Sermon Tone Analysis

Genesis 12:4-8 /So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan.

So they came to the land of Canaan.

6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh.

And the Canaanites were then in the land.

7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land."

And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

/NKJV

When I was thirteen years old, my family signed me up for a summer camping trip with her church.

This wasn’t Bogg Springs; this was in the western United States.

And the highlight of the trip to me, looking at the brochure, would be white water rafting on the Colorado River.

I would study that brochure almost every night, and dream of an adventure that was six months away, and sometimes I would even believe that I would get to go.

But such a trip was expensive, and eventually we backed out of that trip.

I’ll never know what that adventure would have been like, exciting or boring.

The only thing I know is that I will never know that that adventure would have been like.

Oh we did the wise thing, counted the cost and all that.

But the principle here that I want you to see this morning is that it doesn’t matter how much you talk about doing things for God, if you don’t go forward and do them, you will never know what God had in store for your adventure with Him.

Life with God is a great adventure.

God is a God who is on the move.

You’ll notice if you read the scripture that God tells those he encounters to “follow Him.”

He is on a mission, and those who would be close to Him join Him on the adventure He has for them.

God is not a God of stale worship.

Neither is He a God of inactivity.

Luke tells us that Jesus approached a certain disciple (not one of the twelve) and said, “/Follow me./”

This disciple responded with, “I will, but first let me wait until my father dies.”

He first wanted the security of his share of inheritance before he was ready to begin his adventure with God.

You know what Jesus said?

“/Let the dead bury the dead./”

Jesus wasn’t preaching against funerals, or against mourning for lost loved ones.

He was preaching against mundane living, focusing on what are really dead issues compared to an eternal kingdom.

He proved he was not a God of inactivity.

This man was afraid of the adventure; he wanted to stay close to home.

To drive this point home, Jesus next said to another potential follower-

Luke 9:62 /"No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." /

Abram was a believer who responded immediately to the call of God on His life.

You don’t see him weighing his options.

He doesn’t call for God to “test the fleece.”

He obeys immediately.

He senses the call, and sees the adventure God has for him.

It may sound irreverent to say that following the Lord is an adventure.

We rather think of following as only a solemn affair, where excitement and adventure and joy are seen as signs that we have strayed from the straight and narrow.

And who taught you that?

People who have not responded to God’s call on their life, who instead have weighed their options, tested the fleece over and over, and never knew what God could have done in their life.

It is just as disobedient to decline the call of God on your life as to sin openly.

And remember this: a disobedient believer never learns what God could have done if they had obeyed.

“Well, this doesn’t apply to me, my adventures are over.

I’m retired.

Let the younger believers answer the call.”

We’ve picked the wrong Bible character for that excuse!

Abraham is 75 years old when God calls him in Genesis 12, and the next 25-30 years will be greater than all of his previous years before.

Don’t look back to glory days.

Look to today to begin a new journey with God.

Luke 9:62 /"No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." /

Hebrews 11:8 says Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going.

On faith he obeyed immediately.

He first went with his family to Haran, and it was there that his father, Terah, died.

This death might have been a red flag that would have sent many back, but Abram’s response showed his character and faith!

When the Lord renewed His call to Abram, the response was again immediate.

Though he had family, possessions, a business, he had nothing that could keep him from answer God’s great invitation.

All through his life God links His activity to Abraham’s obedience:

Genesis 22:18 /In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."/

And later, God continued the blessing with Isaac, “because Abraham obeyed My voice.”

(26:3-5).

Shechem was the next stop on the journey.

It is here that he reveals an aspect his life that is crucial to those following God’s call – he worshipped.

At Bethel, he pitched his tent.

And he sought a place to worship.

He knew encounters with God occurred in worship.

His worship was to the God who had called him out of Ur, and out of Haran.

And it was to the God who had offered to him a Covenant relationship.

Abram’s worship was very personal and very real, but others began to see an ever-increasing relationship that Abram had with God has he worshipped.

His worship was not hidden, but open, so others would make the connection between Abram’s worship, the activity and blessing of God, and his growing faith.

Because Abram knew God in his heart, worship was a way of life for him.

He constantly anticipated fresh encounters with God throughout his life.

And it was in these special moments that God revealed more and more of Himself and His Covenant promise.

Where God spoke, there Abram built an altar.

The altar at Bethel became very special to him, because after he had sinned grievously in Egypt, he knew where he could “return to God” – the place where God had previously spoken to him, and where he had built an altar.

It was Abram’s “meeting place” with God.

Here is another principle: no one can be blessed by God and shaped by God who has not established his heart in worship!

It is in worship that God purposes to reveal himself, in ever-increasing measure.

Worship is God-centered.

It is God-focused.

Out of worship comes a clearer and more focused relationship with the Lord.

If you leave any worship service without a clearer, more focused sense of what God desires from you, then you haven’t worshipped!

Abram was supremely a worshipper, and his life is a testimony to this fact.

The ultimate outcome of worship is a life totally yielded to God and his purposes.

But this is not automatic.

It is developed over time, in the midst of circumstances and external pressures.

But this is exactly why worship is so essential.

God chooses to shape his servants while they worship.

It was while Isaiah was in worship that he encountered God.

It was there God made needed corrections in Isaiah’s life.

Then God revealed His own heart and purposes to which Isaiah responded immediately.

Isaiah 6:5 /So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone!

Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts."/

NKJV

The process continued with Isaiah, and once cleansed by God, he would hear God:

Isaiah 6:8 /Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."/

Hannah, too, was worshipping in the temple when God encountered here and told of His purpose to grant her a child.

It is so clear that God answered her prayer when you read: