Genesis 12:1-9 The Start of Something New

The Church’s Calling to Worship, Give, and Grow in Faith

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan where you can grow in faith community and service. This is a message from the series beginning with God walking through the book of Genesis by pastor of teaching and vision Don Filsack.

If you'd like to learn more about recast or access our sermon archive, please visit us at recastchurch .com. Here's Pastor Don.

I'm glad that you've gathered together to worship our great God here on a Sunday morning. Be sure To take advantage of the worship folder that you received when you walked in. There's different announcements and activities and things that are spelled out in there.

You also received a connection card when you walked in. I'm at your for if it's your first time with us and you fill out one of these connection cards and turn it in in The black box back there then we just ask that you please also take a free coffee mug.

Just our way of saying thanks for joining us. But remember those of you that have been here for a while. There's a place to put prayer requests and different information and suggestions and things like that on the back of that card, too.

We greatly appreciate when we get an opportunity to pray for you in a knowing way Throughout the week and then also you received an offering envelope when you when you came in. Remember that those offering envelopes go in the black box back there as well.

If you choose to give this morning and we don't pass an offering plate here so anything given in there that and a reminder that anything given in there that. That mentions the expansion fund on it whether that's on the envelope or in on the on the check itself.

We'll go towards our hopes towards building a building here in Matawan. We currently have property and we are Just opened up a building fund. We're not doing a capital campaign or anything slick like that.

But just anything that's marked we've got that fund open and available for you there if you would take advantage of that. I recognize that there's all kinds of reasons that people come to church on a Sunday morning all different kinds of Reasons that you might be here and now your mind probably wanders to that and thinking like what am I doing here?

Some of you were raised to attend church and it's kind of like Baseball apple pie Chevrolet go to church on Sunday. It's like the American thing to do, right? I mean It's maybe kind of you were raised going to church and that kind of seems like it's it's a pretty logical thing for us.

To do here in America. Others of you maybe have been dragged here by somebody. Maybe your spouse dragged you here or maybe your parents dragged you here or maybe your kids dragged you here. I don't know but that there's that possibility there as well.

And still others of you have maybe come. Because you desire to grow in faith and you you would have stated that when you woke up this morning I'm going to church this morning because I want to grow in my faith and my relationship with God and growing community and those kinds of things but my hope and prayer for all of us this morning and even as Kyle and I get here early on Sunday mornings to pray one of the things that we pray about is that God would work in Our hearts to grow us in faith.

Regardless of what it is that's brought you through the doors and that's what I think is awesome. Is that God has that power by his Holy Spirit to convict us to encourage us to draw us out based on his word?

And so that's one of the main reasons why we we take a chunk of God's Word Scripture and we break it down every week and We talk about that. Because it's our conviction that the truth is found in here of who God is and that is we come in contact with this.

Our hearts our hearts and lives can be changed and our behavior changes as our heart changes. And so it's a it's a matter of taking this on and knowing God as he is. And that's where our core values come from reproducing community authenticity simplicity and truth and recognize that as the acronym for recast the the T and recast stands for truth and that is because we We want everything that we do to be guided and directed by the Word of God and to consistently come back here.

And we're convinced that we can be challenged to grow in our faith by coming in contact with God's Word. And so as we carry on in Genesis We're gonna turn a corner here from what the first 11 chapters that we've been through so far have been kind of broken down by scholars into the section called ancient history and now we're gonna enter into an age of the patriarchs where we're gonna be talking about Abram and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and those guys and that's kind of the remainder of the book of Genesis is kind of Walking us through the let the lives of these guys who were selected out by God and the line from him and it's a pretty Big deal what is going to happen here?

In our text there's nothing less than one of the most pivotal points in the entirety of human history. So far we've seen God create a good creation in the book of Genesis. We've seen humanity break that creation through rebellion.

We watch the spiral down into deep depravity. Until God's assessment of humanity was that there every thought and intention of our hearts was only ever evil continually like pretty dramatic statement.

