WEBVTT 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:23.359 The reading today is from Genesis chapter twelve, verse one to nine. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:38.479 Now the Lord said to Abraham, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:49.280 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in all and and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:54.159 So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:01:11.680 Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran, and Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:19.760 Now when they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moray. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:22.959 At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:28.319 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land. 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:32.879 So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:42.000 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:46.480 And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:51.519 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb, and so reads God's word. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:53.200 Please take a seat, everybody. 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:56.239 Welcome uh to you if you joined us while we were singing. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:58.079 It is uh great to have you here. 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:01.760 My name is Mark, I'm one of the leaders here at City Church. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:05.920 If you could have Genesis 12 open in front of you, that's where we're going to be. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:09.120 Uh, you can grab that up on your phone or if you've got a paper Bible. 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:15.039 If you're looking uh on your phone, maybe on Bible Gateway or something like that, and wondering what version do we look at? 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:25.120 We're looking at the English standard version of the Bible that'll help you track most closely to the version that I have uh in front of me. 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:29.840 Uh we are starting this new series proper today. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.039 We kind of set it up a little bit last week, but now we begin. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:40.000 We're going through the gen the Abraham narrative from Genesis 12 to 24 between now uh and Christmas. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:47.120 And as we start something new, I want to ask you how you feel about starting something new. 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:50.080 Do you like uh new things? 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:52.159 Do you like new seasons? 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:59.919 When you were when you were going to school or starting university, were you the person that was apprehensive, kind of standing at the back, not quite sure? 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:05.280 Or were you the person that kind of ran in without looking back to your to your parents? 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:08.400 What about when you uh moved here? 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:18.080 Was that something that was filled with uh anxiety and nervousness, or was that something that you found uh exhilarating? 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:34.000 Are you the person who is um confident and assertive when it comes to stepping out into the unknown, or somebody who finds that quite uh paralyzing and are apprehensive about it? 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:39.680 Does the idea fill you with dread or excitement? 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:54.240 Lots of people I suspect uh probably have a blend of both, the sensation of uh being nervous about what's uncertain, particularly on the run-up, but then maybe when you're in it, you're like, oh, that wasn't so bad at all. 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:54.800 This is great. 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:55.439 I love this. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:56.560 Brilliant. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:03.919 All of that comes because, well, human beings don't know the future. 00:04:05.599 --> 00:04:11.280 If you knew the future, then there'd be nothing to be nervous about, anxious about. 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:12.960 But we don't. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:15.120 We can't see what's going to happen. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:21.839 We cannot look down the corridor of time and uh and perceive how all of the things are uh are going to play out. 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:27.759 So maybe you're the kind of person that actually lies awake at night playing through the scenarios, you know, like the lawyer on the legal pad. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:31.040 You know, if this happens, then I'm gonna say this, if this happens, then I'm gonna do this. 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:38.240 You run through all the scenarios in order to try and prepare yourself because you don't know what's going to happen. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:42.639 You don't know what's going to happen because you don't know the future. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:52.800 Human beings are made to move into that uncertain future. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:01.279 Human beings have always been made to move out into that unknown, that unknown future, right back from the garden. 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:11.759 When God makes Adam and Eve, one of the things that he says to them, he says, he blesses them and says, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:20.720 He says to Adam and Eve, don't stay in the garden, that place of comfort and security and safety. 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:33.199 You've got to move out into the wild, into that which is unknown and cultivate the rest of the earth to make it like the garden, that place of peace and rest and shalom. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:35.439 But you've got to step out. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:38.800 And that's fundamental to who we are. 