Leaving Behind to Follow Ahead

BROKENNESS & COUNTER-CULTURE:

We live in a world filled with brokenness.

We can see it to varying degrees at every level.

Social fabric: eroding. (no shared spaced, nothing sacred)

Economy: fragile and unpredictable.

Families: broken and dysfunctional.

People: anxious and angry.

Politics: Polarized/divided.

Politicians: Unreliable/corrupt

Educational system: Bloated and unproductive.

Mental illness is on the rise and human virtue on the decline.

We see wars, rumors of wars and dark clouds on the horizon.

We may not agree on how we fix what’s wrong with the world but we can agree that the world has indeed “Gone Wrong.”

Some look to individuals to fix these problems.

Some look to institutions to help restore what’s been lost.

Some look to technological innovations to help us escape.

History seems to be a recurring cycle of good times going bad and hard men turning soft.

Some call this the fourth turning theory of history. Happens every 100 years or so.

Good times create weak men.

Weak men create hard times.

Hard times create strong men.

Strong men create good times.

It might be a little overly simplistic but it’s not too far from the cycle we see in Scripture.

We’ve seen a similar cycle of brokenness in the book of Genesis.The cycle has four stages.

God creates something good leading to enjoyment.

Satan counterfeits what God creates leading to temptation.

Mankind chooses the counterfeit leading to brokenness and chaos.

Which culminates in God’s judgment and man’s eventual destruction.

In every season, when the world has broken bad and reached it’s tipping point, God presses the reset button and starts over with someone new.

In every generation God finds some way to continue his redemptive plan and keep his covenant promise.

In the Garden of Eden he made coverings for Adam and Eve in their nakedness.

After Cain murdered Able he brought forth a new child of promise with Shem.

After the world devolved into evil and chaos he called Noah to build an ark and started over with him in his family.

And as we’re about to see this morning after the nations were dispersed and their languages confused, he chooses one man named Abram to keep his promise and advance his plan.

Out of every broken culture God calls out men and women who will form a counter culture.

In every generation God chooses and calls people who will leave what they know for something totally new.

They leave the old for the new, the lies for the truth, the counterfeit for the real.

God is doing that same thing in OUR generation. The question is, will we have ears to hear when the Holy Spirit calls out to US.

That’s what we’re going to be talking about this morning through a new series entitled Faith & It’s Reward.

WHY THIS WHY NOW?

In our church we practice what’s called “Expositional Preaching.”

It’s not just a style of preaching. It’s a conviction about the nature of God’s Word.

The Bible is living and active. Uniquely inspired by God. The central means by which we come to know God and encounter Jesus Christ in this world.

I don’t believe I have the wisdom to know better than God what’s “most relevant” for our church right now. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit.

I’ve sat back in amazement at how God has used this conviction to give us his particular word, for our particular congregation on each particular week.

You can call them coincidences. I call them sovereign appointments.

The same is true for this series. It’s a fitting series for where our church is at and where we are headed.

The passages we’re about to study were also uniquely used by God during my sabbatical.

I believe God is going to use this series to call people from OUR church who will be part of his “Counter culture” in “our” broken culture and in “our” generation.

God used the story of Abram to plant a new seed of faith in my heart as your pastor.

I’m praying a similar seed of faith will be planted in your heart as well.

In every generation God is calling out men and women who will “leave behind” the old and “follow him ahead” into something new. Will we have ears to hear?

SURPRISING SOVEREIGNTY

Our passage this morning starts in Genesis 11. To begin, let me remind you of the context.

We last left our story with God’s judgment on the nations over the Tower of Babel.

Nimrod led the nations to reject God and make a great name for “themselves.”

They rejected God’s truth for Satan’s lie, God’s design for Satan’s counterfeit.

As a result, God confused their languages and scattered the nations.

As usual, out of the brokenness and chaos God presses the reset button and chooses someone new.

So we’re given a genealogy in Genesis 11:10 that describes a new line of faith through whom God will continue his plan and keep his covenant promise.

The line begins with Shem (righteous son of Noah) and culminates with Abram (founding Father of Israel)

As with the other genealogies - it’s tracing the Holy Seed of God’s promise mentioned in Genesis 3:15.

