Main Scripture Text: Genesis 12:1-4
+ABRAHAM
+The Call of Abram
(Gen 12:1-4 NIV) "The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go 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. {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." {4} So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran."
+Striking parallel between God’s conversation with Noah and God’s conversation with Abraham.
Gen. 8:15-20 Gen. 12:1-7
+a. Then God said to Noah (8:15) +a. The Lord had said to Abram (12:1)
+b. Come out from the ark (8:16) +b. Leave your country (12:1)
+c. So Noah came out (8:18) +c. So Abram left (12:4)
+d. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord (8:20) +d. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord (12:7)
+e. Then God blessed Noah (9:1) +e. “And I God will bless you” (12:2)
+f. “Be fruitful and increase” (9:1) +f. “I will make you into a great nation” (12:2)
+g. “I now establish my covenant with you +g. “To your offspring, I will give this and with your descendants” (9:9) land” (12:7)
+Are there other biblical characters with the same communicational elements that we see with Noah and Abram? Yeah, Somewhat, but with differences. For example:
Did you notice that when God spoke with Abraham, he used the direct approach…
Compared to when God spoke to Moses, there He just beat around the bush.
The Bible says that Abraham was the “friend of God.”
Abraham was Noah’s grandson.
+Abraham lived just about 4,000 years ago. When the Bible picks up the story of Abraham’s life, he’s already 70 years old. We know he was a rough Bedouin sheep master. He was raised in one of Sumeria’s largest cities, named Ur. He never spoke a prophecy, never wrote a book, penned a song, or gave a law (that we know of), yet Abraham is considered one of the greatest figures in nearly all of the world’s religions.
And for us as Christians, He is considered the “Father of the faithful, the friend of God.”
Each of us have heard sermons regarding Abraham’s faith when asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Today, I want to focus on what I consider to be the hardest test of all for men and women in the year 2,006…. +To trust God with your life… and your future. We live in a time where we’re told to watch out for #1… instead we need to put ourselves last, and put God and others first.
Abram was given a unique revelation from God, and a unique revelation about God.
The scriptures don’t give the details about this, but what the scriptures do clearly tell us is that:
+Abraham gave up what was certain for what was uncertain…
+He left the familiar, to embrace the unfamiliar…
+He became committed to God’s direction for his life… without even knowing the details… because he trusted God…God said it… Abram believed it.
+Eventually God changed his name from +Abram, to +Abraham, just to match his faith. For years Abraham was without any children at all and yet the name God gave him meant the father of a multitude.
That’s like naming a baby boy “Suzy” fully expecting him to become a prize-fighter.
And a person’s name in Abraham’s culture was extremely important. That’s why as God began to work in a person’s life, one of the first things He would do is change their name. It showed that God was the proud Father who believes in his kids. One author said that if Abraham had been named according to the life he lived, his first name would have been “Ima” and his last name would have been “mess”
But it’s good to know that when God looks at our lives he names us after our potential. +God believes in us!! He knows He can accomplish great things through each one of us, if we’ll let Him.
Comments:
+Now Abraham believed God, and he trusted God with his life. Over and over again throughout the life of Abraham, We see him learning to wait on God to come through.
He was just like us.
So, God asked Abraham to follow Him. To adjust his life from one of comfort, satisfaction maybe, ease possibly, to loose the cable TV, to put aside the sitcoms, to lay aside the romantic novels, to refuse the nonsensical, the irrelevant, the temporary,
the pleasures… and journey with the Almighty.
Are you ready to finally put your cards on the table, and trust God with your life, and even harder…trust Him with your future?
Are you willing to trust God with your future knowing that you might just mess things up? Then what will happen? If I try for that new job and get turned down, everyone will know that I’m a failure! What If I go back to school and find out I can’t cut it? What will everyone think of me?
Don’t you think as Abraham placed the For Sale sign on his front lawn He was wondering if in time he’d be back with his tail between his legs?
Yet the Bible tells us that in verse 4, + “So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.” / He not only took God seriously, he took his nephew with him.
+The Bible shows us the wonderful uniqueness in Abraham’s character:
+He was Obedient – in following God, leaving his home at the age of 75. (Ch. 12)
+He was Courageous – Abraham led an army into battle to rescue his brother.
(Ch. 14)
+He was a giving person – He gave a tenth to Melchizedek. (ch. 14)
But, Abraham also made some +bone-headed mistakes as well.
• In Genesis 12:11-13; +He lied about Sarah being his wife… 3 times.
• In Genesis 16; He tried to help God out by +having relations with the maidservant in order to have children… it works and she conceives. Even though Sarah thought the whole plan up, she becomes jealous and Abraham caves in and sends this soon to be mother out into the desert to die!!!
The point of course is that +God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
God looked and there were no perfect people out there to use… so he used Abraham. In +Matthew 5:48 Jesus tells us to “be perfect as God is perfect” but possibly a better translation of this passage might be + “be extraordinary as God is extraordinary”
• And my point here is that when mature people stumble and fall… they get back up again.
• They keep trying even though they have made mistakes.
• They persevere, like Noah, even if it means 120 years building the Love Boat for Dr. Doolittle’s animals.
• And like Abraham they never allow comfort, ease, safety, or anything else to get between them and God.
God was able to use Abraham until the day he died!!!!
Turn to: Romans 4:18-25
+ (Rom 4:18-25 NIV) "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." {19} Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. +{20} Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, {21} being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. {22} This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." {23} The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, +{24} but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness--for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. {25} He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."
Here’s another point to consider:
+God can overcome your impossibility!
The promise to Abraham was beyond human possibility. “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed…” Then there were 25 years between when God promised to do the impossible until he actually did the impossible, and gave Abraham and Sarah a son.
But what was beyond all human possibility was well within the realm of possibility with God.
Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, + “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
The last point:
+Faith focuses on the promises of God, not the circumstances in life!
+Quotes on Faith:
“Faith offers peace in war, comfort in sorrow, strength in weakness, and light in darkness.”
“Faith either moves mountains, or tunnels through them.”
“Faith is the link that binds our nothingness to His Almightiness.”
“Faith ends where worry begins and worry ends where faith begins.”
“Faith doesn’t demand miracles, Faith accomplishes miracles.”
“When faith is the most difficult, that’s when it’s the most needed.”
Abraham made mistakes, we was ordinary. Until he began to respond by faith to God’s call... then in the hands of the Master, he became extraordinary.
Whatever your situation… whatever your impossibility… whether physical, financial, relational, emotional, mental, vocational, rational, or irrational …
We are to follow the Biblical example from the life of Abraham and focus on the promise, not the problem.
God made a lot of promises to Abraham. And guess what? He kept them all!
Look at just a few of the promises God has made to us:
+God’s Promises:
+ (Luke 12:32 KJV) "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
+ (Isa 41:13 NIV) "For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
+ (Prov 3:25-26 NIV) "Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, {26} for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared."
+ (John 6:47 NIV) "I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life."
+ (John 11:25-26 NIV) "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; {26} and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?""
+Like Abraham, have faith in God… wherever you find yourself in life’s journey,
He’ll make a way.