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:53.600 We are people who are made to journey into the future, to step out into the known, the unknown, to progress, to develop, to have an adventure. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:58.160 Human beings aren't supposed to be static. 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:15.680 A few weeks ago I watched uh the uh the new Brendan Fraser movie The Whale, uh, about a man called Charlie, who is uh is trapped in his uh in his obesity and in his uh dealing with mental health issues. 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:28.319 And one of the things that's so tragic, without giving away the uh the ending, one of the things that's so tragic about the whale is that Charlie is so static that he cannot even sleep in his own bed. 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:31.040 He cannot move forward in life. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:35.040 He's absolutely, literally stuck. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:46.000 And that arouses sympathy and pathos and sadness in us because we're made to step out into the unknown. 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:52.319 Because we're made to move forward into a future that is uncertain. 00:06:56.399 --> 00:07:10.399 So, what do you get if you combine humanity's fundamental created need to move forward and humanity's inability to discern the future? 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:13.680 What do you get if you blend those two things together? 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:15.839 Well, that could be answered in one word. 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:17.839 You get an adventure. 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:25.600 It's an adventure to move forward into the unknown, not knowing what will happen. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:29.839 It's Neo as he takes the red pill. 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:38.000 It's Elsa as she hears the spirit of the forest calling her out into the unknown. 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:42.160 I'm not going to do any more of that. 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:47.600 It's Frodo as he sets out on his quest to Mordor. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:57.439 It's Harry Potter in the living room of four Private Drive, as all of the invitations to take up his studies at Hogwarts all swirl around him. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:04.079 Why do all of those moments, well, why do we tell those stories all the time? 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:14.480 And why do those moments, when the ring plops into Frodo's hand, when the invitations swirl, when Morpheus goes blue pill, red pill? 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:21.040 When Elsa sings into the unknown, why do they make the hair on our arms stand up? 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:24.240 Because we're made for adventure. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:29.120 We're made to step out into the unknown. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:40.080 Our series is called Being Human, because over the next 14 weeks, we're not giving simply a history lesson. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:45.440 Genesis is not merely a recounting of things that have happened in the past. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:58.080 It contains rather fundamental lessons for what always happens, for what human nature is foundationally and fundamentally like. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:10.320 And our journey through the Abraham narrative begins this morning with a call to adventure, with a call out into the unknown. 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:19.200 And so as we look at these nine verses and as we consider them together, we're looking at two things this morning. 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:24.639 The God who calls and the God who promises. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:27.039 And what is our response to that? 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:31.519 Let me give you, let me run it right through to the end, just in case you're tired this morning. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:34.159 What's the application? 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:39.600 Trust God's promises and obey God's voice. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.600 Trust God's promises and obey God's voice. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:45.840 Let's start the other way around. 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:53.360 Let's start with obeying God's voice or God's call, because that is what how we begin in Genesis 12. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:10:06.559 But first, we need to ask the question: who is this God that calls you, that calls Abram out on an adventure? 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:08.080 What's he like? 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:12.960 Who is this God who invites you to step out into the unknown? 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:21.440 I imagine that's a pretty reasonable question because if you're if you're there and think, oh, I'm up for an adventure, and some so some random hobo comes along and says, right, let's go. 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:23.120 Hold on, who are you? 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:25.039 Why should I listen to that? 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:28.960 So who's the God who calls Abram? 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:39.600 Well, he, as we can see from this passage, is the God of grace. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:44.240 Who is the God who calls you out onto an adventure? 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:45.919 He's the God of grace. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:47.279 What's grace? 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:52.799 Well, grace is undeserved, unmerited, unearned kindness. 00:10:53.679 --> 00:11:05.519 It's God's unmerited favor and goodness directed towards you, though you've done nothing to earn it or deserve it or merit it. 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:08.720 God is the God of grace. 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:17.519 The God who is who is undeservedly kind to you is the God who calls you out into the unknown. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:19.600 Now, where do we get that from? 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:22.000 Come with me. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:32.879 Abram is born of uh a man called Terra, and they lived in a place called Ur, Ur of the Chaldeans. 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:36.879 Now the Chaldeans lived in modern day Iraq. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:41.840 And then sometime later, Terra takes his family. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:43.679 This is the end of chapter 11. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:48.399 Terra takes his family and they move then to a place called Haran. 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:56.080 Now, Ur and Haran were not centers of the worship of the God of the Bible. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:59.200 God of the Bible is called Yahweh. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:05.919 Rather, Ur and Haran were places of moon worship. 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:11.360 They were places where human sacrifice was practiced. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:18.240 They were dark places far away from the God of the Bible. 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:40.159 Joshua at the end of Joshua and Joshua 24, if you're taking notes, 24 verses 1 and 2, talks about how before God came and made these promises to Abraham, Abram, in uh at this part of the narrative, that he and the rest of his family were worshiping other gods. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:45.039 Abram is not looking for the God of the Bible. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:49.279 He's not searching or seeking for Yahweh. 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:53.919 He's not Googling the nearest Bible study that he can come and be part of. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:57.919 No, he is very far from God indeed. 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:04.480 He is steeped in dark pagan worship of the worst kind. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:11.120 And yet God calls him into the unknown. 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:25.759 God determines to set his grace, his unmerited, undeserved, unearned kindness on someone who is far, far from him. 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:35.120 Why would God call someone who didn't deserve it in the least? 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:40.879 And yet that is still how God works. 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:58.720 If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, and you think that God has chosen you because of some inherent merit or goodness, then you fail to understand who God is and who you are. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.000 He is the God of grace. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:05.759 He calls those who do not deserve it. 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:24.320 But on the other hand, if you're here this morning and you're listening to the songs and the prayers and thinking, I am so far away from what the rest of these people in this room believe. 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:31.840 I'm so far, so far removed from this God that they pray to and sing to. 00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:53.759 And he's calling you to follow him. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:08.080 The God who calls us out of ourselves into the unknown is not just the God of grace, but a God who speaks and who speaks a word of command. 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:12.000 Verse one, now we're really in the passage. 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:23.679 Now the Lord, that is Yahweh, now Yahweh said to Abram, Go, go from your country and from your kindred and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:30.080 The God who speaks gives Abram a command, and that singular command is to go, get out. 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.519 It's time to saddle your donkey, Abram. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:35.840 It's time to have an adventure. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:40.720 Go from where you are and step out into the unknown. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:49.039 And what he is stepping out into is certainly unknown because of what he is called to leave behind him. 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:59.360 God begins by saying, Go from your country, that is, your land, your place, the place that you called home. 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:01.279 Leave it all behind, Abram. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:08.879 Leave behind what is familiar and comfortable, and go. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:21.279 What is a Tesco? 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:25.600 Like, why don't I have a Costco or whatever the equivalent is? 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:29.200 All of those familiar things. 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.480 God is calling Abram to leave behind. 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:35.360 Your country, then he says, your kindred. 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:39.600 So we're kind of moving kind of slightly closer to kind of concentric circles, moving in. 00:16:39.759 --> 00:17:00.080 Your country, that uh that familiar space that you call home, that familiar kind of cultural story that we tell one another, then your kindred, that is the people with whom you share common beliefs and and practices, that is your tribe, your culture, your subculture. 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:02.320 Leave it all behind, God says. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.599 Says to Abraham, be a fish out of water. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:15.599 Leave your old worshiping ways behind you, your old national holidays, your old ways of doing things. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:18.799 Leave behind your name. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:21.279 Leave behind your reputation. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:27.920 Leave the people who like and respect you and start again. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:33.440 And then God really comes close. 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:36.079 He says, Leave your country, leave your kindred. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:38.319 He says, Leave your father's house. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:42.160 Leave your blood behind, Abram. 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:46.079 Leave your family. 00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:48.799 Those strongest ties. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:52.079 Walk away. 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:54.400 Start something new. 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:05.599 We cannot heed God's call to go if it comes with non-negotiables. 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:11.119 If it comes with red lines that we have drawn for ourselves. 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:14.480 Yes, I will I will follow you this far, Jesus. 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:20.640 But don't don't ask me to walk away from that. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:28.480 And yet we must wrestle with the fact that that same Jesus is the one who says, leave father and mother and follow me. 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:36.880 This actually links with this idea that God's call is gracious to you. 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:44.480 That God's kindness to you is unmerited, that it's undeserved, that it's unearned. 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:57.359 Because if you earned it, if you made God like you by virtue of who you were or the good things that you did, do you know what you'd have? 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:00.079 You'd have negotiating power. 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:03.440 You say, Well, I bring this to the table. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:05.359 You know, look at how great I am. 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:06.799 Haven't you seen it? 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:12.640 And so actually, if you want me, God, uh, these are these are my red lines. 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:15.359 Uh I don't go over there. 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:17.440 You don't get that part of me. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.799 But here's the really scary thing about grace. 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:40.960 If grace, God's undeserved kindness to you, if it's really unmerited, if it has nothing to do with who you are in yourself or the things that you have achieved, or your virtue, or your merit, there's nothing that God cannot ask of you. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:43.839 You have no negotiating power. 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:49.839 So God calls you to go and to step out into the unknown. 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:54.880 To leave country and kindred and father's house. 00:19:56.079 --> 00:20:00.480 And many of you in uh in very literal ways have done that. 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:10.079 You know what it feels like to leave kindred and father's house and to feel like a fish out of water here in Dublin where you can't find a place to live and everything costs too much money. 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:13.279 Getting married's like that, too. 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:15.279 It's a call to adventure. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:22.960 Leaving kindred and family, leaving the country comfort and security of the life that you've built for yourself as a single person. 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:27.200 Moving to somewhere that you might not choose. 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:32.480 Because you're heeding the call to step out into the unknown. 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:36.799 It's also the call to follow Jesus. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:39.920 To leave a formal life. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:46.160 It's a call into the unknown, it's a call to adventure, it's the adventure of your life to take up your cross and to follow him. 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:53.680 Leaving behind your old ways, your old self, your old habit habits, your old gods. 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:04.880 Abram is being asked here to exchange the tangible for the intangible. 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:11.599 For the concrete, for the ethereal. 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:15.599 The present comfort. 00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:18.000 For future gain. 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:22.960 How would you respond? 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:27.440 It feels kind of slightly tense in the room. 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:29.920 You're like, yeah, slide me up. 00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:31.839 Let's go. 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:37.119 That'll be the exhilarated people, all of the kind of slightly actually, oh no, no, thanks. 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:41.119 What makes Abram go? 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:43.200 Why does Abram go? 00:21:44.079 --> 00:21:45.920 What could make you go? 00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:49.599 And this is why we need the next verse. 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:57.440 Because the God who commands you to go is also the God who blesses you. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.759 He's the God who makes promises. 00:22:01.759 --> 00:22:12.960 The God who gives commands to Abraham, to Abram, you're just gonna have to make your peace with the fact that I'm gonna interchange those until God actually changes his name in like five chapters time, but hey ho. 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:17.599 He makes promises to Abram. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.680 Let's look at them together. 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:22.960 So he says, and let's link it with the command, right? 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:39.759 Because the command you're like, oh I don't really um go from your country, your kindred, your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:44.559 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:49.920 And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 00:22:50.079 --> 00:22:51.440 What makes Abraham go? 