Sermon Tone Analysis

⁜ Prayer ⁜

Intro

So we are now in the midst of our Foundations of the People of God series!

Last week we began in the first two chapters of Genesis, and considered how Scripture reveals to us that we are children of the Father, that we are not left alone in this world, but are called - in quite a counter-cultural way - to live as his children.

We also explored how the story of Scripture offers us a different way of viewing the world, that we are not self-determining, but live under God's rule, and that truth is not relative, but is offered clearly to us in the Scriptures.

We also saw that we are called to live in such a way that our whole lives become worship of and obedience to our heavenly Father.

Now today, we find ourselves much farther along in the Bible.

Yeah, we've jumped over many chapters, which contain a lot of important stories!

For instance, in Gen. chptr.

3 we have the story of our first parent's Fall.

And then, in chptr.

4-8 we see humanity spin more and more out of control, sin running rampant to such a degree that God destroys most of his creation with a great flood.

Then we see in chptr.

11 the story of the tower of Babel, and how humanity's pride there leads to God humbling the people and causing them to be unable to understand each other.

That is a lot of material to skip over!

Right!?

Well, I promise you that I am not skipping those important stories because they are hard truths that I want to ignore.

Actually we are going to return to those themes this upcoming summer as we consider the problems of the Fall and sin, and how we are born into a broken world, filled with broken relationships, and apart from Jesus are absolutely incapable of living in right relationship with God, because of how badly sin had damaged us.

So we will get there!

But as a sort of preface we do need to note that Adam and Eve's sin, which lead to all of us being born into sin, and is the cause of all the brokenness you and I see in our world, demands that something be done.

We all know, deep down that things in this world are not the way they ought to be.

But what are we to do?

Well, the answer in short is that we cannot do anything!

There is nothing that we can do to fix this world, or ourselves.

It is entirely out of our power.

So Paul, quoting Ps. 14 & 53 in Rom.

3:10, 12, writes: "There is no one righteous, not even one....

All have turned away... there is no one who does good, not even one."

And we see that laid out quite starkly - over and over again - the chapters that come before our readings today.

So the question comes up: is there any hope?

And that is where I want us to begin our year together!

In the midst of so much darkness, turmoil, and brokenness throughout human history, the Scriptures tell us that we don't need to be stuck in a sense of hopelessness.

There is a way forward.

And that way has been provided by our Father!

The way forward is grounded here, in these readings from Gen. 12 & 15, where we discover the promise God makes to us, his children.

And so I have titled today's sermons, "Children of the Promise."

For that is what we are.

So now, turn with me to today's reading, and let us see what God says to us there.

The Call

After our whirlwind tour through the beginning of Genesis we come to this point where we see God speak to one man.

From out of all the people on the earth at that time, God chose one.

And what does he say to that person?

"Leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land I will show you" (Gen.

12:1).

This is a strange way to begin a promise!

We do not expect to hear a promise prefaced with a command to leave everything!

Why does this need to happen?

Well, remember how we just summarized everything that happens between Gen. 3-11.

That is why God tells Abraham to go, and to go to the land that God will show him.

He must leave everything he knows and is comfortable with.

That means everything!

God doesn't leave options open for Abraham.

He must leave his country - the land that he knows and loves.

Imagine that, he grew up there, and almost certainly his whole family history is tied there.

We need to step back and really imagine this.

We live in a time when people uproot themselves and move all the time - oftentimes moving not just down the street, but halfway across the country or around the world!

But in Bible times this command would be radical.

- unless one was a nomad, people did not move out of their country unless something bad was happening - think war or some natural disaster such as a famine.

But this command is made even more radical by what follows!

Not only must he leave his country, but he must leave his people and his father's household!

Again, we have a hard time imagining how shocking this must have sounded to Abraham! Today, people do this all the time!

But in Biblical times, this was crazy - it meant social suicide, and not only social suicide but perhaps even physical death.

Yes!

That is how serious this command is, and how insane it must have sounded.

God is telling Abraham to leave the entire support structure that people relied on.

Without the support of his people and family, Abraham was opening himself up to an uncertain future, without any human protection to ensure that he would not die at the hands of bandits or be forced to become someone's slave.

But God doesn't leave Abraham with any options.

He simply tells Abraham to leave.

And in commanding this, God knows exactly what he is doing.

God is already forming Abraham.

He is going to learn to trust solely in God and - as Ronald Youngblood comments on this passage - "to begin a pilgrimage with God to a world of God's making."

Now isn't this what each of us need too!

In our culture, we are told to make every preparation necessary... to protect ourselves against every possible catastrophe or discomfort - whether that be economic, health, or social disaster.

We set ourselves up with contingencies... just in case everything falls apart.

Of course, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

We should be wise so that we can ensure that we and our families will have a firm future!

But we also need to ensure that we don't fall into the subtle trap of thinking: "If only we can ensure that our this-worldly situation is guaranteed to be safe and comfortable, then everything will be fine!"

Why is that a trap?

Because we envision ourselves as self-sufficient!

We can come to think that we can determine the course of our lives, and to bolster ourselves against every possible disaster!

But that is not the case!

Just look at Job!

He had everything, and yet, everything was taken away from him!

So a lesson we learn in reading God's call to Abraham is that we need to ultimately rest our hope in God alone.

Sure, we can make plans, and set up our retirement plans, and have insurance.

But let us not rest our hope in those, as if they are what will save us.

Even they can fail.

But the Bible tells us that God is always with and watching over us, even when he calls us into the unknown- just as he did Abraham!

And how do we know that God will ensure that we shall walk securely, even along the roughest path?

Because of his promise!

That is what sustained Abraham!

The Promise

So we see that God does not simply leave Abraham with a command.

Immediately after telling Abraham to go, God tells Abraham how richly he is going to bless him.

Immediately after God calls Abraham to leave everything God says in ch. 12 vv.

2-3:

“I will make you into a great nation,

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;