Bridge Church Vancouver

Abram – A Man of Faith

Footsteps of the Faithful

We are concerned about the kind of carbon footprint we create and subsequently leave as a result of our lives.  A worthwhile consideration.  The choices I make, the things I buy, the ways I live all have consequences on our environment and the generations to follow.  We ask the question “What kind of world are we leaving for our children? One they can enjoy or one they have to clean up after us?”

I have another question for us to consider...

“What kind of spiritual footprint are you leaving for your children and the generations to follow you?”

The choice you and I make, the kind of relationship we have with God, the ways we interact with him will have consequences on our world for generations to come.   You see, spiritual realities do have physical consequences in our world today.  Based on your spiritual life, what kind of world are you leaving for your children and the generations to follow?

Just like a boat creates a wake as it moves through the water, your life will create a wake as well.  I am talking about the energy, power and mark that God makes in our world as a result of our life. 

Each week, in addition to looking at Biblical passages in Genesis regarding Abram’s life who became the father of our faith and whose life has had a tremendous ‘wake’; I am also going to introduce you to other men and women from history who God has used in tremendous ways as well, whose life’s have also left a tremendous blessing in the lives of many other people.

 This morning I want to introduce you to Hudson Taylor -

Now let’s turn out attention to the extraordinary man named Abram and we are going to look at a few verses from Gen 12: 1-9.

This is a story about God as much as it is a story about a man named Abram.  It is a story about a relationship between God and a man and the longing of God to have a relationship with all people.  A relationship established on TRUST

• Abram lived with open hands to God v1

Gen 12:1

 The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

o   God said “Leave”  - move away from, Give up  KJ put it “Get out of your country...”  this was not a suggestion, not one option among many, but a definite command “leave”.  What was God saying to Abram?

§  “Leave your country...”  Leave your land.  This was his way of living, his understanding of how the world works

§  “Your people...”  - leave your people, your friends, the people like you, your culture and community heritage; his roots and all that is familiar to him;  and give up the protection and security that being in a group provides.

§  “...your fathers household...”  - leave your family, your inheritance that not only included material possessions, land but also taking ones place in the family line and the appropriating blessings that had been passed down in the family line.  Abram’s Father was named Terah, and looking at the account of Terah, Abram was listed first, then Nahor and Haran; Abram was likely the oldest son which would have significance on his inheritance.

o   “...go to the land I will show you.”  From chapter 11 we see that Terah (the father), Abram, Sara and Lot had already left Ur heading towards Cannan, but they stopped and ‘settled’ in Haran.

o   Map

o    God was leading Abram in the direction he was already going, but now God was leading Abram to Cannan for His purposes.  God had places for Abram to go and purposes for it and it was not all geographic!

We leave things & places because we want to.  God will at times call us to leave things because he wants to do something in our life. 

We leave ways of living, thinking, and acting to impact our carbon footprint because the media has told us what to do. 

God want to tell us what he has for us and it will have a greater and more lasting impact and we will have to leave some things as well. 

• Abram responded to God’s call and promises – His Promises – v2-3

o   God moves with great intentionality - “I will...”  When you see God say “I will...” you can take it to the bank – This is a promise of divine proportion. 

§  Leave his land & God promises to take him to a new land

§  Abram’s to leave his people and God promises a nation

§  Leave his family and an inheritance that is passed through him and God promises a threefold blessing...

• God will bless him
• He will be a blessing
• He will be a channel of blessing for generations to follow

o   Abram was willing to look beyond himself – his life, his ‘needs’ and look to what God “will do”

o   God’s blessing – the ability to bless others  - God takes this seriously

3 “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

§  Blessings = being in favour with God, under his protection & care

§  Curse =

• ‘qll – curse you – (8:21) – despise you, make light, afflict
• ‘rr (3:14,17; 4:11)  remove – execrate – utterly curse – completly remove from God’s presence
• Ones who invoke words of power against Abram’s life and linage, God will remove from his protection and favour

§  “by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” – The choices we make to be a spiritual blessing to others have direct consequences in the lives of other people.  when God blesses you – your life becomes a blessing to others.

• The mark of Abrams faithfulness – Obedience  “So Abram left...” v4

4 So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 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, and they arrived there.

o   Abram’s obedience was not ‘blind faith’ but ‘based faith’; based on what God had told him.  Sometime we don’t think we ‘know enough’ to obey God. There were a lot of things Abram didn’t know, but he did know God had spoken and he was willing to trust God.  God is looking for people who will trust him.  God desires to bless our lives and make our lives a blessing, not to destroy us.  This does not mean that God will not shield us from trouble – we will look at that next week – but it does mean he requires us to trust him, trust in his goodness, his character, his promises.

§  Sometimes we’re not sure we trust that we have heard from God and when we say that to ourselves we are really saying is “I trust in myself more than in God

o   Didn’t look for reasons not to obey - Not limited by circumstances, his age,  at 75 Abrams life was just beginning to make a difference.

o   He left a lot and took all that he had – He put everything on the line

• Living between Bethel & Ai

8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

o   Builds an alter, worships, calls on the Lord – Abram is developing an interactive relationship with God = he calls on God and responds to God, and then he moves

o   What kind of spiritual footprint do you want your life to leave?  What kind of impact do you want make in the lives of others

• Roland