New Beginnings
Genesis 12:1-9
Howard Hendricks relates how the mentoring of one of his teachers’ impacted his life. “By the fifth grade, I was bearing all the fruit of a kid who feels insecure, unloved, and pretty angry at life. In other words, I was tearing the place apart. However, my teacher Miss Simon apparently thought that I was blind to this problem, because she regularly reminded me, ‘Howard, you are the worst behaved child in this school!’
So tell me something I don’t already know! I thought to myself, as I proceeded to live up (or down) to her opinion of me . . . You can imagine what my expectations were upon entering the sixth grade. The first day of class, my teacher, Miss Noe, went down the roll call, and it wasn’t long before she came to my name. ‘Howard Hendricks,’ she called out, glancing from her list to where I was sitting with my arms folded, just waiting to go into action. She looked me over for a moment, and then said, ‘I’ve heard a lot about you.’ Then she smiled and added, ‘But I don’t believe a word of it!’
I tell you, that moment was a fundamental turning point, not only in my education, but in my life. Suddenly, unexpectedly, someone believed in me. For the first time in my life, someone saw potential in me. Miss Noe put me on special assignments. She gave me little jobs to do. She invited me to come in after school to work on my reading and arithmetic. She challenged me with higher standards.
I had a hard time letting her down. In fact, one time I got so involved in one of her homework assignments that I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning working on it! Eventually my father came down the hall and said, ‘What’s the matter son? Are you sick?’
‘No, I’m doing my homework,’ I replied.
He kind of blinked and rubbed his eyes, not quite sure whether he was awake. He’d never heard me say anything like that before . . . What made the difference between fifth grade and sixth? The fact that someone was willing to give me a chance. Someone was willing to believe in me while challenging me with higher expectations. That was risky, because there was no guarantee that I would honor Miss Noe’s trust.
Everyone likes the end product of mentoring, especially when it yields a peak performer --- the star athlete, the successful businessperson, the brilliant lawyer, the impressive communicator. But how many of us want to deal with the person at the front end of the process?” (More Stories for the Heart pp46-47)
Like Howard Hendricks’s teacher, God always sees the potential. God sees what we can become not what we are. He sees where we can go not where we can remain.
When God asked Abraham to become His follower He was asking him to make a great sacrifice. Abraham was going to have to forfeit the inheritance that was his. He was going to have to leave his people and go to an unfamiliar place (Genesis 12:2-3).
God had chosen a common man to bring forth His plan of redemption for mankind. Bishop Ryle tells us that there were three significant things that Abraham had to do when he agreed to follow God (Yates 16-17).
It isn’t any different today than it was in Abraham’s time. Great importance is put on “land, family, and inheritance” as the commentators, Walton & Matthews tell us. However today there are not many family farms as there once was. Farming has become big business. Family inheritance does not lie in the land. Political allegiance is not found there as it once was. Children were the future then and they are the future for today. “Children would provide for their parents in old age and enabled the family line to extend another generation.” (35). Children provided for their parents once they became too old to lead the clan. Their wisdom was not discarded as it is today. Parents were shown great respect through burial and honoring of their name. It is out of that respect that we go to the cemetery on Memorial Day to remember those who have gone before us in death.
The custom of Abraham’s people was to see gods as personal. They would become a sort of “divine sponsor”(37). These gods would take a specific interest in a particular family. If the family was pleasing the god then good things would happen. It they weren’t then bad things would happen.
The scripture once again is unclear of the amount of time it took to convince Abraham to do what he was being asked to do. You may ask yourself what does God want me to do? Does he want me to leave my family behind? No. But, God does ask us to leave some things behind.
Today there are three things that must be examined if we too are going to embark on our journey with God.
When Abraham followed God’s command the three things he needed to do were:
A. Renounce the certainties of his past.
B. Face the uncertainties of his future.
C. Look for and follow the direction of Jehovah’s will (Yates 17).
What are the three things that God wants us to do? The first is this.
1. He has asked us to leave our past behind.
Some of us have left our land, families, and inheritance. However, we’ve hung onto our past. Abraham was making a break from all that was familiar to him. Going to a place where he would have no inheritance. It is here that God would fill the void. Here He would become the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
A man named Mead tells about how he spent most of his high school days in the principal’s office because of the problem’s he caused. He tells of how his family life was a mess and how that he acted out in class to ease his frustrations. His reputation as a troublemaker grew.
His punishment was detention after school. The man he was assigned to work for was named, Ernie. Ernie was a powerfully built man who was short and stocky. He spoke with a heavy accent. He did his work very fast and demanded the same from Mead. Yet he took time to ask the boy questions and find out about his dreams and goals for his life.
After the week ended of detention for Mead, Ernie approached him with the possibility of a part time job, if he was interested. Mead was in disbelief that anyone would want to hire him. But he quickly accepted the job.
Under the direction of Ernie, Mead began to change for the better. Ernie gave him direction and guidance in his work. Mead graduated when he turned 18 and went into the military.
