This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Good morning everyone. It will be helpful to go back and open up page 13 of your Bibles. Genesis chapter 12. Let's just pray as we come to this passage of God's word.

Lord, we thank you for what you've been teaching us through this series of your grace and goodness in a world that is broken. And we pray that this morning we might see things again that stir our faith and lift our eyes to you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Well, we're going to think a little bit this morning about the life of Abraham. Abram. Abraham, when you think about these people in the Old Testament, do you sometimes have the vision of the kind of the best of the best? Maybe the captain of the team. Glenn's going to kind of put up a picture from school days.

I don't know if this brings back memories, pleasant or not. There are two people, they're choosing their teams. Now some people here think, why would it be unpleasant memories? Maybe you were always the captain and you have no idea what the rest of us feel like. The rest of us were there and were waiting, wondering if we'll get picked.

Will we get picked at all? Will we be the very last? Thanks Glenn. That'll do. Well, when we think of Abraham.

The thing I want to show you first off this morning before we get into these incredible promises is just where Abraham was in his own life. If you have a Bible, just look back to the chapter before chapter 11 and I'll read from verse 30. Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Harah, and his daughter in law Sarai, the wife of the son Abraham. And together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Cana.

But when they came to Hara, they settled there. What's going on in this bit is it's showing us that unlike being the captain of the team, Abraham is the guy you would never have picked. You would never have thought that he is the one to whom these incredible promises are going to come. I've got the flip chart this morning we're going to try and draw a little map. It's a very simple map just to show you what's going on in Abraham's life.

When I moved it to the last service, everything went wrong. So hopefully it will go better this time. It won't collapse on me. Oh, here we go. And hopefully it will pop up on the screen in a minute.

I'll try and draw as big as I can. Don't worry, it just gives you a gist of what's going on in the life of Abraham. So he is starting out with his family over here. We're going to call it point A. And he is told to come across, or the family set out actually to come across to point C over here.

Now in between there's lots of desert that they can't cross. So they have to go on a little journey this way. But we're told in our passage they get here and they settle there. They settle there. They only go halfway of the journey they were meant to go.

And our first point this morning is that in this situation where Abraham has only gone halfway, actually it's worse than we could imagine because he's an idol worshipper. We're told in the book of Joshua that he's an idol worshipper, moon worshipper, knows nothing of God. And the issue is even more stark for us because this is the line of Seth, this is the line of faith, of hope that we've been following through, not Cain's line. And here is Abraham and he's only gone halfway. And in verse 30 we're told that Sarah, his wife, is childless and is unable to conceive.

So he's spiritually not in the right place at all, far from God. And physically there's no hope of the line continuing. It's as though the last little glimpse of faith is getting snuffed out. But this morning we were able to see something about the power of God. I'll write the word power up here.

That's our first point. The power of God to take Abraham on this journey of faith, to actually get him to where he needs to go. This idol worshipping man, he's going to go on an incredible journey. But you would never have picked him. You would never have thought it was going to be Abraham.

He's in the wrong place. The lion is spiritually dead, physically dead. And that gives great hope to us this morning because we've seen over the last few weeks, without Christ, without the gospel, we are spiritually dead and we are heading towards physical death. But in God, that power of God can make anyone alive in Christ. He does it to Abraham.

His call comes to this man, Abraham, and he's going to take him, stir him up, shake up his life on this journey of faith. I did think I toyed with the idea this morning of trying to give us some sense of what it's like for that journey of Abraham. And I was going to suggest that before we came in you were told to sit in a new seat.

Now, I didn't do this as you might have anticipated, because I thought that's the kind of thing that people write letters to Steve about. They say, that curate of yours, he's got ideas this morning. Tried to make me sit in a different seat. But it's because we become very comfortable and settled where we are. And Abraham here, the term that is used is they settled there.

And you say, that sounds fine, but it's a little glimpse back into chapter 11. Chapter 11, when they're building the Tower of Babel, they settle there. They're not in the right place. And again, we see these people not living God's way, not in the right place, spiritually dead, physically, no air. And to this man, to this man, God speaks words of hope.

That's the power of God. Firstly this morning, to take someone from this situation and take them on a journey of faith. Secondly this morning, going to see the promises of God. This is our kind of main segment of the text, the promises of God. God's promises.

Let me read to you from verse one of chapter 12. The Lord said to Abraham, go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land. I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you.

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. It's an astonishing set of promises to a man who's spiritually dead, who has no heir.

Wow. What is going on here? Just have another glimpse down into verses two and three. What is the most common phrase? There's a couple of phrases or words that come up repeatedly.

Can you spot them there? I think firstly, it says, I will. That's God will. I will do this, says God. And what will he do?

Five times we get the word blessed and bless and bless and bless and bless. What is God going to do for this man, Abraham, and those who come afterwards?

