One of the currently circulating e-mails is the story of a wealthy man who every time he picks up a penny, stops and prays. When asked why he does this, he remarked, "On our money it says, "In God We Trust" and then points out that it reminds him from who all things come.
Our main text for this morning is about a man who illustrates the ability to trust God when told to make a big change and move to a new location. Why? Because God has a plan!
Now, let’s contemporize and personalize Abram’s story for a moment this morning. What would it be like for Abram to relocate if God told him to do so today? Now, to get us thinking in the right direction, we are going to do a modified version of "Simon says" in which I give you some statements that begin with "God says" and you respond with the feelings and implications of the directive.
God says, "Resign your job." What are the implications and feelings of resigning your job?
God says, "Sell your house." What are the implications and feelings of selling your house?
God says, " Move to __________." You fill in the blank with the least desirable location to you. What are the implications and feelings of moving to a new location?
Abram faced all of this. At age 75, according to the Genesis 11 text, God told him to relocate. Why? God had a plan!
Okay Jim, that’s nice to know, but why should Abram follow God and do what He asks? And what does this have to do with me? I’m not moving!
First of all God has a plan for Abram - fatherhood. God says in verse 2 "I will cause you to become the father of a great nation."
Hey dads! Can you recall the feelings you had when you found out that you were going to become a dad?
To be honest, it took me about a week to get used to the reality of becoming a dad. I had been married 11 years and I knew that the freedom to come and go was going to change and I would have to share my life, and my wife, with another human being. But, I don’t regret it at all. My life has been made richer for becoming a dad.
Now, I do not know what kind of impact will be made by role as a father. I hope and pray that it will be the right kind of impact for I want both Jonathon and Daniel to become men of God who serve Him and follow Him.
It was different for Abram. He knew that God was going to make him the daddy of a great nation! But, he was 75 years old! How would that be possible? He was not even the father of one child let alone a great nation. But, God had a plan! And that plan included Abram.
So, as we read in Genesis 12:4 "So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him." Then, moving on to the end of verse 5 we read, "and finally arrived at Canaan." Abram trusted God. He did not argue with God, he did what God said to do - move.
What makes it hard to trust? Fear of the unknown, past circumstances and experiences, and the desire to be in control are some of the reasons that we find it hard to trust. Several years ago, James Eads built the first steel bridge in America. It spanned the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. No one believed that it would support its own weight.
Eads ordered 14 locomotives to stop on the bridge at the same time. The people then trusted the integrity of the bridge. But, its builder already had faith that it would stand and remain standing.
God has a plan for us. And like Abram, it requires us to walk by faith and not by sight.
But, God also has a plan through us. Abram was part of a larger act of God. This great nation that God said that would come into being would come through the life of Abram. This great nation would be known as Israel, through whom God would bring the salvation of all humanity into a reality.
In the late 1980’s I spent sometime working in retail. I loved it. I had fun doing it. I worked for two major retail corporations during that time. The home offices were hours and hours away from where I worked.
Every once in a while I would get frustrated with the inability to get a product for a customer who needed it right now. I also was sometimes was frustrated with all the policies and procedures in place that I thought hindered business instead of helping it. In other words, I wondered, "Where do I fit into the plan?"
That’s a feeling we have not just in the workplace, is it? We feel it here in the church. "Where do I fit in? Jim, you say God has a plan for me in a ministry, how do I find it?"
We feel it at school. "I don’t what I really believe about issue "X" or what I think of person "Y." I’m not even sure what I am about! Pastor Jim, help me out here, where do I fit in?"
Did Abram perhaps feel some of these feelings? God, I’m 75, me move, at this age? God, what are you up to? Why do I need to go this direction? Why can’t I go that direction?
Abram trusted God. He believed that God was reliable, trustworthy, and would follow through on His commitments. And he packed up and moved to where God directed him.
Therefore, not only does God have a plan for us, he has a plan through us. We see this linked in His statement to Abram in verse 2: "I will cause you to become the father of a great nation." God’s purpose went to something much larger than Abram’s immediate circumstances.
God’s plans for us, as a congregation, and as individuals, go beyond our own circumstances and surroundings. When Jesus told the twelve in the opening chapter of Acts to be witnesses his map was the entire world! Where do we fit in to this massive plan? Where God places and directs us. And we have to trust God in that work.