But I think if you know your own heart Then you probably recognize some echoes of the reality of that that your intentions and your thoughts are evil. It's not just your behavior. Sometimes we we like to think we give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and we kind of go.

It's just my behavior. I'm just not acting the way that I am inside. But in all honesty, if we're honest with ourselves, we would recognize that there's actually evil in our intentions as well sometimes we we hurt people and we meant to right and so.

There's a problem. Fundamentally God says the problem with humanity is in their heart. It's not just their behavior. And so then we waded through the flood. Do you guys see what I did there? Waded through the flood.

Yeah, and then we waded through the genealogies to maybe that's that's maybe that's funny, too. We waded through some of those genealogies with all those names and all those people. But if you remember several weeks back now, it's been a few weeks since we covered the genealogies.

But at the very end of the genealogies in chapter 11 We encountered a name that I said was going to be pretty significant moving forward the name abram. Which we know is going to eventually be changed to abraham.

His name is abram great father god is going to eventually in a couple chapters change his name to abraham which means father of many.

Um.

But uh, and it doesn't seem like a significant change but god loves to change people's names when he um encounters them and uh, and and changes them from the inside out and so he um is. This is this guy named abram is going to be significant moving forward and i'll probably get his I'll probably call him abraham a few times just because that's how you know.

That's what was most common. But his name at the point where we're talking about him in genesis chapter 12 is abram at this point. His name hasn't been changed yet. But what we're going to see is god do something brand new in the text.

We're going to see god enter into a unique and significant relationship with a individual human being. With the intention of blessing the entire world through this one dude. So that's that's pretty significant and at face value our text in these nine verses doesn't look much different than god walking with enoch.

We saw him do that earlier. We saw god Talk to noah and give him instructions to build an ark. So like you you could be like what's the big deal about abram. Abram? Because he's he's met with noah before he's met with enoch before he's met with other people before so what's significant about abraham?

Well, we know. What we know now looking back and and it's people in the new covenant. And being able to read the new testament and the remainder of the old testament. We see how just how crazy significant this situation is going to be where god selects abraham.

And how that's going to be what gets the whole ball rolling for the salvation plan that god had all the way back to adam and eve.

Um.

God has proven that he's a god who keeps promises and to abraham He is going to make some very significant promises that have an impact even down to where you and I live in 2013 here in madawan. So I want you to open your bibles to genesis chapter 12.

Um, we're going to read the first nine verses. Uh page eight in the bible in the seat back in front of you. So if you take that bible out turn to page eight, you can find it there. And if you don't own a bible, we want everybody to have a copy of god's word.

So please take that one with you. Um, but follow along as I read genesis chapter 12 and the first nine verses the words of god to us this morning. 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.

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. 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.

So abram went as the lord had told him and lot went with him. Abram was 75 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 in 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 abram passed through the land to the place at shechem to the oak of mora. At that time the canaanites were in the land. 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. 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 and abram journeyed on still going toward The negev.

Abram’s Call to Leave Home and Trust God’s Voice

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship. Father I thank you for the the model that we have in abram a man of faith and even declared in the book of galatians by paul to be the father of those who approach you by faith that he was the The the first in that in that sense to To recognize your promises and to bank on those promises.

Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to what faith truly is to the the active component of it to the the part where we Actually respond to the promises that you've given to us. Father that you would move in our midst to by your spirit to convict us to draw us out to show us.

Uh the direction that you desire for us to go. Father that um You would be honored by our praises and our and our offerings to you in regard to to worship at this time father. As we as a band comes to lead us that our hearts would be moved.

That we would worship you in spirit and in truth that our minds would be engaged. But also our emotions and our enthusiasm for you father even as we talked last week about the potential for unbridled rejoicing because of the resurrection and because of the cross and the sacrifice that's Been made for us.

I ask that you move in our hearts move in our midst to rejoice in you and your son.

And I ask this in jesus name.

