GPS

Genesis 12:1-9

English Standard Version Chapter 12

The Call of Abram

12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from

Recalculating! At the next intersection turn right. When possible, make a legal U-turn. You have arrived at your destination. These comments are just a few that I can imagine the majority of us have heard at one time or another from our GPS. At times helpful and at times irritating. Well this morning we are going to look at the text of another traveler, Abram. We are going to study Abram’s faith, his obedience, and his faithfulness to God. As we do so, I want us to evaluate our own faith journey with God. Where are we? Where do we stand with God today? and Would we be so willing to do as Abram did? May we be so willing to have the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts and souls this day. And with that being said, May God Bless the preaching of this, His Most Holy Word.

Our text for this morning begins by saying, “Now the LORD said to Abram.” Now before we get too far. The LORD said. Whenever God speaks or Yahweh as is here speaks, we know that truth is being uttered and we know that whatever is being said will be upheld. Whatever promise, oath, or statute that is being put in place by God, we can know and trust that it will be fulfilled. It may not occur how we think it ought to or within our timeline, but it will happen. God has an unbreakable record and He can be trusted. Sadly, though, we live in a world today where many people cannot be trusted. Chuck Swindoll, one of my favorite preachers said that his dad gave him a list of people who could not be trusted at a young age. On that list included: fast talking sales people, most used car dealers, people who come to your door to sale you things, hitch hikers, folks on the street who open their coat and want to sell you watches. He said he would never forget the one he saw one time who had a little sign inside his coat that said, “Genuine Fake Rolex’s!” Now there’s a guy you can trust. And last but most certainly not least on the list, is slick politicians.

It’s sad in the world today that there are people who simply cannot be trusted and what’s worse is that a promise is no longer a promise. It’s simply become just a word. Promise: it’s overused and misused. In verse 2 of our text for this morning, following God’s command for Abram to leave his homeland, God provides Abram with some promises. And we can guarantee that God can be trusted. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, promise is an assurance that one will or will not do something. It is a pledge. When you promise someone something, you offer assurance. You provide a basis for expectation. Synonyms for this word consist of covenant, guarantee, vow. The Biblical word for promise is covenant. According to Chuck Swindoll, “there are 2 types of covenants within the Bible. First there are covenants between two people- 1 Samual 18:3 is an example of this and then there are covenants between man and God. Conditional covenants are covenants where we play a part in them being fulfilled. If you do this then God will do that. It is conditional on you doing your part. The most significant covenant though is the unconditional covenant. These are promises that God makes that will will come to pass regardless of the recipients reaction. Here are a few: I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, I will strengthen you.

Chuck Swindoll points out that the wonderful thing about obeying commands is that there are rewards. The sad thing is that when you don’t, there are consequences. Abram thankfully heard the call of the LORD and went. However, between the command, verse 1, and Abram’s departure, verse 4, God gave Abram several unconditional promises. He brings them together in a series of statements. If you have your Bible with you, notice the word, “and.” Verse 2, “and I will make you a great nation.” “And I will bless you.” “And make your name great.” “And so you shall be a blessings.” “And I will bless those who bless you.” “And the one who curses you, I will curse.” “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We know that these promises are unconditional because we never see the word, “if”. This my brothers and sisters is called, “The Abrahamic Covenant.”

v.2 And I will make of you a great nation. What an amazing promise to a man in his mid 70’s, wife in her mid 60’s, they are childless, he has never even been the father of even one and yet God is saying, I will make you the father of a great nation. God always has a way of seeing in us what we do not see in ourselves. I have always loved the story of Gideon. Gideon saw himself as fearful and insecure yet when the angel approached Gideon, he calls him, “O mighty man of valor.” What has God called you to that maybe you feel unqualified for or unable to do? God tells us in Matthew 19:26, “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” So whatever doubts or insecurities you may have about where you feel Jesus calling you to, hand them over to the Savior and allow God to speak truth into your life.

