Look to the stars Part 3
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Announcements:
Announcements:
Great week of VBS
Our youth are heading to camp
Movie night June 26th
Recap:
Recap:
Last week we kicked into the story of Abraham
We talked about how God often humbles the proud and exalts the humble
And when it comes to Abraham, he was a man who came from humble beginnings
We saw that God chooses Abraham at this moment in history for the sake of all of humanity
“all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you”
Salvation will come through Abraham, later fulfilled by Jesus
Today we will begin to see Abram’s journey and life story
So we’ve just gone through the tower of Babel
God scatters the people
He then chooses Abram and creates a covenant with him
God in chapter 12 verse 1 tells Abram “Go.....to the land I will show you”
So let’s pick up in verse 4 and read a few verses, I’ll pray and then we can dive in
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.
pray
I have 3 little girls
Wren, Essie, and Naomi
Naomi is almost 3 and she’s a stubborn little thing
Maybe you have one around this age and can relate
As sweet as she can be but when she put her mind on something, it is difficult to get her off of it
Often, I like to put her to the test.
And the test is simple
It’s one question and she knows the right answer.
The question is: Who’s girl are you?
Right? So, I’ll pick her up and ask her the question and sometimes if she’s in a sweet mood she’ll say daddy and give me a hug
But more often then not, she likes to give me a hard time and she’ll say momma, which I know is actually more accurate, and then I tickle her or do something until she says she’s daddy’s girl
I like to put her to the test
So, here the Word of the Lord comes to Abram
And right here from the very beginning of Abram’s journey a test is given
Now we don’t know much about Abram at this point
We know he had a country, a people, and a father.
We know he has a wife named Sarai who was unable to have children
We know they had set out for Canaan at some point but settled in Harran
But we don’t really know what he believed or what he had been taught
We don’t know if he believed Yahweh was the one true God
There are a lot of things we just don’t know at this point
But we do know God chose Abram
And God establishes His covenant with Abram before Abram does anything
So God gives a command, establishes a covenant, and then waits for obedience
It’s a formula that we see God operate under
Faith creates obedience
Faith creates obedience
True Biblical faith in Jesus will always create radical obedience to Him
But, we can’t just obey our way to Jesus
Following Jesus is not a religious game to see how many spiritual points you can tally
Following Jesus is faith in Jesus being who He says He is and then laying down your life to pursue Him
It begins with faith and then is followed by radical obedience
Here, Abram’s faith is tested.
The Word of the Lord comes to Abram and he’s asked to go
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.
turn your back on all that you’ve ever known and go
And it’s not, hey go to Canaan or go to Egypt. No it’s go to the place that I will show you.
Abram has no idea where he is going.
Faith! this is one of the reasons why Abram is the epitome of faith in the Bible
It was very clear what he was leaving behind, it was not clear where he would be going
It was very clear what he was leaving behind, it was not clear where he would be going
How often do we feel like God is calling us to something and it’s the fear of what we have to leave behind that prevents us from obeying
It’s the fear of what we might miss out on
The fear of what we might have to cut off
It’s the fear of what we may have to give up
Abram knew what He was leaving behind but he didn’t know what he was walking in to
But he had faith
If God calls us out of something and into something else, we have to believe that it for His glory and our good
One of the reasons I believe God operates this way a lot is because if God told Abram exactly what was going to happen, Abram could plan that thing to death and then take all of the credit
How many times do we think that if God would just let me in on a few of the steps, then I’d be able to plan a little better and this would all go a little smoother
Listen: i’m a planner! I love a good plan, I like to come up with plans, I struggle when plans change (just ask my wife).
But here’s the thing: I can get pretty prideful when a good plan comes together.
I’m just being honest here
When we can come up with a good plan and then just watch it all work out
That feels pretty good
But, when God asks us for one step of obedience and we have no idea what the outcome is going to be, that’s a whole different ball game
But then there is no denying the work of God in that process
Now the question could be asked…how do we know when God is calling us to something?
In essence: how do we discern the voice of God?
And it can be difficult at times
Sometimes we do feel a prompting of some kind
Maybe we feel something in our Spirit
Maybe it’s spurred on by someone else or something else
Maybe it’s patterns that we see
But how do we know right?
Firstly, each situation is different and so there really is no step by step action to discern the voice of God
But there are some practical things that we can do to help
Number 1 is: we use the Word of God
12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
God’s Word is alive and active and He still uses it to speak to His people today
Often times our answers will come through His Word
Which means we must be people of the Word
#2: wise counsel
A constant reliance on your own counsel is unhealthy
We need wise counsel from others
20 Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.
