Pastor Lloyd Ashworth PAGE 4 Milford Baptist Church – 21 April 2013

Abram 6 ‘The Mark of God on You’ Genesis 17

Last week in Genesis chapter 16 Hagar cries out….’you are the God who sees me’….What an amazing title for God…you are the God who sees my distress, my pain, sees my rejection, my condition, obstacles, predicament…

All around us today – people ask the question – Does God really care? Is God too busy for me and my struggles? Hagar discovers that despite being a ‘second choice’ backup plan, born into the wrong nation, just a servant to the main players in the story, who can be cast off as expendable – God sees her. God hears the distress and He sees the predicaments of our lives….and He does care enough to act. Hagar's story is one of the God who sees… and who comes to the help of the outcast, distressed and the marginalised.

‘The Mark of God on you’

Most movements in history whether social or political have a common mark, symbol or emblem that followers rally around. It becomes a focal point where the charismatic leader calls people to commit to the cause. In many of your life-times one such symbol was the swastika – it was the mark of Hitler’s regime of European domination. Where that symbol went, behind it was the power of the Fuhrer.

In that time also – the mark of marginalisation was also put on the Jews who bore the Star of David … When you wore the mark it set you aside from others. You were known to be ‘one of them’. Early followers of Jesus were known to be people of the ‘way’… when the early church went underground due to ostracism and persecution Jesus' followers sometimes would mark their homes with the sign of a ‘fish’ Ichthus.

But today I want to speak about the ‘mark that God makes on us’….

The day starts out as usual as the hot sun pours down over the scorched desert. Abram reclines in the shade of his tent and once again considers God’s silence and apparent absence. Ten more years have gone by and still no son or heir for Abram and Sarai. Hagar’s role in the family has been somewhat awkward since her return from encountering the ‘The God who sees me’ … but she has made the best of the situation with no apparent change on the horizon. Abram and Sarai live with a mix of faith, and wonderment as they try to hold onto God’s promises yet see the unmistakable reality of diminishing strength and vigour with no sign of this promised son.

Suddenly God appears and once again says yet again the same thing …. ’serve me faithfully, live a blameless life and I will promise you a people’ ….

Then … more ‘I wills’ … make you fruitful, change your name to Abraham ‘father of many’ … and this promise is not just to you but all who follow you … they will live in this land….

Now to seal this God was going to ask Abram to mark every male child…. Whether direct family line or servant or even foreigner living in their midst. ‘Your bodies must bear the mark of my covenant I am making with you’ and the mark would link to their very act of procreation and the offspring who would result from that. Sarah’s name is also changed and from her will come nations and kings…. She will be a blessed woman.

Now Abram laughs at such a thought… how is this possible? We are well past child bearing age …. why don’t you just appoint Ishmael to be my heir …. he is already born …!! There is a much more reasonable plan already in place!

We have spoken of God giving us sovereignty of choice over recent weeks, but this very capacity is also God’s domain, He acts sovereignly also … chooses Isaac and not Ishmael. God chooses Sarah and not Hagar. In this crazy PC world where the minorities plead for their rights – the very thing we insist on having ourselves we so reluctantly allow God to exercise! But Abraham obeyed…. He circumcised all males in his household. The mark of God was on his people… they would be different.

1 . God's Times are not ours

We can even find ourselves telling God how He should do stuff…. We have a better idea; to try and help God out… there is always an Ishmael around when God wants to give you an Isaac. We are pretty good at finding ways to give God a help, manipulate life events so the outcomes are pleasing for us. God’s ways are not always the easy way, or the believable way, or the way of least resistance. God’s ways are not always the motorway of life – sometimes they go into remote places off the well worn tracks where faith and trust are required. Sometimes they call us to make choices opposite to what we would personally choose. Sometimes they require us to just hold on when the answer does not come and believing that it will one day. Most times God’s ways require something God brings to the predicament….something surprising and God like.

