I. Unlikely Choice
A. Here in Genesis 12 marks what many critical scholars call the “beginning of the redemptive drama of the restoration of humanity to our original purpose and divine intention” or as I like to call it a “turning point for man”.
(Optional) 1. When you read the opening chapters of the book of Genesis you discover that we were created to be in a perfect and harmonious relationship with God. Everything God created was “good” and was designed for us a perfect paradise where mankind would flourish and have an intimate relationship with God. But all of that is diminished; and changes when Adam does not take his divine-given covenant authority to kick a snake out of his marriage.
a. Let me just do a sermon side step right there for a moment and tell you that is why you better be careful about the snakes you allow to come into your life. You can’t just let any ol’ thing come into your life, just because it sounds/looks/acts good does not mean it is. The enemy knows how to appear as an “Angel of Light”, he doesn’t show up looking like a bugs bunny cartoon character with red skin, black horns, hoved feet, a pitch fork, a long pointy tail and a handle bar mustache that he twist all methodically with a menacing laugh. He is far from being the laughable character that is played out in cartoons and comics.
b. If the devil showed up like that we would know that it was him, but he does not show up that way he comes in many forms and sometimes comes looking like church folk. The enemy knows how to make you itch and will give you the means to scratch it.
2. Men let me talk to you for a moment and say that it is your job to keep the house free from snakes don’t you just sit around and let the enemy creep in and take your family. You were placed as the “head and priest” of your home, and need to be leading as so. You want to see revival break out then get the snakes out, get them out of your life and man up and get them out of your home. Don’t be like Adam and stand by silent while the devil has his way.
a. Don’t hide behind your wife but stand up and rebuke the devil, “resist the devil and he will flee”, stand firm on the Word and start laying hands your wife and children and pray the prayer of faith. If you want to see a real revival break out, let the men of this church start praying like they ought to. Let them get full of HG..... Let them worship.... let them start getting out of their seat & start running, dancing, & leaping...!!!
b. We need to be like Paul in Acts 28:3. After being shipped wrecked Paul gathers some wood to throw on the fire after he throws the wood on the fire the heat brings out a serpent, if you turn up the heat in your relationship with God it will drive that ol’ serpent the devil out of the home and church. Look at your neighbor and say “turn up the heat and get the snakes out”!
B. Now to get back on track in chapter twelve … As the book opens God chooses a man and it is kind of strange as to why He chooses Him. He chooses a man named Abram who was from Ur of the Chaldeans and He speaks to him promising to bless him and through him to bless the entire race of humanity. It is through this one man that God plans to set in motion our restoration that was forfeited because of Adam and Eve’s sin.
1. It is interesting to me that God would choose someone like Abram to play such an important role in the redemptive plan. The same one that made it into the “Hall of Faith”, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:” (Heb 11:8-9 AV)
2. I mean, I’ve often wondered why God would choose the son of a famous idolater, his wife can’t even have children; you would think that there would be a little more to him to back his legitimacy as the ‘father of the faith.’ God chooses someone who seems to have a lot of baggage coming with them. It does not make since, why not use some one that is established and has a reputation as a man of God. Conventional wisdom tells us to look for the one with the most qualifications. We would not place a drug addict, prostitute, and … (ex.) into the white house to lead this country so why would God use someone that does not fit the resume.
C. The reason why God does not check the resume and use the most qualified is because God wants to build up the one He chooses from the ground up. He chooses people who are already on the ground. Architects will tell you the higher the building is going to go; the lower they must dig. When you are on the ground floor you can’t get any lower it’s “up” from their baby.
1. God seeks people who will never challenge His glory. He seeks to choose people who know that they are where they are not by anything that they have done, but because of what God has done for them. See He needs to get you to a place where you do not question His guidance, His hand, or His presence that guides and directs you to your final destination.
2. God says to Abram (the one that is from the wrong side of the tracks, the one that does not come from a proper family, the husband of one who is barren) ‘I am going to bless you: I am going to use you.’ God was saying to Abram, “I know that there is nothing that you see in yourself that will be able to make this happen. I know there is nothing about you that would make you say, “I’m the right candidate”, but Abram that’s alright because I’m going to make it happen.”
II. Your Make UP
A. You need to understand something about your DNA, your make up. DNA determines everything about you from your hair to the hair on your toes… (ex.)
1. DNA is complex it is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints, like a recipe or a code, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells.
a. Within this complex structure is all the information about us. It controls everything about our makeup from the good to the bad. Some of us can have duplicate, missing, or damaged information that can be both good and bad
B. I am giving you this genetic lesson to help you understand that within this complex strand is a hidden gene that links you to God. Ge 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: when God made man He fashioned us together with His DNA. When Adam and Eve fell and sin was introduced into our DNA, causing a devastating restructuring that introduced all the junk we are dealing with and turning off the spiritual DNA code and causing it to go dormant.