We don’t have time to track the whole genealogy but it is a reminder of an important biblical truth.

Things may feel chaotic and look totally confused (ala Tower of Babel) but our God is sovereign and his plan is secure.

I don’t know what your life is like right now but I know our world feels like it’s spinning out of control.

Things may feel chaotic but God is in control. Things may look confusing but God’s plan - from his perspective - is clear as the noon day sky.

Don’t let the present chaos blind you to this eternal truth. God is sovereign and his plans are secure. No matter what. No matter when.

That God chooses someone to form his counter-culture is not surprising. The man that God chooses, however, is very unexpected.Genesis 11:27-30. Read the text.

Genesis 11:27–30 (CSB)

27 These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.

If you were God and you wanted to form a God-glorifying counter-culture, this family is the MOST UNQUALIFIED and LEAST LIKELY to make it happen.

But that’s the thing about who God calls. He calls the least likely and the most unqualified. Why? Because that’s how he gets all the glory.

When creating his counter-culture, God chooses the least likely and most unqualified.

There’s at least two reasons Abram is a surprising choice for God’s call.

He had a sordid past. (Idolatry)

He had a hopeless future. (Barrenness)

SORDID & HOPELESS

Abram had a sordid past because of his religious background.

He was steeped in pagan idolatry.

There’s a hint of his in Joshua 24:2. Abram’s dad and all of his children “served other gods beyond the Euphrates.”

Genesis 11:28 says “they lived in Ur of the Chaldeans.” The false God worshipped in Ur was a Sumerian moon god named Nannar. Abram, a Semite, would’ve called him Sin! (on the nose)

In Genesis 11:31–32 “31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran.”

Haran was also an established center for the worship of Sin.

It’s almost certain that Abram inherited these religious convictions from his Father.

Terah = Hebrew word for “moon”

This means the worship of this idol wasn’t just incidental to their family identity. It was central.

Even in this godly line that descends from Shem we see the infestation of idolatry and the worship of false gods.

Abram had a hopeless future because of Sarai’s barren womb. Gen 11:30 “Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.”

Throughout Scripture barrenness is a metaphor for hopelessness.

It’s not that they weren’t trying to have kids. They tried and tried but couldn’t prevail.

No kids = no legacy. No kids = no physical aid or economic security. No kids = no future.

QUOTE: “Terah’s seed, the entire line, appears to be dead: Abram’s wife is barren; Haran dies an early death; and Nahor, though married, is not recorded as having progeny (neither is Lot). It is simply reported that this family has played out its future and has nowhere else to go.”

And yet out of that barrenness God creates life and out of that spiritual darkness God sheds his marvelous light.

What God did for Abram he can do for you. But you’ve got to have ears to hear.

To follow ahead you’ve got to leave behind.

Leave behind the shame of your past.

Leave behind the security of your present.

PAST SHAME

First: leave behind the shame of your past.

Don’t let the noise of your past deafen your ear to the sound of God’s voice.

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from or what you’ve done. God DELIGHTS in choosing the least likely and most unqualified.

1 Cor 1:26-31. “God chooses the weak to shame the strong, foolish to shame the wise, the nobodies to shame the somebodies… so that nobody can boast and only God gets the glory.”

Nobody is too far gone for God to save.

Salvation is not something we prepare ourselves to deserve/earn. It’s a sovereign act of undeserved grace that is given to those who know they can’t!

Nobody is outside the reach of God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm.

We may live in a culture of hopelessness and death but our God is mighty to save.

Don’t let the stains of your past blot out God’s plan for your future.

PRESENT COMFORTS

TRANSITION: But past shame is not the only reason we fail to hear God’s call. Sometimes it’s the security of our present.

Genesis 12:1–3 “1 The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

This message from God in Genesis 12 seems to come to Abram while he’s with his family there in Haran.

Haran was never supposed to be their final destination. They stopped there as a concession (perhaps to Abram’s dad).

Maybe because of the establishment for the worship of Sin (moon God Nannar)

Maybe because it reminded Terah of his dead son Haran and how much he missed him.

