Chosen for God's purpose

Introduction

There is a movie that was released quite a number of years ago which is called “Stomp the Yard”. In this movie, the leading actor was someone who lost his brother in a fight outside of a club after a dance battle between his crew and another crew. Apparently the brothers had lost their parents and when the younger who was played by Chris Brown, the leading actor then was sent to live with his uncle and his wife. The movie was characterized by much dancing and conflicts between the dance groups. But the main dance group of which the leading actor was apart, they started to fall apart because the leading actor who was the leading dancer was after his own agenda. He was not so much concern for the team play but he was all about getting things down his way. It was hurting the team and memories flashed back to the incident went his brother got shot. It was because he didn’t want to go home after they had won a battle against another dance crew. His younger brother plead with him, “Let’s go home”, but he couldn’t resist. This new dance crew that he was in soon realized his problem, he wanted to do his own thing.

This is so many of us in the church today, we want to do our own thing. We fail to see that we are part of a church and that the church is bigger than one person. But let me remind of this fact, God’s church is bigger than one person. It’s not about you, it’s not about me but it’s about Him.

Background

Before we get to our passage before us today, there’s something we need to understand. That is, how did we get here. Let’s recap:

After the fall of man and God would have declared the plan to save save man in Genesis 3:15 -17, man’s wickedness grew increasingly. It says in Genesis 6:5

Genesis 6:5 ESV

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:7–8 ESV

So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

God then used Noah to build an ark and sent him to preach to the people of the impending danger that God was about to send.

No one listened so only Noah, his wife, his three sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their wives got saved along with the animals.

The Bible then tells us of the night Noah was drunk and his son Ham saw his nakedness.

Genesis 9:20–26 ESV

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant.

Genesis 11:1–8 ESV

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

This then takes us into verse 31 of chapter 11

Genesis 11:31 ESV

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Why is all this background information important? Let’s look at one more scripture and then i’ll tell why this is important.

Luke 3:23–38 ESV

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Abram was chosen by God to be in the generational line through which the seed, which is Christ shall come. This whole chapter and by extension the rest of the book of Genesis is about God preparing the seed to come.

The Exposition

The first three verses of this chapter are very important as the opening of the extended narrative that takes up the rest of the book of Genesis. They are not only the beginning of the story of the call of Abram, but they are the beginning of the story of the line chosen by God, as opposed to episodes in the story of the human race as a whole. “The story begins with one individual, and extends gradually to his family, then to a people, and later still to a nation” (Speiser).

Stephen’s sermon reports that God “appeared” to Abraham before he lived in Haran, showing that the Lord supervised the journey of Abraham, from the beginning at Ur to his final destination in Canaan (Acts 7:2–4).

Three things were basically promised to Abram

Blessing

Seed/offsprings/children

Land

Genesis 11:27–50:26 2. The Promissory Call and Abram’s Obedience (12:1–9)

The promises of vv. 2–3 entail seven parts, perhaps a feature suggesting completion.

v.

1

“Leave (le¯k) …

v.

2a

(1)

so that I will make you a great nation

2b

(2)

and I will bless you;

2c

(3)

I will make your name great

2d

(4)

so that you will be [wehĕyēh] a blessing (author’s translation).

v.

3a

(5)

I will bless those who bless you,

3b

(6)

and whoever curses you I will curse;

3c

(7)

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

The point of these promises were not so much for us to focus our attention on Abram but to see God’s purpose fulfill through him. In Galatians 3:16, 26-29, Romans 9:6-8, Paul explains to us that God’s promise was really related to the seed of Abram. This promise was a spiritual one. That all who are heirs of this promise belongs to Christ. Christ is the seed of Abram. So Abram was chosen by God to be a blessing to all the families of the earth because Christ came through the seed of Abram.

Ephesians 1:3–14 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Today I want you to know that when God chooses you, your life now becomes apart of God’s plan.

Before God appeared to Abram, his life had little meaning. He had one wife who was barren. He had no land of his own. No children of his own. But as God shows up in his life, he now has the promise of Blessing, children, and Land.