Bibles with you, please open them up to Genesis chapter 12.
Well, this morning in Sunday school, we were looking at Paul's letter to the church at Colossae,
and one of the things that we heard there is just how excited and thankful Paul was
that the church there were people of faith and love.
And as a church here in Davidson, that's what we want to be known for too.
We want to be known for our faith in Jesus Christ and our love not only for one another,
but for people outside of our church, in our community.
And this morning marks the start of a new series of messages,
and faith is very much going to be one of the central themes of this series.
Time and time again, the apostles, they would point back in their letters
to the stories of men of faith in the Old Testament and hold them up as examples to follow.
And so there's a lot that we can learn from some of the stories in the Old Testament
about what it means to actually have faith and live by faith in Jesus.
And so for the next number of weeks, we're going to be looking at the story of Abraham.
He's kind of the, some have said, the father of our faith.
We're going to be digging into his story and understanding what God has to say to us through his life.
In Paul's letter to, to the church at Rome, he said this,
for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures
and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope.
He also wrote to Timothy and encouraged him to hold fast to the Old Testament scriptures.
He said, because they are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
They're able to equip you for every good work.
And so as we look back on this story of Abraham,
we are looking to see how the Lord will use that to equip us for every good work
and to teach us about what it means to live and to walk by faith.
Genesis 12 verse 1 begins this way.
The Lord said to Abram.
It's kind of an interesting thing that all of a sudden in this story,
we go, we go right into dialogue.
We go right into a conversation between the Lord and Abram.
And part of the reason that's surprising is because of what comes before this in Genesis.
Moses has written and told us about the creation of the world.
He's then gone on to describe the rebellion and how God,
he gave a command and humanity, our first parents, broke that command.
They rebelled against him.
Sin entered the world.
Corruption entered the world.
After that, he moved on to describe how things got worse and worse and worse and worse.
All kinds of evil abounding to the point where God sent a flood to destroy almost everyone
except Noah and his family.
It was kind of a bit of a restart there with Noah and his family.
And then from there, Noah was a righteous man.
And so we would hope that it would kind of begin to trend in the right direction
and things would go well.
But it began to spiral downward again.
People just kind of living according to the sin in their hearts,
their own selfish desires, holding sway until they hit another low point,
another kind of global event, the Tower of Babel,
where in pride they sought to exalt themselves rather than God
and build this great tower, a place of worship, but not to the Lord.
And it was there that the Lord confused their languages
and they were scattered over the face of the earth.
And so, so far in this story, it's been big events.
It's been worldwide events.
And then almost out of nowhere, Moses focuses in on this one guy, Abraham.
Abraham was what he went by back then.
And we're kind of left to wonder, why Abraham?
Who is this guy?
Moses gives us a little bit of detail here.
He kind of traces Abraham's lineage down from Shem, one of the sons of Noah.
Abraham was Shem's great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather.
And, or sorry, Shem was Abraham's great times seven grandfather.
The lifespan of people was still kind of working its way down
from up in the 900s in the days of Noah.
And so Shem was actually alive at the same time as Abram was born.
Noah actually only died about 42 years before Abram was born,
which is pretty amazing.
He traces his lineage and he tells us just a little bit about Abram and his family.
Abram had a dad named Terah and he had two brothers.
And they lived together in a city called Ur.
And Ur is kind of along the Euphrates River.
It's in modern day Iraq.
It's kind of, I think, 300 kilometers southeast of Baghdad towards the Persian Gulf.
We've actually found the ruins of what was there.
And there's been quite a lot of excavation and archaeology kind of work done there.
That's where Abram grew up with his father and his brothers.
And Moses gives us two key details about Abram's family.
His brother, he died at an early age and he kind of left a son, Lot.
Lot's going to be a part of this story, as we'll see.
Another key detail, however, is that Abram's wife, Sarai, is barren.
She's not able to conceive and bear children.
And this is really all that we know about Abram until we come to chapter 12 of Genesis here.
Stephen, later on, many years later, thousands of years later in the New Testament,
as he's telling the story about Abraham, this is what he said.
He said,
And so this, what we're going to read this morning is the account of what happened in that moment
when the Lord, the God of glory, the one who created the world and everything in it,
appeared to Abraham.
Genesis 12, verse 1.
The Lord said to Abraham,
Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you.
The first thing that the Lord says to Abraham is a command.
It's a directive.
Go.
Leave your country, Babylonia, ancient Babylonia.
Leave your people.
Your clan, your relatives, your extended family, the city of Ur.
Leave that all behind and go to the land that I will show you.
Now imagine for a moment what that would have been like.
I mean, imagine that here you are, modern times.
Let's say you're in your bedroom, making your bed.
And then all of a sudden, the God of glory appears to you.
And we don't know what that was like for Abraham.
It doesn't tell us what he saw, what he experienced in that moment.
But the God of glory appears to you, Yahweh, the Lord.
And he says, Go.
I want you to pack your bags, load up your moving truck, and leave your country.
Leave Canada, Saskatchewan, Davidson, and go to the land I will show you.
Wow.
That's quite the thing to ask of someone.
It's quite the thing to expect that if you ask someone to do that, they'll actually do it.
Unless, of course, you are the Lord of glory.
God says, Go to the land I will show you.
He doesn't even tell him where he's going.
The destination is not clear.
And so you can imagine Abraham as he's thinking about this.
How do I prepare for this?
How do I pack for this?
What do I put in the suitcase?
I mean, this is not just like a trip to Hawaii for a vacation.
You know, pack my sandals, pack my sunscreen, and that kind of stuff.
He has no idea where he's going.
All he knows is he's going out of country, which is far away.
So we're going to need some heavy-duty pulling animals and equipment and carts.
We're going to, who knows how long this is going to be.
We're going to need some tents.
This is a big deal.
To leave it all behind.
Move and go.
And yet, not even a hint is to where in this moment.
But in those words, to the land I will show you,
there's also a faint whisper, a faint promise
of an ongoing relationship with the Lord.
This is not just going to be a one-moment thing.
Just do what I want you to do, and then never hear from the Lord again.
No, go to the land I will show you.
At a future time, I will appear to you again.
I will speak to you again.
I will show you where to go.
And there's more.
The Lord goes on.
He says,
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.
I will bless those who bless you.
And whoever curses you, I will curse.
And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Wow.
What a thing to have said to you by the Lord of glory.
I mean, even just think for a moment of how this story has gone so far.
Humanity has rebelled against the Lord.
It got so bad that he wiped almost everybody out with a flood and restarted.
And then it got bad again all the way down to the Tower of Babel.
And it's continuing in that direction.
This is kind of the last thing that we expect to read.
God appears to a man and says,
not I will punish you.
Not the gavel is coming down upon you.
This is enough.
But I want to bless you.
I want to bless your socks off.
I'm going to make you into a great nation.
And not only that.
At the end, he says,
all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Maybe the story of this one man that seems to come out of nowhere
actually has more to do with this big story of the world than we originally thought.
What an unexpected mercy
and gift of grace
in a world that is spiraling downward and out of control.
God promises seven things.
Seven statements he makes.
I will make you into a great nation.
What a thing to promise.
I'm going to make you into a whole country.
a great country.
And not just an average country.
A great one.
I will bless you.
I will put my special favor on your life.
I will make your name great.
I'm going to make you famous in the best way
so that you're revered and you're respected
among all the people.
Verse 3.
I will bless those who bless you, Abraham.
And I will curse whoever curses you.
Just in case anybody would come and threaten what I've promised to you,
I'll deal with them.
I'll be against them if they're against you.
You'll be under my watch,
my care,
my protection.
And if they're for you,
then I'll bless them.
What an amazing thing to promise to a person.
And finally,
you will be a blessing.
All peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
As good as all these things are,
Abraham,
this is not just about you.
My plan and my purpose
is to bless all the families of the earth
through you.
That's the last thing that I was expecting to hear
out of the mouth of the Lord
after everything that came before this.
I want to bless.
I want to be gracious.
I want to show my kindness and goodness
to this world of people
who are sinning and rebelling against me.
Not just a few people,
not just you, Abraham,
but all the families of the earth.
Worldwide.
What an amazing promise.
So would you do it?
Would you pack it all up,
load up the moving truck,
and leave your country
after hearing this?
Verse four.
So Abram went as the Lord had told him.
And Lot went with him.
Abram was 75 years old
when he set out from Haran.
He took his wife Sarai,
his nephew Lot,
all the possessions they had accumulated
and the people they had acquired in Haran,
and they set out for the land of Canaan.
And they arrived there.
There's a bit of a timing issue here.
You kind of hear that with the story of Haran.
But basically,
some of this is made up for in chapter 11.
Abram was called by God
when he was in Ur.
He packed up,
and he decided to go.
And his dad actually decided to go with him,
Tara.
And Lot came as well.
They traveled 1,000 kilometers northwest
along the Euphrates River.
And remember,
they weren't flying,
they weren't driving.
They were walking,
or they were on animals.
They were packing major
with this caravan here.
They came to a city called Haran,
which is kind of the southern border of Turkey.
Abram's dad, Tara,
decided he's going to stay there.
They settled there for a little while,
and then probably the Lord
appeared to Abram again
and encouraged him,
it's time to go.
It's time to move on to the land
that I promised to you.
And so Abram leaves his dad,
Tara,
literally he leaves his father's household.
He takes Lot with him,
along with all that they had accumulated
while they were in Haran already.
The Lord is beginning to prosper,
Abram,
and bless him.
And they go down
into the land of Canaan.
The land of Canaan,
of course,
is called that
because Canaan,
the grandson of Noah,
his descendants,
had settled in that region.
And Moses tells us
that Abram traveled through the land
as far as the site
of the great tree of Morah
at Shechem.
At that time,
the Canaanites were in the land.
The Lord appeared to Abram
and said,
To your offspring,
I will give this land.
So he built an altar there
to the Lord
who had appeared to him.
So yes,
Abraham did
what the Lord told him to do.
He just kind of simply accepted,
Yes,
you'll show me where to go.
And he moved
all the way from Ur,
thousands of kilometers,
around the Fertile Crescent
into Canaan.
Can you imagine
what he must have been feeling
as he kind of rolled into town?
People there are kind of like,
Who are you?
Nobody,
you're not related to anybody I know.
You know,
like,
Man,
this guy looks like he's come
from a long ways away.
Who's your grandfather?
Who's your,
you know?
He's a foreigner.
He walks into the land of Canaan.
He goes to a town
called Shechem,
which is kind of partway
into Israel,
or the land of Canaan
as it was known.
And the Lord appears to him again.
Verse 7.
The Lord says to Abraham,
To your offspring,
literally,
to your seed,
to your offspring,
I will give this land.
I mean,
think about that.
Just to put this into perspective,
it's maybe not the same size of land,
but imagine that you walked into
Montana,
and the Lord appeared to you
and said,
I'm going to give this land to you
and to your offspring.
Like,
what?
Just before this,
Moses has already made it
quite clear
that at that time,
the Canaanites were in the land.
This land is occupied.
It belongs to someone else.
Abraham's here as a foreigner.
Here he is,
sitting in his tent.
And the Lord says to him,
I'm going to give this land
to your offspring.
You've got to wonder
what was going on in Abraham's mind
as he heard that.
Like,
how?
How are you going to do that?
When is this going to happen?
Like,
that's crazy.
And yet,
that's what the Lord promised.
And it seems that Abraham
just took his word for it.
He responded.
He built an altar there
to the Lord
who had appeared to them.
He worshipped the Lord.
From there,
he went on toward the hills
east of Bethel
and pitched his tent
with Bethel on the west
and Ai on the east.
There he built an altar
to the Lord
and called on the name
of the Lord.
Then Abraham set out
and continued toward the Negev.
So Abraham's working his way
southward
through the land of Canaan.
He's getting the lay of the land.
He's kind of going towards
the southernmost boundary,
the desert.
And all this time,
this promise is rolling around
in his head.
To your offspring,
I will give this land.
