Gen 12 part 1

Know your call

Hey everyone,

It’s so wonderful to be back with you, it’s amazing how one year can seem like a long time, but also, how quickly it passes by. There’s so much to share by way of encouragement from our time in Sydney. For Ness and I and the kids, it’s been an amazing experience that has shaped us in many ways as we have worked hard to further studying towards pastoral ministry.

There’s one particular aspect of our time in Sydney that I want to share with your by way of preaching. I’ve chosen to preach through Genesis 12 this summer, because for me it’s helped ground me in my role and purpose in life. I hope that my time with you will be a blessing as we walk alongside Abram and look to understand part of the call he receives from God that changes everything for everyone, everywhere. I say part of the call, simply because this is foundational biblical material. I cannot unpack it all in a sermon so this morning, we will largely be looking to understand what it is to be a blessing, what it meant for Abram and what it means for us

Let’s pray before I begin,

Dear heavenly father,

Thank you for your word read this morning, may you continue to bless us through the preaching of your word that all of us here would be edified and encouraged by my words this morning. God open our hearts and minds to receive your Spirit of truth and help us to understand clearly what you have to say to the church.

We pray in Jesus name,

Amen,

Much like many of you, I haven’t always walked with Jesus.See, back in 2010 no one would believe you if you said that in 2023 Joe you would be preaching God’s word and living for him daily. It would have been a joke. Because for a number of years I was totally inadequate to be thought of as a Christian, a follower of Jesus.

See I use the word inadequate to be a Christian, because as far as the job description for a Christian goes, I was totally unqualified according to societies standard. That’s because according to societies standard I was a regular person, making ends meet, cursing and swearing about the unfairness of something, spending my money on fun new stuff and avoiding any discussion about God. I was just a regular dude, with a keen drive to do wild stuff that seemed fun at the time.

The point is, I was inadequate and unqualified to do God’s work. Much like the main character of our story in Genesis this morning, and his name is Abram.

(Pause)

That’s right Abram, the inadequate and unqualified man who becomes the founding father of God’s nation.

So this morning we will begin by understanding more about God’s criteria for selection to be a part of his story, and we will see that it is in no way the same as societies criteria for selecting people for great tasks, which should bring us much comfort.

Gods selection criteria

To better understand the impact of God’s recruiting of Abram, in what we say is God’s calling, we ought to understand the criteria God used for whom he gave the call to. As we read the passages prior to Chapter 12 at the end of Chapter 11, we get a glimpse into the life of a man called Abram. Now his life story so far is not that shocking but pay attention to some of the details.

Abram grew up in Ur of the Chaldean's. It’s where he spent the first years of his marriage to his wife Sarai. Abram was raised in Ur and his resettlement in Harran is still within the greater region of what was then known as Mesopotamia, later to be known as Babylon.

The significance of this location is that the people of this land did not worship God. No, they predominantly worshiped the moon among other false gods. That is to say, Abram was an idol worshiper. The book of Joshua confirms this Joshua:24:2

Joshua 24:2 ESV

And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.

Another fact we learn, is that Abram does not have children, and he also is unable to conceive a child with his wife Sarai. From an economic perspective, this means that Abram is not amassing his own fortune nor making a great name for himself because without Children in this society, one had little security for old age. Nor did he have his own free labor force to work the land. So typically someone like this would spend their life working as a laborer, not rich, but not in poverty either, just a regular guy making ends meet, spending money on food and clothes.

So God chooses a man who by societies standard is just a regular old mate who also is unfortunately unable to have kids, therefore Abram is no one special.

Except that he had two things going for him:

Line of Shem

First, he belonged to the line of Shem. Who is the blessed son of Noah from when God flooded the world in Genesis 9.

And secondly, most importantly, God chose him.

God chose him

Which is no insignificant detail. Because we have to ask, why God, did you choose an Idol worshiping man who is unable to have children to be called to start a nation in a land he does not own?

Or to be less judgmental on God’s choice of person to use. We ought to read Abram’s biography and rejoice for God chooses such a man whom is no one special. A man that society would never have picked as a leading contender to start a nation. Because, what’s clear here is that God’s criteria for selection into his kingdom clearly does not rely on anything that someone has done or is able to do. Which is why Abram is the perfect choice, because on his own, there is no way he could do what God has planned for him to do.

So let’s turn to the great call of Abram to see what God has in store for him

Genesis 12:1–3 “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.””

Gods great calling

God’s great call to Abram is often summarized into three categories in order to understand it easier.

Land

Nation

And Blessing

If you don’t know this call to Abram, then remember this summary of God’s promise to him. Because this is the birthing of a nation that God sets apart from the world.

And there is a great context to this promise that must be understood, for It’s not some random decision that God came up with one day to try something new. No, this is the beginning of God’s redemption plan for the world that draws back to the entry of sin into the world in Genesis 3. By the time we get to Genesis 12, God is making clear the path for the redemption of his people from a sinful world.