Charles Reade, the English novelist and dramatist has written, "Sow an act, your reap a habit. Sow a habit, you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny." God had a plan and this plan was a plan that involved not only God’s work for Abram and through Abram but also in Abram.
We see this at work in Genesis 22. Abram, now called Abraham, is now a daddy - at the age of 100 - to Isaac. But, God tests Abraham’s loyalty now that he has a son. Who is going to be number 1 in Abraham’s life - God or Isaac?
God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. To kill him. Would he do it?
Off they go, until finally on the third day, it is just dad and son, the servant waits behind. Higher and higher the pair go and then Isaac realizes they have nothing to sacrifice. "Father," Isaac says, "we have the wood and the fire but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" Abraham replies, "God will provide a lamb, my son."
Several decades have passed since God told Abraham to move. And in those decades Abraham had a lot of growing and maturing to do. His fear led him to lie about his relation with his wife and it got him in trouble. His inability or unwillingness to stand up to Sarah, who decided to take matters into her own hands, gave him a son, who by all rights of that day should have gotten everything, but instead got nothing. God had plan that including working in Abram to make him an example of faith, obedience, and righteousness.
And Paul, in Romans 4:3 said, “For the scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” In fact, Abraham’s faith and trust becomes the subject of Paul’s comments in this chapter as he explains of how we are made right with God.
And in the latter part of chapter 4, we understand why God was at work in Abraham as Paul says, beginning with verse 20, “Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything he promised. And because of Abraham’s faith, God declared him to be righteous.”
But, God had to work in Abraham to develop that faith that grew as the years went by. It grew in moments of weakness as we read in the latter part of Genesis 12, where afraid of having his wife taken away from him by the Egyptians, tells them that she is his sister.
It was exercised during difficult moments as when he pleaded for the existence of Sodom, where his nephew Lot lived, and got God to agree to spare Sodom if but just 10 righteous men lived there.
It was challenged and examined and reaffirmed as he walked up that long slope to the place of sacrifice with Isaac, “Father, where is the lamb? Son, the Lord will provide.”
It was God’s plan to work in Abraham’s life so that centuries later Paul would write of him as a model of faith and trust to the Christian community in Rome.
God has a plan for us. And that plan may, may involve a move or a change that seems ridiculous or outrageous. Remember the sign that says, “If God seems far away, guessed who moved?” What’s the normal conclusion of this saying? “We’ve wondered away from God.” But, what if God seems far away because He is on the move and is waiting for us to catch up? Ever stopped to think about that?
Let’s reflect on the ministry of Jesus for a moment. When he called Peter, James, John, and the rest of the disciples what did he say? Follow me. To follow means exactly that – follow. Not stay still, not wait, but move out!
God has a plan for us that requires us to be on the move as God directs. And we don’t know where that is and so we have to trust God to lead us. What inhibits that trust?
God also has a plan through us. And that plan is to use us to bring others to him. Think for a moment about the person or persons who helped you come to Christ. Do you remember them? What was it about them that caused you to be open to what they had to say about Jesus? Part of God’s plan through them was your salvation.
We are part of a mission that is bigger than all the churches in this country, even this world, put together who preach the historic Christian faith of salvation by faith. God’s mission has spanned human history. We are a smaller, but important part of that. It requires us to trust God. What inhibits that trust?
And, like Abraham, God’s has a plan in us. Very simply that plan is to become more and more like Christ as the years go by. It means, as we have been studying on Wednesday nights, to abide in Christ like the branches abide on the vine in the vineyard.
And our faith grows and develops as we trust and follow the Lord through both the good and the bad and the hard and the easy moments of life. But this journey requires trust in and of God. What inhibits that trust?
One of the things said about the church is that it is the last intergenerational organization in existence. As I look out across the sanctuary each week, I see not one or two generations, I see five.
I see the young children, my children’s generation.
I see the teens, heading into adulthood.
I see young adults, launching lives, families, and careers.
I see my generation, looking at retirement, aging parents, college tuition, and getting older.
I see my elders, who have fought wars, and lived through a depression as well as 14 presidential administrations.
I see the church. I see people for whom Christ died to forgive us of our sins. I see people who have impacted many lives over the years.
And I say to them, the journey is not yet over. The end is not. It may seem that way give our current world situation, but Jesus is still calling us to move forward and upward and onward, like Abraham. Will it be said of you, of me, of us, “And because of their faith, God declared them to be righteous?”
Do we still trust God?
