Untitled Sermon (22)

The basis of this series is to cap off the year - like how do we build sustained momentum into the coming year, so this isn’t just a one off thing. So something about how this theme is not just a moment in this year, but a movement that gains momentum to the future

A moment of obedience - 

where is God still asking you to take a step of faith and obedience? 

Especially as we end this year. But moments done consistent become movements. 

Big Idea: Obedience is a long term posture in the same direction, that is the path to blessing, is sustained by God’s promises and presence, and by our worship and thanks of God.

Genesis 12

Command

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. 

2 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. 

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.”

It would have been challenging for Abraham to see how he could possibly be a blessing, much less a great nation, when his was a small unknown group in a world of bigger neighbours.

Conforming

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. 

Obedience 

Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 

5 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. 

Shows the enormity of Abram’s obedience. 

Confirmation

When they came to the land of Canaan, 

6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. 

At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 

Obstacles to Obedience

7 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. 

Claiming 

8 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. 

9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. #persevered on, journeyed on.

SERMON

God chose a ‘no name’ guy to make his name great.

He chooses the humble, the no names.

Obedience is not a very popular word in the world.

Because obedience easily conveys blind obedience.

It may suggest being controlled, or restricted. 

& nobody likes to be controlled or restricted.

We all want freedom to make our own choices. 

Obedience is perceived to go against freedom and doing what’s best for you.

To do what’s best for ourselves.

We don’t want anyone telling us what to do.

So obedience doesn’t sound like a very popular topic.

But what if obedience is actually what leads to true freedom?

When children obey parents who love them and want the best for them, obedience is a good thing.  

Obedience is life-giving when the Person we are obeying has our best interests at heart.

Obedience is central in the Christian faith.

To experience God’s love and grace for us, we have to 

How we can continue to be a church on the move, moving in obedience not just this year, but as a lifelong posture

Many want purpose, few want obedience 

Many want calling, few want surrender 

Many want influence, few want intimacy

Many want authority, few want submission

Many want to be used, few want to be broken

Many want resurrection, few want crucifixion.

How can we live a life of obedience to God?

By remembering 3 things:

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1. God uses our obedience to bring blessing to others

The element of blessing is central to this passage. 

The Hebrew word for ‘Bless’ is used 5 times in this passage, either as a verb or a noun.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go ……and I will bless you …

so that you will be a blessing. 

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.”

God didn’t call Abram to go to a foreign land so that Abram could feel good about his own obedience.

God didn’t call Abram to go because He wanted Abram to have a hard life.

God didn’t call Abram to go to a foreign land just because he wanted to bless Abram.

God called Abram, so that in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

(and the ultimate blessing through Abram, is the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ) 

God uses our obedience to bring blessing to others.

God chooses to use the obedience of fallen human beings to bring blessing to others.

God used Joseph’s obedience to deliver many people from famine.

God used Moses’ obedience to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt.

God used the prophet Samuel’s obedience to affirm and anoint King David, who was overlooked by his own family.

God used the Persian King Cyrus’ obedience to bring the Israelite exiles back home, allowing them to rebuild the temple and their home.

God used Ananias’ obedience to heal Paul’s blindness and give him the Holy Spirit. (Acts 9)

…

God used Jesus’ obedience to death on a cross, to bring the Kingdom of God to all who would receive it by faith. 

Blessing follows obedience.

It doesn’t mean that obedience makes God love us more.

Our children’s obedience to parents can never make parents love them more.

Obedience can never make God love us more.

But obedience shows that we have encountered the love of God.

Why does obedience lead to blessing?

because when we obey the good and perfect will of God our Father,

it is a blessing in itself.

But obedience leads to blessing, also because, 

when God calls us to obey, it always bring us closer to His heart. <CLICK>

Every act of obedience moves us away from the ways of the world, 

and towards the heart of God.

We know from Genesis 11:27-31, that Abram lived in Ur and Haran. 

Both were part of this region called Mesopotamia, (where modern day Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran are). 

Mesopotamia was a major world power then. 

The way Egypt was a world power in Moses’ time, 

the way Babylon was a world power in Jeremiah’s time. 

Major world powers represented the ways of the world. 

They represented living for yourself.

They represented success in terms of wealth, academic achievement, power, influence.

When God called Abram out of his homeland in Mesopotamia, 

it was not just about moving into a far country, or unknown territory. 

