Genesis #10: The Promise - Dreams, Reality, and Calling

But his faith wasn’t supernatural, in fact his faith could be considered very HUMAN when we stop to look at the fact that he was promised hope… while he was hopeless.

I asked you last week how many of us know what that’s like… many of us do. Many of us got to a point in life when we had no hope… and God entered in to our lives and called us out of our hopelessness… offering us Jesus… and called us into the a life with him.

As Abram walks into this new life, God gives him a A Beautiful Promise: Genesis 12:1-3

Genesis 12:1–3 NIV

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

A Beautiful Promise: Genesis 12:1-3

I mentioned last week that Christians experience God’s call in three facets or layers… first, God’s call to everyone: Call to Salvation

A call to hope.

That’s what Abram is experiencing here. God says I want to bless you, to give you a land that I will choose, I want to make your name great, I want to make you a blessing.

What did God require of Abram? Nothing… but in order to experience this life, Abram will have to walk with the Lord here.

That’s it, he was called out of his old life… and into a relationship with God.

After we say yes, we find the second facet or layer to God’s call… a call to follow…to live with God… or as we said last week, a call to simplicity… to live for one… to focus our whole life on God.

But this is where the problems come up in our lives… how to lived the Xian life?

Choices, Decisions, Schedules, Priorities, Scripture teaches that God invites us to see it all through our relationship with Him

We are to see our work

That’s exactly where we find Abram...

Called into a beautiful promise… that reveals a serious problem.

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A Serious Problem: Genesis 12:10

Genesis 12:10 NIV

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

A Serious Problem: Genesis 12:10

We don’t understand the concept of a famine today… we can always go to the grocery store.

But this might help… remember back in April when you went to the grocery store, and let’s say you wanted toilet paper.

Or let’s say you went in May and needed bleach. Tough

Or what about in June when there were problems at all the meat packing houses and you wanted some beef but didn’t have the gold bars the store wanted in exchange for them.

That’s sort of what a famine was like… only there weren’t substitutes.

All they had was... all they had. There wasn’t another store to go check, there wasn’t chicken available when the sausage was all gone.

In times of famine, fresh water was limited, so crops wouldn’t produce… and people died. It wasn’t a matter of being inconvenienced like we were… it was a matter of having none.

This was a serious problem.

But what about the promise?

Many of us would be tempted to question what God was up to in times like this wouldn’t we? WE question what God’s control when our 401k loses 10% or we have to wear a mask.

Much less when we get a diagnosis that is far different from what we expected, or when plans don’t work out.

Remember: Your situation doesn’t define your spirituality

We say it every week… Where ever we are… in life… in good times or hard times… is the perfect place for us to walk with Jesus.

Your situation is where you are… it’s not who you are… it may not seem like the sort of place that God would want you… and that may be true, but it doesn’t define your spirituality.... it’s defined by where you put your faith.

It doesn’t define your relationship with God.

What does? How did you answer that first call to salvation?

Abram had said yes to God… but here in the heat of moment, he blinked. He did something that we are apt to do… take our eyes off of God and put them on our circumstances.

And here, Abram comes up with a plan… an ugly plan.

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An Ugly Plan: Genesis 12:11-13

Genesis 12:11–13 NIV

As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

An Ugly Plan: Genesis 12:11-13

Abram panicked.

Things were bad,

But instead of staying where God sent him, he came up with a different plan… go to Egypt. But as he got close he realized… this plan ain’t so good… they might kill me for my wife.

so what does he do? He prepares convinces his wife to lie in order to protect him.

Fear can make us do things we know aren’t right.

There is a story of fear’s affect on one of Jesus’s disciples in the NT. The disciples were in a boat going across the Red Sea, while Jesus stayed behind to pray in the mountains. Then just before dawn, Jesus appears to them walking on the water. Of course this scares them to death, but Peter believes and asks Jesus to call him out so he too can walk on water.

Jesus calls him… and out of the boat Peter comes to Jesus. Only seeing the waves and the water, he loses focus on Jesus and begins to sink.

Matthew 14:31 NIV

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

If Peter had of only kept his eyes on Jesus. If Abram had of trusted God to be with him in the desert… instead his faith wavered in fear.

God’s plan hadn’t changed… Abram changed.

Here’s the reminder.

Remember: Only fear those who can altar God’s plan

facing big problems

There will always be reasons to question or doubt, but remember what did God call you to? To trust him… to follow him. If you are doing that then don’t fear anything other than God himself…

We have the benefit of knowing the whole story here.

Now Abram doesn’t know that he’s out of step with God… yet. He will soon enough, but right now he thinks everything is coming together just as I planned.

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Things Come Together: Genesis 12:14-16

Genesis 12:14–16 NIV

When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

Things Come Together: Genesis 12:14-16

Pharaoh blesses him… of course I’m doing what God wants me to do.

This doesn’t consider the fact that Sarai would ever consider beign taken into Pharaoh's harem could be confused with a blessing.