Ernie came down to meet him at the train station and to give him his last paycheck and a great big bear hug. He wished him good luck and sent him on his way.
Mead relates that he loved Ernie very much and that it wasn’t until much later that he realized how special he was. You see there was no real part time job. It was created by Ernie. Mead’s earnings came out of Ernie’s meager paycheck. The big burly janitor with the big heart paid to save a troubled kid and it worked (Preacher’s Illustration Service v10 #5). Mead changed his life by leaving his past behind. What are the three things God wants us to do? One leave our past behind and two.
2. He wants us to face the uncertainties of our future.
When we carry our past, we can’t focus on our future because we are to busy worrying about our past. What was left behind? What could have been? Only if ________. You fill in the blank.
Theodore S. Geisel better known as “Dr. Seuss” wrote a poem about the difficulty and the necessity of uncertainty. It goes like this,
Did I tell you before about the Zoad
Who came to two signs at the fork
in the road?
One said to Place One; the other
Place Two,
So the Zoad had to make up his
mind what to do.
Well, the Zoad scratched his head,
his chin and his pants
And said to himself, I’m taking a
chance.
If I go to Place One it may be
too hot
And how do I know if I’ll like
it or not?
Place Two must be best.
On the other hand, I’d be some
sort of fool
If I go to Place Two and find it
too cool.
In that case I might catch a chill
and turn blue.
So maybe Place One is the best,
not Two.
On the other hand though,
if Place One is too high
I might get a terrible earache
and die.
On the other hand though,
if Place Two is too low
I might get some strange pain
in my toe.
Place One must be best — and he
started to go.
Then he stopped and he said, “On
the other hand,
the other hand, the other hand,
though...”
And for 36 hours and a half that
poor Zoad
Made starts and stops at the fork
in the road,
Saying don’t take that chance, it
might not be right.
Then he got an idea that was
wonderfully bright.
Safe! cried the Zoad, I’ll play safe,
I’m no dunce.
I’ll simply start out for both places
at once.
And that’s how the Zoad,
who would not take a chance,
Got no place at all, with a split in
his pants.
There are two paths that we each are faced with. The first path is the complete will of God for your life and the other is the path we would choose for our life according to our preferences. The struggle we all face is not whether we have a desire to follow God but whether we have a desire to follow God completely and at what cost are we willing to pay to go down that path of His will. We are not quite sure that God loves us to the point where we will give Him complete permission to do as He will with us. What are the three things God want us to do? First leave our past. Second face our uncertainties with Him and third.
3. Look for and follow God’s will.
Has God ever spoken to you directly? If so, was it in such a way that you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Him. Not just some verse you heard or read. Not some circumstance that could have been God. What I’m talking about is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph speaking directly to you.
READ JOHN 14:31
Os Hillman tells the story of how his wife needed her fathers’ direction before she could proceed with their marriage. He tells us of how their engagement had been brief. He had confirmation from all the right sources. Close friends, parents, and the Holy Spirit. A tentative date had been set. Yet she still needed to speak with him and receive his input. Hillman found it amazing that at 36 years of age she still needed her father’s direction. Hillman describes how he “complained and questioned” to himself. He states how the Lord had used her unsaved father on a number of occasions to provide direction for her. Now, he was being challenged to trust that God would speak through him in this matter also. Hillman thought everything was set. He thought all sorts of things could go wrong.
The day finally arrived for Os Hillman and his fiancé. They met with his future father-in-law over breakfast. Her father looked everything over and them he turned to his daughter and said, “You have to put your trust and support in this man if you believe you are to marry him. I see no problem with your situation. You have my full blessing.” These were words of relief and joy for Hillman. God had confirmed their steps (Marketplace Meditations).
Howard Hendricks was headed down the path of self fulfilment until his sixth grade teacher saw what he could be and challenged him to become that person.
God looked at Abraham and saw the potential of what could be instead of what was. It is here that God asked him to leave all of his familiar surroundings and go to a place that God would show him.
Abraham’s journey was a long one and it had many challenges and obstacles. The journey we are on is full of challenges and obstacles. Abraham’s and our journey has had great rewards because God has fulfilled His promises and covenant because we have been obedient.
Abraham’s and our obedience required three things.
1. Leave our past.
2. Face our future with faith.
3. Believe that God will lead us.
God has a promise for each and every one of us, Read 1 John 1:9. If we were able to do a study of the life of Abraham, we would be able to see some of the mistakes he made in his walk with God. Many times he tried to do things in his own strength and was reminded of his past and the uncertainty of his future as well as the lack of following God’s will. However every time he returned to the Lord, God forgave him and accepted him back into the relationship they had.
When we take the hand of God, we can make it through the valleys of life. Because we have left our past and faced our future with God leading us.
Has God been speaking to your heart this morning about leaving the things of the past behind and facing the future with the promise that He has for you? Take God’s hand and allow Him to take you down the path, He has for your life.
As we sing the chorus “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow,” allow Him to do just that. Lead you into the new beginning he has for your life.