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:55.279 The promise of the blessing of God. 00:22:55.839 --> 00:23:01.519 Lots of ink has been spilt on these promises, and we'll circle back to them at various points through the series. 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:05.839 Let's just note them, let's note the four of them here. 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:14.240 God promises, first of all, to give Abram a new land, a new home. 00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:17.839 Go from this land to the land that I'm going to show you. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:38.480 And then if you cast your eye down to verse seven, after uh Abraham has gone on and uh he arrives in Canaan, verse seven, then Yahweh appeared to Abraham and said, To your offspring, I will give this land, your home, Abraham. 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:41.440 This this year, this is what you get. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:44.000 It's what your offspring get. 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:49.599 First, a new land, a new home. 00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:57.039 Second, offspring, verse two, and I will make you a great nation. 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:04.000 Now that is hugely significant, and actually that's what what the rest of the narrative is going to focus in on. 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:22.640 And if you have a Bible open or you're able to scroll just back up, when we read about Abram's family back in 1130, the writer has already given us a little clue as to where the narrative is going. 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:26.000 Look at verse 29 of chapter 11, if you can. 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:29.279 Scroll up or uh or grab a Bible. 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:32.160 And Abram and Nahor had took wives. 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:39.119 The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milka and Ishka. 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:40.079 Verse 30. 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:44.400 Now Sarai was barren and had no child. 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:48.319 Sarai can't have children. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:52.319 Yeah, God's coming in verse 2 and says, You know what, Abram? 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:55.039 I'm gonna make you a great nation. 00:24:56.079 --> 00:24:58.160 You're gonna be the father of a multitude. 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:00.319 That's what Abraham means. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:09.440 The third promise is that God will make his name great. 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:16.960 I'll make you a great nation, I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:39.359 If we had uh started Genesis 1 in this series, we have done it before, uh, but if we were running straight on from chapter 11 and you still had the Tower of Babel kind of ringing in your ears slightly, one of the things that you might remember from the Tower of Babel narrative is what motivates the Babel builders to uh to build the tower in the first place. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:49.519 They all come together uh and they say, Come, let us make a name for ourselves. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:53.200 Come let us make a name for ourselves. 00:25:53.359 --> 00:26:01.359 Let's make our own name great by our own efforts in building this tower to the heavens. 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:06.400 God comes in Genesis 12 and says to Abram and says, No, no, no. 00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:09.839 Human beings don't make their own name great. 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:11.119 I did it. 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:13.039 I'm gonna make your name great, Abram. 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:15.920 You're gonna be world renowned. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:18.720 And so he is. 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:27.759 And the fourth promise is that he would be blessed to be a blessing to the nations. 00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:34.319 That the scope of these promises is not merely individual, but global. 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:41.680 That incidentally is a movement that happens all the time in the biblical narrative. 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:47.200 God starts with the individual and the particular, and then he moves to the many. 00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:51.920 So I'm starting with you, Abram, but I've got the world in view. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:53.519 Four promises. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.519 New land, offspring, great name, blessing. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:26:59.920 And notice who is at work here. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:15.519 Five times in these promises, you get God saying, I will, I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse, I will, I will, I will. 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:25.599 God is pledging himself, because he is the God of grace, to be at this work regardless of Abram's merit. 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:41.200 And we will see even next week that if it was dependent on Abram actually achieving some moral uprightness, that all of these promises would lie cold on the floor. 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:48.240 But God pledges himself to work because he is the God of grace. 00:27:50.079 --> 00:28:04.480 Notice also that God's blessing to the nations, that final promise, God's blessing to the nations, does not flow unless Abram leaves. 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:07.759 He's gotta go. 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:11.119 If the nations are to be blessed. 00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:34.400 Perhaps it is worth considering that if you are feeling comfortable or fearful about hearing the command and call of God in your life to consider what blessings could be given if you stabbed out. 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:36.000 What blessings to others. 