So, here’s the question we want you to think about while listening to Kent’s sermon: What steps are we willing to take to be ALL IN for God, encountering Him like Abraham did? Join us to explore this journey at Encounter on Wednesday nights launching September 13th! ? IT’S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
As a pastor, I’ve watched lots of people – some will actively encounter God and others don’t. I’ve often wondered why. What’s the difference between people? One time, on the same Sunday, I baptized two people. Both people were super moved to follow Jesus. Both people were ready to make a commitment. Everyone cheered for both. But one stayed faithful to Jesus and grew in Him, the other one I never saw again except on Facebook. They went right back to their old life.
Here’s the question that has kept me up at night as a pastor:
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What’s the difference between those two people?
Cause I’ve seen this with SO many people.
Maybe you’re sitting there squirming in your chair a little bit, because if you’re honest,
Maybe you’ve been the person who had an experience with Jesus and then went right back to business as usual.
I don’t want you to feel guilty right now. Instead, I want to ask the question,
How do we become the person who grows deeper in their faith instead of being the person who goes back to their old way?
SCRIPTURE:
Today, we are going to look at the story of Abraham and an encounter he had with God.
If you don’t know his story, Abe was living in Ur – sounds like a made-up name, but you can look at the archaeological digs done around this place. God calls him to go into a strange unknown land and he just goes. He takes his nephew Lot with him. We are jumping into the story right after Abraham has rescued his nephew Lot and the people of Sodom from a marauding band or raiders.
It’s like a Hollywood movie, Abe has gathered the men in his household, a little over 300 men and he goes after his nephew, he attacks and tramples the marauders – this is when Abe is old – he’s not a young man. He’s a beast!
We come into the story after Abraham has shown his faithfulness – he gives the first tithe that we know of 10% to a priest named Melchizedek. Following this, we read this interaction in Genesis 15
Genesis 15
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield,[a] your very great reward.[b]”
God reaches out to Abe and tells him, “I’ll protect you. I’m your treasure!” This is huge for a man living in a world where you could literally be attacked by marauders. God was protecting him, God was giving himself to Abram.
I love what happens next – right, this is this beautiful gift God is giving Abraham…
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
ILLUSTRATION:
When I was a kid, my uncle worked at a bank. His job was sorting coins. So, while he sat there sorting coins, he would find interesting coins that were worth a couple bucks, really old, rare coins. He’d swap out the wheat Penny or indian nickel for a normal one and then for Christmas, I’d get this collection of coins in a neat little coin package thing. Every adult in the room would be like, “Wow… how cool!” Maybe you’re even thinking that. What I thought was, “Uncle Roger just got away with spending seventy five cents on my Christmas present and my cousin Duece got a remote control car…” Ha.
Sometimes the gift you get is not the gift you want…
This is what’s going on with Abe. I’m sure he was thankful that God was his shield and great reward, but as an old man, what his heart ached for was a son… and he didn’t have one.
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[d] be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
I love the tenderness of this moment. God takes Abraham out to look under the stars and He looks up with Abe and says, “see the stars in the sky? so will your offspring be… So many you can’t count them!”
God’s plan was to redeem Abe’s story
God will seal this promise with a covenant.
3 Minute Theology Lesson:
Cutting a Covenant
You’ve probably heard the word covenant a lot – maybe talking about a marriage or some other legally binding contract. But a covenant in the biblical sense had a very particular set of things that have to occur. The two parties would cut an animal or in this case many animals in half, the would lay out the parts of the animals and the two parties would walk through them signifying that if either of them broke the covenantal agreement, they would be slaughtered and cut in half like the animals they walked through. Gruesome, but I assume it is pretty effective.
Here’s what’s interesting to me.
Only one person passes between the animal carcass’ Abe cuts.
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God passes through the animals in the form of a blazing torch in a fire pot.
God makes the covenant with Abraham – He gives Himself to Abe.
Listen, I think most of the time, people who don’t really encounter God like my friend who grew deep in her faith because they don’t realize the gift they’ve been given by God.
God is STILL in the business of cutting the covenant for us and coming TO us.
Jesus’ death was 100% all Him, giving Himself for us… So you could encounter God.
So many people want the kind of encounter Abraham had but are unwilling to do the things Abe did.
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The reason God used & blessed Abraham is because Abraham was ALL In for God.
Can I show you?
Two Keys about Encountering God from the life of Abe
- Abe left everything to follow God’s call – even when it didn’t make sense.
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
Abraham left everything he knew to follow God not knowing what the future would hold
Abe had been following God for all this time and is just now getting the promise confirmed that he will get this land.
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God’s call on your life is to come and die to your old life, not to “get saved” and go back to your life.
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Encountering God takes guts!
- Abraham wasn’t afraid to bring his concerns to God (vs 2-3)
Abraham lived in relationship with God. He wasn’t afraid to ask God about things that felt like they weren’t fair or created questions in his mind. “It’s great you are my shield and great reward, but I want a son…” If you look throughout the scripture, you will find people like this all throughout. Even Jesus, at the moment of his arrest says, “If there is another way, please do it, but not my will, yours be done.”
God is looking for a relationship with you – encounter means engaging.
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Turn your inner thoughts into a prayer conversation with God. Engage Him!
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:
You know, the reason we decided to start encounter that is launching in September on Wednesday nights is because our hearts beat to make disciples for Jesus. For you to fall in love with Him and grow in your relationship with Him. In a way that affects every aspect of your life, not just Sunday mornings. We spent a lot of time talking about how no one needs just another thing in their life. How if we are going to do this, we want to deepen each other’s faith. It’s why we’ve focused on trying to create environments that help get you around people who have learned to encounter Jesus like Abraham did. People who have learned to follow God’s call in their life (not perfect people, just people who are really trying to live for Jesus). We have people who are real and transparent and working through their faith. And we want you to be one of those people. If you’ve sat on the fence about whether to join Encounter or not, get off the fence. Don’t be the guy who encounters God and walks away, be the person who comes to God and wants Him more than anything. Our goal is to support you in that endeavor.
If you have never accepted Jesus before as your savior. To find forgiveness of your sins. Turn to Him today! He is right there waiting for you!
