Good morning and happy Wednesday. I am feeling half human today after the trip to see the Dr. and what a joy it is. Isn’t it funny how we take our health for granted until it’s gone? I hum right along loving life and feeling great and then BAM…the flu or something hits, and I lament life. Every minute of feeling sick seems like a day of feeling good. The key? When your feeling great, praise God and get stuff done for Him because it might not be that way tomorrow! My Memaw used to say, “make hay when the sun shines!”
This morning we find ourselves in Genesis 12 and this starts a huge division in God’s Word. We have seen God primarily dealing with nations and genealogies thus far and it hasn’t gone well. Of course, we have seen specific people but in the big scheme of the Bible they were not here long. We saw Adam and Eve in chapter 3, Noah in 6-9 and that’s pretty much it. God used people mightily but overall we saw very little of them. Chapter 12 changes that. Here we see God shift gears and start using men and women of faith to do His work. Chapter 12 introduces a great man of faith and the father of the races….Abraham (it’s Abram until Genesis 17:5 when God changes it to Abraham)
Throughout the rest of Genesis God will no longer focus on nations as a whole, but men of faith and obedience that will follow Him and do His will. We will see Abraham in 12-23, Isaac in 24-26, Jacob in 27-36 and Joseph in 37-50.
As I studied Genesis chapter 12 this morning God spoke to me right out of the gate. The message? What does it take for these men of faith to follow God and therefore what does it take for us to follow God in the same way today? There are a few essential ingredients for Abraham this morning and I think the same exact ones will bear fruit in our lives…if we follow the rules.
Let’s look at the verses and please pay special attention to the underlined portions:
“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. 2 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. 3 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.” 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.
What we see here is a roadmap, a guide, to following God. It’s not a complicated map but it does have to be travelled in the order God lays it out. No detours, no rearranging and no prolonged road stops. Look at the steps in order to get to the specific destination God has for each of us.
--> God Speaks --> You listen --> Obedience to God --> Blessings Flow
(you're in His Will) (you're in His Word) (you walk in Faith) (From God through us)
This is the roadmap we see in verses 12:1-4 and these same steps ring true today. Let’s break them down by step and compare with our study verses today.
1) God speaks. “Now the Lord said to Abram.” The question is not whether or not God is speaking, the question is whether or not you are listening. Stop and let that sink in. Are your ears tuned into God? In order to be really honest here you’ll have to focus on what your ears are tuned into. Are you working 65 hours a week to pay your debt? Your ears are tuned to work. Do you spend all your time on your kids, driving them to and from soccer, karate, parties, school, baseball and football? All busyness that causes your ears to deafen to God’s voice. Do you spend more than 20 hours a week in front of the TV binging on Netflix, Prime and Hulu? That sounds like a lot but that’s less than 3 hours a night. In fact, did you know right now that the average American watches 3 hours and 58 minutes of TV a day! That’s a whopping 35.5 hours a week! A full time job! If your spending your time in front of the TV, your hearing something, but it’s not God. I feel that TV is the single biggest factor today that is keeping people from hearing God.
You see this is not only the first step but THE most crucial. If Abraham were watching TV for 35 hours a week and then on top of that working 50 hours a week and then spending the last remaining hours on family, hobbies and social media, God would have very little to say because Abraham wouldn’t be able to hear. Notice the clarifier on our map, “when you are in His Will.” To be in God’s will you have to be close to Him. And how do you do that? Well, how do you build any relationship? You spend quality time together. “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10. Turn off the TV, turn off Facebook, limit your work schedule and give that time to God. When was the last time you sat somewhere in silence for 30 minutes and just listened to God? It’s never too late, start a closer relationship with God today by simply doing two things…be still and listen.
2) Abraham was listening and heard. God spoke and Abraham was available, he listened, and he heard God. We touched on listening above but I want to share how your heart and your ears can be truly opened to God’s voice. His Word. I have personally witnessed this in my own life as I set out on the 5 Minute Challenge. God challenged me to spend time in His Word every day for one full year and I accepted His challenge. (even though I didn’t think I could do it) Folks, it changed everything. My heart changed. It changed to the heart of God. His Words became my words, His concerns became my concerns, His passions became my passions and His mission became my mission. All from spending time studying His Holy Word. There could be no simpler act today than reaching over and picking up your Bible, but so few actually do it. If we do pick it up, most read a little bit of Luke or John or maybe some Proverbs and think that is “good enough.” Or we drop by the Christian bookstore and pick up a copy of “Jesus is Calling” and spend 2 minutes a day in that. I don’t hate that book but the problem with it? It’s not God’s Word. Spend your time reading and studying directly from God’s Word first before you spend any time in supplements. By having daily (consistent) study in God’s Word, you will notice something amazing. You will develop bionic hearing. Do you remember that awesome 70’s show the Bionic Man? He could hear like Superman. My friends, when you spend quality time in God’s Word daily, He will grant you ears like the Bionic Man and you will be blessed to hear his many whispers that previously had gone unheard in your life. Listen to the great lengths He went to to speak to Elijah, not in loud, obvious ways, but just the opposite:
“1 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:11-13
God speaks in low whispers, and we need to be still and quiet to hear them. “Be still and know that I am God.”