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:43.279 What are you denying others by your comfort? 00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:48.000 The nations don't get blessed unless Abram leaves. 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:57.920 Each of these promises form the backbone of the entire Old Testament. 00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:03.200 And really the rest of the book of Genesis is focusing in on that offspring one. 00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:10.079 Where are the children of promise, the ones through whom God will work to bless the nations? 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:18.480 The book of Exodus is the uh is what focuses primarily on the land uh portion of the promises. 00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:28.160 But all of them find their ultimate fulfillment and consummation in the person of Jesus. 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:42.480 It is he who brings us into the land of rest by making peace with God because of his death on the cross. 00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:55.599 The land that we look to, the land of rest, the land of peace and the land of shalom, is not a physical part or portion of real estate somewhere in the Middle East. 00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:05.279 No, it is to that heavenly shore, to that new creation existence, in part realized now in the church. 00:30:05.599 --> 00:30:25.119 That is what is ultimately fulfilled by this land, this place of blessing and of rest, to have our sins forgiven, and to reside no longer under the dominion of idolatry and sin, but under the dominion of the risen Lord Jesus. 00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:48.160 It is He who is Abram's seed who draws people from every tribe and tongue into one glorious nation, blessing them with his grace, blessing them with the forgiveness of sins, blessing them with adoption into God's great family. 00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:51.680 So who calls you into the unknown? 00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:54.480 The God of grace calls you into the unknown. 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:59.039 He calls you no matter how far off you feel him to be. 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:10.480 Who calls you into the unknown, the God who has all authority to call you from what is safe and secure, and to bring you onto the adventure of your life? 00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:14.960 Who calls you into the unknown, the God who promises to bless. 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:20.720 Who promises to be with you even unto the end of the age? 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:24.400 Where is he calling you? 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:28.480 What is he calling you to walk from? 00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:33.839 And what promises is he inviting you to cling to as you go? 00:31:35.599 --> 00:31:38.400 Obey God's call. 00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:43.200 Come and trust his promises. 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:46.559 That is our second point. 00:31:47.279 --> 00:31:49.680 Trust God's promise. 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:51.279 This is how Abram responds. 00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:54.240 And actually the narrative flips very quickly. 00:31:54.480 --> 00:31:56.160 From verse 3 into verse 4. 00:31:56.319 --> 00:31:58.720 Verse 4, so Abram went. 00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:02.240 Just as the Lord had told him. 00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:03.920 And Lot went with him. 00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:08.799 Now we'll come back to Lot in chapter 13. 00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:14.240 But he goes, he heeds the call of God, and he steps out in faith. 00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:15.680 How do we know it's faith? 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:18.160 Because he's going just as the Lord had told him. 00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:19.039 That's what faith is. 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:21.119 Faith is taking God at his word. 00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:29.680 It's not about believing in things that have no evidence, it's about trusting the promise, keeping, speaking God. 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:33.519 And Abram steps out. 00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:39.519 He goes in spite of all the ties keeping him home. 00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:42.240 He goes in spite of his age. 00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:45.119 What do we read from verse 4? 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:49.440 He was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. 00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:57.440 If that's not old age, it's certainly late middle age in the Bible's lifetime chronologies. 00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:02.240 He's not quite the spring chicken that he once was. 00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:08.240 And yet he goes just as the Lord commanded him. 00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:14.000 There's an elegant simplicity to verse 4 that I think teaches us a lot. 00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:16.319 Abram takes God at his word. 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:20.400 His faith is beautiful and it's challenging. 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:22.799 Why is Abram's faith challenging? 00:33:23.440 --> 00:33:25.200 He didn't have a Bible. 00:33:26.720 --> 00:33:33.599 He had no temple, no place of worship, no prophet, he had no songs to sing or prayers to pray. 00:33:34.559 --> 00:33:37.440 He didn't get to gather with us on a Sunday morning. 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:44.240 No, he had God commanding and promising. 00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:45.920 And he trusted. 00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:54.160 There's a beautiful simplicity, a challenging simplicity, to Abram's obedience, to his faith. 00:33:56.640 --> 00:34:04.720 Not only does Abram obey by going in verse four, but as he goes, he worships. 00:34:05.759 --> 00:34:09.199 The rest of the passage recounts his his journey. 