When he comes down
to this second place
near Bethel
where he pitches his tent,
it says,
he built an altar
to the Lord there
and he called
on the name of the Lord.
This is a two-way relationship
between Abraham
and the Lord.
It's not just
the Lord appears,
gives instructions,
and then Abraham
doesn't hear from him
for a long time
and wonders,
well, what's going on?
No, Abraham,
this is two-way.
This time,
in the second place,
he camps.
Abraham,
he builds an altar
and he calls
on the name of the Lord.
What do I do?
Where do I go?
Where do I settle
in this land?
We don't know exactly
what he asked of God.
But this is a two-way relationship.
Which kind of brings us
to this big question
that is kind of,
I hope,
bubbling under the surface
for all of us
of why Abraham?
Out of all the people
on earth,
why does God
pick Abram?
As one of my favorite
commentators,
Dale Ralph Davis,
says,
we kind of have
this stereotype
of Abraham.
We see him
as this kind,
grandfatherly old man
with a long beard.
God probably chose him
because of how righteous
he was,
just like Noah.
But the surprising thing
is that this is not
the picture of Abraham
that the Bible gives us.
In fact,
there's indications
that it's the opposite.
Joshua,
much later in the story,
as he's reminding
the people of Israel
of where they got
their start,
he said this,
he said,
long ago your ancestors,
including Terah,
the father of Abraham,
and Nahor,
lived beyond
the Euphrates River
and worshipped
other gods.
Did you catch that?
Abraham was not
a devout,
righteous,
God-fearing man.
Not at the start.
He worshipped
other gods.
They've even dug up
some of the remains
of the ziggurat
that was at Ur.
It's kind of like
a temple-y
kind of tower thingy
where they worshipped
Nana,
the moon god.
That's where Abraham
and his family
had their start.
And so why Abraham?
This guy
who's a sinner
like all of us
as we're about
to find out
who worshipped
other gods.
Why Abraham?
This is the amazing thing
is there's no reason
given.
It doesn't say.
It certainly
doesn't seem to be
because he was
good,
he was righteous.
Probably the closest
that we get to an answer
is what
the Lord says
to Moses
400 years later.
I will have mercy
on whom I will
have mercy
and I will have
compassion
on whom I will
have compassion.
Some of us
might wonder
well
it doesn't seem
fair
that God
chose him
and not others.
But remember
the promises
that have been made
to Abraham
are not just
for Abraham.
through this
one man
God intends
to bless
all the families
of the earth
and he has
the freedom
he's God
to decide
how this
this plan
is going
to unfold
and who it's
going to begin
with.
This story
is about
the faith
and obedience
of one man
but it's about
even more
than that.
It's about
a God
who
has this
incredible
and deep
unexpected
surprising
love
and mercy
towards the
people
he has made
sinful
though they are.
It's about
the Lord
Yahweh
the God
who shows up
and just
makes promises
like that
to nobodies
for no apparent
reason.
What an
amazing
gracious
unexpected
surprising
love
and mercy
he has.
As we hear
these promises
we're wondering
well how's the
Lord going to
do this?
How's he going
to keep
these promises
and if we're
honest
probably
even with
all the
revelation
we have
today
filled out
in the rest
of the pages
of our Bible
we're still
kind of
wondering
how does
this work
out?
We're going
to come
back to
these promises
again and
look at that
but for
today
for this
Sunday
I want us
to just
think about
what Abraham
is thinking
and seeing
through his
eyes.
He doesn't
know.
He has
no clue
how God's
going to
do this.
I mean
that would
take a
miracle
to make
you into
a great
nation
to give
you this
land
that's
occupied
by all
these other
people
and as we're
going to see
in the weeks
ahead
these promises
they stretch
and reach
even further
than Abraham
probably ever
imagined
or thought
that they
would.
And so
where does
this story
speak to us
today?
I mean
Abraham
he's
he's an
ancient guy.
Here we are
in 2019
in Davidson
Saskatchewan.
What does
the Lord
have for us
through the
story of
Abraham?
In many
ways
there's a
lot of
similarities
between us
and Abraham.
Just like
Abraham
we don't
know the
future.
We don't
know what's
coming.
