Main idea: (Re)fuel your faith by examining the foundations of God's great promise to Abram.
Applications
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If you're newer to the Bible, and maybe you're just new to Christianity, what we're going to be looking at today is the blueprint for the rest of the story of the Bible. It's a really significant passage in Genesis 11 and 12. Let's have everybody then take your Bibles, if you have them, or follow along on the screen. Turn to Genesis 11. We're going to read the last couple of verses of Genesis 11 and then Genesis 12, which is the great promise to Abram. Eventually he's going to be called Abraham. And if I mix it up between Abraham and Abram, so does the Apostle Paul. So later on, you'll see what do I call him, Abram or Abraham? It's all fine. He'll say yes if you call him to dinner. So it doesn't matter what you call him. He'll come at due time. All right, let's, let's stand for the reading of God's word, 1127, now, these are the generations of Terah. This is Abrams father. Terah fathered Abraham, Nahor and Haran. And Haran fathered lot. Haran died in the presence of his father, Terah, in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor wife Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milka and iska. Now Sarai was barren. She had no child, Terah took Abram, his son and lot, the son of Haran, his grandson and Sarai, his daughter in law, his son, Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Tara died in Haran. Now, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and 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 so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and Him who dishonors you, I will curse and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And Abraham took Sarah as his wife, and lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there, he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and AI on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord and Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev. This is the word of the Lord God. We thank you that we get a really important scene as far as the whole Bible goes. Here is the great promise to Abram. It sets not only the pattern for how we all live by faith, but it it promises the Savior in Abraham's offspring, his seed, has come Christ, who has given his life, risen from the dead, and promises to return to the land, to set up His kingdom. And we all look forward. We all look forward to a new heavens and a new earth those who have been called to trust Christ and follow Him. We we look at this ancient call of faith to for faith to Abraham. We know that we need to follow a similar call. Pray that you would encourage our faith in you, trusting Christ, trusting the promise that's been delivered. I do pray for our kids, the ones who were just singing here sweetly, beautifully. We pray for them to see these truths of the gospel as they hear them at Discovery, as they hear them at Sunday school, that their hearts would be open, that they would hear and follow you, and they would want to serve Christ all their lives. We pray that that call and that conviction would happen early Lord, we pray for the families. All the families of the earth are to be blessed in Christ. I think of the families here at Faith, Bible Church, that you would help us faithfully bring these promises to our kids, not only singing them, but seeing how they apply to life. Live day in and day out. I pray for our city. I think of our near neighbors like Grace Christian Fellowship in our five minute circle. Pray for Brett sweet as he is preaching, and their congregation as they are gathering. Give them grace so that they would be faithful proclaimers of this, this gospel right there in their neighborhood and all over the city. We need to do that right now. Give us attentiveness to this great promise and this great word in your name. Amen. Well, in a great movie, you may be seated, go ahead. In a good movie, there's a point where you finally know what the movie is about. You'll be watching along, reading along, and you won't know where it's going. But finally, there's the moment, since everybody knows about the Princess Bride, when's the moment that you know what the movie is about, when Wesley is tumbling down the hill saying to the princess, as you wish, oh, I know what it's about. He's going to rescue the princess, and it's a wonderful life. It takes a little bit longer you're wondering, what's this movie going to be about, but you find out what it's about when Clarence, the angel, is commissioned from the heavenly angels to go help George Bailey figure out that he still has a great life. Like, Oh, that's what the movie is about. I know where it's going from here. In the Bible, that scene happens really early. You know what the whole thing is about? In Genesis, chapter 12, with the promise to Abram and the seed that's going to come from him, with the mission to bless the world. We know where the Bible is going. It's a beautiful picture, not only of the faith of Abram being called from being an idolater to a worshiper of Yahweh. Then you get the promises that are still unfolding right in front of us. Our kids are hearing the gospel week in and week out here in this room, in various places, by their parents, and God is still gathering people to Abraham. It's an amazing reality that we get to see the songs that we sing about Jesus, the cultural rhythms, Christmas, Easter, we know how a big part of it ends a well known, well worn hymn, like it is, well with my soul finishes with the Trump cell resound Christ will descend, and we are eager To be with Him forever. We know how the story ends. Here's how the