Are You A Blessing?

Psalm 19

Psalm 19 NIV

For the director of music. A psalm of David. 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth. 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. 11 By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. 14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Galatians 3:6–14 NIV

6 So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.” 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Introduction:

The book of Genesis sets the foundations for all we believe. It begins with 5 stories; The Fall, Cain murders his brother, Sons of God marry daughters of man, wickedness is so prevalent God is forced to destroy man through flood and start over, and then men build a tower to try to reach God on their own through their own wisdom.

These five stories reveal a pattern. Humankind devoid of God equals sin and destruction.

There is no hope for man on his own. Even those who desire to do good, still fail and leave pain and grief in their wake as we saw last week with Noah.

Fortunately, God has not left us to continue this pattern eternally. He has a plan to deliver the people He created in His own image. The next half of Genesis concentrates on 5 generations of a specific family. God uses this family to demonstrate and provide the means for His deliverance of humankind from sin.

Stand with me as we read the beginning of this transitional event.

Genesis 12:1–8 (NIV) 1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “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. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Pray

I. Abram’s Call

Sermon Introduction:

Abram was from Ur in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was a wicked place in Abram’s day. Some say it rivaled any “Babylon or Egyptian dynasty.” It was focused on a lunar religion that dominated people’s lives from their births to their deaths.

Modern day excavations have revealed it to be rife with human sacrifices. One such discovery they have named the “Great Death Pit” because it contained 73 bodies of servants arranged in sacrifice around their queen’s gorgeously decorated corpse. A grotesque display of the practices of their day.

1. Out of this pagan civilization, God calls one man to step forward to be a new beginning. It begins with...

A. A Divine Command (v 1)

Genesis 12:1 (NIV)1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

There are literally two commands here. The first is obvious. It is “to go!” The second command is to “be” a new nation of people. Abram’s relationship with God is important. However, it is important for us to see that this was about more than God’s relationship with just one man. This was about God developing a relationship with a people for the sake of all people. God needed a means to demonstrate to the world that he does not choose to harm humankind, but is offering redemption, peace and harmony to the people He created.

God’s call isn’t an easy one. It calls for sacrifice. Abram’s obedience calls for three specific sacrifices.

1. Leave the country you know and go to an unspecified destination.

2. Leave your friends and go somewhere you are unknown.

3. Leave your father’s household and go where you have no family.

Not the most exciting move in the world. Typically, if we move a great distance, it is because we have friends or family there or an exciting job waiting. But to head out of town without knowing where you are headed and where you know there will be no one you know? That is unusual! Even when I left to move 1500 miles away from my family to go to the Bible College, I at least knew some people that lived there and I knew some details of the town and the college. I had the adventure of college before me. But Abram had none of that. All he knew to do was step one foot in front of the other in the direction that God would provide as he went!

Abram was a pagan and God appeared to Him (perhaps somewhat like He did to Paul) and called him out of Ur. But why Abram? Paul was at least a Jew raised on the teaching of God’s Word. But a pagan Abram? And from a culture that seemed devoid of all knowledge of God?

I cannot help but think of the taxi driver from Georgia that I have mentioned before. He told how he grew up Muslim, however sitting under a tree each morning watching birds and plants and trees, he felt there had to be a Creator designer that had a better plan (general revelation). I think that Abram was such a man. That he looked at the destructive lives and loss of life around him and wonder if there was a God who promised something different. When we seek God, we find God. God then introduced Himself to Abram. (God preveniently reveals himself to all, but only a few take note of it. I believe Abram was one of those few.)

However, it was not enough for Abram to believe in God. He also had to have faith in God. There are many people in our world who believe in God. Not all non-Christians are atheists. However, believing in God or believing there is a God does not make one a Christian. To be a Christian you must do the second part and that is putting faith in that belief. In faith, we act on what we cannot necessarily prove. Noah not only believed in God, but he had enough faith in God to build the ark when there was not a cloud in the sky. Abram not only believed in God, but he also had faith to follow God’s instructions to leave Ur for a land he did not know.

