Sermon Tone Analysis

Me

(Pull out sling bag and computer bag and talk about my liking bags and what I carry in them and how useful they are, but how easily they begin to weigh you down too…)

We

And the reality is that, in one way or another, we all know all too well exactly how being weighed down by baggage feels, right… Emotional baggage… Familial baggage… Mental baggage… Work baggage… Spiritual baggage… Financial baggage… And the list goes on and on…

Some of us are sitting here today struggling with all the baggage that is weighing us down…

Maybe we want a happy, healthy marriage, but we’re dealing with all the baggage we’re carrying from having watched our parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles marriages collapse.

Maybe we want to have well-adjusted, mentally and emotionally strong, G-d loving children, but we’re carry all the baggage of our own spiritual and emotional wounds that have kept us from setting the example we desire to set most for them.

And odds are, each and everyone of us hearing this message right now can pinpoint any number of our baggage that are keeping us from walking out our faith as we truly desire…

God

This week we read Parasha Lech-Lecha, Genesis 12:1-17:27, which lays the ground work or the foundation of the building of what would become B’nei Yisrael.

First we see a guy named Avram called out by Adonai to leave his family, to leave everything and everyone he’s ever known and to start traveling to a destination he doesn’t even know yet, but God will tell him when he’s arrived.

(For the record, I trust my GPS apps a lot, but I generally like to put a destination in for them to map out before I leave… but, maybe that’s just me…) He gets to Canaan and spends some time wondering the land and getting to know it.

Then famine hits and he and his wife pack up and run to Egypt to try to survive, and there’s this whole debacle there and ultimately he is run out.

Then in chapter 13 Lot’s people (Lot is Abraham’s nephew) and Avram’s people have some beef over the grazing of their herds (pun intended), so Avram and Lot separate and go their own ways.

In Chapter 14 Lot and his family get kidnapped by some marauding kings and their armies, and Avram goes and saves him and brings him home.

We also see, in chapter 14, the narrative of Malchi-Tzedek the king of Salem and Avram’s interaction with him, which is hyper-prophetic.

In Chapter 15 we see the covenant cut between Adonai and Avram and the fiery torch passing between the halves of the sacrifices.

Chapter 16 we see Avram and Sarai make more stupid choices with longterm ramifications.

They have no kids yet, they don’t trust they ever will, so Sarai convinces Avram to take her servant Hagar as a wife and have a kid with her.

Anyone that’s married or ever been in a romantic relationship of any flavor can imagine quickly how all of this can go horribly wrong.

Then in Chapter 17 we see the Covenant of Circumcision and Avram’s named changed from Avram (exalted father) to Avraham (father of multitudes) and Sarai’s name (meaning princess) changed to Sarah (noblewoman).

And the ultimate sign of this covenant, aside from the physical sign of the circumcision, is the promise of a son through Sarah.

In the covenant made earlier in Lech Lecha, Avram is passive (fire miraculously passing through the halves), whereas in this covenant he is active (physical circumcision).

Now, that we’ve covered a basic synopsis of Parasha Lech Lecha let’s dive into the text together.

And as we do, understand that we could literally spend hours upon hours digging into this Parasha and still barely remotely scratch the surface of all that God is revealing here… So today we’re going to hone in on one specific aspect of Avram’s life and walk with God.

And as we do, I want us to keep this spiritual principle in mind throughout…

Often what complicates our walk with the L-rd the most is the baggage we refuse to leave behind…

(Repeat)

If you have your Bible with you, let’s open up to Genesis 12…

This is such an awesome reality to read year after year.

I have always found so much encouragement in following the call of God through Abraham’s life.

But, to set this up a bit, let’s look at the end of last week’s Parasha…

We see that Terah, Avram’s father, took his whole family and they left Ur of Chaldeans and were heading to the the Land of Canaan.

But along the way Terah comes across a town called Charan (which was the same name as his son who died back in Ur of Chaldeans, Lot’s father—Avram’s brother) and he settled there rather than journeying all the way to Canaan.

Then we read in the beginning of Parasha Lech-Lecha that Adonai calls Avram to leave his father’s house and all his family behind and to head toward a land that he had never known and that God would fill him in on where he was going along the trip.

So, Avram hears this call from God and packs up everything and rolls out EXACTLY as he was instructed…

Well, close… He brought along Lot, his nephew with him, even though God told him to leave his father’s family behind.