1. Even though sin has separated us from God, man will search for a god, rather it is jobs, cars, money, or other material things. Placed within man is the need to serve and worship, sin pushes us to other things because it knows we were created to seek God so it tries to feel that void with idols.
2. But God devised a plan that would jump start and reactivate His DNA in us. That plan came in the form of Christ dying for us it was that blood transfusion at the Cross that would reactivate my place as a son of God and a joint heir with Jesus.
3. No longer am I a son of the falling, but a son of the redeemed, an heir, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that (would) shew forth the praises of him who hath called (you and me) out of darkness into his marvellous light:
4. No longer am I an outsider but an insider, my path has changed, no longer am I in the dark but in the light. I have an inheritance and all His promises apply to me. You could say that my DNA is now Destiny, Nature, and Authority in God. That’s another message for another time but let me say this…
a. That means I got a place and a position in the Kingdom as a King’s Kid. I may be a shepherd boy now but the throne is on my horizon. Just because I am in a pit now; I’m still on my way to the palace.
b. Don’t discount the days of small begins. You have a destiny, and the nature of God is a winning one. We are more than conquerors, we are over comers and are victors in Christ: No matter what the weapon is I want you to know that if I won’t doubt he’ll bring me out If I obey he’ll make a way If I believe I will receive Everything he promised me (I win) I win.
c. I have been given the keys to the Kingdom, and have the power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. I have been authorized and deputized to use the name of Jesus, all hell has to bow at that name. When the Devil starts messing God starts blessing; he can’t mess with God’s blessed!
C. Let me help you understand that God blesses us and chooses to work through us even though we have so little to offer to Him. All He ever needs is just us because He plans to make something out of us. The word “make” in Hebrew is (bara) it is a word of creativity, it implies something being brought into being when nothing was available.
1. Creation implies that there is nothing available and then God reaches into the availability of nothing, puts His hand into nothing, grabs something out of nothing, and makes something out of the nothing that was available. ??
2. Nothing never gets puffed up with pride, Nothing never gets beside itself, Nothing doesn’t cut God out of the equation, Nothing has nothing but time to be used, Be careful what you conclude about what you think I can become based upon what you see. It looks like to others you don’t have much to offer, but you serve a God Who specializes in taking nothing and making something out of nothing.?
3. Now the reason why some of you should have shouted a little more than that is because you know you were nothing on your way nowhere doing nothing hanging around nobody’s and then God reached into the nothingness of your life and fashioned something out of you; something that would show forth His Praises, something that would … (ex).
D. Do you know what this means? God has been working on you before you arrived on the scene. It didn’t happen by mistake, chance, or happenstance or accident. God has had a plan for your life… Isaiah 49:1 says …The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Jeremiah 1:5 declares ‘before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.’ Ga 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called [me] by his grace.
E. How He let you come here, Who He let you come here through, who you had to deal with to get where you got, was all ordered by God because, The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD.??
1. I’m trying to help someone who has allowed governmental statistics and peoples oversized opinions of you that suggest that where you are born determines what you will become. You need to know that where you are born and what you are born with has nothing to do with what God can make of you. God can take those of us that were born with plastic spoons in our mouths and make them silver.
2. Don’t worry about your past cause when you get to where He’s going to take you; you can look back at the circumstances you have been dealt and what you had to go through and declare ‘if it had not been for the Lord on my side’.
3. I’m trying to help somebody better understand that your yesterday that you keep trying to wish away, you don’t need to be ashamed of your background, because it is everything that you have been through that has qualified you for what God is making you.
F. He’s been making you a blessing; making your name great; God has been directing the drama of your life the entire time. How do you think you’ve come out of some things? Because just about the time that the Devil was going to take you out the Director of the Drama stood up and said “CUT”. That is why the situation didn’t kill you, because the Director said ‘cut’—it was a part of the making of process. That’s why the relationships, circumstances, and setbacks took something out of you but did not take you out, because the Director said ‘cut’. That is why no weapon that has been formed against you has prospered.??