Hebrews 11:8 (NIV) 8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

True Christians are always given a call of some sort. It may be to move somewhere. It may be to take on a certain profession. It may be to minister in a certain way in your church. Whatever it may be, we are to act in faith. If we do not do so, we are sinning. We are separating ourselves from God.

Just like Abram faced certain sacrifices to follow the call, so do we. It may be to stay unmarried rather than tie yourself to an unbeliever. It may be to give up a good paying job to take a lesser paying job. It may be to step out of your comfort zone to do a task you do not feel qualified to do.

As we take these sacrificial steps of obedience, we grow in our relationship with God. We have opportunities to see Him more clearly as He works miracles in our lives and we realize that He never calls us to a place without being with us every step of the way. He provides for us in those sacrifices, and we eventually realize they were never sacrifices but blessings in disguise.

You see, God’s call detaches us from this world and builds a bond between us and Him. When a man and woman are married and leave home, their bond shifts some from their parents to their new partner. That is exactly what weare supposed to do! We are to shift from all those things we have placed our trust in and instead place that trust in God.

But there is more, because when God calls, He also provides promises. Look with me at...

B. The Divine Promise (vv 2, 3)

Genesis 12:2–3 (NIV) 2 “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. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

God’s call to Abram takes on more definition now. It is evident that God is calling forth Abram to be a nation, but not just any nation but a great nation and Abram will be blessed. In this statement lies a promise of land. To be a great nation means to have land and stability.

God goes on to promise that He will make Abram’s name great. Now here is where we need to look at the historical light of this event. Just prior to Abram’s life events we find the Tower of Babel being built. What was their desire?

Genesis 11:4 (NIV) 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

They made a name for themselves alright! It is synonymous with sin. Babel is later known as Babylon and is always equated with wickedness and sin. They were determined to remain together when God had directed them to spread out and fill the earth. Well, God had the final say. They lost the ability to communicate with each other and ended up scattered over the face of the earth.

Now here we have a man, who is humble and obedient to God. And God honors him with the very thing that these others sought to provide for themselves; “to make a name for themselves.” God promises to make Abram’s name great!

By faith Abram was going to get what never truly comes by self-serving effort.

And not only will Abram be blessed, but he will be a blessing. Who will be blessed by Abram? Everyone that ever treats Abram right as we will see in later stories. Everyone who honors Abram’s memory. But most especially, all those who follow his example in following God. It is through Abram’s family line, that a savior will be born that will provide salvation for all who receive it; Jew and non-Jew alike.

Blessings relates to life and cursing brings death. We so often equate blessing with financial or material prosperity. But blessing is even more a harmony of relationship with God. There are many prosperous people that are miserable. More than one millionaire has committed suicide. Yet through Abraham, we find that blessings means much more.

One commentary states it this way.

As Abraham’s life unfolds, we begin to see what blessing means. Blessing operates in the context of a covenant relationship with God. Blessings are the manifestation of a faithfulness, fidelity, and solidarity in relationships whereby one’s natural and personal capacity to fulfill God’s intention and purpose is advanced and furthered.

It is interesting to note that the antonym “curse” occurs precisely five times in Genesis 1-11. Now in the first 3 verses of Genesis 12 we find the word “blessing” occurring five times. The world has been brought under a curse by the entrance of sin, yet God is providing a means to reverse that curse.

Just as God blessed Abram for his obedience. God blesses us for our obedience. When we live lives devoted to God and follow His call for our lives. He blesses us in so many ways. We enjoy better relations with people. We find people respect us and take note that our lives seem blessed. When people take wrong actions against us, it often turns back on them in some way.

We often put too much emphasis on wealth. Some preach completely against wealth; however, God’s promise is to prosper us.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Now that does not mean that He makes us all wealthy, though sometimes He does. Abram became wealthy. King David became wealthy. God blessed King Solomon with greatwealth. I believe God does give wealth to His people who use it properly. However, wealthy or not, God provides for us according to our needs and even for our wants to the degree that are healthy for us.

