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121: God Builds A Nation
35 Plays2 days ago
What does it look like to heed God's calling? If He told you to sell all your possessions and move to a foreign country, would you do it? That's just what He asked of Abram! In this week's episode, Ryan Pfendler will be guiding us through these questions as we look at Abram's calling: What does it mean to be a disciple? Can I follow Jesus and still stay the same as I was? What is Jesus calling me to let go of?
If you’d like to dig deeper, check out these discussion questions. You can complete them on your own, with your Community Group, or with family and friends.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'God Builds a Nation'
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production.
00:00:20
Speaker
Thank you for coming back to normal goes a long way. We are getting ready to tackle chapter two of the story. God builds a nation.
00:00:31
Speaker
Anticipation just builds, doesn't it, around these parts? Man.
Preacher's Return and Abraham's Story
00:00:35
Speaker
Well, hey, good morning, Masai. It's good to be here with you today. And it's good to be back here. It's my first Sunday back preaching since ah that' our baby, Marigold, was born. This week we're on chapter two of the story. And I do love that my first Sunday back is a story about Abraham and Sarah, or Abram and Sarah, as they're called in the beginning. And it's a story about a man giving birth or a man.
00:01:04
Speaker
It's about a guy starting a family. That's safe to say, right? Yeah.
00:01:12
Speaker
The story about a guy starting a family, that's safe to say, right? And when it comes
Abraham's Life in Haran and God's Call
00:01:17
Speaker
to the larger story, the big story that we're going through, when it comes to the larger story, God's people, the Israelites, they all come from these two people, from Abraham and Sarah. It all begins with them. And now last week, Pastor Chuck ah in week one had you picturing Adam and Eve as a 30-year-old man. a three-year-old couple, right? Well, this week I want you picturing a middle-aged man. And that's where we're starting the story with a middle-aged man. He is married, successful, wealthy. He's a leader in his extended family. People look up to him. When I picture this guy, I picture the kind of guy that wears a custom fit blazer and a nice watch everywhere he goes, that kind of guy, right?
00:02:04
Speaker
And looking in from the outside, when you look at this guy's life, if you were to look at the marriage and the wealth, the success, the leadership, you would think that this guy has everything that you'd want. That the life that this guy is living is the kind of life that you'd wanna aim for. And when we meet Abraham in the story, living in a town called Heron, this is what his life looks like.
00:02:31
Speaker
He is comfortable. He's doing just fine. And if Abraham wanted to, he could have ridden out the rest of his days in peace, ridden out the rest of his days in comfort and in wealth. He's looking forward to retirement. If he wanted to, he never had to leave Aaron.
The Call to Leave Comfort Behind
00:02:52
Speaker
And then God shows up. And then God shows up.
00:02:59
Speaker
The Lord said to Abram, go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you. God shows up and he disrupts everything that Abraham had built his life on. God calls Abraham to leave everything that he built for himself.
00:03:26
Speaker
He says, leave your country, leave this place where you've built a name for yourself, where you found your success. He says, leave your people, your neighbors, your community, your friends. He says, leave your father's household, leave your family and go where I call you to go. Now, when you go into ministry,
00:03:51
Speaker
You go in kind of with this understanding that God could call you anywhere in the world, ah that God could call you at any place, at any time to go somewhere. And when I was younger and I was in college, I remember thinking, God, yes, I am willing to follow your call anywhere. I will go wherever you call me to go.
00:04:09
Speaker
You want me to go to the West Coast, I'll go to the West Coast. You want me to go to the East Coast, I'll go to the East Coast. You want me to go to Africa, I'll go to Africa. You want me to go to North Dakota, I'm gonna have to pray about that one.
00:04:20
Speaker
um
00:04:23
Speaker
But you see, it's one thing to say you're willing to follow the call anywhere. It's another thing to have the faith to actually go through with and follow that call.
00:04:36
Speaker
And then I went ahead and I married a St. Louis local. And if you have had the blessing of marrying a St. Louis local, you might as well go ahead and buy yourself or reserve your spot across the street at Breeze Park because you're staying here for a while, aren't you? Okay. I'm buried into a Midwestern community. I think I'm staying in a Midwestern community.