Well, we're thinking of the power of God. It's God who's going to do it. Abraham could never have done it on his own. He was nowhere. But God will do this thing for Abraham that will just echo through time.

But these five distinct times, we're told, I will bless you. Bless you, bless you. I'm grateful to one writer. His name is a good name, Richard P. Bletchler Jr.

And he says these five times that we get blessings, they mirror five times previous from Genesis 3 till now, chapter 12, where we've had the curse word. Do you remember everything went wrong in Genesis 3, but a serpent crusher was promised, one who would break the curse, destroy sin and death. And here, through Abraham's line, there's going to be one who's going to reverse all the impact of the curse. Steve's already helpfully taken us to that passage in Galatians and shown us that's fulfilled in Christ. When he dies and rises again, he is the one who's going to reverse this curse five times.

And now it's going to be covered by five times a blessing through Abraham. And what's some of the content of the blessing? Great nation, a great name, a people's, a kind of legacy that will last. And if you were here last week and you heard Ben preaching, you'll have known that's the things that the people of the Tower of Babel wanted. They wanted to make a name for themselves, but they could never do it.

They could never do it by their own human effort. We've seen it time and time again from the line of Cain, Human beings trying to build for themselves what only God can bring about. And here, through his incredible power, God speaks to the most unlikely of men and says, you're the one. I'm going to be able to do this through the promises of God, the kind of bedrock that we can build our hope on. It's why it's so great for us as we think about these blessings that spill out, peoples on all earth will be blessed through you.

That moment regularly in our services where we pray for our mission partners around the world and the work that they're doing. What a joy because it gives us a glimpse into that eternal reality that one day we'll see with our very own eyes when we stand in that magnificent assembly and there's people from all different tribes and tongues and nations because of this promise here and God's power to bring us through. Quite amazing, the power of God, the promises of God that we can cling to. But what about the people of God? This morning about the people of God, One more turning over now.

I think we've already seen in the series to date that God's people, they come with hands that are open, ready to receive from God, like Abel bringing a sacrifice that is really just what God's already given him. They're the kind of weaker ones. They're not the captains of the team. They're those who know that they need God's power and God's promise to build their Life on. But it's a story, isn't it, for Abraham of this journey of faith.

And I think in my own mind, as I think about God's people, I think something like this, I think that the people of God go on a journey of faith. Let me draw you a little graph. So something happens in our life that makes us kind of know Christ for the first time. And in my mind, I think what we imagine will happen is that we've got that starting point where God's powerful word breaks in. And we go on a nice path, nice path up to our future home in heaven.

And it's just a little journey, just a little journey along till we get to that home. But is that what faith is like? Well, the reality for Abraham is he starts very well. If we look down again at our verses, verse 4. So Abraham went as the Lord told him, great, good one.

And even into verse seven, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring, I will give this land offspring. He's super old. What offspring? But they're there, they're walking together. And it's like a journey of faith for Abraham.

And it's going well, it's going up. It's going really well. He's journeying with God and they're knowing one another, and he's following the promises of God. But literally, the next bit of our reading, we didn't have time to go into it, he goes to Egypt because there's a famine in the land. We're not sure whether he should have really gone to Egypt.

He's not told by God to go there. And he. He's worried about his own life. So he tells this ridiculous lie that says, my wife, she's not my wife, she's my sister. And it's like his faith plunges all the way down again, all the way down, because he's scared.

And that decision, that lie, risks everything, risks Sarah's life, risks these promises of God, and it's only God who rescues him out of that. It pulls him back up again. But then a few chapters later, he tells that exact same lie in a similar circle. It's like it goes up and down and up and down, up and down. And I feel like that is my journey, really, the journey of faith.

It seems to fluctuate so much up and down. And just this past 10 days or so ago, something in our house broke. Something broke. And I was informed that this thing had broken. We'd only got it fairly recently.

And do you know what my mind did immediately started to go on this journey. Oh, okay, how can I resolve this? Who do I need to call? How do I work this out? Do I have enough money in the bank?

Did we have insurance on the item? How do I fix it? 30 seconds, a minute of how do I do it? And it was only much later, as I was preparing this passage, that I thought, we've got the promises of God and the power of God. What if I'd remembered that in that moment and thought, oh yeah, this is really annoying and this is going to take time and energy, but I've got a good heavenly Father who loves me, who tells me he's going to be with me and help me.

How would that have just changed that little situation? But I didn't. My mind was just full of my kind of self building, self fixing.

As I think about that journey of faith and I'm bouncing up and down, I think, yeah, I don't know, it feels very, very up and down. But that is not how the New Testament thinks about Abraham's faith. If you have a Bible, I'd love you to turn to Romans chapter four.

And each time I've come across this bit in Romans 4, sorry, it's page 1131. Each time I've heard it, it kind of catches me by surprise. I'll give you a moment just to get there. How the New Testament, how Paul views Abraham's faith.

