Abram is here

Good morning everyone…Thank you all for choosing to worship with us this morning. This is not a responsibility I take lightly and I am just excited and honored that you all have chosen to partner with me as we see what God has for us moving forward. Right now all of our kids get to go and hang out with their amazing teachers who will teach them Scriptures in a way that makes sense to them. Now, just like i have shared with you all that you have to read the Bible for yourself…You need to be checking in your your kids about what they are learning. We are here to partner with you as parents, and so we want to encourage you to talk to your kids about what they are learning, and even take that throughout the week and continue to talk to them about Scripture…Listen, it’s your job as parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, friend, whatever…It is your responsibility to normalize talking about Scripture, and not just when people are “in trouble”, right…I also want to welcome those of you that are online who have chosen to join us in worship this morning. Whether you are here live with us, or joining us later on one of the podcast platforms, we are grateful that you have chosen to be a part of our extended spiritual family today.

Now, I have to tell you all something…I am SOOOOOO excited about what we are about to move into. We have been growing as a church and I truly believe that God has some great things in store for us this year. I can’t tell you about everything yet, mostly because I have no idea…but I am so confident in God’s desire to use this church in this region that I know some pretty cool things are gonna be happening this year. You know, its pretty cool because there are a couple of things that God has put in my mind over the years, but I have had no clue in how to accomplish them, but like I just know that God is big enough to make them happen. Then there’s other stuff that God just blindsides me with, ya know…have you ever felt that way? Like, you are living your life and you just get hit with a “WOW God”, what did you just do! Sometimes its an amazing blessing, other times maybe its a wake up call to the way you are living your life...

I know Im not the only one that has experienced this type of thing. Like, God calls you to something and sometimes you are just floored. Honestly, I was pretty floored 5.5 years ago when I finally relented to God telling me that he wanted me to lead a church and then 4.5 years ago when LRBC asked me to move to Illinois. Here’s the thing to…I know this to be true, God has something amazing in store for us here at LRBC. I don’t know all of the answers, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is going to be some really cool things…Things that will require all of us to step up and follow God’s direction and God’s leadership, and might even be a bit uncomfortable from time to time

Well, this morning we are starting a brand new series called Abram and in this series we are going to take a journey with a guy who had some pretty amazing things laid out for him. A guy that God led to some amazing things and God actually told him ahead of time what he was going to do. Well, we are going to look at how sometimes those things were done in an amazing way, and other times Abram had to have a little of a wake up call. So, this morning join me as we learn a little more about

Abram

The first thing we really need to do is meet Abram. Now, Abram will eventually have his name changed to Abraham, but for now, he is known as Abram. We see that Abram came on the scene back in Ch.11, so lets take a quick look at that passage, so that we can reconnect all the way back from Noah’s Ark. You see, Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sone we are going to focus in on is Shem, becuase Shem was the father of the people called the “Semites”, which actually lead down to Abram. After we leaver the Tower of Babel where God confused the language of all the people, we are able to see that there is a family line that brings us a man named Terah, who became the father of Abram. Let’s just take a quick look at this genealogy.

Genesis 11:27–32 (ESV)

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, 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’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 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 Terah died in Haran.

Now, all of that was just to give us a little background and remind us of where we have been. So, the bottom line is that we have Terah, who is a descendant of Shem, who is Noah’s son. Now, Terah is the father of Abram, the grandfather of Lot, who is Abram’s nephew. So....are we all together now…Now we know who Abram actually is and how he ties into every single story of Genesis so far…But, what we are going to see in ch.12 is pretty awesome as Abram has an encounter with God, and God makes a promise to Abram…Lets take a look at...

God’s Promise

Now, in order to see God’s promise we need to get moving on ch. 12, so open your Bible’s with me to

Genesis 12:1–9 (ESV)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of 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 Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai 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 Moreh. 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 Negeb.

