I Am Blessed Series

I am Blessed

Genesis 1, 16-21

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

What does it genuinely mean to be blessed? The interpretation of this term varies among individuals. Some use it casually in conversation as a simple expression of good wishes. For others, being blessed entails having excellent health, abundant material possessions, or possessing beauty, popularity, or power greater than others. While these can be considered significant gifts from God and signs of divine favor, are they not merely glimpses of a more profound and beautiful definition? If this weren't the case, why did the Apostle Paul, who endured imprisonment, severe floggings, repeated beatings with rods, and three shipwrecks, boast in the goodness of the Lord and view himself as blessed (2 Corinthians 11:20-33)? Why did Job, who lost all his earthly possessions and children, humble himself, worship, and praise God (Job 1)? Surely, being blessed transcends the accumulation of "treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19-21). Since life is described as a "mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14), true blessings must be sought elsewhere. To comprehend God's definition of blessings, let's review the story of how God created everything that exists.

The Creation Blessing

In the beginning the “earth was formless and empty; darkness was over the surface of the deep” (1:2). On day one of creation “God said let there be light” and He separated the light from the darkness thus creating day and night (1:3-5). On day two God said, ‘let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water,” thus creating the sky (1:6-8). On day three God said, “let the water under the sky gather in to one place and let dry ground appear,” and land and the seas were formed (1:9-10). God said, “let land produce vegetation” and the plants and trees were formed to “to bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds” (1:11-13). On day four God said, “let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate day from night and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth,” thus creating the sun, moon, and stars in the sky (1:14-19). On day five God said, “let the water teem with living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky,” thus creating the “great creatures of the sea” and “every winged bird according to its kind” (1:20-23). And on day six God said, “let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they might rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (1:24-27). “And God saw all that He had made, and it was very good” (1:31) and “by the seventh day God finished the work He had been doing; so, on the seventh day He rested from all His work (2:2).

To know that all things both seen, and unseen have their origin in God (Colossians 1:16) is the key reason we as humans say we are blessed! Our existence did not happen by chance but occurred by the commands our loving Creator! And even though the earth became so “corrupt in God’s sight” (Genesis 6:11) that He had to destroy it with a flood due to every inclination of the human heart becoming evil (Genesis 8:21), and though “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah” became “so great and their sin so grievous” (Genesis 18:20) that God reigned down burning sulfur from the heavens on their lands (Genesis 19:23-24), and though Apostle Paul openly declares, “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10); this in no way negates the goodness of what God has created! The world and everything in it are not as the ancient Gnostics would have us believe an evil prison that traps the divine sparks of God’s created image-bearers. Nor are we created as a byproduct of angry gods who merely wanted slaves to do their bidding and chant endless praises to feed their egos. And though the “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) roars around like a lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8), this does not mean he has successfully taken captive every living creature that was ever created. Genesis reveals to us that a sovereign God loved created everything with a purpose. He loves those created in His image so much that He sent His one and only son Jesus to atone for their sins (John 3:16). We are truly blessed for God invites each and everyone of us to be eternally adopted into His family!