00:04:58
Speaker
And that makes me wonder, you know, we're talking about families and marriage.
Sarah's Perspective and Challenges Faced
00:05:03
Speaker
I wonder what Abraham's wife thought about all this. because you know she's getting older too. She's watching her husband get older and she's starting to get excited that retirement is coming, that they get to finally slow down, enjoy their home, enjoy all the things that they've worked for. And then her husband comes home and she said and he says, hey honey, guess what? I quit my job, I sold our house,
00:05:36
Speaker
and we are getting in the car and we are moving somewhere else. I just don't know where we're moving yet. Are you ready? You tell me, ah if you had a spouse or if you do have a spouse, how do you think that conversation would go? She'd probably think you're a little crazy, wouldn't you? And she challenged him on it and said, don't worry, honey, God told me there's land for us somewhere. We're just gotta go find it. I mean, sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it?
00:06:03
Speaker
Maybe Sarah thought Abraham was crazy. But then Abraham tells her that behind this crazy idea is a promise from God, the promise of a child.
00:06:22
Speaker
God said to Abraham, I will make you into a great nation and 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 the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. For this
Promise of a Family and Leaving Everything
00:06:44
Speaker
couple who had everything, for this couple who could have ridden out the rest of their lives right where they were in comfort, God promises them the one thing money can't buy.
00:06:56
Speaker
the one thing they couldn't get themselves, God promises them a family. And it's a promise so good that they just can't pass it up. It's a promise too good for them to stay where they are. It's a promise so good that they are willing to leave everything behind and go where God calls him to go. Thanks for the dramatic effect.
00:07:26
Speaker
Let's think about this calling though. Let's think about what God is telling Abraham to do. Because if you think about it, if God wanted to, he could have let Abraham stay right where he was and given him a child there, couldn't he? People had babies inherent, okay? So if God wanted to, he could have let Abraham say where he was, bless him with his child, and let Abraham continue to live the life he'd always been living.
00:07:56
Speaker
And yet God comes to Abraham and gives him this promise and says that to receive this promise, you and your wife have to leave everything behind and go where I call you to go. You have to leave behind this life that you've built for yourself and go to a place you don't know about.
00:08:19
Speaker
And notice this, God doesn't give Abraham a vision of what's gonna happen. There's lots of times and in the story where God gives people visions, but that doesn't happen here. Abraham doesn't get a vision of this future child. He doesn't get a vision of the land he's going to. There's no Google Street View for him to check out the curb appeal of the new neighborhood. There's none of that. All Abraham can do is trust God's word, put his faith in God's promises,
00:08:53
Speaker
The promise that if he leaves everything behind and follows God that he will be blessed. And based on nothing but God's word and nothing but God's promise, Abram went just as the Lord told him to do.
Parallel: Jesus Calls His Disciples
00:09:11
Speaker
And he moves to a land called Canaan.
00:09:16
Speaker
Later in the story, when we get to the gospels, Jesus takes the same approach when he calls his first disciples. Let's start with a few of them. As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. Simon called Peter and his brother, Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. At once, they left their nets and followed him.
00:09:49
Speaker
Same thing happens later in that same gospel account. When Jesus calls Matthew, we read this. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, he told him. And Matthew got up and followed him.
00:10:10
Speaker
Can you start to pick up on a theme here? A theme that starts in Genesis and carries us all the way through to the New Testament. that just like Abraham, these disciples here are called to leave everything behind and follow Jesus. The call for Abraham, for Peter and Andrew and Matthew and the rest of the disciples, the call is the same. Now the specifics are different. Abraham's called to leave his home. The disciples are called to leave their job. The specifics are different, but the spirit of the call is the same, isn't it?
00:10:50
Speaker
that if you want to receive my promise, you've got to leave everything behind and follow me. That if you want my blessing, you've got to leave the life you've built for yourself and go where I've called you to go and do what I've called you to do.
00:11:09
Speaker
And for us, modern disciples who want to receive God's promises today, the call is the same for us.
00:11:20
Speaker
that God's made us a promise, the promise that if you follow his son, there is eternal life, but to follow his son, if we want that promise of eternal life, we've gotta leave behind our old life and follow him. We've gotta leave behind whatever is sinful, whatever is destructive,
00:11:42
Speaker
Whatever prevents us or blocks us or gets in the way of us following Jesus, whatever it might be, we've got to leave that and follow him, even if it's a home, even if it's a job. Whatever gets between you and following Jesus, you must leave behind and go where he calls you to go.