00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:12.559 We'll skip just a little bit through it quite quickly. 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:16.480 But he is he's descending south if you can imagine. 00:34:16.559 --> 00:34:35.360 So he's uh if Iraq is here, he's coming up over uh the uh the Jordan River, Sea of Galilee, he's coming up over that crescent, up here to where kind of Turkey comes into uh to Syria and Jordan, and he's beginning to journey down into what is modern-day Jordan and Israel. 00:34:35.519 --> 00:34:38.880 So he's coming down, down, down, and he comes to a place called Shechem. 00:34:39.599 --> 00:34:44.880 And in Shechem, there's a place there's a place called the the Oak or Oaks of More. 00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:50.400 More means the oak of teaching or the oak of wisdom. 00:34:50.719 --> 00:34:59.519 And that might have been a place where uh were kind of tribal elders, pagan tribal elders might have come together to give judgment. 00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:08.000 But I think more likely is that the oaks of Moray were a place of pagan worship and of divination. 00:35:08.559 --> 00:35:14.239 But like the oracle at Delphi, if you know your uh your Greek mythology, it's okay if you don't. 00:35:14.320 --> 00:35:15.199 It's fine. 00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:29.920 But a place of seeking the pagan gods and asking them to give messages, and it's there, it is right in their faces, it is public. 00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:38.639 It is there that Yahweh speaks and confirms, I'm gonna give you this land. 00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:44.320 And Abram responds with shameless public worship. 00:35:45.440 --> 00:35:50.639 Notice that we're told that Abram built an altar, and that's significant. 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:51.199 Why? 00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:57.760 Because it's not though Abram goes, guys, could I get a turn on your altar before I head off? 00:35:58.400 --> 00:35:59.840 Could I use your one? 00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:06.559 Could I just blend my religious convictions and systems with yours? 00:36:06.719 --> 00:36:12.159 Could I do a little retrofit, a little upgrade, a little glow-up to your gods? 00:36:12.960 --> 00:36:14.960 No, no, he builds an altar. 00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:23.119 He refuses to enjoin the worship of the Lord, the worship of Yahweh, with the worship of idols. 00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:28.239 He builds something brand new and he does it right in their faces, and he calls upon the name of the Lord. 00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:31.599 Presumably, he offers a sacrifice as well. 00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:42.800 He then moves further south to uh to Bethel, and he builds an altar there and unashamedly testifies to Yahweh's promises there. 00:36:42.880 --> 00:36:45.360 That is, he calls upon the name of the Lord. 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:59.119 And then finally, in verse 9, we read that he moves even further south, now towards the land of Egypt in a place called the Negev, which is that kind of Sinai peninsular area, if you can picture it. 00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:06.000 On the face of it, the story seems doomed to failure. 00:37:06.719 --> 00:37:17.119 God has called a moon-worshipping pagan whose wife cannot have children, and told him that he's going to be a great nation. 00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:25.599 And as he travels, the writer is at pains to point out that the Canaanites are still in the land. 00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:26.960 The land's not empty. 00:37:27.199 --> 00:37:29.679 Though those other people there are going, oh what? 00:37:29.840 --> 00:37:32.079 This is no, no, sorry, this we live here. 00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:36.320 Are they just going to roll over? 00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:38.880 How will God bring that about? 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:49.199 And yet, in the face of these apparent impossibilities, Abram trusts the promises of God. 00:37:50.159 --> 00:37:54.800 He goes and he lives a nomadic life. 00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:59.039 He lives by tent and he lives by altar. 00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:02.719 He is a pilgrim worshipping along the way. 00:38:03.280 --> 00:38:04.559 And so are we. 00:38:05.440 --> 00:38:11.760 Similarly, we must see ourselves as people of tent and altar. 00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:16.159 This land is not our home. 00:38:17.519 --> 00:38:22.159 This present reality is not our place of comfort or security. 00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:32.719 We are pilgrim people, people of tent and altar, journeying towards that promised land, worshiping on the way. 00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:52.159 We are people of tent and altar, calling on the name of the Lord wherever he has placed us, to whomever he has placed around us, without shame, without blending or compromising, but taking God at his word. 00:38:53.039 --> 00:39:12.960 We are people of tent and altar, trusting Jesus, the descendant of Abram, Abram's seed, in whom the blessings to the nations would be given by the forgiveness of sin and the offering of new life. 00:39:14.960 --> 00:39:22.159 It is he who tells us now to go, to go to the nations, trusting in his promise. 00:39:23.760 --> 00:39:28.000 His promise that he would be with us always, even unto the end of the age. 00:39:29.360 --> 00:39:34.079 Brothers and sisters, you are made for the adventure of your life. 00:39:35.679 --> 00:39:38.079 Would you not heed that call? 00:39:38.719 --> 00:39:44.719 You are called to that adventure by the risen Lord Jesus who calls you to place your trust in him. 00:39:45.920 --> 00:40:02.480 Having done so, he calls you into that adventure, that all of your decisions might be shaped by his priorities, though they seem so counterintuitive, where friends and family think that you are cracked. 00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:11.840 But you know at some deep part of you that you are trusting the call of God. 00:40:12.800 --> 00:40:14.559 You're made for adventure. 00:40:15.599 --> 00:40:19.199 We are a pilgrim people, people of tent and altar. 00:40:19.679 --> 00:40:23.760 Step out into the unknown, trust his promises. 00:40:25.039 --> 00:40:25.840 Be a blessing.