story begins. Here's where the whole structure of the Bible starts, and how these promises are going to unfold in one person. The big idea as we start the story of Abraham is to refuel, or, if you're just new to Christianity, religion in general, refuel or fuel your faith by examining the foundations of God's great promise to Abraham, we're going to look at the five foundations in just a minute of Abraham's call and the promises that are set here in the opening scene of the Bible, we see us a glorious plan at least, at least the initial structure of it. God made the world. He made mankind to fill it, Be fruitful, multiply, rule the earth. But right away we see two enemies. Satan comes in to deceive sinful hearts fall prey to temptation, and you find the devil and proud sinful hearts at war with God's initial plan. Mankind falls into sin and judgment, but God makes a promise to send a savior, a victor, at least in Genesis 315, who is going to destroy Satan and sin. But still, for the first couple of chapters, it looks like sin keeps winning. Cain kills his brother. The world devolves. Chapter Five, what's the repeated line in chapter five, he died. Death seems to win, even as the world still spreads, death is still present. Man's heart is evil continually. God sends a flood to cleanse the earth to judge it only Noah and his sons remain. After Noah and his sons, it looks like great we get a clean start, but there's still a problem with Noah. God does make them fruitful. The nations are birthed out of chapter 10, and just about the time you think good the plan is going, you get chapter 11 and the Tower of Babel, instead of the world spreading out, instead of them representing God to the world and give. Him glory, they decide to take their own glory, build a city and make a name for themselves, and God has to judge them, confuse their languages and send them out. It looks like at the middle of chapter 11,
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there are people, but they are only against the Lord. It's a pretty dark scene. The middle of chapter 11, we have two sets of generations. Verse 10, the generations of Shem. Then jump to 27 the generations of terror. These are the descendants. We're not going to go through all of these today, but just remember when you read, when you read genealogies, God keeps His promises through people who have names. He's doing it here the generations of Shem. Out of the verse 14, we have a man named Eber, where the Hebrews name is taken from. And then we come to 27 with the generations of Terah, who is the father of Abram, just about the time you think mankind is hopelessly rebellious, God does something surprising and powerful. This is the birth of God's great promise to bring us a savior in Christ. Now, if you just give me a moment to be a little bit philosophical, every American lives with this certain kind of play set, the playlist. You know, if you have a Spotify playlist, we have one. We like to set them. There's three songs to play. You might want to write them down, because I'll refer to them. The first playlist in the cultural, cultural set that we have is the answers are in you, like whatever your problem is, whatever your difficulty is, you have the answers within you. So you want to hit your sales numbers, you got to work hard, get married, have a baby, raise good kids. The answers to life are in you, and there are a host of books that give you life hacks to do that. Song number one, the answers are in you until, until you can't stay on top of your sales. You can't find a spouse. The kids are on a terror. They are out of control. Song number two, find the winning team. Find the winning team. You get on the winning team. You get the right job, join the right club, get into the right schools, score season tickets to the Zags, get on the right team. Vote for the right political party. That song goes pretty good for a while, until your marriage, your government or your sports team melts down, some version of civil war erupts, marriage, city government, and then you just fall into despair. We're all gonna die. Here's the three songs. The answers are in you get on the right team. None of that works. We're all gonna die. And that just plays every day of your life. I'm gonna try to fix myself. I'm gonna try to get the right people to help me. None of that's working. I'm gonna die. The loop is played over and over. That's what this looks like in Genesis 11, and in Genesis 12, God writes an entirely different playlist. The answers aren't in you. No team on the world will do anything but self destruct and God has life beyond death. There is an answer to the reality of death. Genesis 12 writes a different playlist, by God's grace, by his gracious communication to Abram, all the promises that he's going to give to Abram, he's going to give to us. He is going to give this Scripture. He is going to call us to leave a world that wants to destroy us. He is going to call us into a kingdom that is gracious and eternal. This starts that whole scene. What's the Bible going to be about? We're going to find out right here. We're going to look at these five foundations. And I don't know where you're at in these attempts to find the answers within. I mean, maybe you think it's in smoothies. Your answer to life is in smoothies. I put in greens, I put in collagen. And I'm going to look. Young, youthful, energetic, forever. I mean, maybe your life hack is in the right schools for the kids, in the right curriculum. If I follow this formula, my kids will turn out to be world changers, or at least they'll make enough money to support me in my old age. I don't know where you're at with the life hacks. Maybe it's