3) Obedience to God. “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” What a simple verse before us. Think about the simple formula that we have just witnessed so far. God spoke, Abraham heard, and Abraham does. Wow, how simple. It all comes down to obedience. Let me say that again very slowly, IT ALL COMES DOWN TO OBEDIENCE. God can speak and you can even hear Him accurately and clearly, but this step is where I have seen myself and most others falter and fail. Obedience. So, what is obedience and where does it come from? Think about this. If we were to go to the Grand Canyon and look over the edge and I were to tell you to step off, would you do it? (I sure hope not!) Why? Well, simple, you don’t believe me. You have no faith in my request. Your own self-preservation kicks in, you analyze the situation for your own safety and well-being, and you say no. My friends, that is the single biggest cause of missed blessings today. God speaks, we listen and then we apply our own logic to the situation and decide to tell Him no. Our logic and self-preservation slowly leads us to a place of disobedience. So how do you overcome? 5 letters that will change your life. FAITH. Abraham was a great man of faith. Whatever God asked him to do, He did it. Notice the request God made of him was not easy. “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.” God asked him to leave his home and his family and go to a place that God had not even revealed to him yet! Come on, admit it, this is a crazy request! Very few people in our world today would do this. But Abraham did. And He did it all on faith. He believed in the depths of his heart that God was in control, His plan was perfect, and He would provide all that he needed. Faith and obedience to God, the most crucial step in following Him.
4) Blessings Flow. “I will bless those who bless you….and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” We only see the journey as what’s at the end right? What’s the point of a long road trip or an errand if there’s no goal at the end right? Well, here, my friends, is the result of this glorious journey with God. Blessings. Not just for you but for others as well. You see in our selfishness we think that God is somehow obligated to constantly and limitlessly bless us. Not so. Yes, God is gracious, and He is merciful, but folks, God doesn’t just owe us blessings. You earn His blessings through obedience. But what about others? Can we bless others and are we obligated to? At the end of this journey not only will you bless others, but it’s a promise from God that you will. In fact, we just read it. I want you to stop for a second and expand your thinking about blessings from God. They are not one way. They’re not even just two way. But they literally flow in many directions. They can flow from me to you and then back to God. They can flow from God to you to me and back to God. They can flow from God to me and straight back to God. You see contrary to our common thinking today, a blessing is not meant to be kept, but to be given away. Notice in our verse, God promises Abraham that He will bless those who bless Abraham and that by Abraham all the families of the Earth will be blessed. Wow, now that is a flow of blessings.
Along the lines of blessing and how they flow, I want to share a story. I was raised in a family that took great pride in self-provision. You worked hard, provided for yourself and accepted little to no help. Now this is not a bad thing but when it comes to blessings from others it can greatly hamper the flow. When I was in Hong Kong last year, I witnessed something that changed the way I view how blessings flow. A young man (22) was at camp and an older adult approached him and wanted to buy him something (a meal or something) Now the way I grew up, the automatic response is to refuse or argue. You don’t want to accept stuff from strangers, right? I mean won’t you then be seen as needy or maybe you’ll now be indebted to them, somehow right? This young man said something that I will never forget. He said, “I will receive your blessing.” Wow, I stopped right in my tracks. In those words, he allowed the blessings to flow in the circle that we just read about today. You see blessings must flow. That’s God’s plan. Not to just bless you or me but to bless us both and all those around us, and that happens when we freely let the blessings move around in us and through us.
What a great study today. I pray every morning that God uses me as a conduit to simply share and give out His Word and this morning this study has thoroughly blessed me. This is the first time God has revealed the simplicity of walking with Him in this simple 4 step view. How beautiful it is and how simple it is. Listen for God, be ready to hear God, be obedient to God's call and then reap and share God’s abundant blessings as a result. I hope the study has blessed you too, please share it with a family member or a friend so that they too can be blessed and then share the blessing.
Praise God for His endless blessings that flow from our obedience to Him into the lives of others.
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