The Mission of God (Gen 12:1 - 3)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, Tim here, and we are diving deep uh into I guess Living Scent. Uh this is our new teaching series. So we wrapped up our Mark series. A number of you gave me uh some really helpful feedback. I mean, it sounds like um it sounds like this is a really helpful, this podcast uh is a helpful way for folks to continue learning, to start their day, or um, or have some study time to take what we talk about um on Sundays to take it further. It sounded like uh it's helpful that it's connected to scripture. The length uh sounds like it's pretty helpful to folks. And then I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna try for a while here, maybe do like three three podcasts a week, aim for that. Um I'll see. I'll see how that feels. Um and uh see if that's helpful for folks. Uh yeah, my I mean, I love to teach and I wanna equip people for lifelong followership uh with Jesus. And this seems like a cool thing that we could keep doing. And so I'm gonna continue to be in touch with you who are taking advantage of it and just make sure that this is actually just beneficial uh for your own for your own walks. So uh so thanks for those who gave me some feedback on that. So uh, and also I uh some folks mentioned the audio quality um wasn't great, I think, in the lat like last week. I apologize for that. I was in a hurry and I probably just hit a button wrong. James has done a great job of setting me up with a pretty good recording situation here. And I uh it's one of those things that if I move too fast, I hit one wrong button and then it's recording on my laptop instead of the microphone, and I get I just missed it. So we'll try and we'll try and do it right um going forward. Uh but if you do, I don't always go back and listen to all the ones I record. So it is actually helpful if you're like, hey Tim, audio quality is bad. Um it is helpful to just simply make me aware of when I am when I am not hitting all the buttons right. But uh, hopefully it's good today. Hopefully, hopefully I'm coming coming through loud and clear. Uh yeah. So I wanted to, I thought James did a phenomenal job getting us set up on this living message uh series. Uh um did a phenomenal job. I'm recording Sunday afternoon, did a phenomenal job this morning setting it up with this idea of God as a ascending. I would say I I think you could say a seeking and sending God. God seeks and God sends out of God's seeking heart. I thought he did a great job setting that up. I just want to maybe uh in the episodes this week, just take those a little bit further, give them a little space to breathe, give us some time to reflect on those. Um uh yeah. So, I mean, really the idea uh that we're talking about um and that James was kind of um moving us into is a phrase uh that you'll read sometime in theological literature called missio dai. M-I-S-M-I-S-S I-O-D-E-I, uh misio dai, um Latin for the mission of God. Um, not blues brothers, God, we're on a mission from God, not quite that. Uh the mission of God. God is on a mission, and um, God is a missionary God, God is a seeking God, God is ascending God, and this is just what James talked about that before we ever um are sent to seek people, before that ever happens, prior to that, God is uh seeking um people out, and God is sending in order to reach people out of his seeking heart. And I and it's a foundational biblical idea. And I think it really um it as we are um as we participate with God and God's mission in the world, understanding how this flows from the character of God. This is not an addendum, an add-on, an abstract task, just something that He came up with. It's an expression of the very heart of God. I think it helps helps us rightly understand what we are doing and why we're doing it and who we are doing it with. Um, you know, I I think in this first episode, I'll just kind of point out some of the these the texts from the Hebrew scriptures. If you go all the way back to um, you know, you go all the way back to Genesis. Um Adam, Adam and Eve, of course, uh eat from the fruit of the tree, disobey, they rebel uh against God, they transgress, um, they step out from under God's kingship. What's the first thing that happens after that? Well, uh well, uh after they hide in shame um and cover up, after they do that, what's the first thing that happens? Well, God comes looking for them. God comes walking in the garden saying, Where are you? God's first response after the first introduction of sin and rebellion in the world is to go looking for people. This is this is what when we're talking about the heart of God, the character of God, the missio day, the mission of God. God is a seeking God. Um of course, as you go through Genesis 1 through 11, we see uh we see that this uh this initial human rebellion, this initial human transgression, it snowballs out in a in a myriad of directions. Um uh Cain murders Abel. Um by the time you get to Lamac, he's bragging over uh human violence. Of course, then the violence snowballs, you get the story of Noah, the world is full of violence. Um, and then you know, the Tower of Babel, human societies um founded on arrogance, and you just see all the ways that this human um these image bearers have just spent out of control because of human rebellion. Uh and so um that's really you would say Genesis 3 through 11. Genesis 1 and 2 is really the goodness of God's creation, Genesis 3 through 11, all the ways sin spins out, causes devastation of God's good creation. And then we come to the text that James um led us to on Sunday morning, Genesis 12. Um, and in in um when you're going through the book of Genesis, Genesis 12 needs to be read as a response to Genesis 3 through 11. Genesis 3 through 11, all the ways that sin and violence cause destruction to image bearers and to God's good creation. Genesis 12 is God's um beginning answer to that. And what is it? It's again, um, it is initiated by God. Uh the Lord said to Abram, um, and so it it's God's initiative. God seeks out Abram and then sends Abram, go from your country, your people, your father's household to the land I will show you. Um, I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your great name great, and you will be a blessing. Um, I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And so God's response to the problem of sin and death, violence and destruction in this world is God to pursue a human person, to create a human community, and to then send that human community into God's world to be agents of blessing. You say healing or restoration. This is the purpose of the creation of Israel. God loves uh God loves his world, God loves humanity, and so God um God chooses, like that you could say the calling of Abraham, the choosing of Abraham, God's um adoption of Abraham is for the purpose of to send him to be uh a blessing in the world. Um and then you know you could go on and talk about how um ultimately the the mission of Israel fails, and how, in a sense, Jesus is the culmination of that, the mission of Israel. He is the true descendant of Abraham who truly fulfills this original calling in Genesis 12. There's all these different ways that this points ahead to Jesus of Nazareth. But I think for today, um the idea that I simply want to set before you um is you know just introduce you to some of this theological language. Misio Dei, the mission of God. That the God of Scripture um uh uh is not uh just a philosophical principle, uh, an abstract idea. God is a passionate actor, God wants things, God does things, and God's part of God's character is to God to be seeking and sending. Uh and we'll we can talk more maybe in the next episode, but I mean the glad like John 3, this is John 3.16, right? For God so loved the world, he sent his only son. Like this, this is, and maybe these verses that they roll over our our our minds so easily, but this is a misiode, a God who has a mission, who is on a mission, who so loves his world that he is seeking and he is sending. Um, and so before we begin exploring what does it mean uh for us to be sent in any way by God, uh, I would encourage us to reflect on the God who seeks and the God who sends. And I think the question, the reflection James offered um today is a phenomenal one to just reflect on how God has sought you out. How did God seek you? How did he uh look for you? How did he call your name? What people did he use? What spiritual experiences? What books or songs? How by his spirit did he gently call your name to allow it to be personal? It's not just God seeking and sending in the abstract, but he, if you're listening to this, he has sought you out. How has he done that? Um and to allow that his character towards you. Um to be grateful for that, to reflect on that, to understand that. Um and then that I think will be a great uh launching place for us then to be sent once into this good world. All right. Grace and peace.