the right team. If I'm on the right team and the right party wins, then everything will be great. If it doesn't win, then we're all going to die. These foundations change at all. They cut right through the noise that we hear, the worldly playlist that we have going on in us. And if you are visiting, I would just invite you to follow along with Abraham's faith. Follow along with the call to Abraham, because it sets the stage to the call to every person what Abraham has to go through. We have to go through gives us an entirely different playlist and confidence for the future. Let's look at these foundations. Foundation number one, believe God's grace for the world. Believe God's grace for the world, no matter what you see the world do to itself, no matter what you have done to yourself. I mean, maybe you're here and you have given the fatal wound to your marriage. Maybe you're here and your spouse has maybe you find yourself on a losing team. Is there still grace? There is God has a gracious plan for those who are willing to heed his call. Last week, we looked at the famous Tower of Babel. God shattered human pride by confusing their languages, sent them all directions. And with the line of Seth and Tara, we get a new hope. And what's happening with Seth and Tara, as the nations are spreading out is they go from the east to the west to Canaan. Specifically we find Terah. Verse 27 These are the generations of Terah. You fathered Abram Nahor Haran. Verse 31 Terah took Abram, his son, and lot, the son of Heron, his grandson, and Sarah, his daughter in law, the Son and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Something was compelling Terah to take his whole family toward Canaan. And something, something got in the way of that call. We don't know a lot about Terah, and we only know a little bit about Abram, but compare the introduction of Abram to the introduction of Noah. What was Noah like when we first heard about him. He was a righteous man who walked with the Lord. What do we know about Abram? Next to nothing, except what Joshua 24 tells us. Joshua 24 two tells us that Abram, Nahor, Haran, sons of Terah, were idolaters in Ur of the Chaldees and ur not very far off the Euphrates River. This ancient city that they have uncovered in the 20s had as its key God, the moon god. Abram was a worshiper of the moon god. Somehow, Terah and the clan knew they were to move toward Canaan but notice, Abram is not a righteous man. He didn't walk with God like Noah, God called Abram, while Abram was an idolater. And if God's going to bless the nations and make a great nation. This is the last couple you would expect. I mean, look at verse 30. It's typical Hebrew repetition. Now, Sarai was barren. Just in case you don't know what barren means, she had no child. God is going to call Abram and Sarai to be the start of a nation by chapter 15, God tells Abram, you will have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. This is the last couple you would expect to be the couple to bring a blessing to the nations. What's God's mission? God's mission is to bring a blessing to the nations, to bring salvation, to bring restoration. To bring a new heavens and a new earth. It all starts here with the most unlikely
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couple. In its critical context, all mankind wants to worship their self made gods. All mankind resists carrying out God's mission in the world. Something, something sparked terror to move, but something also slowed him down. So what's true of the nations and for Abram is true for every human individual. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter two, to the far right, this pattern continues. This pattern continues, and we could set it in the state of everybody's spiritual condition. Ephesians, chapter two, far to the right, the New Testament. What is true of the nations for Abram is true of every individual human. And you can hear the playlist in reverse. Ephesians two one says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. We are all going to die spiritually and physically following the course of this world. We picked the wrong team, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedient among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. When we're sold the song that the answer is within you, what's in you is passions of the flesh. And however good the answers may seem, they turn into a self obsession. And here we have this picture of dead devil following manically obsessive people. This is how everybody is carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind. We're, by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Is that it is there any grace for the world? There is verse four, But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive. Together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved. And chapter 12 is the first promise of Messiah coming from Abram. This is going to be the one to save all of us are just like Abram in a dark world filled with idolatry, self absorbed and even the good that we do is a self absorbed good, and God shows forth grace. I think it's really important as you watch the daily cycle. Find the answers within find the answers within the right team. They're all failures. We're going to die. Is there hope when it looks like the world is ruined or is about to destroy itself? Yes, God steps forward. Here would be the fundamental question for Abram and every other person, would you rather stay in a prison of sin where you could utterly control yourself, or would you rather be released into a blessed life serving Jesus? This is the offer that Abram gets, come into this nation, come to this place where I