It was about moving away from the ways of the world, 

and towards the heart of God.

Away from living for ourselves, to living for God.

Away from being controlled by our desires, to being guided by our Father

Away from defining our worth by how smart, intelligent or wealthy we are, to defining our worth by Who God says we are.

And in moving towards the heart of God, God uses that movement to bless others.

Obedience may mean obeying God’s call to another nation to do missions.

But Obedience also means admitting our pride when we raised our voice at our spouse, or our friend, and asking for forgiveness. In that act of humility, we bless those we have wronged.

Obedience also means choosing the ethical decision, even if it means less profit. In that act of integrity, we bless those we work with. Because they will know they can trust our integrity.

Obedience also means 

Moving away from the heart of the world, to the heart of God.

God uses our obedience to bring blessing to others.

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2. God sustains our obedience with His promises and presence

Notice how the Lord repeatedly assures and guides Abram, as he obeyed the Lord.

“to the land I will show you..”

“..I will make of you a great nation.”

“I will bless you..”

“I will bless those who bless you..”

The Lord appeared to Abram.

“….I will give this land”

When God calls, He will always sustain us by His promises and presence.

He doesn’t promise that life will be easy or comfortable.

He does promise that He will be with us through the journey.

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Why does obedience need sustenance?

a. Obedience does not always come with knowing the end point ahead of time. 

Notice that the Lord did not initially tell Abram the end point. 

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v1b “to the land I WILL show you”. I haven’t showed you the land yet. But I will show it to you.

Yet Abram went.

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Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

We must understand that Abram was in a very comfortable place before God called him. Living in prosperous Mesopotamia, he would have financial and economic security. He had his family. All was good. 

To uproot his whole family, and leave his life as he knew it, not knowing where he was going, wasn’t just hard. It didn’t make sense! Unless, it was really the Lord calling Him.  

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We don’t always have to see the end point, before we move out in obedience.

You see. Abram’s faith was not in knowing every step but in knowing the God Who guides His every step. 

His faith was not in having certainty, but in the God who holds our hand through uncertainty.

Jesus didn’t ask us to pray for bread for the rest of the year. He asked us to pray for daily bread.

When the disciples left their nets to follow Jesus, they could not have seen the end point. 

They could not have known that Jesus would be executed like a criminal on a cross. 

They could not have known that almost all of them would die for believing in Jesus as Saviour of the world.

And maybe it’s good that they did not know yet.

Because they were not ready to know yet.

It was as they obeyed Jesus throughout the journey, that they grew in their faith and understanding of Who He is.

We don’t always have to know where we are going, as long as we know Who calls us to go.

Because maybe we’re not ready to know the end point yet.

The Lord wants to take us on a journey of obedience.

And as we obey Him in the daily decisions of our lives, we grow in our faith and understanding of Who He is.

God often calls us to take one step at a time. 

Trust Him one step at a time.

And over time, small steps accumulate to become significant lifelong journeys

And we will look back and be able to see that God has been sustaining us all this while, by His promises and presence.

His promise to never leave us nor forsake us.

His presence that is with us until the end of the age.

Faithfulness in small actions accumulate to become transformation

Small drops of water from a leaking aircon can eventually fill up a pail.

Small amounts of money saved regularly can eventually become a stable reserve of funds, because of compound interest.

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Why does obedience need sustenance? because

b. True Obedience is not a one-off act, but a lifelong posture (of success & failure).  

Abram didn’t stop at just uprooting his family. 

He didn’t stop at journeying into Canaan.

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From Genesis 12 to 22 Abraham faced various situations where he had to choose to obey God or not.

And there were times he failed to obey.

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Like when Abraham lied to the Egyptians that his wife Sarah was his sister, as he was afraid that they would kill him to take Sarah, if they knew that they were married. (Gen.12:10-20)

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Like when Abraham gave in to Sarah, using their servant Hagar to bear a child for them, because Sarah was unable to conceive. (Gen.16) 

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And there were times Abraham obeyed God.

Like when Abraham believed God when He said that he would have his own son, even in old age.

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Like when Abraham was prepared to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice to God, because God told him to do so.

Obedience is not a one-off act, but a lifelong posture.

God doesn’t just call us to obey when He called us to serve in ministry, or called us the marketplace, or called us to serve our family, at one point in time.

God calls us to lifelong obedience.