OK, so there are some pretty important pieces of God’s promise that I want us to briefly look at this morning. First there is a promise of land. In the very first verse God tells Abram to leave his land and go to the land that God will show him. Through this statement God is telling Abram that there will be a land that he will settle on. The land he is leaving is the land of his fathers, but the land he will go to is the land that God gives to him. Second there is a promise of descendants. In this promise God is telling Abram that his family will grow into a nation...not just a large family, a nation. Ok, so this particular promise is a bit hard to hear for Abram. You see, Abram could acquire land, however, he is 75 and his wife Sarai has not had any children yet. There is no way that Abram can provide for himself the children that it will take to become a nation…Only God can do that. This is a promise that will truly require him to rely on God. In addition to the promise of these descendants, God has promised to make his name great. What is really interesting is that this is a direct reversal of the Tower of Babel. If you remember when the people gathered together to build this tower, they said that they did this so that they could make their name great. However, now that God is speaking with Abram and making this promise to Abram, God says, I will make your name great. I find that really interesting... Third there is a promise of blessing. Through these passages we see both that God will bless Abram, and not only that, but God will bless those who bless Abram, as well as curse those who curse him. Now, this blessing is really interesting, because there are really a couple of parts of this blessing promise. First of all God is saying that he will literally bless Abram, however, God is also saying that through Abram, all nations of the world would be blessed. We see that later when the Apostle Paul writes a letter to a church in a place called Galatia. Take a look at

Galatians 3:8 (ESV)

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”

You see, Paul is attributing this promise that God made to Abram as a promise that God made to the world that there would be a day that Jesus would come and all nations would experience the blessing of salvation through the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Now, while parts of these promises to Abram, and others will be conditional to their obedience…later God will guarantee these promises by making a covenant with Abram that will last to the very end when Jesus returns, and this promise of land, seed, and blessing will be finally realized as complete.

So from here we see that Abram obeys. I mean he picks up and he brings his wife, and his nephew comes with him. Along the way God reveals to Abram that his offspring will be given a specific piece of land, but that is only a passthrough for Abram. Abram continues his journey in stages, to the Negev. Now, you should know the Negev, simply means south…Abram is traveling south right now. So if we had a map, we would see that Abram has left the place of his family, which would be southern Turkey area, and is traveling down through Israel, the place given by God to his descendants, towards Egypt…and this is where things take a bit of a turn for Abram. Let’s take a look at

Abram’s Plan

Now, God has made a promise to Abram, however, to Abram that didn’t seem like enough. I mean, maybe Abram is still trying to figure out what it means to trust God, although he is in his upper 70’s now you would think he would have learned some things by now. So, let’s take a look at what Abram does when Abram gets a little nervous…or really downright scared…maybe this will feel a little familiar to some of you.

Genesis 12:10–20 (ESV)

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

Oh my goodness, did you catch what Abram just did? That is INSANE! This is where stuff gets really real, ya know. It’s easy for Abram to say, or behave as if he trusts God’s promise, and he has been acting in faith so far. I mean, it took faith for Abram to leave the place of comfort to go to an unknown place in the future somewhere. He doesn’t know where God is going to lead him, he only knows he is leaving this place. You know…I think we can kind of relate this part of the story to LRBC. You see, for 35 years this church was stable and comfortable with where we were. However, something changed back in 2018. You see, back in 2018 LRBC was told to trust God and leave the place of your father and go to the place I will show you. See those of you that have been around LRBC for decades would say that there are definitely some things different today that were not like this 5 years ago…and that’s ok, its even good as we are seeking where God is leading us to go. My point is that you had no idea what to expect when you started the journey of seeking a new pastor. You had no idea where the months of conversations and surveys and late night meetings would turn up, yet here we are today. Now, some of you may wish we wren’t here, but here we are anyway :)...

However, did you see what Abram did here? Abram got nervous that God was not going to provide for him, so Abram took matters into his own hands, in a deceitful way. Now this is really interesting to me becuase I can imagine that Abram convinced himself that what he was doing was ok, becuase technically speaking it wasn’t a complete lie, right? I mean, Sarai was Abrams half sister, so technically Abram didn’t lie…he just wasn’t completely truthful. You see, when things got scary for Abram, he decided that his way would be better than whatever God was leading him to do. I was talking to the teens about trusting Scripture last week, and I used this illustration.