Do you remember the story of Lazarus – and Jesus waited ‘too long’ to come! But it was when all hope was gone, all human endeavours had given up, when nothing but a miracle was able to reverse the situation that Jesus arrived. The story of the storm in Galilee is similar – Don’t you care that we are perishing!! – Jesus asleep in the boat… it was when desperation cried out – that He stood and said ‘peace be still’ to waves.

2. God’s Ways are not ours

God still Marks His people. Circumcision was essentially a physical mark of obedience to the ‘God who sees’. It was a mark to make God’s people ‘different’ from all the peoples and nations around.

So what does the mark of God look like today? Is there a secret symbol, number tattoo on your wrist…? Perhaps for many a cross worn around the neck is a kind of mark…. But there is a mark that Jesus said God would make on every person who responded to the Gospel. And that is the mark of the Holy Spirit.

Three things about this Mark of God

1. Spiritual not Physical

Abram’s covenant of circumcision which was only for males who were Jewish – now becomes a global movement possibility…. Joining it by regeneration (rebirth) as you receive the gospel news about Jesus Christ. This new mark of God burst out of the limited sphere of gender and lineage and social standings…and no longer do you cut a piece off your body – you undergo heart surgery of the spiritual kind.

2. Internal not Externally

I now cannot wear a symbol, rally around a flag, tattoo my arm what can I do – how do I know God’s mark is truly on my life?

I believe the answer to this question is this: - What are the choices I have made in my life - are the scorch marks of God’s branding on the heart of your life? It hurts when I need to discover new ways of living and acting, it hurts when this mark of God challenges my pride and prejudices, it hurts when this mark of God encourages me to realign my lifestyle choices to reflect the Kingdom of God, it hurts when this mark of God exhorts me to forgive others who have hurt me. It’s costly. We, as followers of Jesus, carry costly choices.

3. Eternal not Temporal

Abram's mark was a temporal one….The mark of God now is forever…. You carry the Holy Spirit in you now forever. He is a down payment or deposit on your assured future. Paul cries out…’Till Christ is formed in you’… God shapes us from the inside out. The evidence of this eternal work that has commenced – Fruit of the Spirit. The way we speak, act, live our lives…. That we keep on turning towards Christ and making godly choices – agreeing with God about what He says about our sin, and our need for grace and gospel….

Abram had a choice to make – would he obey God or not? – Would he continue to offer up the Ishmael option – or would he go with this surprising God whose times and ways he did not understand. We know what he did…. And in the same way you have choices too to make. God always asks us to do something to demonstrate our agreement with him about our lives…

choice to receive Christ – say yes to the offer of Jesus

choice to be baptised as outward act of this inward new life / taking shape

choice to hold on in faith for what God has promised – even when there is no sign

As I was walking this week I asked God a why question - Why is the ‘Mark of God’ not such a clear unmistakable mark? Why do we find it so hard to see the mark of God on others lives? Why did you do it this way?

Because no external symbol or physical brand can produce lasting change – lasting change can only occur from the inside out, from the heart and core of a person’s life. Those changes start in the unseen realm of the heart.

Because God's speciality is surprise. Every visitation of God in the Bible is a surprise, the way God does things. Think of the arrivals and departures of God in scripture – there was surprise in every case. God’s ways are not ours. His timing is not ours and His selection process is also a surprise. One day when the disciples were trying to figure this out Jesus spoke of the kingdom being like seed sown in the ground and one night someone came along and sowed weeds among the crop. Shall we pull up the weeds?...no let them grow – time will make clear which is true crop and which is weeds.

Because the really good stuff – the genuine thing - cannot be counterfeited – time will not mellow its resolve, nor the fruit of its life. Jesus said of us….

Watch – for fruits of the mark of God (Holy Spirit) in life

Work – to offer your life and gifts to God / calling

Wait – for God’s ways, God’s time.

And that friends is just the way it is! Galatians 6: 14-17 ‘I bear in my body the scars ‘marks’ that show that I belong to Jesus!

Are you a marked person for Jesus Christ? Do you bear the scorch marks of God on your heart? What is God asking you to do – today to agree with Him on this matter?