply. Just look at your waistline :D It has been said before that if you are not growing then you are dying. It is time that we tap into that potential, to use those dormant gifts in our lives and to stretch. The curtains can also be viewed symbolically as Gods grace and covering over our lives, His shelter and protection from the outside world. Stretching these curtains of God is a step of faith believing that as we venture out into the unknown that God will shelter and take care of us. His covering is there for us as we stay in His will. If you recall the curtains of the temple being designed and woven in Exodus, you find that curtains were beautiful colors and even embroidered with cherubim. Liberally interpreting this, to me it sounds like Gods covering and grace is also magnificent and a sight for others to see. The splendor of Gods grace is quite possibly one of the reasons that the Tent is to be conspicuous. 3) Do not Spare The literal meaning of the word Spare as used in this verse is restrain, refrain, refuse, preserve, hinder or hold back. We cannot hold back. If we trust that the Bible is true, infallible and perfect; then we ought to do as it says. When we dont then we are directly defying Gods heart and His direction for our lives. The prophetic word or the Lord is do not hold back. If you limit your choices to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise. -Robert Fritz We cannot compromise what God wants to do in us, and through us. We the body of Christ cannot hold back slack from the Lord. We cannot hold back the tithe, cannot hold back the offering and cannot hold back our witness to expand the tent of His bride! 4) Lengthen your cords The word Cord as used here has two meanings. The first meaning is the cord of a tent. This cord would be our present day 2x4 board. The basic building block for a home is the 2x4 or the cord. Interpretive liberty. Lets take a moment and look at the order of the text. In both the English and the original Hebrew the order of the commands are the following English -Enlarge your tent/place of habitation -Stretch the curtains

-Do not spare/hold back -Lengthen Cords -Strengthen Stakes Hebrew -Enlarge your tent/place of habitation -Stretch the curtains -Do not spare/hold back -Strengthen Stakes** -Lengthen Cords** In my liberty of interpretation here, it sure seems like God has told us to enlarge first, without holding back, then to strengthen our stakes for the foundation, then to lengthen our cords. To me this would be interpreted as to GO; to TAKE GROUND first without any restraint, then to STRENGTHEN STAKES and LENGTHEN CORDS. If we correctly understand this then the cords and the stakes are the foundational infrastructure of the Tent. I think too often we go so caught up in perfecting those cords and stakes that we already have, that we never move onto the enlarging. This is the case because we typically do things out of Gods order. Mans order would say that you must have the infrastructure ready to support the larger and heavier weight of the larger tent. Gods order says enlarge first in faith and then to strengthen the infrastructure. I began to ponder what this means and how it would apply to us personally. Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. If we focus on where we are individually or where you are as a church; and then constantly try to perfect ourselves or this church, we will never grow. This does not give excuse for any sin in the camp! This merely suffices to exhort us to move forward with reaching others for Christ rather than trying to make everything else perfect first. The fact is, if we were to try and make ourselves and our church perfect first then we would never reach anyone for Christ. 5) Strengthen your stakes

The original language explains that strengthen has the meanings of to fasten, to seize, and to conquer. It also implies the attitude of being courageous. The stakes are vital to the integrity of the Tent. Without these strengthened stakes the pressure from the lengthened cords and the heavier curtains will cause the steaks to come right out of the ground. The steaks must be strong, the must be able to bear a heavier load and they must be firmly driven into the ground. These steaks are binding force between the Tent and the foundation. Lets look at these stakes in two different ways. First, as we are talking about taking ground, then these stakes must have an understanding of the culture and people around them. Example: I would not expect any one of you to be comfortably adjusted if I sent you off to Rwanda. You would not have an understanding of the culture or the people if I just dropped you off at the airport and sent you on your way. To be successful you would need to have prepared for the culture, the people, your surroundings and so on. Just like this as we advance forward in taking ground for the kingdom of God, our stake into the ground must be a solid connection with the people and the culture. The thing that transcends all ignorance in this area is genuine love of God! We could also look at the stakes another way. The stakes are what grounds the Tent into the Rock of Christ. We must have a solid Biblical outlook on life and have the ability to see things through the eyes of the Lord.

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