Blessed to be a Blessing
Genesis 12
1Title Slide
2 (I Have Been Blessed)
3We have been blessed. Galatians 3:29. Since we have inherited God’s promise to Abraham, just what have we inherited?
4Who was Abram (Abraham)?
5Abraham is known as one of the greatest men in the Bible.
a. A little over a fourth of Genesis is dedicated to telling Abraham’s story.
And much of the rest of the Old Testament testifies to his importance
(it’s always Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).
b. He is revered by the followers of three world religions: Christianity,
Judaism, and Islam.
c. He is the founder of the nation of Israel.
d. He is mentioned by name 308 times in the Old and New Testaments.
e. He is the preeminent man of faith in the Bible.
f. He is a man whose life changed the course of world history, because
God began His covenant with Israel through him.
g. When Matthew wants to impress upon us the significance of who Jesus
Christ really is, he links him with the greatest king—David—and with the
founder of Israel—Abraham. Matthew 1:1, “A record of the genealogy
of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
6Abraham grew up in Ur of the Chaldeans, a large city on the banks of the Euphrates River.
Historians tell us that Ur was one of the most important cities of the ancient world. In Abraham’s day perhaps 250,000 people lived there. There was an ancient university there and a large library. Ur was known as a center for mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and international commerce. In the twenties and thirties Sir Charles Leonard Woolley excavated Ur and came up with some of the greatest treasures of archeology. In Ur’s royal cemetery they found 16 tombs, each one filled with golden headdresses and gold and silver harps. Each tomb also contained up to 74 bodies of servants who were buried alive with the king.
Woolley’s excavations also revealed that the houses in Ur were 2 stories high and were whitewashed to be pleasing to the eye. The larger homes had up to 20 rooms, with well-equipped kitchens, good plumbing and sanitation.
It was also a center of pagan worship. Archeologists have unearthed evidence that most of the people of Ur worshipped the Moon Goddess called Nannar. We know from other places in the Old Testament that Abraham’s family were idol-worshipers, which means that he no doubt was an idolater himself.
7Joshua 24:2
God chose this Abraham and singled him out from among his fellow-idolaters, that he might reserve a people for himself.
Let’s look at Abram’s call--Genesis 12:1.
8Genesis 12:1
9Why did God choose Abraham?
10Why pick a fairly obscure man like Abraham to give all these blessings to? He wasn’t a man of great accomplishments or power. As far as we can tell from our scripture, he was a middle aged (75 years old), moderately successful herdsman, that probably lived with his dad and wife Sarai. So why take an old man and his barren wife, make them into a great nation. Why bless the world through this family?
God saw what was in Abraham’s heart. God knew his potential.
“… Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."1 Samuel 16:7
Also,God wants to make sure it’s absolutely clear to us that HE is the one making this happen. It’s like God is saying – I’m going to choose the most impossible way to do this so you will never doubt that it’s ME doing it. So you will know that it’s Me, and not you, that is making this happen! Right from the start, God wants us to know that it’s not about what WE do, it’s about trusting HIM and depending on what HE does.
Can you imagine the initial conversation between Abraham and God?
11God: “Abraham, this is God speaking. I want you to leave everything and go
to the land I will show you.”
Abram: “Where’s that?”
God: “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” God
Abram: “Try me.”
God: “It’s 1500 miles from here in a place called Canaan.”
Abram: “Never heard of it.”
God: “I know, and guess what else?”
Abram: “What?”
God: “I’m going to make you the father of a great nation.”
Abram: “That’s impossible. I don’t have any children.”
12God: “Don’t worry.”
Abram: “What do you mean, don’t worry?”
God: “Just trust me.”
Abram: “Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You want me to leave everything, travel across the desert to someplace I’ve never heard of, and become the father of a great nation.”
God: “Right.”
Abram: “Is this some kind of joke?”
God: “No.”
Abram: “What am I supposed to tell my wife?”
God: “That’s your problem.”
13The Command
14God’s dealings with Abraham began first with a command and then a covenant.
1. Leave Your Country.
2. Leave Your People.
3. Leave Your Father’s Household.
4. Go To The Land I Will Show You.
God told him to leave his familiar surroundings and his family and head off to some unknown destination. God did not even reveal at first where Abram would be going. He didn’t show him color brochures of the swimming pools and golf courses in Canaan. There’s a hint that he would face hostility: some would curse him (12:3). But God promised Abram security in the face of any foe he might encounter. Travel wasn’t easy in those days. There weren’t motels and fast food restaurants along the Interstate highway. No U-Haul trucks. Abram couldn’t call home and let everyone know how life was in the new place. He had to say good-bye once and for all to his country and relatives and set out to follow God.
15I’m told that there’s a toll booth at the Golden Gate Bridge.
Every once in a while, people get to that booth and they don’t have any money.
They can’t turn around and they can’t go ahead.
There are cars lined up behind them and they’ve got to make a choice.
The toll booth operators there have a policy:
If you don’t have any money, you can still cross the bridge - as long as behind something that has a value which exceeds the price of the toll.
Drivers have left such items as
· a can of motor oil,
· a frying pan,
· a set of silverware,
· a new book,
· cassettes and CDs.
· Wedding bands are often left at the tollbooth - mostly by men.
· One elderly gentleman left his dentures and returned the next day to redeem them.
· The owner of a diamond wristwatch valued at $7000 left it for the toll but never returned to claim it.
In order to get to the other side, they had to leave something behind. Abram was faced with this dilemma. To get to where God wanted him to go, Abram had to leave something behind.