00:12:07
Speaker
And this makes me wonder,
00:12:11
Speaker
in an alternate history kind of world. What would have happened if Peter had not left his nets? Or if Matthew had not left the tax collector's booth? Or going back to our text this morning, what would have happened if Abraham never left Heron? What if in Genesis 12, God calls Abraham to leave and Abraham's response is, you know what God, I want your blessing.
The Rich Young Man and the Cost of Discipleship
00:12:37
Speaker
I want that child that you promised me.
00:12:41
Speaker
But you know what, I'm not gonna leave Heron. I'm not gonna leave what you've called me to leave behind, but can I still get your blessing? God, I really want this promise that you've made for me. I want the good things that you have in store for me, but I'm just not gonna do what you've called me to do. I'm not gonna live the way you want me to live. I'm gonna live the way I wanna live. Now, can I still get that promise?
00:13:08
Speaker
What would have happened if that was Abraham's response?
00:13:12
Speaker
What would happen to us if that's our response when Jesus calls us? Well, you know, we get a story just like that from Jesus. During his ministry, Jesus meets a rich young man.
00:13:32
Speaker
a rich young man who wants the promises of God. He wants to receive the promise that's been made to all of us. He wants the big one. He wants to know how to receive eternal life. And this rich young man says, you know what? I've been a good person. I've lived out all the commandments. What else must I do to receive eternal life?
00:13:58
Speaker
And in response, Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said. Go sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. At this the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth.
00:14:27
Speaker
Do you see that the call but Abraham and the disciples and the rich young man is the same call. The specifics are different. The spirit of the call is the same. The rich young man is called to leave his wealth. Abraham was called to leave his home. The disciples were called to leave their jobs. The rich young man is called to leave his wealth.
00:14:55
Speaker
like Abraham and the disciples, if the rich young man wants to receive God's good promises, he's gotta let God change him. If he wants to receive God's good blessings, the good things that God has in store for him, if he wants that promise of eternal life, he has to leave his old life behind. But the young man refuses, doesn't he? The young man wants to hold on to that old life. If he were Abraham, he'd wanna hold on to that life in inherent. The rich young man wanted to keep living the way he'd always been living. He wanted to follow his own will. He didn't wanna follow the will of someone else, even someone like Jesus. And here's what's really convicting.
00:15:54
Speaker
is that Jesus lets him walk away.
00:15:59
Speaker
Jesus doesn't change the terms of the call. He doesn't bargain with the rich young man. He doesn't say, okay, I'll let you hold on to half your wealth. Does that work for you? No. Jesus doesn't change the call to meet the rich young man's desires. The call remains the same. And Jesus lets him walk away.
00:16:25
Speaker
For one reason or another, the rich young man wanted to hold on to that old life he had. He wanted to hold on to his own story. And because he held on to his story, his part in these story is over. And he misses out on the promise of eternal life.
00:16:50
Speaker
I think we can relate to the struggle of that rich young man.
00:16:57
Speaker
Because like the rich young man, I think we want to hold on to our own stories, don't we? We wanna hold on to who we've been and we wanna go where we wanna go. And we think you just like the rich young man, we think, well, as long as I live good enough, as long as I'm a decently well-behaved person, Jesus won't ask me to change all that much, right?
00:17:24
Speaker
I can have faith and live the way I've always lived. I can have faith and spend my money the way everyone else is spending their money. I can have faith and live the life that I was living before I knew Jesus.
00:17:43
Speaker
I can have faith and do what everyone else around me is doing. You see, we think that having faith means bringing Jesus along to do what we were already gonna do. That I've got my own dreams, my own visions, my own goals for this life, and Jesus, he gets to be to be a part of that, right? Jesus is a passenger who goes with us as we pursue what we wanna pursue and as we do what we wanna do. That's what we think faith looks like. But what God's word shows us is that when we actually have faith,
00:18:22
Speaker
In Jesus, what it truly means to have faith is for our goals, our vision, our whole life to be changed by him. That you don't carry who you were into this new relationship, that you let yourself be changed by this relationship. Faith is a matter of trust.