But Abram certainly might be tempted to think God was affirming his plan.

Isn’t that the same measure we use for our being in step with God’s will?

If things work out… we must be in God’s will? If we succeed, we must be in God’s will.

If our business is successful, if our candidate wins, if we win the game, if we are healed, if we get out of the accident uninjured...

Good outcomes equates to God’s approval… Obviously.

WRONG… this is nothing more than some sort of reverse Christian karma.

If good happens… what I have done must of pleased God...

While it is true...

James 1:17 NIV

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

We shouldn’t confuse blessing for approval.

Remember: Don’t mistake "success” for God’s approval

We know this right?

Think of the success of people who are obviously living in opposition to God’s design. Many are rich! Many are successful, many have power and influence. But the way they earn their success could never be approved by God.

Instead, just as rain falls on the just and the unjust. Wealth, too, falls on the righteous and the unrighteous

As a different way of looking at it, we are to see our success as favor to be respected, to draw us to the one who blesses us.

But not for us to think more highly of our selves than we ought.

As the proverb 11 reminds us...

Proverbs 11:28 GNB

Those who depend on their wealth will fall like the leaves of autumn, but the righteous will prosper like the leaves of summer.

No our wealth, or lack of it for that matter… isn’t a sign of God’s endorsement, but of his favor… and as such, demands our respect. When we receive material blessings, we are to be thankful, and use it for God’s purpose.

Otherwise, God might humble us in order to teach us that he is the source of all things, not our craftiness.

Because Abram is a faithful man… this is exactly what happens in our story today when Everything Falls Apart: Genesis 12:17-20

Genesis 12:17–20 NIV

But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

Everything Falls Apart: Genesis 12:17-20

We don’t know what happened, but some sort of sickness came upon Pharaoh's house and it came out that Sarai was Abram’s wife.

Pharoah immediately understood this was divine judgement…

Now remember why Abram had been blessed by God.

Genesis 12:2–3 NIV

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Now, do you think Abram would get a chance to be a blessing to Pharoah?

Can you see any way that this would make Pharoah look with favor on Abram and his God?

Abram was blessed to be a blessing… but because he went his own way, instead of God’s… he has actually made it harder to be a blessing… he can’t do what God has called him to… at lease with regards to Pharoah.

Remember: Short cuts leave people out of God’s plan

And God’s plan is about people. People get priority. God sent his son Jesus to save people… not ideas… not possessions.... not governments… but individual people.

Abram is off track… and he knows it.

Abram has always been considered a man of Great faith… a man who is consistently striving to honor God. Scripture doesn’t teach he wanted to manipulate God by going to Egypt… just survive..

Instead of remaining where God sent him, he felt he needed to do something different.

His faith… faltered… In this season God wasn’t enough.

But being thrown out by Pharoah has gotten his attention… he is getting back on track… so back into the Negev… or the land of dryness.

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Back on track: Genesis 13:1-4

Genesis 13:1–4 NIV

So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.

Back on track: Genesis 13:1-4

The land of dryness is what teh NEGEV means… there Abram took all his wealth and his wife… where in the land of dryness did he go?

Between Bethel… litterally the house of God and Ai… teh place of ruin

When I read all these place names, it’s clear to us that Abram is back on track… he’s not where he needs to be, but he understands that… and he has chosen to return, to call upon God who called him.

To accept that he did what was right in his own eyes… and it blew up on him… that yes God was generous… but that didn’t excuse his behavior.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you know this experience… you know what’s it like to realize you are off track and want to get back on… this is what repentance is all about

Psalm 51 says it this way:

Psalm 51:10–12 NIV

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Remember: Looking back is sometimes the best way to move forward

Go back to God’s plan.

Admitting that I thought my plan was good… but God planned God’s plan.

I should remember that.... i need to trust in that.

Not to over think things, but actually to hold on to the simplicity of God’s call.

First his calling me out of where I was… as Luke wrte in the book of acts

Acts 2:21 NIV

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

If you are a Christian, you answered this call. Now, remember the second layer of that call… not just calling you out… but calling you into his plan, calling you to come and follow him.

I’m sure there are some of us hearing these words and are tempted to think.

For the Backslider...

Yea but, you don’t know how far off track I’ve gotten...

Maybe, but I do remember a story in the NT of a son who went to a far away county and gambled and partied away all he had… then one day with his face in a pig trough thought, I chould go back to my father… and at th esame time… the father was out waiting for his son to return.

I know that no matter how far you have gotten off track, you aren’t so far that God won’t accept you back.

For the Faithful

Be faithful...God’s plan doesn’t always look like your dream.

We can stay-faithfully...

For the lost

Your life has eternal value, don’t listen to what culture tells you about you based on what you have or don’t have.

Jesus doesn’t measure us by our wallet.

He measures our heart… not by it’s goodness, but by it’s openness to him.

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