Call of Abraham
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
INTRO
INTRO
Have you ever felt unqualified for something?
position on a team or in a club
give a presentation or speech
a honors or AP class
lead a bible study
sharing your faith
praying out loud in groups
Reality is that all us have felt unqualified for something before… and it’s not a great feeling
TENSION
TENSION
The good news for us tonight is that as we continue our series in Genesis tonight we are going to see that God doesn’t choose people because of their qualifications
in fact in tonights account we are going to see that often if not always God chooses to use people we seem the least qualified to accomplish His plan
TRUTH
TRUTH
We are going to see this in the account of God calling on a man named Abram
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.”
God Calls Abram:
to leave his town
to leave his family
and go to a place that God will show him… doesn’t even tell him were he is going
God Promises Abram:
to make him a great nation
give him land
bless him
bless the whole world through him
What does Abram do?
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 packs up his bags and goes bringing his wife and nephew with him
At first glance it seems like Abram must be this great man of faith…
God calls him to leave his home and family
Doesn’t even tell him where he is going
and yet he immediately he obeys
a 75 year old man drops his whole life to go where God calls him
No wonder God called Abram…
he seems like the perfect person to accomplish this plan of making a great nation and blessing the whole world through
What if I told you that this is probably the furthest thing from the truth
In fact, Abram is probably the least qualified person for God do this through
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.
Abram’s Background:
Born in Ur
Father is Terah
Marries a woman named Sarai
Sarai is barren (unable to have children)
Abram’s Resume:
Idol worshiper from an idol worshiping city
No prior relationship with God (no faith)
He is old
He is married to a woman who can’t even have kids
God chooses a idol worshiping old guy who’s wife can’t even have children to be the one whom He is going establish His people through and bless the whole world through one of their children
that makes absolutely no sense
why would God do that?
Because that is exactly how God works…
He calls people not based off of their qualifications but solely out of grace
Calling people even through they do not deserve it
We see this over and over again in Scripture when God calls on people
We see this in our own life in God calling us to salvation
And yet, despite Abram’s horrible resume and no prior interaction with God when he hears this call from God he immediately obeys
he leaves everything behinds and follows God direction
a reminder that experiencing real grace leads to action
But he only makes a little way into this call before we see proof that Abram definitely isn’t perfect
As he is falling God’s directions a famine hits the land so he decides to go to Egypt so they will have food
but it’s in Egypt that Abram does something horribly wrong
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.
We see 2 mistakes that Abram makes in this account
He operates out of fear instead of faith
Instead of relying on God’s promise to take care of him, he takes matters into his own hands by taking his family to Egypt
2. He Lies
He thinks that Egyptians are going to be so attracted to Sarai that they will kill him to have her
So He lies about Sarai saying that she is his sister, putting her at risk to save himself
Pharaoh still ends up taking Sarai, and Abram benefits…
God has to intervene, to stop this by afflicting Pharaoh’s house until Pharaoh realizes something is wrong
But what does this moment in Egypt show us about God?
it shows us that God is faithful despite Abram disobedience
God doesn’t abandon Abram in his disobedience
He delivers Sarai and restores them
Showing us that God’s promises are not dependent on perfection but on His grace
God’s choosing and calling of Abram and His faithfulness to him despite Abram’s disobedience is an exact representation of how God works in our lives through the gospel
See we are like Abram in 3 ways…
Like Abram, We are Unlikely Choices
God didn’t save you because of what you brought to the table, He saved you because of His grace
Abram was an idol-worshipper, an old man with no kids, and had no prior relationship with God, yet God called him
The same is true for us…
The gospel isn’t about proving ourselves to God, it’s about God graciously saving people who have nothing to offer
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved
We were the least qualified for salvation
yet out of love for you and I God chose to save us
2. Like Abram, We Still Fail After We are Called
Fear and failure don’t cancel God’s promises
Abram stepped out in faith, but it wasn’t long before fear led him to sin
Instead of trusting God, he took matters into his own hands, risking Sarai’s safety to protect himself.
We do the same thing…
we let fear lead us into sin, choosing comfort, lies, or self-preservation over faith.
But here’s the gospel reality: Our failures do not nullify God’s promises
We talked about this a couple weeks ago about Jesus interceding for us
Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us
meaning he isn’t up there saying, “look they are doing something good”
what it means is that when we fall short and sin
Jesus is interceding on our half before God saying “Father, remember i died for them. I paid the price for that sin. They are forgiven.”
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This means through true repentance and confession of sin
you are forgiven of your sins
This isn’t a one of thing it is a daily thing
because like Abram we still fail
but the good new for us is that…
3. Like Abram, God is Patient with us
God is patient with you, even when you mess up
God didn’t abandon Abram when he failed
He rescued Sarai, protected His promise, and continued to work through Abram.
Jesus does the same for us
Even after we are saved, we still sin but God is patient, gracious, and keeps transforming us
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
God saves the unqualified
Meaning if you have ever felt unworthy of salvation… that is the right feeling
We were completely unworthy
yet God is His love and grace decided to save a wretched sinner like us
God doesn’t abandon us when we fail
even though we fall short God doesn’t abandon us
Jesus paid for all your sins
past
present
future
so you have no worries of God’s grace running out
God keeps His promises and is still working in us today
God used Abram despite his shortcomings and He can and will use you too
No matter your past or present
God can still use you right now for His glory
RESPONSE
RESPONSE
Tonight we are going to end with a song that many of you know
called Same God
