The Life of Abraham: God’s New Work (Abraham: A Worshipper of God)

Genesis 11:27-12:1-9 God’s New Work (Abraham: A Worshipper of God) Introduction: In the beginning God created the earth as his kingdom where he would be worshiped and served as the great King. God placed the first human pair in a beautiful garden, paradise, "the Garden of God," where they could live in the presence of God. But the human Fall into sin led to disastrous consequences: God drove them out of the garden; the close communion with God was broken. Human sin resulted in such violence that proper development of human life and culture became impossible. God sent a great flood to cleanse the earth and to make a new start with Noah, who built "an altar to the LORD" to rededicate the cleansed earth to God. But humankind again defied God at Babel, resulting in God confusing their language and scattering them across the earth. With God's judgment of the rebellion at Babel, the question is: is God giving up on his plan of (re-)establishing his kingdom on earth? The answer is a firm, NO. After reporting on babel, the narrator gives the family history of Shem, the son Noah blessed (9:26), (the seed of the woman) and in ten generations he arrives at Abram (11:26). Abram is another Noah (who was the tenth generation from Adam) with whom God will make a new beginning. God calls Abram to leave his father's house and it's gods. God will make a new start with him in the land of Canaan, which was watered "like the garden of God". Canaan was to become another paradise - a beachhead on earth for the kingdom of God. God's promise to Abram of land, nationhood, the presence of God and blessing to the nations restores what has been lost through man's misbehavior in Genesis 3-1. The narrative now moves from the general survey of humanity to the specific family from which the nation of Israel comes. The narrator devotes much more time to describing the lives of the characters: whereas chs. 1–11 covers many generations in only 11 chapters, the patriarchal history deals with only four generations in 39 chapters. It begins with Abraham and goes on to his son Isaac, and Isaac's two sons Jacob and Esau; the final section focuses on Jacob's sons, especially Joseph. Here the specifics of being Israel are made clear: the land, the people, the blessing, and the calling. The Sinai (or Mosaic) covenant, which the first audience for these chapters receives, will provide the setting in which Israel is to put these patriarchal promises into practice. Throughout these chapters we will see how God has preserved the members of his chosen family, whose calling it is to walk with him, to be the headwaters of a special people and to be the channel by which blessing comes to the entire world. As we study the second section of Genesis (the life of the Patriarchs) we are able to learn so much about what it is to live the Christian life, and what it means to live a life that is characterized by faith in God. But it’s very important that we understand what the transaction is between God and Abraham, before we try to apply Abraham’s life to our own lives, lest we simply apply some set of rules to live by. It is God who appears to Abraham. Abraham is not a special person, he is an ordinary person, he is not royalty, he doesn’t have any pedigree that we are told of so as to make him somehow special or unique. Abraham is not more spiritual than the other people in Ur or on earth. Abraham or Abram is just like them: caught up in idol worship, the worship of the creation rather than the Creator. Joshua 24:2 says, “And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many.” This means that Abraham and the call of God on his life to be blessed and to be a blessing is a shear product of God’s grace and nothing else. We have to understand this or else we will think that Abraham’s life is an example of what we are to do if we want God’s favor and blessing, that is not the case at all. Abraham is an example of how we are to properly respond to God, for his favor (grace) and blessing that we have received through Jesus Christ. This morning, considering our text, we see two ways in which Abram is an example to us of true worship. But first let’s define what we mean by worship. The English word “worship” means literally “worth-ship” it carries the idea of ascribing to God worth or honor. When we think of worship usually we think of worship through song. But true worship according to the scriptures is not simply external activity but it is of necessity first internal. Worship is a matter of the heart. True worship flows from the inside out. Therefore true worship is a response from the heart to all that God is and all that he has done. True worship is not expressed in outward things like prayer, praise, reading, and bible study, but obedience to God’s word. 1 Samuel 15:22 “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” 1. Abraham Forsakes his own identity. a. 