want to show you Abram could disobey like his father did, or Abram could continue to go. Is there grace? There is, I don't know how bad your life is right now. I don't know what circumstances are crowding in and crushing you, but there is grace. How do I get that grace? Second Foundation, listen to the Lord's word. Listen to the Lord's word. How do I get that grace? Listen to the Lord's word. God's word to Abraham was efficient and sufficient. God spoke and the idolater listened. We don't know how. We don't have the record. We don't know if it was in a dream, we don't know if it was in a note. We don't know if it was in a letter. God speaks to him. What we do know is what he said. Now, the Lord said to Abram. The Lord said to Abram, go from your country, your Kindred, your father's house, to the land that I will show you God spoke by verse four. We know that he listened. Look at verse four. So Abram went. God spoke, said, Go, verse four, Abram went. God gave a calling, a promise, a blessing. We could say it this way, repent. Follow me. Be blessed. Leave your idolatry and every one of your comforts. Follow me, and I will show you true blessing. The details get filled out through the rest of the Old Testament. The Promised One to Abram is Jesus, and Jesus does the same thing to Peter, James and John. Leave your nets. Come. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. What do Peter James and John do on the shores of Galilee? They leave their nets, they leave their father, they leave their business. They leave everything that is secure, and they follow. They hear the Lord Jesus' words and they follow. Jesus makes a commendation, then to anybody who wants grace, God's grace is large and vast. It's available, but you have to listen to His word to receive it. Jesus says this in Luke 647, through 49 everyone who comes to me and hears my word and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock, and when a flood rose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been built well. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. How do you know what to build your life on? How do you know who to follow? God has stepped into our existence. He has communicated to us through His Word and through His Son, what you do with God's word, a word of grace, will mean everything to you. What you do with God's word will mean everything to you. We know, for Abram, it was so powerful, with such hope and promise that he was willing to leave behind every comfort, every social structure, to obey the Lord you could trust what the Creator and Redeemer says you can trust it. If we were to follow the pattern, we have God's grace in a world of sin. We have God's word that's speaking into a world of sin to call us out, to bring us this blessing which leads us to the third. First Foundation, believe God's grace in a world filled with sin. Second, listen to God's word, which is going to lead us to that grace. And then three, we have a picture of repentance. We could call it, leave, go and trust. Leave go and trust. This is literally what he is told to do. Go from your country and your Kindred, your father's house, to the land I will show you. I mean, let's look at the leave component. Abram had to leave his country. He had apparently acquired quite a bit of wealth. He had many servants, Abram and Sarah, I couldn't get pregnant, but by chapter 14, Abraham has a he has an entourage. He has a people where he can raise 318 soldiers to go in battle. So this is not a small thing for Abraham. He has got to bring quite a few people. He's got to convince quite a few people to leave. But Abraham had to leave his country, his homeland, everything that he had known, everything that was culturally comfortable. He's going to have to leave his kindred that is his clan, all of his extended relatives. Ian Americans, we were built to leave our families and go establish roots somewhere else. I mean, that just seems to be the American way. Those have been very hard for Abrams culture and Abrams time. Leave your family, leave what's comfortable. These are people who shared his worldview. They shared his religious practices. They had the same language. They were loyal to the same things. He had to leave his kindred. And then it gets really precise, leave your leave your father's house, leave your brothers, leave your brother, leave your father's house, he's going to have to leave it all behind. So the first thing that a call of faith does is it has to say no to the idolatry, and it has to say no to every creature comfort, every family comfort. Jesus is going to make the exact same call to any disciple. If you don't love me more than father, mother, sister, brother, if you don't love me more than any of those things, you will have no part in me. Abram had to leave you. All those comforts.
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I imagine the conversation with Sarah was Sarah, it was interesting, honey. I just had a I just had a word from the Lord. Who's the Lord? I don't know, but he just talked to me. It was pretty powerful, like it's true, he has called us to leave and go go where? He'll tell us when we get there. This is a massive step of faith. Go to the land. I will show you. So you just start walking. You take all your flocks, all your herds, all your servants, all your trade goods. He was probably a wealthy trade merchant. Take all those things, and I'm going to start sending you West. We only know that by where Abram went. I don't know if they played hot cold, if you just started going one direction. No, it's cold. I don't know how the game is played. But he had to live by faith, and he had to convince all of his household to go by faith as well.