A big thanks to the band for leading us in worship. Hopefully you were able to worship god in spirit and in truth there. And now we continue on in worship through hearing from his word and responding by faith.

Make sure that you keep your bibles open in front of you. I think that'd be valuable for you to have that bible turned open to page eight or to genesis chapter 12. So we're going to walk through this text together.

Um that you might see that i'm not making this stuff up that it's actually in there. So, um, I think that's valuable. And then also remember I know we just took a break. But um, there's more juice and coffee and donuts and you can feel free to get up at any time during the message.

You're probably not gonna probably not gonna distract me. Um, and then uh, there's also ladies restroom here and the men's is back there.

Um.

And if you need to get up and stretch out or anything to just kind of keep your focus on god's word as we walk Through this that would be awesome. I think it'd be valuable for us to start a few. Uh verses back just because Um where we're at in the book of genesis.

It's been a couple weeks. We took some time off for good friday and easter to talk about death and resurrection. And so it's been a few weeks since we talked about these genealogies back in genesis chapter 11.

And if you look at um, Primarily verses 27 through 32 identify this guy named tara Abram's dad and so we we met him back there several weeks ago. Um, and uh, We recognized that abram's dad picked up his family and it says in the text headed off to canaan.

So they started to move to canaan. Uh tara abram's dad moved his family that way but then they got as far as a place called haran which is in kind of.

Um.

Near the border of turkey and iraq and they got to that area and then they settled there. And we really don't know why or any of the ins and outs of that. And I just want to point out that sometimes it can be dangerous drawing conclusions from scripture.

I mean sometimes it's nice to have a holy imagination and kind of imagine how things went and stuff like that. But i've heard um i've heard teaching on tara the father of abram who only carried through halfway or something to that effect and.

And I just don't see that application from the text because we don't ever have any indication that god approached tara Abram's dad and told him to do anything. So he was just I we don't know why. We don't know what the purpose was for him to pick up his family and start off towards canaan.

We know he's leaving from an area of babylon. Um ur of the caldeas is the as the text is going to tell us here in just a moment. Um, so ur of the caldeas that is a very well-known archaeological place where.

Uh, we saw the tower of babel happen a couple weeks ago, right? How many of you were here when I talked about the tower of babel and when all that happened that was in babylon? That is that abram grew up in the shadow of the unfinished tower the tower that represented human rebellion against god.

Humans trying to make a name for themselves. Human trying to protect themselves where god told them to scatter across the face of the earth. They gathered they in direct rebellion against him. And so that's the area that our dude in the text is from he's from uh babylon, if you will and so.

We know that that's going on in the text. Um, but we're not told why tara moved his family out of that area To haran, but that's where they're they are. But there's also there's what we do know at this point if we were to read, um, the again 27 through 32 which we haven't read this morning, but um.

If you were to read those there's something that stands out when you read that that that uh. Would stand out to them that doesn't stand out to us. Because how many of you here in the room primarily think of yourselves in turn yourself in terms of air?

Like your primary thought in life is like what am I going to get when my parents kick the bucket? Okay, uh, we don't think in those kinds of terms, right? Or we don't think in terms of who is going to be my heir who's going to inherit my estate who's going to get all My stuff right?

Is that is that a primary thought that you were you think about that every week, right? Who's going to inherit my stuff when I when I die? Well, how many of you know that down through the centuries? We live in a very different age, but that was a significant question in people's mind ongoing who's gonna who's gonna get the stuff.

Who's gonna um, who's gonna carry on my family line? Who's gonna keep the name running for my family now? Um, i'm not um, My main job up here isn't to endorse tv shows last week. It was kind of duck dynasty and we talked about that a little bit and that's that I don't you know me I don't try to do that.

But then now I got another tv show i'm going to mention to you. Any of you familiar with the tv show downton abbey? Have any any of you seen that or familiar with it? Okay a handful of you. Um, I bring that up and I Watch with caution any I mean even if even if i'm mentioning it from up front.

