Constraints For Fruitfulness(Success)

CONSTRAINTS For FRUITFULNESS(Success)—Gen. 9:1-7

Attention:

Each evening, Tom(a bird lover) stood in his backyard, hooting like an owl

Finally, one night, an owl finally called back to him.

For a year, the man and his feathered friend hooted back & forth. He kept a log of the "conversation."

He was convinced that he was on the verge of a breakthrough in interspecies communication.

However, his wife had a chat with her next door neighbor.

"My husband spends his nights ... calling out to owls," she said.

"That's odd," the neighbor replied. "So does my husband."

Tom’s Success at interspecies communication was limited because of his relationship to his neighbor.

Likewise there our Success as Christians is Constrained by certain relationships.

CONSTRAIN—To severely restrict the scope, extent, or activity of.

Need:

God blessed Noah’s family with a fruitfulness based on relationship.

Man’s fruitfulness is to be constrained/determined thru relationships.

How do relationships constrain/determine our fruitfulness?

3 relationships constraining/determining our fruitfulness.

1—Fruitfulness is constrained thru relationship with...

GOD(:1)

Explanation: (:1)

:1—“So God blessed Noah & his sons, & said to them: “Be fruitful & multiply, & fill the earth.”

This is a reinstatement of the original charge & blessing given to Adam & Eve(implied) in Gen. 1:26-28. There, God made it possible to fulfill the charge thru Adam but it became tainted with sin thru their son Cain(who murdered his brother Abel) establishing or rather propounding a legacy of wickedness, which God never intended.

These are the same words(phraseology) used in God’s original blessing of Adam & Eve:

Gen. 1:26-28—“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, & over the cattle, over all the earth & over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male & female He created them. Then God blessed them, & God said to them, “Be fruitful & multiply; fill the earth & subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, & over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Noah & his family are the progenitors of all humanity in the same sense that Adam & Eve were. They are the ministers of a ‘clean slate,’ a changed life, & the confidence wrought in the privilege of God’s gracious Salvation lived out.

“Blessed”—Krb baw-rak'—Piel Imperfect—1) To bless, kneel; 2) (TWOT) To praise, salute, curse. Strong—a primitive root; To kneel; by implication--To bless God(as an act of adoration), & (vice-versa) man (as a benefit); also by euphemism--To curse (God or the king, as treason).

“Fruitful”(See :7)—hrp paw-raw'—Qal Imperative—1) to bear fruit, be fruitful, branch off. Strong—a primitive root; To bear fruit (literally or figuratively). Used 29X.

“Multiply/Increase”(See :7)—hbr raw-baw'—Qal Imperative—1) Be or become great, be or become many, be or become much, be or become numerous—1a) (Qal)—1a1) To become many, become numerous, multiply (of people, animals, things), 1a2) To be or grow great 2) (Qal) To shoot. Strong—a primitive root; To increase (in whatever respect).

“Fill/Replenish”—alm maw-lay'—Qal Imperative—1) to fill, be full—1a) (Qal)—1a1) To be full—1a1a) Fulness, abundance (participle), 1a1b) To be full, be accomplished, be ended, 1a2) To consecrate, fill the hand.

“Earth”—Ura eh'-rets—1) Land, earth—1a) Earth—1a1) Whole earth (as opposed to a part), 1a2) Earth (as opposed to heaven), 1a3) Earth (inhabitants), 1b) Land—1b1) Country, territory, 1b2) District, region, 1b3) Tribal territory, 1b4) Piece of ground, 1b5) Land of Canaan, Israel, 1b6) Inhabitants of land, 1b7) Sheol, land without return, (under) world, 1b8) City (-state), 1c) Ground, surface of the earth—1c1) Ground, 1c2) Soil, 1d) (in phrases)—1d1) People of the land. Strong—from an unused root probably meaning to be firm; The earth (at large, or partitively a land)

Argumentation:

Rom. 6:5-7, 11, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”.....“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”.....“But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

*Eph. 4:21-24—“if indeed you have heard Him & have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, & be renewed in the spirit of your mind, & that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness & holiness.”