Moving on to verse 4 we read, “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.” The Lord God gives Abram a command. Go! Age 75. God says, Leave all of these familiar things and go to where I will show you.” Leaving what is familiar can be a difficult thing. Missionaries that we have around the world today, many have left their homes, families, and all that is familiar to them to travel to God-forsaken places to share the Gospel. For me, personally, I didn’t have a choice to leave what was familiar to me. Following my first brain surgery, everything changed and nothing was familiar nor comfortable. But that is how God wanted it to be. Because it was then that I found Christ was all I needed. For Abram, whose father had worshipped idols, God needed to remove him from that influence. I was talking with a pastor friend of mine this week and we were discussing how the removal of some things and some people in our lives can actually be a blessing. So let’s not always look at subtraction as a negative thing.

So Abram left and went, just as the LORD had commanded him and at the end of verse 5, Abram and those with him arrived in the land of Canaan. And we read, “When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 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.” Abram had travelled all this way to the land in which the LORD had promised him, only to find it filled and occupied. Sound familiar? Reminds me of Mary and Joseph travelling and there being no room for Jesus when He entered this world. Taking some thoughts from Matthew Henry. To think of Abram, how little comfort he had in the land he came to. As I said, very much like Jesus. As he entered the land, he soon saw that it was already occupied and not by friendly people. It was at this point in time that the Canaanites seemed to be in better position than that of Abram. But isn’t that often the way it is? As Matthew Henry puts it, “The children of this world have commonly more of it than God's children.” We have to remind ourselves from time to time that this world with all of its glories and fancies is not what we are seeking after. Why? Because my dear brothers and sisters, if we are truly Christians, then this world is not our home! Praise the Lord! We have something much greater waiting for us! Amen!

Although Abram didn’t even have room to pitch his tent, he was content. Why? Because, as Matthew Henry says, Abram found his comfort in the God he followed. When he could have little satisfaction in conversation with the Canaanites whom he found there, he had abundance of pleasure in communion with that God who brought him thither, and did not leave him. Communion with God is kept up by the Word and by prayer, and by these, Abram's communion with God was kept up in the land of his pilgrimage. Have you ever looked so forward to something and had your hopes set so high only to be let down and disappointed when it actually happened? We can imagine that Abram may have felt some of this, but in the end, he had God and that was truly all he needed. And the same is true for us. Is there something in your life that you have been praying for for years maybe and still have not recieved the answer to? Maybe the answer is God. Although the promise that God had given to Abram did not match what Abram saw, he still had faith in God and in His Word that the promise He made would come to pass. And we should have that hope as well. No the situation may not look good right now, but one day it will. So despite how things appeared, God reminded Abram of his promise and in response, Abram built an altar. By Abram building this altar, he expressed to his family and to those around him that it was and is only to the One, True God that praise and glory belongs. One commentator writes, “As soon as Abram had got to Canaan, though he was but a stranger and sojourner there, yet he set up, and kept up, the worship of God in his family; and wherever he had a tent, God had an altar, and that an altar sanctified by prayer.” No matter our circumstances, God is ALWAYS worthy of praise and honor. We have always got something to be thankful for.

In the final 2 verses of our text for this morning, we read, “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.” David Guzik writes, “Even in the land God gave him, Abram never lived in a house — he always lived in a tent. Tents are the home of those who are just passing through and do not put down permanent roots. We too are to live like tent-dwellers, as pilgrims on this earth (1 Peter 2:11). We should live as people who have their permanent dwelling place in heaven, not on earth. Too many Christians want to build mansions on earth and think they would be happy with tents in heaven.” The song doesn’t say, “I’ve Got a Old Tent, Just Over the Hilltop.” No! It says, “I’ve Got A Mansion, Just Over the Hilltop.” May we give our all to God, our income, our homes, our families, our jobs, our future. May we give it all to Him! Trust Him and let God do what only God can do.

Abram went through a lot in our text for this morning, yet he never questioned, complained, or insulted God. He simply trusted. And that is what we are called to as well. As the old hymn says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” May we learn from Abram and be willing to follow God with our all. May we be fully submitted to God no matter what the cost. Trust in Him, even more than that GPS. A GPS may lead you astray and reroute you, but God never will. Trust in Jesus! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!