See, the power of God working through the promises of God impact the people of God in a remarkable way. Page 1131, starting at verse 18.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations. Just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be without weakening. In his face he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he promised. This is why it is credited to him as righteousness.

The words it was credited to him were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness, for us who believe in him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

And it catches me each time because Abraham had great faith, didn't he? To set out on that journey to actually say, okay, I'm going to go the whole way. I'm going to step out with God. I'm going to leave the world of comfort that I knew and I'm going to go on this journey with God. Great.

I'm going to go the whole way against hope, knowing that his body was as good as dead and that Sarah's womb was dead. I mean, it's pretty final, but he still believed the promise. But verse 20 catches me each time because it says, yet he did not waver through unbelief. You can go home and I would encourage you to do it. It's a great little narrative to read through Abraham's life.

And I think you'll see a pattern similar to what I'm drawing here. It feels very up and down. It's not an unwavering path. How can Paul make that claim two ways? And I'm not quite sure.

There may be more how to think about this. But just as I've thought it through, maybe it is that God's perspective is so big of Abraham's life that it really was upward trajectory. Even in the downs, God kept him going through his power. And as he held onto the promises and he brought him back, he said, we're going to keep going in this direction. And Abraham's faith, he kept going and journeying and kind of moving in the direction.

That's an option. But I also wonder if it's something to do based on those later verses, with how our identity in Christ changes, changes this pathway. Because obviously we know Jesus was the one who faithfully walked, didn't waver in his doubt, didn't go up and down, but knew the promises of God and the power of God and walked step by step until God took him to his home. Maybe it's that because in Colossians we get that idea that when Christ, who is your life, you're so tightly wrapped in the Lord Jesus, that his life is like our life. And one day God will see us and say, well done, good and faithful servants.

And we know all the times when we've not been good or faithful, but in Christ we have that kind of given rightness. Here's Abraham. His journey goes up and down. But the New Testament says he was a man of great faith, a man of great faith. So as we head towards a conclusion, maybe just an illustration and an opportunity this coming week.

This true story stuck with me for a number of years of a family that were moving, big family, they were moving house and they're moving into the new house on the kind of day that they're moving in. And all the kids of different ages are helping to move the boxes and sort various things out. You know, parcels are going off to the kind of shed in the garage and someone's setting up the kitchen and so on and so forth. And they've got a two year old as part of their family who's obviously not able to do very much. And the two year old really wants to help, really wants to do something.

And so the dad spots some teddy bears in a box and says, why don't you take one of those and you take it upstairs. The dad goes back out to the van and comes back in a few minutes later to see the little boy at the foot of the stairs in floods of tears and pounding the bottom step with frustration because he's gone to the wrong box. Instead of picking up the teddy bear, he's picked up this huge textbook and he's obviously pushed the textbook all the way to the bottom of the stair, but then has no way he can possibly lift it up. And so what does the father do when he sees that situation? His heart is obviously moved.

He picks up his youngster in one arm, picks up the burden in the other arm and lovingly and gently carries both to where they need to get to. You see this morning it's not about us. We're more like the two year old saying, God, I can't get there myself. There's no way my faith last till get to heaven, there's no way I can get home. But the power of God to move someone like Abraham, move someone like me and you and the promises of God that he really will get us there, allow the people of God just to cling to that, say it's God's work, it's God's work, not me.

Well, an opportunity then in my mind that comes out of that for us this week, super practically. I think when I imagine this scenario and the kind of up and down nature, there are moments and things in life, I've probably got three or four at least at the moment that I've humanly tried to solve, they've been impossible to solve. And that then makes me pray. So I'm not praying at the beginning, I'm only praying when I've tried and it's impossible. And that's God's kindness to show me I can't do everything myself.

But what if I flipped it? What if in just the ordinary little speed bumps of life this week, maybe we catch 25% of those little speed bumps? And immediately, rather than thinking I, I say, lord help me Or Lord, strengthen me, or Lord, equip me. Just a little thought that reminds me, I'm on a journey of faith. Not a journey of Matt building his own little world, but a journey of faith.

How might that change our lives this week? Just in those little ordinary things, not the big stuff, but the little stuff. To remember that we are the ones who come with open hands and say, God, please, with your power and in your promise, please get us home.

That was the start of Abraham's story. I do encourage you, if you'd like to, to go on and read it. Those promises to Abraham that are fully realised in the Lord Jesus Christ, that mean that the global church can be born and come together and you and I can receive those promises today. So this week will you remind yourself of the power of God? Will you believe in the promises of God?

And by faith will you know that the people of God will one day be carried to our forever home? Let's pray against all hope. Abraham in hope believed.

We thank you for this man, Abraham, for the way in which you shook his life. Lord, you showed him what faith in you would look like and your promises that he could cling to throughout the years. And Lord, we pray that that would be true for us. That this week we would know your power and your promises. That as we journey with you to our forever home, we would know that we're safe and secure in your hands.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.