12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 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. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 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.
When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 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. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
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Have you ever taken out a
loan? How many of you have car loans,
mortgages, college loans? Most of us
have, at some point, dipped into the loan pool, mostly because we didn’t have
enough money to buy what we wanted.
When we did so, whomever had the
money checked our credit. Each and every
one of you has a credit score. This is
the quantifying that someone has done to determine how likely you are to pay
back a loan. If you have a high credit
score, you have proved yourself reliable in the past and are deemed a good
candidate for a loan. If you have a
lower credit score, you’re a little more risky for one reason or another.
It’s a complicated system, and I
have no idea how they come up with the numbers, but we’ve all done this type of
analysis, because at some point or another, someone has probably asked you to
borrow money, and you’ve instantly tried to determine whether or not they were
a good candidate to pay you back. If I
called you this afternoon and asked you to borrow $200, you’d have an instant
reaction, some gut feeling, one way or another, about how likely I was to pay
you back.
Now, imagine that someone you’ve
never met called you tomorrow morning and asked you to borrow $1,000. You’d never do it, right? We’re all smarter than that. I hope.
If you wouldn’t lend a complete
stranger $1,000, it’s probably safe to assume that you wouldn’t pick up and
move your entire household because someone you’ve never met told you to do so,
right? That would be crazy, right?
I think it would be crazy for
anyone to do so, and I think it would have been crazy for Abraham to do so,
too. We don’t have much of an
introduction to Abraham in Genesis, but I think it’s safe to assume that he’s
already in a relationship with God before this story occurs. I find it hard to believe that Abraham would
pick up and follow the call of a God he’s never heard of.
Whatever their relationship is like
before this story, Abraham is willing to place a massive amount of trust in God’s
call. God calls Abraham and makes him a
huge promise—he promises that Abraham’s name will be great and that Abraham,
and all who bless him, will be blessed by God.
Indeed, God promises that every family on earth will be blessed because
of Abraham. These are bold promises.
And Abraham believes them
completely.
Notice that Abraham doesn’t hedge
his bets. He doesn’t tell his wife and
family that he’s going to go look into what God is describing and send for them
if it turns out worthwhile. He doesn’t
tell them that he’ll be back in a few months after he’s tested the worthiness
of this call. No, at the call and
promise of God, Abraham picks up everything he owns and wanders into an unknown
land, trusting God completely.
I think it’s amazing that Abraham
places such trust in God. In today’s
Bible, this story happens in Genesis 12, meaning that there are only 11
chapters before this that describe God’s wonders and grace. This is clearly enough for Abraham.
So if this is enough for Abraham,
we should have no reason not to trust God, right? We should have even more trust, even more
commitment, because we have an entire Bible’s worth of confirmation of the
worthiness of God. He makes bold
promises to Abraham and we see how those come true, and from that we ought to
recognize that he will make good on the promises he has made to us. Think about it—God has never let a single
promise go unanswered. How’s that for a
great credit report?
So Abraham, at the ripe age of 75,
takes his entire household and follows the call of God into the unknown
future. Here’s what I want you to notice
from this story.
First, God’s promises are all
future-oriented. This makes perfect
sense, because all promises are directed forwards, but many of God’s promises
are directed well beyond the lifetime of Abraham. In fact, Abraham could easily have spent his time
asking God what was in it for him. But
Abraham trusted God. Abraham knew that
God had long term plans for him and for his descendants, and he trusted in God,
the promise-maker, because he trusted God to keep his promises.
In the same way, we need to trust
the promises that God has made. God has
promised to always be with us, to heal us and lead us through whatever
challenges we face in life. It would be
easy for us to look to God whenever we have a challenge and wonder if he’s forgotten
us. But just as God didn’t promise Abraham
that every night in the desert would be easy, he doesn’t promise us that
everything will be smooth sailing. He
just promises to bring us safely into port in the end, and to use our life to
his greater glory if we’re willing to offer it all to him. You are part of something bigger than
yourself, and trust that God will use you for that, even if it’s not always
apparent.
Which leads to the second
point. Notice how much movement there is
in this story. God sends Abraham out
from Haran, his home, and towards Canaan.
At some point, they arrive in Canaan, the land that God promises to his
ancestors. But rather than leave Abraham
there, God calls him to go to Bethel, and then Abraham journeyed onward
still. Abraham doesn’t seem to sit still
very long.
Likewise, God doesn’t want us to
reach a static plateau and then remain there the rest of our lives. God wants us to strive forward and continue
our spiritual journey. God wants us to
grow, and then to continue growing every day for the rest of your life. God has a next step for you, whether you are
16, 46 or 96. God doesn’t just want you
to rest content.
So what is your next step? Abraham journeyed onward. Will you journey onward, too? Will you go deeper into the spiritual life,
reach farther out than you imagined you could, take up a new calling or
mission? Are you willing to continue to
go forth boldly in faith, or will you stay comfortable and believe that God
just wants you to be comfortable?
Finally, I want you to pay
attention to what Abraham did as he went.
He built altars in Canaan and Bethel, and I’m sure he continued building
them as he went. Wherever Abraham went,
he left a marker, a reminder that served to proclaim to others the mighty power
of God. Abraham changed the landscape
through his life.
Friends, does your life change the
landscape as you pass through it? Do you
leave markers to remind others of the presence of God? Are others aware of your commitment to God,
or do you hide it out of shame or embarrassment? May we stake our claim and imitate Abraham in
changing the landscape of Chattanooga by our presence and actions. When we interact, may we leave an impression
of our dedication to the wonder of God.
May we love with boldness and courage and transform this city by our
witness to the faithfulness of God.
Friends, God kept every promise he
made to Abraham. May we recognize how
faithful God is and be willing to follow the same call into the deep waters of
faith. May we risk everything, offering
it all to God, because he is dependable and trustworthy.
Let us pray
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