(Long obedience in the same direction)

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& this is important: Lifelong obedience is not about perfect compliance, it’s about persevering movement.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to run with perseverance the race marked out for us, not run with precision, nor run with perfection.

The need for perseverance means that there will be moments we fall, or fail.

But when we repent, God can use us despite our failures, when we choose to persevere in obeying Him. 

Always fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

The One who kick started our faith, and the One Who will make our faith mature.

The One who sustains our obedience with His promises and presence.

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God brings our obedience to worship & thanks, by reverence & remembrance, even when reality seems contrary to what was promised (v6)

7 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. 

8 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. 

Building an altar in the Old Testament was a profound spiritual practice with multiple significant purposes. 

An altar was fundamentally an acknowledgment of something important that needed to be remembered, serving as a long-term memory aid for who God is and what He had done - essentially functioning like a spiritual souvenir[1]. 

Altars were primarily places of sacrifice, but they were also locations of God’s presence. Patriarchs would naturally build an altar at sites of divine appearance, believing that if God had appeared once, He might appear again, and that sacrifices offered there would be accepted[2]. 

Whenever God made a promise to His people, an altar was built as a physical reminder of that promise. As circumstances changed, individuals could return to the altar to remember the certainty of God’s word. 

Altars were also raised to commemorate God’s mighty works of help or salvation, serving as a critical act of remembrance that highlighted God’s care, power, and assistance[3]. 

Fundamentally, the altar represented a point of contact with God - a place where sinful humanity could safely approach a holy God, with the assurance of forgiveness through sacrificial atonement[4]. The Old Testament consistently emphasizes that remembering God’s character, works, and faithfulness is essential for healthy spirituality, and maintaining a right relationship with God requires a good spiritual memory[3].

[1] J. Alasdair Groves and Winston T. Smith, Untangling Emotions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 132.

[2] Joel F. Drinkard Jr., “Altar,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 53.

[3] Jamie A. Grant, “Psalms 73–89,” in Psalms, ed. Terry Muck, vol. 2, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 133–134.

[4] Lawrence O. Richards, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Words: Based on the NIV and the NASB, Zondervan’s Understand the Bible Reference Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 35.

When the going gets tough, remember how the Lord was so real to you when He called you in a certain direction.

Altar (mizbeach) - literally means "place of sacrifice" and is derived from a root verb meaning "to slaughter" for sacrificial purposes[1][2]. This term appears approximately 400 times in the Hebrew Bible, with about half of these occurrences in the Pentateuch[1]. 

Altars in biblical contexts were used for various offerings, including animals, grains, and incense, though the actual slaughtering of animals typically occurred adjacent to the altar rather than on it[1]. 

The concept of an altar was central to ancient Israelite worship, serving as a place for communion with God, prayer, and confession of dependence on Him[2]. In the New Testament, the Greek equivalent (thysiasterion) was used to avoid pagan associations with the common Greek term for altar[3]. Early Christian writers, such as St. Ignatius and Tertullian, referred to altars in their works, indicating the continuation of this concept in early Christianity[3][4]. While the New Testament contains fewer direct references to altars, it emphasizes Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for reconciliation with God[5].

[1] Paul J. Achtemeier, Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper’s Bible Dictionary (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985), 22.

[2] Eugene E. Carpenter and Philip W. Comfort, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 8.

[3] William E. Addis and Thomas Arnold, A Catholic Dictionary (New York: The Catholic Publication Society Co., 1887), 21.

[4] James J. McGovern, ed., Catholic Pocket Dictionary and Cyclopedia (Chicago: Extension Press, 1906), 16.

[5] Joel F. Drinkard Jr., “Altar,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 53.

I propose that the nature of the blessing on the nations is that God has revealed himself through Abram’s family. The law was given through them; the prophets were from among their number; Scripture was written by them; and their history became a public record of God’s attributes in action. Then to climax it all, his own Son came through them and revealed the Father and the kingdom through his life and a plan of salvation for the world through his death. In Abram all the nations of the earth were blessed as they were shown what God was like and as the means 

were provided for them to become justified, reconciled to God, and forgiven of their sins.

Ultimately, we live a life of obedience not because we want God to love us more.

We do so because we want to love our Saviour Who obeyed the Father’s will for Him. Who obediently made Himself a servant, and gave His life on a cross.

And out of Jesus’ obedience to the Father, many many are blessed.

For ultimately, it was through the family line of Abraham that Jesus was born as a human being (while remaining fully God).