00:18:49
Speaker
And until you let go control let go of control of your own life and give over control to God, you will never learn how to trust God. And you'll be like that rich young man holding on to the life you once lived and missing out on God's promise. You see, faith doesn't look like a life maintained.
Faith as a Transformative Journey
00:19:15
Speaker
Faith looks like a life changed.
00:19:19
Speaker
And we see that right here in our text this morning in Genesis chapter 12. With Abraham being offered a promise so good, he's willing to let go of his whole life for that promise. He's willing to let go of everything he built for himself for the sake of God's promise. Yes, God meets Abraham right where he's at.
00:19:48
Speaker
But God doesn't let Abraham stay where he he's at, does he? And for Abraham, God's promise is worth the cost. The blessing is worth the change.
00:20:06
Speaker
And God has made you, God has made you a promise. the same promise that he made to Abraham and those disciples, that if you leave everything behind and follow my son, Jesus Christ, you will receive eternal life.
00:20:28
Speaker
And if we look at Abraham's life right here, just in these first four verses of Genesis 12, we get this vision of a guy who was perfectly faithful.
00:20:41
Speaker
a guy who always followed God and did what God wanted him to do. He's this perfect hero of the faith, it seems like. And that's kind of what I've been telling you what Abraham was like, right? But you know, you gotta read Abraham all the way through. You gotta know Abraham's whole story.
00:21:02
Speaker
Because hearing that kind of faith might challenge you a bit too much and make you think, is it ever possible for me to be saved?
00:21:14
Speaker
seem heroic and perfect. But just six verses after he is bold in his faith to leave Heron, just six verses later, Abraham has to run away to Egypt because there's a famine in the land he's moved to. There's a famine in Canaan, whatever. Well, here's what happens when he goes to Egypt. As he was about to enter Egypt, Abraham said to his wife, Sarah,
00:21:43
Speaker
I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife. Then they will kill me, but let you live. So say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and that my life will be spared because of you.
00:22:07
Speaker
Now Pastor Jim, my brain's a bit foggy with the whole new dad thing, so I'm not always thinking straight. um You help me with this, letting another man sleep with your wife, because that's what Abraham does here. He lets the Pharaoh of Egypt sleep with his wife, Sarah. Letting another man sleep with your wife, is that a sign of bold faith? No, okay. Okay, but what if you do it twice? Does that make it better? Okay, Jim said stop asking him questions.
00:22:41
Speaker
What's crazy is that Abraham doesn't just pull this act once, he does it twice. Two times he hands his wife over to another man to keep himself safe. Old act of faith, huh? Here's another story, 11 years go by. Some of you know what it's like to wait on God and how impatient you can grow.
00:23:09
Speaker
after praying and hoping and wanting God to move in your life. Well, 11 years go by after God makes this promise to Abraham and and they're still waiting on that baby. And Abraham and Sarah grow so impatient, they say, you know what, we're gonna take this into our own hands. We're gonna do things our own way. And so they decide that Abraham should sleep with his wife's servant Hagar. And they have a baby that way.
00:23:39
Speaker
And God has to come down and say, no, you dummy, this isn't what I promised you, but you still have to wait.
00:23:48
Speaker
And so Abraham, this this bold man of faith who left everything behind to follow God to receive his promise later on shows himself to still be operating out of fear, to still be chasing his own selfishness,
00:24:08
Speaker
to still be impatient with God as he waits for God to move. And you would think that actions like that, you'd think that actions like that would completely disqualify Abraham from God's promises.
00:24:30
Speaker
But when God shows up in Genesis 21, we read that the Lord was gracious the Lord was gracious to Sarah, as he'd said. And the Lord did for Sarah what he promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. At the very time, God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son that Sarah bore him. You see that same Abraham,
00:25:05
Speaker
who takes the bold step of faith away from his old life to follow God, still falls, still is weak, still falls into the trap of sin. And the same God who demanded and called for Abraham to leave everything behind is the same God who's gracious to him when he falls short.
00:25:30
Speaker
the same God who is gracious to Abraham and Sarah and fulfills his promise.