God
doesn't
always
tell us
this is
where you're
going.
This is
how it's
going to
turn out.
But
inside
that
God
also has
an
invitation
not just
to
Abraham
but to
us
for that
ongoing
relationship
characterized
by faith
characterized
by trust.
We too
like
Abraham
have
received
the
word
of
God.
It
hasn't
come in
the
same
way
as
Abraham
got it
but we
have
here
the
words
of
God
and in
some
ways
we even
have
an
upgrade
over
Abraham
we have
all this
extra
stuff
we have
the
words
of
Moses
in the
law
we have
the
word
of the
prophets
that help
us see
just how
sinful
we really
are.
We have
the story
of Jesus
which helps
us to see
despite the
fact that we're
sinners just
how loved
we are
by what
Christ
came into
our world
to do
for us
Abraham
was
promised
some
pretty
amazing
things
but we
too
have
some
amazing
promises
given
to us
by God
to look
forward
to
and so
here at the
beginning of
Abraham's
story
I think
the simple
question
that we're
all left
with is
what will
we do
in our
lives
in our
situations
with the
unknowns
that we
have
with the
words that
God has
given to
us
will we
do what
Abraham
did
and simply
trust
and obey
do what
the Lord
has asked
us to
do
there's
all kinds
of ways
that this
this really
hits the
road
and this
seems to
be where
the New
Testament
writers
point us
to
the author
of Hebrews
said this
he said
by faith
Abraham
when called
to go
to a
place
he would
later
receive
as his
inheritance
he obeyed
and went
even though
he did
not know
where he
was going
we're meant
to look at
him as an
example
how does
this show up
in our
lives
it shows
up in all
kinds of
ways
we've been
talking about
the election
coming up
we've been
talking
with some
of you
about
just how
things are
not going
the way
that we
want them
to
in our
world
there's
things
that are
happening
our world
has a
different
view
of how
we should
respond
to
authority
it has
a different
view
of sexuality
there's
all these
number
of issues
there's
all these
voices
that just
kind of
clamor
and weigh
in
this is
what you
should
think
this is
what you
should
believe
perhaps
it was
the same
for Abraham
rolling
into
Canaan
oh
you're
worshipping
who
we don't
do that
around here
you know
that
that ancient
God
Yahweh
who's that
the question
is
whose voice
are we
going to
listen to
whose voice
are we
going to
trust
and obey
the voices
that we
hear around
us
or the
voice
of the
Lord
of glory
who has
spoken
to us
and at
times
it's not
easy
often times
we're
tempted
to make
excuses
we don't
read about
Abraham
making
excuses
and
why he
shouldn't
go
why he
shouldn't
make
the
trip
but we
do
that
you know
if I
don't
speed
I'm
going to
be late
fill in
the
blank
well if
I give
to that
thing
then I'm
not going
to have
enough
money
left
for
fill
in
the
blank
if I
don't
just
if I
hadn't
twisted
the
truth
just a
little
bit
in
this
conversation
then
fill
in
the
blank
all
kinds
of
ways
all
kinds
of
situations
but what
we learn
from
Abraham
is that
despite
how we
feel
or what
we
see
or what
we
understand
of the
situation
however
impossible
it
may
be
what we
need to
do
is simply
trust
the
Lord
of
glory
and
obey
his
word
in the
words of
my
one of
my
favorite
musicians
get up
off your
seat
move
your feet
just do
what he
says
let's
pray
father
father we
don't want
to be
hasty
to move
beyond
these
words
in this
moment
you are
the
lord
of
glory
and
so
right
now
in
these
moments
we
want
to
call
on
you
just
as
Abram
did
we
want
to
invite
you
to
direct
the
story
of
our
lives
we
thank
you
for
the
details
that
you
withheld
from
us
on
purpose
so
that
we
would
draw
near
to
you
so
that
we
could
have
a
relationship
with
you
teach
us
what
it
means
to
live
by
faith
reveal
yourself
to
us
in
a
deeper
way
as
we
go
on
this
journey
through
Abram's
story
we
pray
and ask
this
in
Jesus
name
amen