For the past 6 weeks we have been talking about what we can be sure of. When we are sure of something we can have confidence in that. It feels so good to be sure of our relationship with God, our salvation in Him, the truth of His word, the assurance of His forgiveness, the victory that we have over death because of what Jesus did for us, and just knowing that God loves us through it all.
With all of this Surety we can have confidence in how we manage our lives. That is the direction I would like to go for the next few weeks.
Prayer.
Some friends challenged a guy to go skydiving. They wouldn't leave him alone. The peer pressure was heavy. He finally agreed even though he was reluctant. His confidence meter continued to Free Fall as his jump day approached. He said that he would never forget the moment on that day when, 13,000 ft in the air, the door of that plane flew open. He yelled back to the guy that he was awkwardly strapped too, “What about landing? You never talked to me about landing!”
The guy shouted back, “I'll teach you in the air!” The guy said that before he could finish screaming his response, “Teach me in the air?”, We were free falling.
What gave him the confidence to jump out of a perfectly good airplane? In the same way, what gives us the confidence to make bold leaps when it comes to making decisions in our lives, how do we get the assurance to jump when God is calling us in a direction that may feel unknown, extreme, or even far-fetched? Like when he calls you to surrender your life to the ministry to be a pastor. Let's take some cues today from a man named Abram who demonstrated just that type of confidence.
We have been in the New Testament for quite some time, so for the next few weeks we will turn to the other end of the Bible and pull our message from Genesis 12.
God made a covenant with Abram a long time ago, but it's a promise that still lives on today. God would not forget about His creation, but He would provide a way for us to be in a right relationship with Him. This promise to Abram was the starting point of God's unfolding grace. We see this promise displayed in, and fulfilled by, the birth of Jesus Christ, who was a descendant of Abram. As Christians, we get to experience the benefits of this fulfilled promise.
Genesis 12:1-3 – “The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
God's instruction to Abraham was no small task. Just try to see this from Abram's perspective. He was hearing this proposal and promise for the very first time. We have the benefit of knowing how the story ends, but Abram had no clue of what the outcome would be. Imagine him scratching his head and saying, “Wait a minute. You want me to do what? You're going to do what?” This was a bold request and a bold promise from God.
Did you ever wonder what gave Abram the confidence to accept such a request? For the guy that we just talked about in the skydiving episode, he said when he first got the invitation from his friends to go skydiving, he thought they had to be out of their minds. But he ended up going because of who was asking him. His close relationship with those friends is what drew him in. He knew their character. They were so excited about the skydive that it piqued his curiosity and opened his mind to look at the situation from a different viewpoint.
He certainly would not have responded in the same way if it had been a stranger, or even a casual acquaintance, that came up and asked him to go jump out of an airplane. He stated that if he didn't know anything about that person or his character, why would he trust him? Well in the same way, it reminds us of the simple truth that our understanding of God and our relationship with Him will dictate how we respond to Him.
Just look at all that God promised. He chose Abram to initiate His promise. It was a promise of multiplication, by way of land, children, and blessing. God told Abram that He would make his name great. In other words, the patriarch would be famous.
Today, all three major world religions - Islam, Judaism, and Christianity - identify Abram as a key figure. God did as He had promised. He made Abram famous. But far more than just being well known, Abram’s greatness would be significant because all peoples of the world would be blessed through him when his descendant Jesus Christ came to earth.
Genesis 12:4 – “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.”
Let's get a better picture of this. How many men do we have with us today that are around 75 years old? At your age right now, God asks you to pull up roots and move to a country you have never heard of, leave everything, and the only assurance you have is that God will provide you with a family and a place to live and His blessings. Makes you think, doesn't it? That is exactly what God asked Abram to do.
The more we understand the heart of God, the stronger our dependence and confidence will grow in Him. As a result, when God calls us to something specific, His voice no longer seems foreign to us. Instead, it will seem familiar. This will help give us the confidence we need to move and act on what God is calling us to do. When we trust God, we act on that trust.
The skydiver said that when his instructor shouted to him that he would teach him in the air, he had to have confidence that his instructor would show him what to do at the right time. In a similar way, we see Abram free falling, if you will, on his journey from Haran to Canaan, trusting God to teach him what he needed to know at the right time.
Abrams actions show us the trust he had that God would reveal to him each detail in His perfect timing. Many times, we just need to move, even before we know exactly how God is going to work. We act in obedience on the last step he told us to take, and we keep on moving until He speaks again.
