I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing:
7 sermons cite this verse
… of Genesis 12. Look at it with me. Now, the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, the promise to Abraham was a land and a blessing. Now quickly, I want you to look at three characteristics of this promise that are key to understanding Bible prophecy. First of all, I want you to notice that God's promise to Abraham was a literal promise. Now, there was certainly a spiritual component to it, as we saw just a few moments ago. But God was actually promising to Abraham an actual piece of real estate, an actual land that would be his forever. This land, this new land, Canaan, is not just some metaphor for heaven in the future. It's an actual land that would belong to Abraham. How do I know that? Look at how Abraham responded to the promise. Genesis 12 verses 4 and 5. As soon as he received the promise, Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Now Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran, and Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his nephew, and all of their possessions …
… And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and those who dishonor you and the family. Those who dishonor you, I will curse. Now listen to this. It says, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So he gets one of the biggest promises. And if I'm Abraham, when I heard that, I'll be like, hey, y'all hear what God said? You didn't hear? Well, he said actually that I'm going to be a big deal. So I don't know if you want to hop on the train now, but like if you don't, I'm going to blow up and you're going to be sitting over here. So you better like, if I'm telling, like God said he's going to make me great. He's going to do this. And so literally from Genesis 12, God reminds him three different times. Hey, I'm going to make you a great nation. …
… you just see the same thing. You fast forward to Genesis chapter 12, verse one through three, and God blesses Abraham. He says, I'm going to bless you and your offspring. How is God's blessing going to be evident in Abraham's life? certainly in the land, he promised to give him land, but also in descendants. God said, I'm going to give you descendants. He gave the promise to Abraham, then Isaac in Genesis chapter 26 verse 4, Jacob in Genesis chapter 28 verse 14. God says, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, I'm going to bless you, and that blessing is going to be evident in descendants like the stars in the sky. Descendants everywhere. And the points of tension in the book of Genesis, do you remember? points of tension oftentimes revolve around barrenness and questions about an heir, descendant coming. The whole issue with Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was barren, and it was a miracle that God provided them with a child in very old age. And the whole picture was God saying, I'm going to bless you in this way. Same thing happened with Rachel. You look in the Old Testament, you'll see key points where barrenness is an issue. …
… The Lord has said to Abram, go from your country, your people, and your father's house to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. Read this, please. I will bless those who bless you. Whoever curses you, I will curse. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Please take note. This is a unilateral covenant. This is from God to Israel. God did not tell Abram, in exchange, you do this. It is a covenant, unilateral, from God to Israel. God does not change his mind. He made a covenant with Israel. Now, exactly how would God bless the world through Israel? Well, ideally, they would model a way of living that reflected the glory and the goodness of God. Did they do this? Sometimes yes, many times no. Second, they would provide a lineage through which Jesus Christ, the greatest global blessing, could be born. …
… Now the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house to the land I'll show you. I'll make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great. You shall be a blessing. this is the beginning promise of the nation of Israel that would bring the Messiah through the line of the tribe of Judah Jesus Christ it was all in this God speaking to a man and you shall be a blessing and I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that curse you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. I want to go to the 14th chapter of Genesis quickly. Verse 12 says, they took Lot, Abraham's, he calls him his brother, but he's saying he's my blood. He was actually technically Abraham's, Abraham was his uncle. He was, Lot was the nephew in the family relationship. And when Abram heard this, that his brother was taken captive, he armed 318 trained servants who were born in his own house and went in pursuit as far as Dan. Verse 16, they brought back all the goods, brought back his brother Lot, his goods, all the women and the people. …
… I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you, I will curse. all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you. And in that one moment, and you know, how did God speak to him? I think God spoke to him through a whisper, a nudge, the sort of voice you feel inside. And in that one moment, you know, Abraham's whole future and actually the future of God's people were held up in that one moment. Would Abraham say, Lord, my family's here. I'm comfortable here. I'm 75 years old. I'm just gonna stay here forever. Or would he listen to that little nudge inside and say, okay, I'm gonna go. Where are you gonna go? That way. He didn't even know where. But here's what we find in scripture. Abram left just as the Lord told him, just as the Lord told him. …
… to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great. let me just pause there if you really want your name to be great and you've been working hard on social media to get a platform I have found that when God promotes you it's better than when you promote you I will make your name. God will put some respect on your name. Remember in Lion King where he said, Mufasa. He goes, say it again. God will put respect on your name. And you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you. I want to preach a message today, write down the title, it's called Faith for the Impossible. And I like this message so much because if you're new to Zoe, let me just tell you what Zoe is. …