Who here uses Google Maps, or Apple Maps, or Mapquest, or some type of map system in order to get around, especially to a place you have never been before. Go ahead and raise your hand if you use some sort of maps. Now, keep your hand up if you don’t always listen to what the map tells you to do. Now look around and see that you aren’t alone…See, I drive Beth crazy sometimes becuase I will turn on maps to get somewhere, but then I will say I know a better way, and I will ignore what the maps is saying and just go the way I already know (or think I know). I even do it when she is driving…Ill tell her to ignore what the map is saying and just go straight, or turn, or whatever…Well, the map is objectively seeking the best way to get from point A to point B. The way that is shortest, or fastest, or no tolls, or whatever you have set it to. It’s choosing the pathway without any feelings or preconceived thoughts or fears. It’s only when my feelings get in the way that we change course...

That is exactly what happened to Abram here. Abram’s feelings of fear got in the way and caused him to change course. Instead of trusting in the promise of the Lord, saying God would give him descendants, and that God would bless him, as well as those who bless him and curse those who curse him, Abram chose to trust in his own knowledge instead. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced that, but it typically doesn’t end well for the person who chooses to trust himself more than they trust God. In this instance, it’s really interesting because God is still keeping his promise to Abram even in the midst of this lack of trust. We read here that the Lord struck Pharoah and his household with plagues causing him to know that Abram lied.

Of course we can all justify Abram’s actions can’t we? I mean, Egypt is known to be a place that is Godless, and does not have the same morals as Abram and his family does. Therefore, it is not outside of the realm of possibility that they would do exactly what Abram was afraid of and killed him in order to take his wife for their own. Well....it’s not outside the realm of possibility, except for the fact that God has already promised Abram in a very personal way that he will be blessed, and that he would have children that would become a nation. At this point Abram has no children, so if the Egyptians would have killed him then that promise from God would have not been kept. That would have changed everything for all time. You and I would not be able to trust God if his promise was not kept way back for Abram. The thing is thought, that Abram decided he knew better than God did. Abram decided that they way they would survive and be able to have children would be to lie and take matters into his own hands…Abram decided not to trust the “God Map”…Thats what Im calling God’s promises to use instead of Google maps...

So, this leads us to today and tot he promises God makes to you and I, and

Your Response

You see, just like Abram, you and I have been given certain promises. Some of those promises have to do with our eternal state, such as

John 3:16 (ESV)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

If you and I believe this passage then we will respond to God in such a way that we will have eternal life. However, there is another promise that we tend to ignore a bit more often. You see, we ignore the promise from the lord that he is actively working in and through our lives…no matter what is or is not happening, that God is working through various situations. We read that in

Romans 8:28 (ESV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Of course thats not all, we also have this promise in

John 16:33 (ESV)

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

or

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

and I could sit here and quote passage after passage of promises that God has given to you and me…the only question left is, How will I respond? You see, here is what I know is true…we are no different that Abram. Sure, we haven’t told an foreign king that our wife is actually a sister and so he is welcome to take her as his wife at least I hope now…but we have, time and time again, chosen to not believe the promises of God that are right in front of us. For some of you, I know you’ve done that becuase you have told me. For others, I know you’ve done that becuase I’ve watched you, and for everyone else, I know you’ve done that because you’re human living in a fallen state.

However, I want to be very clear, you have a choice to make whether you trust in God’s promises for your life, or whether you take a detour because you know better than God. Listen, I am not saying I have all the answers or even a tenth of the answers…but I know the one who does, do you? Im not saying that things are going to be easy, but I know the one who takes the burden, do you? Im not saying that trusting will always lead to obedience, but I know the one who forgave my disobedience…do you?

In just a moment we are going to move into a time of communion and I want us to spend this time very directly in communication with the Lord. We have the elements on this table up here and everyone is going to walk up and take your elements, and as that is happening, I want to ask you to reflect to the Lord your trust in his promises, or maybe you need to repent for your lack of trust in his promises. Maybe sitting here this morning you have realized that you have been attempting to manage things your way instead of the way that God has clearly directed you, so repent and refocus your heart and your life on the Lord and his promises. Then after everyone has come through then we will join together in singing one last song together this morning. However, if you are here this morning, or joining us online and the Lord has touched your heart and you would like to talk to someone about what it means to trust the Lord, maybe in a new way....Let me encourage you to reach out. Grab a connect card on your way out and get that to me, or message me online, send up smoke signals, whatever you need to do, but let’s get together and talk about what it means for you to respond to God’s promises in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.

Prayer

Communion — 1 corinthians 11:23-26 (people come to front to take communion)

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Prayer