God's Grace Despite Failures
00:25:37
Speaker
You see, I've been telling you that this is a story about Abraham and his faith, but really it's a story about God's grace. Because God was gracious to Abraham and chose him out of everyone in the world, out of everyone across this planet, God chose Abraham for this promise.
00:25:58
Speaker
God was gracious to Abraham and Sarah, keeping them safe as they made the journey to this new promised land, keeping them safe as they felt danger in so many scenarios. You read the story, there are so many moments where Abraham's life seems at risk. God was gracious to Abraham and forgave him even when he was selfish even when he was faithless, even when he was impatient.
00:26:33
Speaker
And so yes, God calls you to have the faith of Abraham, to take that bold first step of faith where you leave everything behind to follow Jesus. But that same God is gracious when those steps fall short.
00:26:56
Speaker
That same God is gracious with you when you doubt. That same God is gracious to you even when you've done things that should completely disqualify you from his promise that God is still gracious to you because that God was gracious to Abraham.
00:27:21
Speaker
Abraham shows us that a life of faith is a life of bold steps and bold grace.
00:27:33
Speaker
It's a life of Heron moments and Hagar moments. You see, Jesus does call you to take that first step away from Heron, to take that first step away from the things that divide you from Him.
00:27:52
Speaker
He calls you to take that first step of faith away from who you've been and toward who he's called you to be. And so many of you here have taken that step. Some of you have taken the step of stepping away from promotion and career advancement for the sake of serving your family and answering the call to be a husband, a wife, a father, and a mother.
00:28:22
Speaker
Some of you have taken the bold step away from a life of addiction and towards the calling of sober faithfulness. Some of you have taken the bold step away just from buying the things you wanna buy so that you can be more generous to what God is doing here on earth. And how many of you have experienced that first step of baptism?
00:28:50
Speaker
the ultimate step where our old self is buried and our new self is raised, the new man, the new woman, the new child of God. You've experienced, so many of you have experienced those first steps of faith. Those are your heron moments.
00:29:13
Speaker
The moments where you walk in alignment with God's will and it is powerful and it is good and it's life-changing.
00:29:24
Speaker
Those are the moments that stick with you the rest of your life. Those are the moments that shape your own story of following Jesus. And we take those first steps of faith just like Abraham.
00:29:43
Speaker
those first steps of faith believing that if we leave everything behind and follow Jesus, we will be blessed. And Jesus made this promise to his disciples when Peter came to him and said, Lord, we've left everything to follow you.
00:30:00
Speaker
What else is there gonna be for us? We've left our homes, our jobs, our families, our security. We've left everything to follow you. And Jesus said that all that you have left for me in this life, you will receive back 100 times an eternal life. For those who take the bold first step of faith, that is the promise for you.
00:30:28
Speaker
But even after those bold first steps, even after those heron moments, you find yourself in an Egypt moment and a Hagar moment. Even after those bold first steps of faith, you find yourself falling back in sin. And those are the moments that fill you with pain. They fill you with shame.
00:30:57
Speaker
and they make you think, God, could I ever still have your promise after this? They make you feel like you've done things that would completely disqualify you from God's good things. And yet in those Egypt moments, in those Hagar moments, in those moments of failure, God comes to you and says, my promise is still yours.
Reflection and Upcoming Session
00:31:24
Speaker
Even after those moments of failure,
00:31:27
Speaker
Jesus says, my blood paid for that.
00:31:40
Speaker
when you realize that God's grace is greater than your steps? What do you do when after you've fallen down, the son of God picks you up and says, my promise is still yours?
00:31:57
Speaker
I think all you can do is fall down again, but not in sin, but in worship, giving praise to the only one who is worthy of our praise, giving praise to the one who picks you up when you've fallen down and says, my blessing, my promise of eternal life is still for you.
00:32:23
Speaker
Faith doesn't look like a life maintained. Faith looks like a life changed. And a life that has changed is a life of following Jesus, following the one who picks you up when you've fallen.
00:32:40
Speaker
If you feel that you're ready to go a little bit deeper, we have some questions for you to ponder at normalgoestalongway.com. These questions can be completed on your own or with a friend. Come back and join us on Thursday as Miss Hannah and Miss April tackle God Builds a Nation, but the kids version.