We must continually remind ourselves that sin is what keeps us separate from God. Sin is the reason God flooded the world and preserved Noah. It’s what Abram was doing when he worshiped idols in Mesopotamia. Sin is what God hates, and so God is revealing the next steps in his plan to crush the serpents head that he promised to Eve in Genesis 3.

So in Chapter 12, God promises to Abram that he will receive land, a nation, and blessing. That is to say, God is now making himself a nation that will be set apart from the world and will be a witness to his glory. Abram will start this nation. Abram, a man who is unable to make children with his wife Sarai. God has chosen them to start this new chapter of the redemption plan.

This is clearly a plan that only God can make happen. For no one would back Abram to be able to do this on his own.

And that is true of any plan that God makes. Only God will make it happen. This is called the sovereignty of God. It is his will that Abram will be the founding father of a nation, and so God will be the one to make it happen. We might ask then, what is Abram to do? how does Abram contribute? Or does God just use him as a kind of puppet?

It’s the kind of question that we might ask of ourselves sometimes with our own walk with Jesus. I often ask God about his plan for my life. I sometimes get jealous of guys like Abram who get a very clear and informative direction from God who says do this.

Now thankfully for Abram, God not only made a big promise, but he also gave him two imperative verbs. And an imperative from God is helpful for us to understand what he wants us to do. It helps us to understand how we might contribute to God’s plan. And for us today, and for Abram back then we have the same expectation

The imperatives I’m referring to are

- ‘Go’ and ‘Be’

The first imperative of God’s call to Abram is Go. Abram is to leave the land of his family and go to a new land. Now we may read this story and see the incredible faith of Abram to believe that God could do what he said he would do. The New testament makes no doubt the importance of recognizing the faith of Abram in this moment as God calls him to his service.

The author of the book of Romans goes into great detail as to what Abram’s faith means in regards to his relationship and status with God. And this is such an important feature of Abrams story for us to understand today. Yes, Abram is this great righteous guy because he believed God’s promise and left his home in faith of God.

But more than that, Abram is an example to us of what repentance looks like. Abram, a Moon worshiper called by God to leave his former life to live in the land of promise with God. Abram’s idolatry is no small feature as Abram leaves his life of idol worship to worship the true God.

That is the first imperative, Go Abram, leave your former sinful life and trust God. We should understand that as repentance

The second imperative is in verse 2. Be. Be a blessing.

This imperative, in my opinion, is probably the least talked about when it comes to Abram’s promise. So I’m going to spend some time cashing it out for us that we would grow to understand the implications of the command on each of us.

Now we heard in our New Testament reading from Acts 3, that Jesus, the servant, was the ultimate blessing that was to be understood from this promise to Abram. Now, this is no small jump. Rather its the most important feature of this promise to Abram. Because it set before Abram the expectations for what being a blessing is.

And to understand that, we have to once again remind ourselves that this promise is given in the context of the story of God’s redemptive plan for is people. That is to say, Genesis is setting up the story of God’s creation, fall, and redemption plan as it prepares us for the rest of Bible’s contents.

And that is better understood as we cash out Genesis 12:3 “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.””

Well what is God talking about here?

Does Abram get this free pass to live as he likes, helping people as he pleases and God cursing those who dislike him? Like this powerful friend who says mess with Abram and you mess with me?

Not at all. You see, God is desiring all the world to come to him for God is the true God, the one who created the world. and so when the people of the earth worship other gods, like the moon, or the sun, or the demons. God doesn’t smite the world because he promised Noah he would never flood the world again, but rather God prepares the world to have a nation that witnesses to his glory.

Because no other god, or king on earth can pay the full price for the cost of sin. Only God, the one whom created the world, is able to provide the forgiveness that is required for the sins of the people. And So God is now at this time in history preparing for himself a nation that will witness to the world, the true God and his glory will be known throughout the world.

Thus Abram will be a nation in a land that will be given to him through God’s strength in an act so big that the world will bare witness to the Truth and know that the Lord our God is true God of all.

And so in that context, Abram has rather an important job. Be a blessing. That is witness to the world, who the God of creation is. For the responsibility of having a great name and being a blessing is really the result of dwelling with the presence of the Lord.

That Abram gets called out of his life of worshiping Idols, away from his family and land, to a life of great promise and faith in God. God calling Abram to be with him is God saying I am your family now, I am your closest allegiance, I will look after you, trust me.

And so when we read verse 3, it is not in the mind of Abram to feel that he is empowered to live with a strong body guard. but rather that he is to live in the presence of the true God. Therefore people who curse Abram for his life of living with God, are in fact cursing God. And conversely those who bless Abram in his life of living with God, are in fact blessing God. Because while Abram’s name will be great, it is not greater than the one who made him. Not greater than the one who called him.

Thus for Abram to be a blessing, is to be a witness of the True God to the world, that others would repent of their sin and follow the one God. For that is the context that Abram will be a blessing. That is what our passage in Acts 3 confirms for us, let me read the last verse again: Acts 3:26 “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.””