And it’s really interesting that Avram brought Lot along with him because what we see throughout a significant portion of Avram’s narrative is that he really struggles with the idea of leaving behind a legacy… I think this is a big reason why he brought Lot along, not because he felt he had to take care of him, Lot was a grown man by this point.

But more so because if he was blessed and everything panned out, he’d need someone to leave it to and Avram didn’t have any kids of his own yet.

We see this very same mental baggage is exactly what causes Avram’s discourse in Genesis 15 with God about Eliezer, his servant and right hand man.

It is also why he went along with Sarai’s plan with Hagar producing Ishmael…

Adonai, presumably a God his family really didn’t know—or at least not well, calls out to Avram and tells him to pack up all his belongings, get his wife, and leave his entire family and all he’s ever known behind and begin a journey to a land he doesn’t know.

He’s to simply start moving and trust God to direct him and to tell him when he’s arrived at this allusive destination.

So, as all great heroes of faith should do, Avram listens and moves quickly to answer the call.

Unlike Moses, or Gideon, or Jeremiah, Abraham doesn’t argue, he doesn’t try to pester God for more details, he doesn’t try to negotiate… He just packs up and rolls out with excitement and anticipation.

And this is where this narrative should stop… God said go, he went, the end… But no, unfortunately, we don’t get very far in before Abraham, our great hero of faith, has a very human moment that will ultimately blow up in his face…

We learn in verse 4 that Avram was 75 years old at this point.

He recognizes, even in consideration of how old people tended to live back then, that 75 years old means he’s no spring chicken anymore… Sarai at this point is 65… They haven’t had any children yet, so if God follows through on all His promises to Avram who the heck is he going to hand things off to when he dies?

He doesn’t have any kids of his own to inherit anything… So, what’s the point?

And, as is often the case in our own lives, a major weakness or doubt that we may have will rear its ugly head numerous times in our walk with the Lord, right?

Avram, this great hero of faith is no different.

And the issue of his fear of having no son to inherit all HaShem is doing for him will plague him for another 25 years and ultimately creates a generational curse that will wreak havoc on B’nei Yisrael even to this day...

So, God tells Avram to pack up and roll out and leave his family behind, leaving with only his wife and possessions and the next morning that’s exactly what he does.

Well, almost… In a moment of weakness due to his doubts of having progeny to inherit HaShem’s promises, he takes his nephew Lot with him as well, kind of a backup plan in case nothing else develops in the offspring department.

And we’re not long into the story of Avram’s life in the Promised Land before this decision begins to bite him in the rump… Lot and Avram’s shepherds begin to beef over grazing their herds (pun intended) because they were right on top of each other.

So, Avram and Lot end up going their separate ways.

Interestingly enough, Genesis 13:13 gives us a bit of a snapshot about Sodom in advance of what God later does…

And then at some point after they part ways, Sodom is attacked by a semi-empire of five kings together, and Lot gets kidnapped and Avram’s old hide has to come in and save the day.

So, it’s pretty quick we start to see the immediate ramifications of Avram’s decision to slightly veer from the plan…

But the longterm ramifications will be problems that Avram’s future descendants, B’nei Yisrael, would wrestle with for generations.

Not to go into all the details, but after Sodom is destroyed, Lot’s daughters think all of humanity is lost (why not, it’s happened once before and they’ve likely heard the stories).

So they get their pops fershnickered and follow through on a terrible idea (read the story, you’ll catch on).

This terrible idea (which would have never occured had Avram simply left Lot behind in Haran) ends up producing offspring who ultimately become the Moabites and Ammonites, two peoples who proved themselves to be a constant thorn in B’nei Yisrael’s side for a very, very long time.

Yet, oddly, in a story of redemption, we get Yeshua through all this craziness because Ruth (a Moabitess) marries Boaz (an Israelite of the tribe of Judah) and they become the great-grandparents of Melech David, and ultimately in the lineage of Yeshua HaMashiach.

Often what complicates our walk with the L-rd the most is the baggage we refuse to leave behind…

But, that’s not all folks… The story goes on and immediately after we read of Avram and Sarai leaving Haran and coming to Canaan, we read of a famine hitting the Land and things get rough.

Now, we don’t know exactly how much time has elapsed between their arrival in Canaan and their fleeing to Egypt, but what we do know is that we see Avram, our great hero of faith, make two of these poor decision we’re speaking of all in one...