In all these ways, we are blessed when we follow God’s call.

However, we often do not follow God’s call perfectly when we first start out. Like any relationship, it takes trial and error to learn and grow, not to mention that there is an enemy that likes to mislead us.

Abram accepted the call but is quickly distracted from the call. Look with me next at...

C. The Distraction (vv 4, 5)

Genesis 12:4–5 (NIV) 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

Sometimes the Bible is not cohesive on a subject. The details of a story can be scattered throughout its pages. This is one of those times. Genesis 12 talks of God’s command for Abram to go and the promise He will give. Then in the very next verse we find that Abram is leaving Harran for Canaan.

When Abram is first called, He has no idea where he is going. However, when he leaves Haran, he knows he is going to Canaan. Some of the story is apparently missing. So, where was Abram when he was called? For the answer we must look elsewhere.

Genesis 15:7NIV

7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

And Stephen’s speech in...

Acts 7:2 (NIV) 2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.

So, we see that God “appeared” to Abram in all His glory. Sounds like Paul’s experience with the bright light. And where is Abram? In Mesopotamia. Where in Mesopotamia? We need to turn back to Genesis 11 for an answer.

Genesis 11:27–28 (NIV) 27 This is the account of Terah’s family line. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.

So, Abram received his call while living in Ur. So, how did Abram come to be in Harran? Well let’s look further.

Genesis 11:31–32 (NIV) 31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there. 32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

Abram probably did what any son would do. He ran to tell his father what happened to him. “Dad, you are not going to believe this! God came to me and told me to leave for another land. He is going to bless me and make me a blessing!” Now, Terah was pagan. We know this because we are told so in Joshua.

Joshua 24:2 (NIV) 2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.

Terah was polytheistic. He had no reason not to believe Abram. The more gods the merrier, right? This all sounds good with him, so he says, “Okay son. Let’s go! I’ll go with you.” The writings of Josephus give us further details. Terah hated Ur and was mourning his son. (Makes you wonder how is son died.) He was ready for an excuse to leave Ur. This probably sounded pretty good to Abram. He probably thinks, “this isn’t so bad because now I’m not alone on this adventure. My family is going with me.”

There is just one problem with this. It is not obeying what God said.

Genesis 12:1 (NIV)

1 The Lordhad said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

God wanted Abram to divorce himself from the pagan beliefs of his father, but now he brings his father with him. They get as far as Harran and Terah decides to settle there. Terah is the head of the family. Abram evidently decides he needs to stay also. Now it is possible that they settled because of a health issue that Terah is having. The text tells us that Terah dies here in Harran.

Now, after Terah passes away, God instructs Abram to head out again and Abram does.

I think this part of the story is worth mentioning because it is a common problem even today. It is one thing to accept the call but putting it into motion is sometimes difficult. It is very easy to get distracted and fail the first time we try to follow God’s call. Allow me to list some things that distract us.

i. Uncertainty where to begin: We often do not know exactly how to start. A common mistake we make is to try to make it happen on our own. I have found that God’s call is often followed by a time of waiting. Sometimes that waiting is months or years. We tend to fall into old patterns of self-sufficiency. We see this happen with Abram pretty quickly when he arrives in Canaan. He finds there is a famine in the land. Instead of asking God what to do, he jumps into survival mode and decides to do what the others are doing; traveling to Egypt to find food. Unfortunately, this leads to all kinds of problems as we will see next week.

It is the same with us. Too often we get ahead of God by doing what we think we need to do to make happen what He has called us to. However, if we just wait and continue to pray and seek His direction, He opens the door and when He does there is no question it is the right thing. So, when in doubt, sit and wait until God makes it clear.

ii. Another distraction can be friends and family. God has not always shared with them what He has shared with us. They do not always understand when we are leaving to follow God’s call. If we feel the least bit nervous or insecure, they can easily convince us we misunderstood. I remember that my mom was a bit unsure when I first said I felt called to move away for the sake of ministry. I was a single mom and I had some medical issues. At times I would call on them for help. However, I had learned the lesson of waiting in previous years and now I knew the time was right. My Christian walk was mature enough to make the decision to go even though my mom was unsure. Abram was a new follower of God. He was not certain enough of himself yet to say “no” to his father and leave by himself. It cost him a few years delay in reaching the promised land. Perhaps that is why he arrived during a famine. If he had gone directly to Canaan as instructed, he may have been more stable by the time the famine came.