Which we see has a great start in Genesis 12:4-9

We see an Abram that is faithful to God and responds to him with both imperatives in mind. He goes from the land and he is a blessing in his travels. Calling upon the lord, as he sets up camp at Shechem and East Bethel. This small narrative of his movements confirms that Abram begun his relationship with God according to the promise well and good.

This is a beautiful story of Abrams call and his response.

It’s a great beginning to the redemptive historical story that is captured in the Bible, and like many many stories in the bibles the good part doesn’t last long. Next week we will unpack his trip to Egypt with Sarai which will teach us about God’s faithfulness in light of our ongoing sinfulness,

But for this week I want to draw our attention to the faithfulness of God in his redemptive plan as the final point of this sermon.

God is faithful

This sermon started by unpacking the inadequacy of Abram for the task of living out God’s promise. And the effort to understand that, built into the gravity of Abram’s faith to go from the land of his family and trust God.

And like Abram, I too was inadequate for the task of being a Christian as I shared at the start. There was certainly no hope that I would ever be here standing before you preaching Gods word. And like all of you today who follow Jesus, you too will know this truth that you were once inadequate to be called a Christian.

For we must understand, that to be called a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus. We have to accept that Jesus took our place upon the cross and had his hands pierced by iron, hung to a tree, and killed for our sake. For that is the gospel of Christ. That is the blessing for all the world to receive. Because When Jesus rose from the dead, he showed the world that the power of sin had no hold on him, death could not keep Jesus from rising again. Therefore showing the world that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins because he is more powerful than sin.

Not only that, but when Jesus ascended into heaven to sit on the throne of his kingdom, he sent us his Spirit, that the blessing of his forgiveness would be received all around the world, in every tribe and tongue. That God would dwell among his people by his Spirit, that all who believe in him would live according the the promise of Abram.

Therefore, if you call yourself a Christian today, you are declaring that like Abram,

you have gone from you former life of idol worship, of self fulfillment, of self interest, your former life of worshiping money, family, friends. That you have gone from those lands and now live in the land of promise, the land that Jesus is the king of, that land of the new heavens and earth, the promised kingdom. For that is repentance.

Christian, if you live for God, then you have repented of your sin. And that is not a one time act. Abram will go on to show us that this repentance must happen again and again, because God will not share his glory with another idol. Therefore our first point of application is Go from your idol worship

And our second is this, Be a blessing to the world.

Be a blessing in the context of God’s redemptive plan. Jesus blessed us by turning us from our wickedness.

You see, your life as a witness to Christ matters. Charles Spurgeon once said, the world doesn’t read the bible, the world reads Christians. And that’s the hard truth for us today. Are we steadfast in the Lord, or are we constantly swept up in worldly troubles?

Be a blessing....

One particular area that its hard to be a blessing is when people mock our faith, we see it in the media, we see it in parliament and we see it in our communities.

God is mocked daily, he is not simply forgotten, but he is actively the target of ridicule and jokes. One example, I wrote to the Broadcasting standards authority a couple of years back and complained about a segment of a news show that featured a presenter using the Lords name in vain three or four times uncensored. The response I got was simply to say that the standards authority don’t consider the use of God’s name as a profanity worthy of a complaint and my discussion was dropped.

The point is, we know our world in NZ is fast moving towards hostility against God and so what has God told us to do?

Start a cancel culture campaign?

Make a Facebook post decrying the depravity of our broadcasting authority?

Nope, God has told us to be a blessing.

He will curse those who dishonor him.

And the same with loving others, its far easier to love fellow Christians, to give our time and energy to serving one another. Which is a good thing to do. However, do we also serve the faithless with such love? Do we see a need within society and serve out of love for Christ?

For us we must have faith that God will mediate his blessings and curses to those around you as you live according to his promise. Therefore we must bless the world,

and you should ask, what does bless the world look like? does it mean I have to be a door mat to people? Always doing what others want?

By no means, remember the context.

God desires the world to dwell with him. To dwell with him By God’s Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Therefore being a blessing in our world is bringing people the hope of Jesus, that they would know that God loves them and is calling them to repent of their sin in the name of Jesus. That is to say, being a blessing to the world today is all about making disciples and growing others in the knowledge and grace of Jesus our Lord.

It is this point that I’ve been encouraged greatly this year that I wish to share with you this morning. God’s church is not to be removed and set apart from society but rather sent to live among societies around the world, bringing the people Christ in all their lives, through the continual repentance and blessing that God’s people do each day.

One way that Abram shows us how to do this, is to stop and pray about the matter first. Abram would make an altar to the Lord and call upon his name. And so we too must call upon God’s name, not through an altar but through God’s Spirit in prayer.

Dear friends, Abram and us are much the same, inadequate to live according to the promise on our own. And so we should be thankful that we are all called, like Abram to repent of our sins and be a blessing to the world, that all would know Christ and his glory. And don’t panic about the task, becuase God is with you, leading you by his Spirit. Trust in him.

Let us pray.