The first failure we see is Avram doesn’t appear to turn to God in the midst of the famine and ask what he should do (and we see Joshua, another great hero of faith, make the same failure in Joshua 9 with the treaty made with the Gibeonites—who, based off Genesis 25, could potentially also be descendants of Abraham).

Think about it, God told Avram to pack up and leave his family behind to come to a Land he’s never known and there God will prosper him and make him into a great people.

Does it seem like God would have let Avram die off shortly after coming to the Land?

Does it seem as though God would have wanted Avram to run to Egypt for protection and provision rather than turning to HaShem?

The second failure is that Avram, this great hero of faith, who is now running to Egypt for salvation rather than turning God, who doesn’t have enough faith through the trial to trust that God will protect them in the famine also doesn’t trust God can protect them in Egypt.

He apparently is well aware that he married up, married way outside his league (as most of us men have done, if we’re honest)… Apparently Sarai was smoking hot, she was a real head turner… And Avram was well aware of this (probably one of the reasons he married her).

He was afraid the Egyptians would kill him to take her from him because of how hot she was, so he convinced her to lie if anyone asks and to just say they’re siblings.

He even has the chutzpah to look her in the eyes and say,

I don’t know about how you’re reading this, but it doesn’t seem as though this great hero of faith is too concerned with how his wife is treated, so long as HE survives…

And, sure enough, just as he feared, an Egyptian becomes interested in her… But not just any Egyptian… Pharaoh, the kind of Egypt.

So, Pharaoh took Sarai, who he was under the impression was just Avram’s sister, and brought her into his house to marry her.

No worries though guys, it’s all ok because:

He got wealthy off of all of this… For real though, how messed up is this so far…?

But, God is still faithful and protects them, especially Sarai.

Pharaoh and his household get hit with a plague (foreshadowing much?) and he realizes what’s going on and returns Sarai to Avram and kicks their butts to the curb to fend for themselves.

And I’d love to say that Avram learned a very valuable and lasting lesson here… But, he really doesn’t, and worse still he makes the same mistake all over again in Genesis 20 with Avimelech.

And even worse still, it becomes a generational issue as we see Isaac later on does the exact same thing with Rebekkah.

What’s really interesting about Avram, who truly is a great hero of faith, is that we can actually relate to him.

I mean, we may not have made the exact same mistakes (I know I’ve never tried to pass Danielle off as my sister to save my own hide), but we’ve all made mistakes along the way in our journey that have blown up in our faces and we had to rely on HaShem to restore us from.

Imagine though, just for a crazy moment, if we left behind all our fears, all our worries, all our baggage, and truly relied on Him fully to begin with, how much easier would our lives be without the failures?

Often what complicates our walk with the L-rd the most is the baggage we refuse to leave behind…

We can look through the Bible and see our great heroes of faith falter, dragging all their baggage along with them, and make all sorts of mistakes along their journeys.

And, truthfully, we’re barely scratching the surface with Avram, we haven’t even touched on Hagar and Ishmael and the havoc that is still wreaking on Israel and the Body of Messiah today… But, that’s another day’s discussion.

How much shorter and easier would Avram’s story have been had he not dragged Lot along with him?

How much easier would B’nei Yisrael’s journey to and existence in the Promised Land have been had Avram not brought Lot along for the ride?

But Avram isn’t the only biblical example we see of this issue… Humanity has a uncanny tendency of not leaving our baggage, our crap behind when we follow God.

For whatever reason, we love the theory of freedom, just not the practical reality…

We see this very issue in Joshua’s life… Joshua, who witnessed everything God did for Israel throughout their journey… Joshua who brought back a good report of the Promised Land… But, he’s also the same Joshua that came running to Moses to tell him to make Eldad and Medad stop prophesying when the 70 elders received a portion of the Ruach HaKodesh in Numbers 11 because the people were afraid and he was afraid they’d riot.

He’s also the same exact Joshua who made a peace treaty with the Gibeonites in Joshua 9 after God specifically commanded Israel to not make treaties or covenants with any of the people in the Land.

What about Melech David?

Dude was a great leader of Israel and a great man of God.

But, he was also a bit of a train-wreck at times and definitely had issues with dragging his baggage along for the ride too… The biggest and most obvious is that David had a thing for the ladies… Deuteronomy 17:14-20 gives us a series of commands specifically for the future kings of Israel, and verse 17 specifically says:

But David quickly threw this command out the water… (and later Solomon too he followed the generational curse of carry baggage along).