Genesis 12:5a – “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.
God told Abram to go and that is exactly what Abram did. He packed up his possessions and left everything he knew—his comforts, accomplishments, and all things familiar to him were now going to be behind him. Although Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and others with him, other family members that he loved and invested in were left behind in Haran. In that culture and time, land and family had a powerful emotional bond connecting them, but for the sake of survival, they also formed a strong economic bond. Relocating had a whole other depth of meaning compared with relocating in our world today.
God spoke specifically to Abram, but he wasn't the only one to step out and move. His wife, Sarai, and nephew Lot, also moved. That means Sarai and Lot were most likely getting second hand information of this promise from Abram. And yet they still moved. They trusted that Abram was trusting in God, which reminds us of a couple of things.
-whether you realize it or not, we all lead someone in some capacity. In whatever area you have the role of a leader, keep striving to be Spirit-led and how you lead and influence others. Remember how much weight is in each word that you speak and every action that you take.
-and here is a word of wisdom. Be Spirit led in the leaders that you choose to follow. Don't just flippantly follow someone because of his or her position, possessions, or popularity. Choose to follow those who model grace, generosity, and gratefulness. The more a leader looks like Jesus, the more confidence we should have to follow that leader.
Genesis 12: 5b-6 – “When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.)”
Abram responded to God's call with action. When he came to Canaan, he passed through the land even though he knew the Canaanite people had already inhabited the land God promised to give him.
When it came to children, Abram kept trusting God even though he and Sarai were childless. At this point in life, he is 75 years old and his wife Sarai wasn't getting any younger. He didn't know how God was going to show off His power in either situation, or how specifically God was going to get it done. But he kept moving and trusted God would show him how.
Obedience. It can be challenging. It can be easy for us to lose confidence in the direction God is leading us. We can easily be swayed from obedience to disobedience. I wonder if Abram ever struggled with the temptation to say, “Maybe we should just turn back. Maybe I misunderstood what God was telling me.” How many times have you asked God that question?
Thankfully, God does not leave us alone. As his followers, He has placed His Holy Spirit in our lives . When our confidence becomes weak, we lean on His Spirit. We should trust the spirit of Christ when we're not feeling confident. It's not how we feel that matters, it matters Who we trust.
When we feel unsure about the direction, or when we feel like turning back, we trust in Christ. When the enemy plays with our minds and causes us to doubt, we trust in Christ. Jesus is our line of defense that gives us the confidence to keep moving, even when we don't know exactly how we are going to land.
Genesis 12:7-8 – “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. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord.”
When the Lord appeared to Abram in verse 7, reassuring him of his presence and the promise of land and children, Abram responded with worship. He built an altar to the Lord. An altar is a place of worship, a place where we bow and worship before the Lord, but an altar also could serve a second purpose. It can be a place of remembrance. Even as Abram worshiped, he created a marker for himself, the Canaanites currently living in the land, and future generations of his people. God's promise and faithfulness would not be forgotten.
Let's finish our story of the skydiver. After gliding back down to earth, he bought every one of the pictures and videos from his skydiving jump. Why? So that he could be reminded of that experience - and so that he could brag to his children and their future children that he had done it. Abram’s altar was a place of worship, remembrance, and a way to point to God and brag on God's greatness.
Let's bring all of this up to our day and time. What does an altar of worship and remembrance look like for us today? Some people have created literal altars of stone or wood to mark and remember God's work in their lives, but let me suggest another approach. Write it down. Record it somewhere. Create a written altar of remembrance and worship. Pick up a pen and start writing in a journal all that God has been doing in your life. I have found that the more I write, the more I lift Him up. When we take the time to pause, reflect, and write, it helps us to remember all God has done, and that leads us to worship.
If you're anything like me, you're forgetful. So, when our confidence begins to shrink and when our trust begins to decline, we can run back to our altar, the place where we remember all the wonderful things God has done. And when we remember, we are moved to lift Him up in worship and anticipate that He will do it again. In the process, our faith is strengthened—and so is our confidence.
I pray that this word from God has helped you to begin a foundation of the confidence that we can have in our Lord.
And I hope that my Lord is your Lord. If He isn't, you can change that right now by asking Him to take control of your life. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then simply go to Him in prayer.
Admit to Him that you are a sinner, and ask Him for forgiveness. Then simply ask Him to take control of your life. And He will. The choice is yours.