Watch anything that you watch on tv with caution. Keep your thinking caps on when you're watching right? And then also keep your moral filter there kind of going. Is this good? I need to be watching this or not but The reason I bring up downton abbey is that it's a it's a show that's set in victorian england in an estate.

And there's a lord of the estate and he has no heir. And so the tension in the show is who's going to be the heir those of you watching it. You know exactly what i'm talking about, but there's this there's this intent.

There's this tension. Uh, that is. Um, you know, he's he's got three daughters. None of them have the right according to english law to inherit and so he's got this distant cousin. Uh who has a son that is, you know, very far removed from the daily events of the estate but now he's going to be the logical heir and all the help are frustrated who's this guy and.

So I bring all that in not because I want you to learn a lot about downton abbey. I bring all that in to say that the concept of heir is going to be significant in moving forward in the book of genesis.

How many of you know that what god's going to promise here in the book of genesis is that abraham's going to have an heir. And we're going to see uh several chapters of drama. Surrounding who's going to be the heir and how is that going to all flesh out?

But what's interesting is that in the last at the very end of chapter 11. They would have listened to the end of what's said there and they would have been able to pinpoint who the logical heir is. And I bet nobody in the room knows who the logical heir of tara is but you could read it and you god I don't know what you're talking about.

Lot is the logical heir of tara. Okay, there's there's uh, you know this guy named lot who just kind of. To us when we read how many of you would say lot is a significant figure in the in the scope of scripture.

Probably probably not really. I mean you're kind of like I know him and i've heard of him. But he's not got a huge role to play in the whole picture of things. But lot the the grandson of tara the nephew of abram is the hope for an heir for tara as we enter our text this morning.

We've been told that abram's wife is barren. She's not going to have a male offspring. Um, at least according to the text what we understand now tara is going. I this isn't going to happen. Nahor for some reason has refused to go with his father on into haran.

Moving towards canaan and he's out of the picture nahor has stepped off the face of the planet. You're not going to see him again.

Um.

And then already we know that haran the the son of the son of tara has already died back in earth. Um, so from this introduction the concept the the tension of who's going to be the heir is already there now.

You're thinking it's going to be lot. But now you've got you know a son who's not able to have children and on and on. And so there's this drama that's going to unfold. But what we encounter in our text then in that context in that setting of who's going to be the heir what's going to happen?

They're moving they move and they settle down and haran god speaks to abram the son of tara. And he says this look at verse 12. Now that now the lord said to abram go from your country and your kindred in your father's house to the land that I will show you.

Now I often wonder what these speeches look like have any of you ever wondered? What's a speech like that and you encounter it in scripture and it's like takes for granted. Okay, god spoke to abram. How many of you would like to sign up for one of those speeches?

Like god just sent god. Could you call me next week? Could you text me? Could you send me an email? Could you let me know exactly what you want me to do? Have you wanted one of those? How many how many honestly raise your hand if you've wanted one of those i've i've wanted one of those.

I confess I I would I would love to have god just like. Wake me up in the morning and say here's what I want you to do today and you know go do it. But I want to point out that god has given us something.

That's awesome. And as much as I say, I would love to have god. Tell me what the specifics he wants of my life. We have a treasure here. This is the word of god. This is his in writing. Demonstration of who he is him god revealing himself to us in love and care and compassion for his creation.

This is a significant book. This is amazing what we have here and as much as we might long for. Uh a voice from god on the building project that we're doing as a church or you name it. What's going on in your workplace or should I leave this job for another or should I do this or that or whatever?

As much as we would like that god has shown us himself. He has revealed who he is in his character. That we might know him and then apply those things to our lives. This is this is valuable. And I and I would I would love to have some kind of an audible voice from time to time.

That would be kind of cool. But I don't want to downplay what god has given to us. He has revealed himself to us through the pages of scripture. I don't know what this looked like though for abram. I don't know if it's a dream.

If he heard an audible voice shouting at him from heaven. Or it was a still small voice in his head as he was sitting there tending sheep or whatever he did. But I do believe this. I believe that god is able to reveal.