However, there is another complication. Not only was he to have left his father, but his father’s household which should have included Lot. This eventually cost him also as we will see in a later sermon.

So, it is important that we not get distracted when God calls us. But if we do, we need not fret. God has a way of even blessing our mistakes when they are made trying to serve Him. Things do not work out as smoothly, but they do work. However, we do suffer the consequences of our disobedience.

We find that by the time Abram left Harran, he had acquired people. The term used here does not denote slaves. It means gathering others to you. It is evidence that Abram had shared his faith and others were choosing to follow him and serve God also, even packing up and traveling to a new land. We find this in the exodus story also. There were others that left Egypt with the Israelites. One of them was Caleb who later proved his devotion to God when they eventually came to the promised land.

The people of God do not have the right to be private with their faith. We are called to share our faith with others. And we find that Abram proclaimed his faith as we will see more of in our next point.

D. Claiming the Promise (vv 6-8)

Genesis 12:6–8 (NIV) 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lordappeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lordand called on the name of the Lord.

Abram not only left Ur on faith, but Abram claims the land in faith. Abram arrives to find the land inhabited by Canaanites. Remember those people? Canaan’s kin. Friends to Nephilim and as evil as any? Much like those Abram left behind. There is one difference. Abram didn’t grow up among them. Abram did not have a relationship with them. He could stand up as a man in his own right and declare his God before them. And that is just what he does. He pitches his tent right in the middle of them and sets up an altar to God, even though their own altars are in the same area. Polytheistic people would have probably just given worship to the gods of the new land, but not Abram. Without any hesitation of offending them, he erects his altar to God, Elohim meaning, “The Living God.” He is making a statement. You may choose to worship your gods, but I will not. I worship “the Living God.” He is declaring to those around him that he is a man of one God.

Abram is proving he believes God’s promise and trusts God to fulfill it. He walks throughout the land inspecting “his” new property. Just like any man would do who has just acquired new land. He builds altars in several key locations as he goes. He is symbolically laying claim to the land.

Abram never became a landowner physically. He lived in the land as a foreigner, but he believed God’s promise that one day that land would be inherited by his family.

Hebrews 11:9 (NIV)9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

We live by faith every day. God has promised us a new earth; a life without sin and destruction. This place is not our home. This nation is not our nation. We are destined for something better and grander. We look at the things happening in our nation with concern, but we should not feel despair. Because we have faith that God will work all things for our good.

Romans 8:28 (NIV) 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Conclusion:

Abram was not deceived by God. Abram understood clearly that what God was promising was not so much for his descendants but for the entire world. Oh, in time some of his descendants did own some of the land promised, but God spoke to Abram in this passage about one descendent. One very special offspring. Look carefully at what God says.

Genesis 12:7 (NIV) 7 The Lordappeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

God is referring to the savior that would come in time through Abram’s bloodline. Paul clarifies this for us in Gal 3.

Galatians 3:8 (NIV) 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” Galatians 3:16 (NIV) 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.

However, that does not exclude the Jew or the Gentile believer. This promise belongs to all of us.

Galatians 3:26–29 (NIV) 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

God always gets His way and His way is that we would rule earth together. What God started in the garden; God will finish in the end. No matter how bad things get, we can rest assured that God will make it right when the time is right. Abram had faith in this truth. We can have faith in it also.

Allow me to leave you with these wise words from Paul.

Philippians 2:12–13 (NIV) 12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Abram believed and acted on that belief and became a blessing to all. Do you believe? Are you acting on that belief? If so, you too will be blessed and likewise be a blessing to others!

Pray