King James Version Chapter 12

12 *Now the aLORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 bAnd I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: cand in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and dthe souls that they had gotten ein Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. 6 And Abram fpassed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the gplain of hMoreh. iAnd the Canaanite was then in the land. 7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, kUnto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. 8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and lcalled upon the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed, †going on still toward the south.

With the help of the Lord, I would like to preach to the Church:

Obedience is Better than Sacrifice

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Where Abram had Came From:

The Bible tells us that in that Terah, Abram’s father, originally dealt in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans. This land was broken, desolate and in ruins. The God of Israel was not in fellowship with the people of Ur, nor was he pleased with their actions.

You see the people of Ur worshiped the moon god, Sin. Sin had seeped into their camp and hearts like a pit viper searching for prey. Sin had laid waste to those who once desired a walk with God. Sin came to produce the Great Whore talked of in Revelation, better known as Babylon. Babylon was a thorn in the side of Israel and they hated the one true living God, Yahweh.

You see Abram wasn’t to stay in Ur…in we read that Terah took Abram and his family and left in the direction of Canaan but never made it to their destination. They stopped in Haran.

Dwell on Haran for a little bit

Haran meant “parched” and originated from the meaning of “a road” or in Abram’s case a cross road.

You can’t stay in a cross roads with God and Sin

tells us that we cannot serve 2 masters!

Some of you have become parched in your walk with God

God I’ve recieved a little taste of you, I’ve recieved a little bit of what you have for my life. Some of you just need to take a step in faith and just wade into this Pentecostal experience. Jesus is ready to take you from a cross roads in sin and put you in his presence and start a mighty work within your life. HE WANTS TO GIVE YOU A PROMISE!!!

But when was the last time you where laid out in the spirit, prayed at home, read your Bible, or even evaluated your hear?

You see the Bible tells us Terah started the process of departing Ur but he stopped at Haran. God wasn’t done with Abram, though. As we read in :

12 *Now the a LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

Notice how God called Abram away from his country, his family, and most importantly his father’s house.

For Abram this wasn’t like today’s society, HE LEFT EVERYTHING TO FOLLOW AFTER GOD. THIS WAS A MAJOR STEP OF FAITH!

God basically said if you do X I will bless you with Y

I’M HERE TO TELL SOMEBODY YOU CAN HAVE MORE OF JESUS THAN EVER BEFORE! IF YOU LEAVE THAT OL’ DEVIL IN THE DUST AND FOLLOW CHRIST HE WILL BLESS YOU BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS!

I’M HERE TO TELL SOMEONE WHO’S BEING DYING INSIDE AND NEEDS A BREAKTHROUGH THAT GOD HEARS YOUR PRAYERS AND DESIRES TO PARCH YOUR THIRST. KEEP WADING OUT OF HARAN.

HONEY DON’T WORRY YOUR JUST AT A CROSS ROADS IN YOUR LIFE

I’M HERE TO TELL SOMEBODY THAT NEEDS THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST: REPENT AND YE SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST AS PREACHED ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST

I’M NOT PREACHING SOMETHING NEW…THIS IS GOD’S PROMISE!!!

Get this,

Abram kept on moving past Haran until he made it to the plain of Moreh. Interpreted, this means ‘teacher’. Notice the enemy was in the land of the teacher.

The enemy is going to be one of your greatest instructors of Life!

They are going to tell you what not to do!

They are going to cause you to build altars

They are going to break down your flesh so God can fill you with his Spirit

God used Moreh to speak life into Abram. He stated, “Unto thy seed will I give this land”

NOTICE WHAT CAME NEXT:

“and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.”

The Bible does not tell us that Abram sacrificed at this time.

Yet again he built another altar on the Mountain east of Bethel

What we do know about Abram is that the altar was a way of worship unto God. We do know that his purpose of building the altar was to exalt the one true living God for his promises. I’m here to tell someone:

This altar meant

HANG IN THERE AND BUILD AN ALTAR! GOD’S GIVING YOU A PROMISE THAT YOUR FAMILY AND SIN CANNOT TAKE AWAY!

We know that God did not stop blessing Abram. In fact in we read:

King James Version Chapter 17

5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but gthy name shall be ||Abraham; hfor a father of many nations have I made thee.

God continued to fulfill this promise through Abraham’s son, Isaac. Unfortunately, somewhere along the lines Abraham decided to step out of the will of God by fathering a son named Ishmael; bringing about the start of a Nation that was not given to the covenant of Abraham.

I was talking to Pastor the other day about how obedience may have caused Abraham not to receive such a great blessing. Get this next verse in Chapter 22!!!

King James Version Chapter 22

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of bMoriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

GOD DID NOT RECOGNIZE ISHMAEL AS ABRAHAM’S SON...

ISHMAEL WAS NOT IN THE WILL OF GOD!

Abraham’s Command to Sacrifice Isaac

At this time, Kasey needs to bring me the Kitten.

God decided to test Abraham. God wanted to know if Abraham really feared the one true living God. What about trust? Did Abraham trust God, of course he did. Why do I say that you may ask? What did Abraham tell Isaac in verse 8 of Chapter 22?

The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), .

King James Version Chapter 22

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

HE TRUSTED THAT GOD WAS GOING TO HANDLE THE SITUATION JUSTLY

So the Bible tells us (act this out)

Abraham woke up early in the morning and cut wood an then:

Gathered two young men and headed to the land of Moriah with his son.

On the third day Abraham saw the place where God had showed him and ordered the young men to stay behind with the Donkey

Finally Abraham gets to the place where God had shown him and he build an altar. He prepares Isaac (lay the paper on the kitten)

And prepares to take his only Son’s life when the angel of the Lord said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

Return the kitten to Kasey and dismiss the boys

God tested Abraham with His promise. God is an amazing God but he want to know will we trust him with the promises he blesses us with? Would we take our promise to the altar and sacrifice it to God in order to please Him.

There’s a powerful meaning behind this, Church. Isaac could have become an Idol unto Abraham, but he did not allow his promise to come in between him and the Lord. Instead he gave it all to God and said, “here you go Lord, I don’t know what your plan is but I know you’ve got it all in control.”

As we open the altars today:

I wonder if anyone can lay down there promises and say, “God, I don’t know what’s in store but I know you’ve got figured out. I know you’ll make a way were there seems to be no way.”

I wonder if anyone who has sin in their life will come to a cross roads with Jesus and repent of your sins and ask Jesus to change you from the inside out.

I wonder if anyone desires the Gift of the Holy Ghost as promised in the book of Acts.