1. That is why what was meant for your evil has been turned for your good. You’re going to go through some things because God is getting you ready for some greater things. And now that every time you’ve come across a rough situation, God is going to use it to give you strength to manage on the next level, everything that comes at you is a part of your destiny.
a. I know you are looking at others and wishing you had it made like them, but you don’t know all they went through to get there. You see the finished product but you never saw the behind the scenes, when they were struggling like you.
b. Some of you are in “post production” that’s a term they use in movies. It’s when all the filming is done and now they are putting the finished product together. You do not know it yet but it is all about to come together, you’re just in post production right now.?
c. Let the privileged folk laugh at you; Let the silver spoon saints shake their heads at everything you are going through. Ec 7:8 Better [is] the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:
2. Yes, you had to cry when everybody else was partying, You had to work when everybody else was on vacation, you had to catch a ride when everybody else was driving by, you had to go to the movies by yourself when everybody else had a date, you had your lights cut off when everybody else had money to spare. But every time you struggle, I declare to you that another blessing was being made.
a. While everybody else was having a good time, you were learning how to call on God, lean on God, cry out to God, depend on God, labor for God, give to God. Your set backs are set ups for God to show up and show out.
b. Is there anybody in here who can say that ‘everything I’ve been through, God has been making me who I am? So that when I look back over my life I can say…I thank God for the mountains; I thank God for the valleys; I thank Him for the troubles that He brought me through, for if I never had a problem, I’d never know God could solve them, I’d never know what faith in God can do, so through it all I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God, through it all. God is making something out of ME.
III. Walking it out
A. My opening text is referred to as the Abrahamic Covenant; which we are entitled to because we are joint heirs and have been grafted in. When Christ was pierced and blood and water flowed out of His side that was symbolic of Jews and Gentiles being grafted to Christ for reconciliation. That means I am on His side. God lays a promise on Abram about what He’s going to do with his life. He lays a promise on Abram about his future. Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
B. God was saying to him, “Now Abram I’m going to show you something, I’ve got blessings waiting on you. Bigger than anything you’ve ever seen. I’ve got a future prepared for you; greater than anything you’ve ever experienced. I’ve got a future designed for you more awesome than anything you’ve ever walked in. I’ve got a destiny waiting on you greater than anything you’ve ever been through’ But here is the piece to the puzzle: God makes the promise; but Abram must participate in the production. He has to “Walk it out”.
1. You see, God has carved out a future that is far greater than anything Abram has ever experienced. And you need to know today that God wants to by way of a covenant, use and bless you. Ga 3:29 And if ye [be] Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. He wants to enlarge your territory. He wants to give you favor and increase. He wants to do things for you you’ve never seen before. He has a future waiting on you greater than anything you’ve ever experienced. He’s got miracles and blessings waiting on you that will blow your mind.
2. God has some things waiting on you. He’s got some blessings and miracles; He’s got some healing, some deliverance; He’s got some joy, some anointing; He’s got a calling for you; you need to know that there’s a future waiting on you. But you can’t name it and claim this one; you can’t call it and haul it; you can’t blab it and grab it; you can’t throw money on the pulpit and get it; you can’t slap some oil on and receive it---with THIS one—You’ve got to Walk it out…You’ve got to participate in bringing it to pass. There’s an old song that says, “It takes two to make a thing go right”.
C. There is something to be said of walking with God, you do not read of folks running with God. You ever tried talking to someone while you were running; you lose connection with that person because you are trying to keep up. God is not running from us, He is walking with us, taking the time to listen to hear from us.
1. In Jos 1:3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses, even though the land had been promised to Israel, they had to do something themselves; they were going to have to walk out their promise the entire length and breadth of it. In other words, they were going to have to take some action in order to enjoy their promise that meant if they wanted the entire inheritance they had to work for it, they were too walk it out!
a. We got to walk by faith. God’s request may not always make since at first. However, if we walk by faith, there will be times when we are going to scratch our heads and want to tell God, “God, are You out of Your mind? That makes no sense whatsoever.”
b. To obey by faith is not always going to be the most logical thing to do. I mean, it’s not logical to attack a city by marching around it 13 times, it’s not logical for a small shepherd boy to fight a giant, It does not make since to dip seven times or wash mud out of our eyes. These things don’t make a lot of sense to us, but to God they do. The foolish things of God will always confound the wise.
2. You’ve got to work with God in getting the blessing in your hand. Faith only works if you walk it out. The destiny will only come if you walk it out. The first step is leaving that which is familiar to head into the unknown. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. God doesn’t tell us the end, He doesn’t show us everything in our destiny, He just asks us to walk and live by faith. If you read the Bible you will see that whenever God blesses there is partnership in productivity.
3. God ain’t going to just drop stuff in your lap—I’m sorry. We’ve been listening to some people who say just quote a little scripture, buy a handkerchief, etc. and in seven days you are going to get it. But in that seven days you better be doing your part. Is there anybody in here who is ready to walk into your future/purpose/promise? Ready to walk by faith and not by sight. Ready to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, to walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.
Is there anybody ready to “Walk it Out”; Ready to go into the unknown…your destiny… into a deeper level of God’s presence/anointing/blessings. Ready to walk away from distractions and hindrances, ready to leave your comfort zone and people that have been weighing you down. Ready to accept your DNA!
