Kingdom Keys - Genesis Series

If you have been in church at all in your life then you have heard someone say to know God and his will for your life you need to read your bible regularly. I’ve heard it, said it and even suggested memorizing parts of scripture. However, the truth is many people rarely open “THE BOOK” to discover the treasures within. The excuses elude to time, schedules, lack of clarity, desire and even the admission people hate to read. All of which are understandable if this were your High School English class or a technical manual for your smartphone. But the Bible is God’s Word curated over centuries detailing His nature, His will, the meaning of life and humanity’s historical interactions with Him. Seriously, the Bible details the hidden keys to the Kingdom. Many have read it. It’s an undeniable fact that it remains the world's number one bestseller, since gutenberg invented the printing press. No book even comes close and yet, many people, including self proclaimed born again Christians, have never read or studied the book that offers the keys to peace, joy, love and hope in this life and the next. Hence, the reason we will be offering an overview each week this year to help all of us become Bible literate.

This week we begin with Genesis.

Moses probably wrote the book around 1400 before Christ entered the world. Obviously, Moses was not an eyewitness to the earliest events but due to his relationship with God as a prophet, we can believe God revealed the truth either directly or indirectly through previous oral or written records. The era being described is before the Hebrews arrived in Egypt and grew into a nation (1800bc).

As we read, we see the writer sharing that when God created everything it was good and then something happened. Genesis details the entering of sin into the world and its tainting of everything. Genesis not only tells of the beginning of God’s plan for salvation but also the framework by which the rest of the bible builds our understanding of life, death and the need for a savior.

Genesis tells us a host of beginning stories:

The first plants

The first animals

The first man

The first woman

The first interactions

The first sin

The first news of God’s salvation

And finally, God’s desire to have and restore a relationship with the first people He chose to represent Him on earth. A legacy now passed on to you.

This last point is critical because Genesis helps us see God’s willingness to provide unmerited favor and forgiveness when most humans would not offer grace or mercy. A point best described in Genesis 12 or the hinge between the creation stories and man’s rebellion.

Let’s take a look at Genesis 12:1-9.

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.[a]

3 I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”[b]

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.

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[c] 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.

9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

Last week, I shared a message online and used some traditional words from John Wesley’s watchnight service and prayed for each of you here and at home. I also asked each of us to recommit to your part in our mission together. If you look at today’s scripture, I’d like for you to underline the words following:

In verse one “go”, verse four and five “went” and “set out”; verse six “traveled”; verse eight “went”, Verse nine “set out”

When the Lord came to Abram, did God ever say to “sit”? NO!