That it is indeed his voice speaking if he desires so think about it this way. How many of you would question like you you kind of have. Any of you have a running dialogue going on in your mind all the time?

Like you're talking to anybody talk to yourself in your brain. Um, you have this you have this running conversation if it's if it's you know, if it's dead in there, then that's a concern. Usually something's going on in there.

Um. But uh, you have this you have this dialogue. So is that god's voice? Is it not and how many of you think that god is able to speak to you? He is able to speak to you. Is he powerful enough? Let me rephrase that is he powerful enough to speak to you?

Yes, I think we all in the room would agree on that on that notion god is able to speak to you now. Here's a here's a further question. Is god able to let you know, it's him speaking?

He is.

I think abram had reasonable Conviction that this was god talking to him and god was able to impress that on him. But I want to point this out and I want to be careful because I am gun shy about the whole concept.

Um of God told me to do x or god told me to do y or worse yet God told me that you're supposed to do X or y do you how many of you know what i'm saying? Because have there been abuses of the phrase god told me to Put it out there.

How many of you know often god told me to do? He's not. And it's something that that god doesn't tell people to do. Do you know what i'm saying? It's like this this is like, uh sin. Have any of you ever heard some had somebody come to you and say, you know god Oh god, just telling me that the best thing for me to do is this and I just and you're like no I i've read it.

I know that he's not telling you to do that because it says that he doesn't delight in that he doesn't Want that for you in here? So then how do we make sense of this? Um. There's a there's a difference in our lives, I guess, you know in essence between faith and presumption and and recognizing.

Whether it's the voice of god or not, but here's the here's the crux. I think if you are trying to convince someone else that you have heard the word of god. Then you are trying to justify your own behavior.

That's the bottom line if I have to stand up here and say god told me that I am supposed to do blank. And now you can't argue with me because god told me but there's a difference between that and being convinced in myself.

That god has communicated that and going out and doing that. Does that make sense? So is there a difference there between trying to justify myself to others or even worse yet telling them what they're supposed to be doing.

I think you get the point. The first thing that god says to abram. He's convinced that this is god speaking to him and abrams tells him to go um. Exclamation point go. And the way that god spells this out is interesting.

You know. There's a way that you could tell your kid to do something those of you have children or whatever or you know. You can put it in any context you want. But I could tell my kid, you know, you need to go to soccer practice get on your bike and go ride to soccer practice.

And I could just tell them that and that would be a command a statement or whatever that you need to go do this. But there's another way that I could say that that kind of is a little bit more what god is doing here.

I could say now I want you to go get on your bike and I want you to go to soccer practice. And by the way while you're gone. We're going to watch movies and play video games and have ice cream and it's going to be a party back here.

But we want you to go to soccer practice. Are you getting what i'm saying? I don't even know you can say go and um. But not mention that you're missing out on a bunch of stuff back here, but that's not what god does.

God literally says I want you to go. And then he highlights the things that he's asking abram to leave. See, I want you to leave your family. I want you to leave your kindred. I want you to leave the place that you've come to love and come to know.

I want you to uproot and go and by the way I'm not gonna tell you where you're going. I'm not gonna tell you where you're going. I want you I want you to leave everything and I want you to trust me. Is that a pretty significant call on abram's life.

Is this is this crazy? How many of you are signing up for that deal right away? God's like just go and i'll tell you when you get there. And by the way, I want to highlight and I want to remind you of everything you're going to leave behind.

Your job your your your livelihood all the things that you know, and you love and I want you to just give that up for me.

God.

Calls abram to leave country his kindred his father's house. I don't think we can overstate the level of what is being asked of abram here by faith. Now how many of you are here and you like adventure?

Any anybody kind of a little bit more adventurous and you're kind of like I like to travel. You know, this would be kind of cool like abram's going on an adventure. But not everything's an adventure right in faith.