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Jesus calls Peter, James and John to all of us follow me. I will make you fishers of men. They left their nets and they followed Jesus. Exactly. Where are we going? I don't know. Well, Jesus knows. Just follow me. You'll figure it out on the way. That's how it is for everyone. Abraham is called to follow God's command, but he doesn't know how it's all going to look. That is your life of faith, too. You don't know how it's going to look. You know you have God's word, but you don't know how it's going to look. You don't know when you will have arrived. When you will have arrived, the Lord will say, now you're here. I This sets the this. This sets the whole foundation, or the pattern for saving faith, repent, trust, obey. Repent of idolatry, repent of creature comforts. Trust, obey. You're going to have to leave your addictions. You're going to have to leave your money. You're going to have to leave your anger. You're going to have to anger. You're gonna have to leave your pride. You're gonna have to leave the many likes on your social media feeds, your many followers, both of them, or lots of them, or at least your grandchildren, check in on them. Sometimes you're gonna have to leave all those things. You're gonna have to leave what your clothing represents, or your fashion represents, or your shoes represent, or your your job represents. You're gonna have to leave everything behind that is a great name for yourself. You're
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gonna have to leave and trust now. You have to think about it. What did Abram have as he went? The presence and promises of God? God would be a shield to Him. God would protect him. God would be near him, and he could bank on God's promises. What do you have? You have? You have the presence of God, and you have the promises of God, even though you don't know what it's going to turn out to be, you have a sketch, you have a picture, but you can't predict tomorrow. You can't predict 25 years. Abram leaves when he's 75 years old. I think about that. Okay, you're you're near 75 How about starting over, entirely new? I don't think that's going to work. The Lord thought. The Lord thought Abraham could do it. Which leads us to the fourth foundation. Third Foundation, repentance, leave, go, trust forth, hope in the promises. Ah, here's what he has. He has the promises from God. Here's what, here's what hope is. Hope is faith in God for the near and far future. Hope is faith in God for the near and far future. Hope is God will deliver what he says soon and far Amen. Abram had to live now by a hope of what was soon and far, both day by day and for eternity. There's a series here. This builds the whole structure. Israel is going to read this and understand why they're going to be a country where they're going to be a country. We're going to read it and understand God's whole purpose for the entire world out of this one country, this one people, and one person in particular, just watch them unfold really quick. He's promised a land. Go to a land. Verse one to a land that I will show you. Abrams promised a land, and I will make you a great nation. I mean, this is quite a promise for 75 year old Abraham and 65 year old Sarah, you're barren, by the way, you can't have any kids. Oh, god, that's what Baron meant. We're going to be a great nation. I will make you a great nation. This word for nation is significant because it's the same word for nations as the list in chapter 10. Abram is going to become a great nation that is going to be the nation that blesses all nations. You'll be one of the great nations in the world. I will bless you. That means I will make you happy and prosperous in your calling. This is amazing. Abraham goes from idol worshiper under judgment to son under blessing. God's promising to bless all those who trust Him. God promises to bless to be prosperous and happy in your calling. Notice he adds this blessing. It's not just be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. But there's a particular blessing I will make your name great. Don't miss the contrast, because there's no more unlikely person to become great than Abram. 11 four. We have the Tower of Babel picture is still up on the screen. We have the Tower of Babel. What was the purpose of Babel? Babel was so that this group of people could resist being spread or driven out over the face of the earth. They could make a name for themselves. That was great. They could create a mountain in which they would be equal among the gods. They could make their own future. They could make their own destiny. We ourselves will make our name great here. 75 year old, Abram, 65 year old, sarai Baron, no children are going to have a great name. This sets the fundamental pattern for the Bible. God does His work of grace through the most impossible means, through the weakest means. It's not through a great nation, it's not through the collective of the nations. It's through one man and woman who can't have children. They are going to be a great nation. They are going to have a great name. And this pattern follows all the way through the new through the Old Testament, New Testament. Who does God work his great miracles through Gideon? Has a great army. He is going to fight the oppressors. God strips 1000s away and leaves 300 left. David is not the first born. He's the last born, a little boy, the shepherd becomes the slayer of Goliath. And on the story of the Bible unfolds. God does His great grace work through those who are the weakest and the most convincing example is the great offspring of Abraham, Jesus, Christ. God takes on human flesh, takes on rejection, crucifixion and death. And how does God save the world? Through raising someone from the dead, how does God make Jesus name great