Which means we need to have people in our lives that we can go to when we need it
#3 Seeking God
We need to be in prayer regularly.
We just talked about this topic a few weeks ago so I won’t spend a ton of time on it here but Christ has invited us into a relationship with Him
The more we pursue Him and the more time we spend in prayer the clearer His voice becomes
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
When we do these things we will have peace
If you are doing all of these things and you are still unsure then I would encourage you to start taking steps and know that God’s will will prevail
21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
It may be the right thing and the wrong time
Or it may be the right time but the wrong thing
Make active steps of obedience and trust God that His purpose will prevail
Little side note: sometimes active obedience looks like being still
Sometimes that hardest thing to do for us, is wait so just know that sometimes God will ask us to obey Him in our waiting on Him
So here, Abram hears the voice of God and he obeys. Abram sets out.
Radical obedience because of his faith that God would keep His promises
And what were those promises again?
Make from him a great nation
bless him and those who bless him,
curse those who curse him
make his name great and bless all of the people of the earth
Spoiler alert, God is faithful to all of those promises!
How does this play out?
Well we begin to see it in the next few verses
Abram goes (obeys)
He also worships
He builds alters. First in Schechem and the east of Bethel.
In this second location the Hebrew text says that he “made a proclamation of Yahweh by name.”
Verse 8’s “called on the name of the Lord” is probably a little soft of a translation
It’s an expression that can be found in a few OT locations but perhaps the most helpful one is Exodus 34:5-7
5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
Here we see the Lord proclaim His own name
It’s Yahweh proclaiming the name of Yahweh
And in this passage we have a clear picture of what it means to “call on the name of the Lord.”
It’s a list of His divine attributes
Now, why this is important is because worship to a god during this day and age was a pretty normal occurrence
So for Abram to build and alter and call upon his God would not have been all that different from customary worship practices of that day
In fact, there’s a good chance, especially east of Bethel, that Abram was camped near one of the Canaanite shrines where they regularly performed pagan worship ceremonies.
He was near a Canaanite holy place where they worshipped their gods and gave instruction of how to do so.
But when Abram sets up an alter and calls upon the name of Yahweh the way it’s described here in the Hebrew he emphatically and directly sets apart the God that He serves
He began to declare the divine attributes of God that can only be true to Him
Thus: God had a worshiper and witness in the Canaanite lands
this is what the Lord is looking for today
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
Our Heavenly Father is seeking people who will rise up and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
Every step of our obedience should be followed by worship
We are called to make an impact on the world around us
Listen: sometimes this is going to look a little different
When you take up your cross daily to follow Jesus you may have to say no to some things
We aren’t anti culture for the sake of being anti culture
But we are for God no matter the cost
Where in your life have you allowed some things to creep in that are not of God?
Are there areas of your life that you haven’t given to God?
When Christ calls us we don’t get to partition our life out and give Him the areas we feel like
We are called to lay down our lives
Every area!
Our marriage, our children, our jobs, our finances, our hobbies, our time.
Everything we do should be an act of worship
Does your marriage proclaim the name of the Lord?
The way you parent your children, does it proclaim the name of the Lord?
When you go to work every day, do you carry yourself in a way that proclaims the name of the Lord?
The way you manage your money, does it proclaim the name of the Lord?
In every area of our life, can we look at it and say, I operate in a way that worships and proclaims the name of the Lord?
If it doesn’t then let me be the first to tell you, God is calling you to obedience in whatever area that may be for you
So, here Abram is building alters and worshipping God
Now, remember one of the promises that God had given Abram.
It was a promise that everyone had in Babel had longed for but couldn’t achieve.
God promises to make Abram’s name great!
Now, let’s be honest here for a second. If God comes to you and tells you that He is going to make your name great
The next step is probably making a website, plastering my name on some billboards, have some people go around and tell stories about me
I need a lot of exposure and get my name out there
But that is not Abram’s response.
Abram does not aim to make his name great but sets out to make God’s name great!
His promise is already been declared over him, he does need to work to achieve it. He simply must obey and it is his.
Now listen, you and I are not Abram ok. Abram goes down as one the greatest men to ever live
His name goes down in history
There’s a good chance, none of us are going down as great figures in history
But, though we cannot have the greatness, we can have the goodness of Abram
To be world renown is not the goal
To be known in heaven is
We must fight the same temptation that we saw the people of babel faced with
The temptation to make our name great
Instead, we must make His name great
And when we do we are promised redemption and salvation
We believe that Jesus is who says He is, He did all He said He did, we radically obey all that He calls us to and we make His name great in everything that we do.
This is the calling on our lives
Will we be obedient like Abram was?