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Reflections Sunday Message Recap:
“I Made It”
Pastor Louis H. Straker, Jr.
14th Pastoral Anniversary
June 27th, 2021
Psalm 139:1 - 16
I like quality, things made to high standards, authentic not copies or knockoffs
Products made in China vs. USA
God made us, and He made us with a purpose in mind (Isaiah 64:8; Ephesians 2:10)
(Jeremiah 1:5) Before we were born God know us, and built us for this time.
You are not an accident, we made it through the pandemic for a purpose.
Whatever God makes, He will uphold. He will do His part, and we must do ours.
God does not make faulty products. We are can stand the test of time.
ICE BREAKER:
What was most difficult about leaving your childhood home?
Genesis 12:1 - 9
1 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.” 4 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.
LESSON:
Before there was a promising future , Abram needed to renounce his past. He had to leave the familiar in order to find his future. God’s invitation to Abram challenges him to abandon the normal sources of personal identity and security: his family and country. To obey, Abram must trust God implicitly; all human support is largely removed. The promised outcomes are conditional on Abram’s obedience. 1
1 Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 71). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Question #1: How prepared would you be to pick up our family and move if God commanded you to do so?
Question #2: What are some things, people, places, mindsets that you had to leave in order to follow Christ? What are some of the things you are still holding on to that you know you have to let go of to fully embrace the calling of God on your life? (Rhetorical)
LESSON: (Gen. 12:7-8)
While the Lord’s appearance would be an unusual event to most modern readers, it was not an uncommon experience for Abram. The alter became a special symbol between God and Abram. When God appeared to Abram and affirmed his promise to him, Abram often built and alter, and offered sacrifices to remember the experience.
Question #3: How do you think the people connected to Abram were affected by his worship and sacrifices toward God?
How are the people around you affected by your worship towards God? Do they get a positive or negative view of God through your relationship to Him?
Genesis 12:10 - 20
10 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. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 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.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. 17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
LESSON: (Gen. 12:10)
Abram began the journey of faith well, but his faith soon turned to fear. A famine caused Abram and his family to travel to Egypt, where the Nile river was thought to provide year round resources. However, this was a bad move because God made it clear that he wanted Abram in Canaan, not Egypt. The moment Abram assessed the situation from a human perspective, he made a poor decision. (To lie about his relationship with Sarai)
Sadly, Pharaoh acted with more integrity than Abram in giving Sarai back to her husband without punishing the couple.(12:18-20)
[NOTES: He could have been the example of God’s provision in the midst of famine, among the inhabitants of Canaan. He was willing to sacrifice Sarai for his own life, the opposite, of what a husband is supposed to do. It showed a lack of faith, God said the promise of a nation would come from him, so what God promises He upholds (Pastor’s message from Sunday). And, because marriage is two becoming one, the promise also was tied to Sarai, and not just Abram. Once you are married you can never again think in the singular. Even when we make mistakes, and have failures, God is so committed to His kingdom plan He will work things out, and clean up our mess even though we will suffer the consequences.]
Question #4: Who is your favorite aunt, uncle, or cousin? Why?
Genesis 13:1 - 9
1 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. 2 Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. 5 And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. 8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
Question #5: What would you have done if you had been in Abram shoes?
What are some principles we can learn about conflict resolution from these verses?
Genesis 13:10 - 13
10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.
Question #6: What do these verses teach us about Lot?
LESSON: (vv. 10 - 13)
Lot looked at the two options and “saw that the entire plain of the Jordan...was well watered (13:9). And chose to get close to sin for material gain, journeying eastward again toward Sodom and Gomorrah (13:11)
[NOTE: Eastward represents moving away from God’s presence, i.e. Adam & Eve expelled from the garden, and Cain after murdering his brother Abel sentenced to go east]
Genesis 13:14 - 18
14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 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.
(READ Hebrews 11:8-10)
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
LESSON:
Abram’s story so far serves as an example each of us should learn from. In order for Abram to experience the goodness of what God wanted to give him, he needed to put his faith into action. Faith in God can’t just be a good feeling about something you heard on a Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, or even in your wonderful RG.
God has prescribed a course of action for you, and in order for you to benefit from it, you’ll have to follow His instructions. (James 2:26)
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
I encourage us all to build an alter of worship to God every time we encounter Him. Those moments, and days after a service or lesson go through those scriptures again, and I know you will receive renewed strength, and insight to take you through your week with power, and victory.