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.” b. God's invitation to Abram challenges him to abandon the normal sources of personal identity and security: his family and country. i. In Abraham’s day the thought of forsaking your family, and country was unheard of, that is his very identity. He is Abram Son of Terah. His fathers house is his house; his fathers goods are his goods; his fathers gods are his gods. "To leave home and break ancestral bonds was to expect of ancient men almost the impossible." Yet the LORD commands him, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you." "To the land I will show you" raises the tension even further. Nothing is certain here. This is no emigration to the riches of the United States or Canada. Abram is asked to trust blindly that the LORD will lead him to a favorable land. 1. Many people today forsake land and family, and they come to the United States to find a better life for themselves, it is still considered by many countries the “land of opportunity”. Abram’s situation is nothing like migrating to America. First off, Abram doesn’t even no where he’s going. He isn’t told as the Hebrews are later told, “it’s a land flowing with milk and honey”, he isn’t told of the New Jerusalem in contrast to the city of Ur, like God promises us. He is simply told to go to the land that God would show him. 2. God’s promises to Abram are in the face of all odds, God calls him away from society, power, and affluence and says I’ll make you great. God promises him that he will make Abram a great nation in the face of Sarai’s barrenness. 3. For the Christian these promises of God to Abram are an illustration to us of how nothing is impossible for God and nothing whether barrenness, or the forsaking of power and opportunity can stop the purposes of God. What God has promised he is able to perform. c. In order for us to properly respond to God’s grace upon us, we also are called to forsake our identity for a new identity in Christ. i. Paul tells us that this forsaking of our selves is a true act of worship. 1. Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 2. This is exactly what Abram did in response to God’s call on his life, he forsook his identity with the world, he did not conform to the image of the world. ii. Many misunderstand this aspect of Christianity. It is commonly referred to in Christendom as “the cost of discipleship”. iii. This means that in order to properly respond to God’s grace there are certain things in our lives that need to go, certain identities that need to be put away. 1. Peter and Paul both refer to this work in their epistles: Ephesians 4&5; Colossians 3; 1 Peter 1:13- 2:11 2. We might not ever be called by God to forsake our physical family or a geographical location, but we are all called by God to forsake anything and everything that would compete with true Worship/devotion to him. 3. Jesus put it like this, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” And, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:26-33 a. For those of you who might be confused as to why Jesus is commanding us to hate or families let me explain. Jesus is not saying that we are to hate our families, he is saying that all other things, whether relationships to people or desire for the attainments of this life (like Money, power, Fame must be secondary to our love and commitment to him. i. The Christian life does not work any other way. The true Christian life, true discipleship is an all or nothing kind of a thing. Half-heartedness, half-commitment will leave us dissatisfied. 1. This is my own testimony. I grew up in the church, I was taught all about God, and yet I thought Christianity was a simple commodity that I added to my life, like a seasoning or a side dish. I didn’t realize that Jesus was to be everything, I didn’t know that worship was a lifestyle, I didn’t understand that God didn’t just want to forgive my sin, he wanted to give me a new life, a new heart, a new mind, new goals for my life, like his glory, and his kingdom, he wanted to pattern me after the image of his Son. He wants to make us like Jesus. 2. Everywhere Abram goes/wanders he sets up altars of worship to the LORD. a. Vs 4-9 “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. 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. 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. 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. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.” b. Abram is moving throughout the Land setting up altars of worship (in places of pagan worship) to Jehovah. Abram is reclaiming the Land for the kingdom of God. i. Similar to what Joshua would do. Joshua 1:3 "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory." 1. The temptation for the church has always been to back down from the world, either through compromise or disengagement. examples: the church in Corinth totally compromised, they replaced reverence for relevance, they conformed to the image of the world. The Monks didn't do much better though, they hid themselves from the world, and became so out of touch with reality/ culture and society. 2. This is still the same temptation today, the temptation is to either water down the message through our desire to be relevant or to ignore and hide from the questions and issues that the world has with the church. a. God's desire is that you would defuse (like a tea bag or incense) this worship of Christ in your sphere of influence, that everywhere the soul of your foot touches the ground that those places would become places that our redeemed for God's kingdom. b. I don't know what the specifics look like for you, but maybe you do, and if you don’t, ask God, he’ll show you and direct you. 1. Remember Jesus said that God is seeking worshippers, those who will worship him in spirit and truth. Conclusion: Do you ever feel like Abram? Do you feel like the LORD has called you out of darkness, out of your old life and identity, and at one time there was so much excitement about the new life in Christ and about where God was leading you, and how he was using you? Maybe now you feel like you’ve come to a place in your life where you don’t have that same excitement, you feel as though you are wandering around directionless. Here is God’s word for you: as you move/wander through this land and this season, set up altars of worship to the LORD. The Psalmist says, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.” - Psalm 37:3