by raising Him from the dead, God's going to make a great name for Abram Ian. What's the great name for? Look at the next blessing, so that you may be a blessing. So that you may be a blessing, I will bless you. I will make your name great. I'm going to make you a nation, so that you will be a blessing. Here we have now the purpose of this blessed nation. They are to bring this blessing to all of the nations. I uh, culturally, in our culture and their culture, greatness, earned blessings and respect from others. Biblically, all of our blessing, all of our success, is a conduit to bless others. Is that what you're doing with your life being a conduit to bless others. The health and wealth and prosperity Gospel says that God wants to bless us so that we can have all the blessings possible, and we want everybody else to have all the earthly blessings here, heaven on earth. Abram actually never sees the fulfillment of the blessing until he's in God's presence, watching God unfold it in the Exodus, watching God unfold it in Christ. He doesn't see it in this world, but Abraham knows his mission that he's going to be a blessing, and that's going to be primarily bringing the promises of God for salvation to the world, first through Israel, then through Christ. There's one other that's really critical to see so that you may be a blessing. Oh, this sounds euphoric, until you get to verse three, because God does not promise success without opposition. I will bless those who bless you and Him who dishonors you. I will curse Abram. You're going to have people who will dishonor you, curse you, oppose you, but I will bring justice. So just so you know, the life of faith, following the footsteps of Abraham, following the call of Jesus, is not without opposition, but God has justice ready and willing and able. There is conflict with justice. And then he says, What wraps all of us in in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Those who are by faith, trusting the same promise that Abraham trusted
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are now blessed and folded into God's kingdom. They are part of the nations. The promise to Abram comes right after the Tower of Babel to show us that God still has a plan for rebellious nations. Jump down to verse seven, Abraham gets up and goes. Verse four, Abraham went as the Lord had told him. Verse seven, the Lord appears to Abram and says to your offspring, I will give this land. And the word is singular offspring, a specific descendant, I'm going to give this land. There is a descendant out in the future who will be the great one, the great king, the one who will take all of this land. And it is in him that all the blessings will come. Jump over to Galatians, chapter three, seven through nine. I want you to see how this unfolds. Abram heard the gospel here. Abram heard the gospel Galatians, 37 says, Know, then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abram, Abraham, saying, in you, shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed, along with Abraham, the man of faith. He doesn't just say it as offspring, but to an offspring. Look at Galatians, 316, 16. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, to your offspring, quoting Genesis 12, seven, who is. Christ, the offspring that's your blessing. Is Jesus Christ. So friend, if you're feeling God tug at your heart so you're here at church, you want to grow. God's calling you through this word, and God is calling you through Christ, and Christ is calling you to leave everything behind. Follow me, trust me, obey me. I will make you fishers of men. I will make you a person who will bless the world around you, bless the nations, the land promised to Christ. Abram was only a sojourner, only ever a sojourner, meaning he was just a traveler through the land. He lived, he blessed. Eventually, he has Isaac. Isaac has Esau and Jacob Abraham might see a few children and grandchildren in his time, but they are always sojourners. They are always strangers. So even we today, are waiting for the descendant to return to set up His kingdom. We are waiting for Christ. Let's just stop for a second. Some of you are nowhere close to 75 but let's say some of you are 75 would you start this whole journey now? Let me call quite a thing to start this journey. Now, some of you who are much younger and you feel like you have much farther to go, Abram didn't see all of the promises unfold. He just held them in his mind or heart of faith, and he continued, are you willing to continue to follow the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ? Willing to get up, leave your comfort, serve the Lord in any capacity that He has for you. If that's true, you're going to share in his land, his kingdom, a new heavens and a new earth. And remember, whatever you do to bless people on Earth, whatever you do to raise a kingdom here, whatever you do to build a home, a family, a place, a job, a heritage, is only temporary. Are you willing to treat it as only temporary? Like Abram? The writer of Hebrews, said that Abram didn't consider Israel where he lived his home. He was looking for a city whose architect and builder was God waiting for a final day. This call to hope and God's promises, same call to Abram, long time coming is still being followed today. Don't you love looking at the kids standing up here and you're saying it's still happening. It's still happening. God is calling worshipers to himself. Final principle from Abram, as we see, the completion of his repentance. What do I mean by that? He certainly has faith. He listens to Yahweh s words. He takes his whole entourage, 300 fighting men, possibly all their families, his own family lot and all of their material goods they make their way into Canaan. Verse four, Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarah, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered and all the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. Remember, there's a curse on Canaan. When they came to Canaan, the land of Canaan, Abram passed through a plate to the place of Shechem in the middle Abraham. First had to go through what is now called the gates of Abraham. They look back at it, you can find you can see this ancient ruins of the great city gate that almost certainly Abram had to go through to get to the promised land. There were cities, large cities in Canaan, Abraham had to journey with his entourage through the Hill Country off the beaten path to not. Not cause a whole lot of trouble with the great cities that were in the land of Canaan. You're going to see why, in coming chapters, why Abram was fearful. And remember, Abram begins his journey of faith. He's an idolater who doesn't have a long track record with Yahweh. We're going to see him stumble in coming chapters over and over. He's a man of faith, and he needs to grow in his faith, but we see the completion. The Lord appeared to Abraham, said to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. He built an altar. From there, he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord Abram. Built altars. He built places of worship. We know that change is complete. He's followed the promise, and now he is worshiping Yahweh alone. The full pattern of faith isn't only to believe that God wants to bless you. Everybody likes the idea of God wanting to bless you, sure I'll take that God, if He blesses me, the sure sign of full conversion is exclusive worship in Yahweh and Abram would demonstrate His worship of God alone. So where are you in your faith? Are you believing and holding fast the same faith of Abraham? Are you believing and hold holding fast to promises that have seemed long and coming? Are you treating the world that you're in like Abraham had to treat his world. Yes, I'm going to worship Yahweh. Yes, I'm going to be a blessing. But this world is still the temporary world. The final world is still to come. There is a descendant to come who is going to retake this land and remake the heavens and the earth. The Christian life is not a one time repentance, a one time decision. It's going to be an ongoing it's going to be an ongoing task. Abram will be weak. He will show us how much he needed to grow, and we need to grow. But are you willing to leave and continue down the path? Where are you seeking to make the blessing in Christ known to the world,
52:54
having conversations with a number of college students thinking about life in the future, do I do missions? I was talking with one gal not too long ago, I really want to, I really want to do missions. I grew up doing missions. My family, with my family. I want to do that. And I just encouraged her. That's a great desire. There's only two choices for those who have the faith of Abraham that is to go or to send. Are you going? Are you sending? There are only the goers and the supporters. Where are you in God's great mission? This mission sets the whole stage for the rest of the Bible. Our role in the Great Commission we are to be bringing the Gospel to the world. We have ongoing challenges of faith. You have around you sitting around you, incredible examples of faith, I think of retirees who have gotten more busy doing God's work than they ever did while they were in career and raising kids time, although not saying those aren't God's work, but here's what I mean. I see the dudenhofers, see Tom and Karen, see Tom greeting everybody. The sawat skis, the Morgans, do valdos, helping refugees resettle, bringing the Gospel to them. I see them continuing the mission to the nations. You have examples of people who have been following this path, bringing the blessing of Christ to the world. Are you going to be one of those people? Are you going to be one of those people? So step back to chapter 11. Is there anything in your life that is slowing you down? Do. A creature comfort. We don't know the story of terror, but he's on his way to Canaan, and he stops. And something is amiss. Something's amiss. Are you settling down? It's time to be served. I don't need to grow anymore. Abram keeps growing his whole life
55:32
in the great movies, Princess Bride, It's a Wonderful Life. You figure out where the story is going, you figure out where the story is going, you figure out where it's out where it's going when Wesley is tumbling down the hill, those end up not being great examples for one particular reason, both of those, the bad guys, don't get any justice. You watch wonderful life and whatever happens to Potter like, Why doesn't he? Why doesn't he get arrested for stealing all Bailey's money? What about Princess hump Princess? Prince Humperdinck? Why? Why doesn't he get defeated by his enemies? Matter of fact, the kid at the end of the movie is like, Grandpa, what happens to him? I don't know. Nothing happens to him. The story here has two important aspects. All those who mistreat Canaan will be cursed. There will be justice. But think of what Jesus does. Jesus comes to save humanity by being cursed, and then Jesus promises to return to bring justice to all of those who are His. He's going to come back not as a lamb, but as a king. We see the story start here in Genesis 12. Let's pray, Father, thank you for this great word. It is important and powerful for us to see how you have put your whole scripture together. Jesus isn't a surprise. Coming to a Roman world, Jesus has been the plan all along. Help us trust the same promises that Abraham had to trust, that his descendant would be the one to bless the world. Help us put our faith in him as well Christ's name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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