Like it's kind of like well, I think I would like that kind of adventure until you ask me to leave. You know everything that I love. And all of a sudden it's not as much of an adventure anymore, um. How many of you have ever traveled like you've traveled around different parts of the united states?

Or you've traveled around different places in the country and you've wondered in your mind like what would it be like to live there? Have you have you wondered that before? What would it be like to live in this place or whatever?

Well, I can I can testify as somebody who actually has picked up my family and moved overseas. Um, we went over. My my oldest son was eight months old when we moved to england. We lived there for a couple of years.

We thought we were going for the rest of our lives we actually filled a container box with our stuff and Took it over there and thought we were going to be missionaries for forever and ever and so here we are.

Um.

We had that tearful departure at the airport with our family and all that stuff and hugs and all of that and god's brought us right back, but. The uh, the thing that's interesting is when we had visited we visited england a couple times before we went there permanently.

Which which seems like wise thing to do. But um while we were there just for the short couple of weeks and the you know. The scouting trips and all that stuff and meeting with the ministry partners. We were joining in, you know, all that stuff the things that we enjoyed the things that we.

That were kind of unique and stood out to us and were kind of exciting and adventurous and stuff you know driving on the other side of the road and you know all those kinds of things and they're kind of funny use of different words and.

How many of you know that by the end of a couple years the very things that we thought were attractive? Began to grate on us. Yeah, can you relate to what I mean? You know what i'm saying? So you go to a different culture like oh that is so cool how they do that.

That's so neat and you just live there a couple years and you're gonna go. Why don't they do it our way?

Right.

It changes pretty pretty pretty quick. And so abram is being asked to uh, Uproot and and go to a different culture in a very different way a very different lifestyle than the way that he has lived. But notice the end of verse one abram isn't even told anything about the land he is to settle in.

It's not like he's offered, you know, a link to google maps. Here's the location. Or um, you know, god gives him a. You know the full set of rosetta stones. Uh, so he can learn the language a little bit ahead of time get a little bit of a primer on the language or something.

Um, this is a huge step of faith. He doesn't even know where he's going. Try that with the kids sometime. Are we there yet? Don't know because I don't know where we're going right? Don't know nobody knows.

I mean god will tell us when we get there. Uh, that could be a pretty rough trip. I think um, of course abram and sarai didn't have kids so they didn't have that to worry about but I'm, just pointing out just what an immense step of faith is being asked of a real guy a real guy in history.

And on this I want to point out that faith hasn't changed much over the years. The call of god on individuals lives has not changed that much. The call on the life of abram is one of loss. Let that sink in.

He's being called to lose something. And that's all he knows at this point. He does not know yet what he is going to gain, but he is called to lose something in the opening comments of god. I'm calling you to go.

And lose your kindred your family your father's house. He is called to surrender something he can see for something he has not yet seen. Does that sound like a familiar calling. Is that starting to snap into focus to.

Those who in this room have recognized a calling to a a higher kingdom. Towards a kingdom that is eternal that is lasting to store up treasures in heaven. Where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not break and steal break in and steal versus.

The things that we can tangibly hold in our hands. Where do we set up our kingdom? What do we hold on to where to surrender those things that give us comfort and pleasure. Now for a further kingdom sounds an awful lot like this call to abram, doesn't it?

That's not an easy calling. If we're honest We have spent a significant amount of time setting up our own comfort our own security our own way of life. And yet something fundamental in this call to abram call of faith to abram points to risk.

It sound like risk. He's called to risk the opposite of safety the opposite of fortification and and Building a kingdom for myself the opposite of a visibly sure thing. The visibly sure thing for abram was his life in haram.

That's what he was growing to know and that's what he was. I mean, how many you know? He probably did the things that he did every day because he liked doing those things that he did every day in haran.

Right. I mean for the most part he's living his life. He's doing his thing. By the way, we're going to find out here in just a moment that he was a he was a very wealthy individual. We don't probably a lot of people don't realize that about abram, but he was a wealthy individual before god ever called him.