Abram is old enough to be married but probably not in a position to comfortably leave his house and chart his own course.

And yet, from the comfort of Haran God calls Abram to an act of costly obedience.

We might hear this invitation and consider it exciting. Not so with Abram.

There was no Zillow.com to look at pictures and schools and exciting potential.

To leave your Father’s household was a demanding and difficult ask.

A Father’s house was the basis of a person’s identity, livelihood and security. Most ancients NEVER wanted to leave.

For Abram to follow ahead he had to leave behind the comfort of his preset circumstances.

He was leaving social/religious comforts.

He was leaving economic comforts.

He was leaving what formed the core of his identity and future prosperity.

Why would God ask Abram to do this? Because the seduction of those comforts were keeping him from the fullness of God’s purpose.

He would never fully surrender to Yahweh while living with his dad.

He would never fully trust God while he was benefiting from the economic security of Haran.

We even see in Acts 7 that God’s call on Abram began while he was in Ur but it didn’t fully materialize until after he leaves Haran. Something was keeping him in a holding pattern.

Application

Sometimes you’ve got to leave what you know so you can become what God really wants.

Abram had to leave the closest, dearest, most intimate relationships in his life.

He had to say if it’s a choice between you and being obedient to what God wants, I choose the Lord.

If you’re going to hinder me from doing what I know God wants me to do then I choose God over you.

Jesus said the same thing in the Gospels

Anyone who loves father or mother or son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Mat 10:37)

Unless you take up your cross and follow me you cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27)

Are the comforts of your present keeping you from hearing God’s call? Is what you know keeping you from what God wants?

Maybe it’s a relationship.

Maybe it’s a lifestyle decision.

What is the Holy Spirit bringing to your mind right now? Obedience is costly!

THE REWARD OF FAITH

If your answer is yes then how do you leave behind to follow ahead? How can you put yourself in a position to hear God’s call and join his counter culture.

Answer: Remember that the reward of faith is worth the cost of obedience. No matter what.

In Genesis 12:2-3 we see God make a series of promises to Abraham that outline the reward of costly obedience. Genesis 12:2–3 “I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Whatever price obedidence requires, it’s nothing compared to the reward that obedience will release.

Steve Lawson lists seven promises of God in these two verses. Seven is God’s number of perfection and completeness.

National Greatness - “I will make you into a great nation.”

Personal Salvation - “I will bless you.”

Revered Name - “I will make your name great.”

Channelled Blessing - “You will be a blessing.”

Extended Blessing - “I will bless those who bless you.”

Guaranteed Cursing - “I will curse anyone who curses you.”

Promised Messiah - “Through you, all the peoples on earth will be blessed.”

Several literary features reinforce the same basic point.

5X “I will.”

The problem with the Tower of Babel is their focus on self-exaltation.

The Lord says if you’ll focus on my glory then I’ll do for you what you cannot do for yourself!

5X “blessing.” Contra 5X “curse” in Genesis 1-11.

Moses is saying, “Through this one God is going to reverse the curse. Bring life from death, order from disorder, greatness from calamity.

Through this one blessing and life will flow.

Through the promise of land, nationhood, God’s presence and blessing to the nations God is restoring to his people what was lost in the fall. God’s grace is restoring what man lost because of sin.

The greatness of the reward is not in the blessings God gives. It’s the God who blesses. It’s a return back to Eden and the communion with our creator God.

Application

This promise was not just given to Abram and fulfilled through the nation of Israel.

Abram’s ultimate reward is offered to us through faith in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:6–9 “6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness? 7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons. 8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.”

All of these promises to Abraham are ultimately and finally fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. His life, his death, his resurrection and his second coming.

Galatians 3:29 “29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

We receive this promise by grace through faith. Consider the key verse for our series.

Hebrews 11:6 (CSB)

6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

The reward of faith in Christ is not the “blessings” we receive (land, blessing, inheritance ). It’s the presence of the one who promises.

If you have not believed in the promise of God, God is calling out to you today. The question is, do you have ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying?

Release the same of your past.

Leave them comfort of your present.

The value of the reward (Communion with God through Christ) is worth the cost of your repentance and faith.