GO WHERE?
Genesis 12:1-4
Now the Lord had said to Abraham: “Get out of your country, from your kindred from your fathers house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse
Him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abraham took Sarah his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.”
I’m sure of one thing, no one jumps up and down when the Lord calls them to a place they have never been, or like me, you go scratching, clawing and crying to hang on to where you are.2.
In fact, I did everything I knew to do to keep from going. Yes, the song says, “where He leads me I will follow,” was the last song I wanted to hear and especially sing.
Don’t get me wrong when I was a lot younger going to another church was exciting because in the denomination I was in, for the majority of the time, you didn’t try out they went by your resume if you even had one.
Even though we told the Overseer we wouldn’t go unless we got 100% of the vote. We did but
He would make the statement to the church where we were going whether you want him or not he’s coming so who will vote for him?
3.
Well that always turns into a holy war of unprecedented proportion for some churches because you thought all of the church were in agreement with you and your family coming to be their shepherd when in fact, they didn’t want anything to do with you even if you were so gifted that the fruits of the Spirit were dripping off your finger tips.
This incident happened to us in a church in Florida. I mean this one woman was fired up and she hardly missed an occasion to corner me and point her bony finger in my face and tell me in no uncertain terms just how much she detested the state overseer and me, just because her husband was the last word on the church council.
I call that the “bony finger syndrome.”
That was the only church we had that experience with and thank God the time came when we were packing up and leaving them in our rear view mirror.
4.
In our text we read of a man called Abram in the beginning and later Abraham. He didn’t have the local overseer to tell him where to go but God told him to pack up his things and head out into a land where he would show him where to go.
Scripture tells us that he obeyed God even though he was raised up a non-believer because he and his family made a living making statues of pagan god’s and selling them.
Did he get into trouble along the way you better believe it. Did we get into trouble you better believe it, and regardless how long you have been pastoring that particular church it’s a continuing education because there are a lot of bony fingers to point at you too.
Understand, Abram had no religious training and much less heard the name Jehovah spoken in respect as far as we know.
So let me share with you the latest testing of doing God’s will for my life. Even though I have relocated to be with my son and his family for a while I have left behind another part of my family as well as Pam who has been a fantastic support and inspiration to my ministry.
What you need to understand doing the will of God or not doing the will of God affects many people in your family as well as your friends.
So on with my story.
Where God was calling me was on the West Coast from the East Coast. Understand God makes no mistakes. (Can I get an Amen on that) but boy we sure think he does many times.
Where I was going there would be love and welcoming. Far cry from Abram, he wasn’t met with love and welcoming arms like I was.
It was worth the crying and driving when I embraced my son and his wife. Then when we started working together on his house for the first time in 30. It immediately felt like we had never been apart.
I’m happy to be here even though I’m in completely different surroundings. God takes us out of our comfort zones at times in order to teach us new things and stretch our faith. I’m sure Abram experienced this as well.
When God calls you to leave your comfort zone go ahead He will have another waiting.
We all face situations that we don’t know how they will work out. Abram didn’t know either.
When time comes that we get some piece of mind about following the call and will of God this is what we do most of the time, we look at the facts, the figures, the reports we feel the odds are against us. We tried to work it out from the logical stand point and look for the answer and if I we don’t have the answer we think it’s not going to happen the way we expect. It usually is not what we expected because God is in control.
Understand, there are some things God doesn’t want us to know. God always has the solution but if he tells you about it right now wouldn’t take any faith.
I believe some will never fulfill their calling, their destiny and be locked into the place of dry bones and a lack of happiness that consumes you as well as your family because of not following the all of God.
If you could see all the doors that God was going to open for you it would scare you because you wouldn’t know how to get from point A to point B.
During all of these things it may seem all of our prayers are going nowhere and the heavens have been closed up. But rest assured, that is totally false. In those quite times and dry spells God is always working out His plan.
We need to understand that sometimes in our mind there is no logical solution. Do you think Abraham had a logical answer and understood everything about where God was calling him? Absolutely not, but he still obeyed God.
This is what faith is all about you don’t have to come up with a plan because it’s ok not to know.
On the way to my son and his wife there’s a lot of dessert and Moses come to my mind. I thought about him leading the the three million Israelite's into the dessert by faith.
I’m sure the people asked Moses if the enemy
was going to over run them and take them back in slavery.
They even started murmuring at least in Egypt we had some vegetables to eat and a place to bury us.
I’m sure they asked where is the food and water?
When they came to the Red Sea they lost faith not knowing how they were going to get across and I guarantee you Moses replied, I don’t know.
What about water? Moses would say I don’t know, but the God Moses served knew.
Moses had such a trust in God he didn’t have to know every detail.
Let me ask you, Do you have that kind of faith?
So let’s get back to Abram. He obeyed God and left his family to follow God. Abram and Sarai wanted a son but they were well up in age and they knew from the natural it wasn’t going to happen.
Sarai cannot become pregnant, but she wants to give Abram an heir. So Sarai sends her handmaiden to sleep with Abraham. Because of Hager’s contempt Sarai demands that they be sent away. None of this would not would have happened if Abram kept his faith in God.
So finally, Abram and Sarai have a son and named him Issac.
God did not cast them aside because of their failures but encouraged them to keep walking by faith.
God renames Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.
God again speaks to Abraham and tells him to take his son to and particular mountain and sacrifice him. As they climbed the mountain Issac asks his father and says we have the fire and the wood but where is the sacrifice. Abraham says God will supply.
The son Abraham and Sarah waited for was now going to be sacrificed. Talk about a test and faith this was one for the play book.
As Abraham prepares the altar and raises his hand with a knife to sacrifice Issac an Angel stops him and he looks and there is a ram caught in some bushes.
He was directed to stop by the Angel because God saw his faith and spared his son. So Abraham takes the ram and sacrifices it to the Lord.
So when the Lord calls you to a place you’ve never been and it all seems to much, remember God has a “ram” for you to see God’s will come to pass.
My journey across this country is one I never expected to take, but I know that I know God is working things out for my good just as he did for Abraham.
Romans 8:28
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”
We must all keep that in mind daily.
