Empowered to Prosper: Why the Blessing Means You Can't Fail

Sermon outline

Like Abraham, you were called out by faith and God has blessed you, which means He has empowered you to prosper and increase, so become blessing-minded and walk by faith, not by sight.

1. Look to the rock from which you were hewn

   Isaiah reminds those who follow righteousness and seek the Lord not to forget how they came into the kingdom. You did not come by legalism or because someone forced you; God expressed His love, you heard the Word and responded by faith. So don't slip back into the law and rituals, because they never set you free.

   “It was pure faith. You heard God's word, you responded, and you believed.”

   • Isaiah 51:1

2. Look to Abraham your father: called alone

   Abraham, the father of faith, was steeped in idolatry in Ur of the Chaldees. He reasons that God probably called many, but only Abraham responded, and he did so by faith. In the same way God called each of us out of our family, profession, background and place, and because we come from Abraham's lineage by faith, his blessing is ours too.

   “If God blessed my father, God's got to bless me.”

   • Isaiah 51:2
   • Galatians 3:13-14

3. Blessed means empowered to prosper

   You may not yet be experiencing the blessing, but we walk by faith, not by sight. God rewards those who diligently seek Him week after week, not those who seek Him legalistically like Pharisees bargaining 'if I do this, God will do that'. The blessing is an empowerment and an ability to do well in life, even if your family came from poverty, and though the righteous have many afflictions, the Lord delivers them from them all.

   “God empowers you to prosper so you just can't fail.”

   • 2 Corinthians 5:7
   • Hebrews 11:6
   • Genesis 15:6
   • Psalm 34:19

4. God increased him: a trophy of His grace

   When God dealt with Abraham He had two things in mind: to bless him and to increase him, and through Christ He looks at us the same way. God wants to show your life off to the world, prospering you among your family, neighbours and workplace where it was humanly impossible.

   Illustration: People will ask how a woman who started at the bottom, mopping floors, making coffee or working as a receptionist, now holds a managerial position.

   “With blessings I will bless you and I will increase you and make you a trophy of my grace.”

   • Isaiah 51:2

5. He will make your wilderness like Eden

   God will comfort Zion and turn her wilderness into a garden where there is no lack, simply because you are His child and He loves you. We live in a 'miracle garden', with God finding a way of escape in every challenge, angels encamping around us and grace covering even our mistakes. Once God sets His love on you, even if you run away He will come and get you.

   Illustration: Teaching a young boy the story of Jonah, who ran to Tarshish until God sent a storm and a great fish to bring him back into His will, just as a loving parent brings a child back.

   “God loves you so much that even if you run away from Him, He'll come get you.”

   • Isaiah 51:3
   • 1 Corinthians 10:13
   • Psalm 34:7
   • Isaiah 52:12
   • Jonah 1:3
   • Jonah 1:17

6. Become blessing-minded

   The blessing of the Lord, the empowerment to prosper, makes truly rich and adds no sorrow. The Amplified Bible says repent means to think differently and change your mind, so stop walking by sight and circumstances, because whatever is not of faith is sin. Abraham doubted at times and tried to do it in the flesh with Ishmael, but he considered not his aged body, believed God, received Isaac at 100 and trusted God could raise him from the dead on Mount Moriah.

   “If God did it in the past, He'll do it again and again and again.”

   • Proverbs 10:22
   • Matthew 3:2
   • Romans 14:23
   • Romans 4:18-21
   • Genesis 18:12
   • Genesis 16:1-4
   • Genesis 22:1-12
   • Hebrews 11:19