16One of the regular ladies of the church, Eunice, was cooking a pot of her famous beans for the church potluck. As she was just getting them on the stove her Grandson, Little George, came running through the house, BB gun in one hand, and a handful of BBs in the other. Immediately she grabbed him and told him to go into the living room and quit running through the house. Well the phone rang, and boys will be boys? Little George came running back through the kitchen, missed a step, tripped and, naturally all the BBs landed right in the pot of beans.
Now after a few minutes of trying to get Eunice off the phone, Little George could think of no reason why he should risk punishment, so he said nothing. The dinner went well, and, as usual, the beans were one of the favorite dishes.
The next day, the church secretary, Jane, called and said, "Eunice, your beans were delicious as usual but what did you put in them this time?"
Eunice replied, "Nothing new, why do you ask?" "Well," said Jane, "this morning I bent over to feed the cat and I shot the canary..."
You know, we are all like little George! Abraham was no exception. We think of Abraham as this great man full of faith in God. He was a man who trusted God completely. But life was not always like that for this man. He too was much like little George. It took over 25 years of God’s promises, provisions, and patience to develop his faith; and included a lot of mistakes and missteps on Abraham’s part for his faith to mature into being strong and unwavering!
17A little guy gets on a plane and sits next to the window.
A few minutes later, a big, heavy, strong mean-looking, hulking guy plops down in the seat next to him and immediately falls asleep. The little guy starts to feel a little airsick, but he’s afraid to wake the big guy up to ask if he can go to the bathroom. He knows he can’t climb over him, and so the little guy is sitting there, looking at the big guy, trying to decide what to do.
Suddenly, the plane hits an air pocket and an uncontrollable wave a nausea passes through the little guy. He can’t hold it in any longer and throws up all over the big guy’s chest. About five minutes later the big guy wakes up, looks down, and sees the vomit all over him.
"So," says the little guy, "are you feeling better now?"
I hope you are feeling a little better about your life and encouraged to take continue your journey of faith.
18The Promise
19Genesis 12:2-3
20To build a willingness to follow, God gives Abram 7 promises:
I will make you a great nation
I will bless you
I will make your name great
You will be a blessing
I will bless those who bless you
I will curse those who curse you
All people on earth will be blessed through you
21Genesis 12:2
The Bible teaches us that we are blessed not just so that we can feel good, not just so we can be happy and comfortable, but so that we will bless others.
Blessings should flow outwardly.
22Luke 18:29-30
When we bless others, God takes care of our needs.
23Luke 6:38
The more you bless other people…the more you help others, the more God blesses your life. Our blessings to others will come back on us
24Luke 12:48
The more we’re blessed by God the more He expects us to help others.
25Bob Deffinbaugh tells this story: “Most of you know, I spent the first few years of my life with my parents on the border of China and Tibet, and the great majority of Tibetans are followers of Buddha and believe that there are thousands of different gods - gods of the mountains and fields, gods of the wind and rain, gods of the skies and seas – gods for everything. There are rooster gods, and gods of every kind of animal imaginable. And they make idols to represent each of them. They also fashion idols in human form - bald-headed gods, and gods with long black hair and bushy beards.How about this idol? It is almost 9 feet tall, and they say that it is made of solid gold. They worship it as a “Thousand-armed goddess” involved in almost every aspect of human life.Day after day, year after year they bow down before these idols and offer sacrifices – not because they love them, but because they fear them & are seeking to appease them. You see, they believe that every bad thing that happens in life happens because some god is angry and has sent evil demons down to punish them.
26But which god, and why? And how can you appease that god? Well, of course, you can offer sacrifices to one god after another until finally you hit the right one. Or you can go to the Lama priests and for a price have them determine which god is angry and then offer sacrifices for you and intercede on your behalf.
These are some Lama priests preparing to take part in the annual new year’s “devil dance” festival. For 3 days the people bring offerings and sacrifices to the Lama priests, while the priests do their “devil dances” to drive away the evil demons from their village.Finally, on the 3rd day of the festival, when the priests have collected all they can from the people, the high priest comes and does his grand finale, the “stag devil – king of hell” victory dance and announces that they have successfully driven the evil demons away from their village for another year.
27But for these 2 Tibetan women, nothing seemed to help. No matter to which gods or how much they sacrificed, their troubles and the evil demons that they believed had caused them did not go away.
Finally, the priests told them that somehow, someway, they had so angered the gods that nothing they had done so far was sufficient to appease them. There was just one thing left to try, the priests said.
If they would make a pilgrimage to a holy mountain that was about 3½ months journey away; and when they reached it, if they would crawl on their hands and knees over the rocks for the 11 miles around its base, praying “Om mani pad mi hum” over and over again as they crawled, then the gods would surely be appeased and send the demons away.
We hear stories like that and shake our heads in dismay. It is hard for us to realize that there are millions of people living in such superstition and fear. You see, we have been taught that God is love – that He knows and loves each of us and that we are precious in His sight. John 3:16-17
God loves us and yearns for us to love and follow Him, and in doing that to be a blessing and an example to all around us of the difference that God can make in our lives.
28Genesis 12:4-5
29Abram was tested as to whether he loved God more than everything and everyone, and whether he would willingly leave all to go with God. Hebrews 11:8 puts it this way: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
30What a great verse! What an amazing act of faith! He hears and he goes! Abram trusts God’s words, he trusts God’s plans, he trusts God’s promises. Even when they seem impossible. That’s why Abraham is held up throughout the Bible as a model of faithfulness. We, too, can fully rely on God because we are heirs of Abraham and we have been blessed.”
31References