It's Time For A Spiritual Tune Up - Genesis 15 Series

Well over the last several weeks we’ve been looking at the life of Abraham. We followed Him as he left Ur and he went up to Haran and then came back down to Palestine. We tagged along with him as he went into Egypt where he lied and not so many good things there happened. But then he came back to Palestine and kind of rededicated himself to the Lord. We raced with him up to Damascus where he rescued Lot and the crew from the four kings that had come over. So he came back and we followed him through that whole story.

Now we arrive at Genesis 15 where we have a spiritual tune-up. We have a time in Abraham’s life where he really needs to kind of get it back together. He’s been through a lot. I really like this passage at this Sunday of this year because we’ve been through a lot and we can identify with Abraham through all the things that he’s been through, all the challenges, good and bad, through the year. He comes to a place where he needs a spiritual tune-up and we all need that today.

What I like to do as I’m studying the scriptures is go in to the story and imagine I’m there, experiencing the same things that Abraham experienced, feeling the same emotions that he’s experiencing in that situation and then watch God bless him and then feel that blessing myself and take that away and apply it. That’s what we’re going to do as we go into Genesis 15 today. So open your Bibles to Genesis 15 and that will help you to follow along in the passage that we’re looking at today.

Notice it starts in the passage – After these things. What are the these things? The things I just told you. After all these things that happened. In other words we’re coming to a place in his life where he needs something. Something is going to happen. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” I don’t know what Abraham was afraid of. Maybe he was afraid of those four kings, Chedolaomer and his buddies, that he went over and conquered. Maybe they would be coming back for revenge. I don’t know what he was afraid of. Maybe he was afraid there might be another famine in the land and he’d have to go back down to Egypt again, and you know that would not be a good deal for him to go back to those people again. Or maybe he was just thinking about his life. “My life hasn’t turned out the way I thought it was going to turn out, God. I’ve got some challenges here”. I don’t know what it is, but he’s got some fears and God says – I am your shield. “Fear not,” He says, “I am your shield; your reward shall be great.”

Now I think we need a spiritual tune-up whenever emotions cross the line. You know in your life as in mine our emotions start crossing the line. You know where that line is. That line is where the emotions aren’t productive anymore. They’re more damaging than helpful. They’re getting us into trouble in one way or another. Damaging relationships, making us feel more isolated, making us feel upset. When those emotions cross the line, we need a spiritual tune-up and God knows that’s what Abraham needs at this moment. Whether it’s emotions or in this case the doubts that Abraham is experiencing. Sometimes we doubt. “God, what are you doing here? I don’t understand. This isn’t what I signed up for. I was expecting you to do different things than you’ve done here. It’s not turning out the way I hoped.” When we experience the doubts, we experience the emotions, we can find ourselves in deep need of a spiritual tune-up and that’s what God wants to do inside of our hearts. He wants to tune us up spiritually. He wants to refocus us so that we’re not taken away by our emotions, so that our doubts aren’t creating this disappointment in our lives, but we are able to trust the Lord in the midst of the difficulties that we experience, not just this last year, but today and going into the next year. We need a spiritual tune-up in our lives.

Now God makes this statement to Abraham. He says – Don’t fear because I am your shield. If you were going to look at a shield in the Bible and kind of imagine what does the Bible say about a shield, you would not come to Genesis 15, would you? You would think in your mind of the armor of God in Ephesians 6 because the fourth piece of armor is the shield of faith. It's that faith that we have that overcomes the emotional challenges that we experience. If our emotions start getting out of control it’s likely that it’s pointing to something in our lives that requires us to have more faith and trust the Lord in situations where we need to trust Him. He’s our shield. That’s what He’s saying here. So Abraham really needs something from the Lord. God knows exactly what he needs. So God tells him this is what you need, I am your shield, you’re going to have a great reward in your life. And Abraham now shares his heart with the Lord.