Knowing the God of the Covenants

Called from Comfort

To know God is to know His voice. In many instances the Lord calls us from our comfort to progress us into the next season or period of our life.

These moments stretch us and bring significant growth.

In the language of covenants this is the way the Lord reveals Himself to us until we have a deeper understanding of who this God is.

Our relationship and the covenants with the Lord are not premised on instant gratification. They are not based on a tv microwave dinner gospel, Our relationship with the Lord is time tested, refined, and forged in each of the spaces the Lord brings us to.

Hearing the Call into the Covenant

Genesis 12:1–4 ESV

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. 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. 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.” 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.

During the time of Terah they served many gods. Many idols.

500 gods and goddesses

city of great accomplishment

Abram hears the voice of the true God

Doesn’t Reveal the full picture right away (v.1)

Immediate promises made:

Bless you and make your name great

You will be a blessing to others

Bless those who bless you

Curse those who dishonor you

All the families of the earth are to be blessed through him

Abram uproots and goes…

first step in obedience

did not hold things of his parents friends or relatives

A Glimpse into the Covenant

Genesis 12:6–7 ESV

Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 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.

On the road to the promise God gives Abram a Glimpse

1 of 2 Covenants (Land)

17 Stops 10 Different Locations

Building on the foundation

The Lord reveals a part of His nature at each stop

An opportunity for the person to grown in the Lord.

Faith and Patience in the Covenant

In Hab 1:5 Habakkuk had been pleading with the Lord

End to the injustice

Remembering the Promises in the Covenant

The Lord reminds Hab He is at work and doesn't tell him for he will not believe

Getting ahead of Ourselves

Genesis 12:10–13 ESV

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”

Fear made him move

Fear made him lie

When he takes it upon himself he blunders

Gen 12:17 God protects him

In the learning process there will be blunders. When we have faith in the Lord He delivers

Raising an Altar

Abram encounters the Lord and Acknowledges a part of who God is

The Four Altars

The God of Promise

Genesis 12:7 ESV

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.

Abram encounters the God of promises

Heb 11:8 because Abram believed… Faith is what drove him

The promise was enough

The Reliable God

Genesis 12:8 ESV

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.

Calls upon the Lord

Symbology Bethel (the House of God) Ai (Heap of Ruins)

Work he would have to take on as the mediator for this covenant

Heb 11:9-10 by faith he went in search of a house whose foundation was God

Understood He would have to learn to trust God alone.

The God of Abundance

Genesis 13:18 ESV

So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Oaks at Mamre signify the fullness in strength, finance, possession

Abram is identified as having so much the land could no longer support him and Lot

The God of Provision

Genesis 22:13–14 ESV

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

In the bleakest of moments when it appears even what God has promised is being taken… God will provide

By the time Abraham gets to this stage he has been tested, refined, and the relationship between God and Abraham is secure.

In Gen 17:5 God changes Abram’s name by breathing on him a sign of the covenant that he would become a father to a multitude.

In our walk God will reveal Himself to us as we step into His covenant promises