Sermon “What is God's Plan” - Genesis 12:1-3

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Churches
Sermon “What is God's Plan” - Genesis 12:1-3
March 13, 2011

This morning we are continuing our Lenten Study on questions we have about God. Last week we asked with Adam and Eve about how we are to live our lives as God's creatures following what God tells us to do. We found out that we have been placed in a garden where all of our needs are met. But we lust for more, for those things which are prohibited. And this lust causes us to lose the blessing we had already received. Today we will ask God about God's plan for dealing with this situation we have put ourselves into. But first lets pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Our Old Testament reading for today comes from the familiar words of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Genesis. Genesis 12:1-9

12Now 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. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.

When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Seven years ago I felt that something was missing in my life. I was active in church and civic clubs. I had friends. I was making money and could afford to do almost anything I wanted to do. But I had no wife, no children, and found myself lonely and wanting more. I had followed my own desires all my life but it still didn't seem to be enough. I thought it was a time to change my life and go in a new direction. I was a Bible teacher at church and I knew that what I needed to do was to follow the Lord. So I began to ask questions of my family and my pastor to try to discern where God was calling me. I finally decided that God was calling me into ministry of some kind. The Bible study I was teaching at the time was called the Bethel Bible Series, a two year look at scripture. The key text in this study was from the verses I just read, “we are blessed to be a blessing”. I realized that God had richly blessed me in many ways, and now God was calling me to be blessing for others.

Abram was facing similar challenges. Abram had a tough life. His wife, Sarai, was barren and he had no children, no one to inherit his land and no one to carry on his name. His brother had children. One of his nephews, Lot, came over to help him out, but it wasn't the same. Abram and Sarai had no children. Life for Abram must have been unbearable. So his father took the extraordinary step of emigrating to a new land. He told Abram, Sarai and Lot to pack up and get ready to move to a new home in Canaan.

This is often what we do when we feel something is missing. We just pack up and go away. We hope that life will be better in the next town, or the next job, or the next relationship. We figure that Florida would be warmer. We move on hoping to start over, hoping to have a new life.

Abram and his family only got as far as Haran when his father got sick and died, and Abram, Sarai and Lot were forced to start new lives without land or the support of friends and family. They were isolated and alone.

This is what happens when you try to deal with your problems by running away. Problems seem to catch up with you and you have a host of new problems to deal with too. You just can't leave the problems behind and run away.

One problem that Abram had was that he did not believe in God. Scripture tells us that Abram came from a family that worshiped other gods. So Abram was not familiar with the God who loves us and redeems us. All Abram had was a barren wife, a nephew and a lot of problems to deal with. What Abram needed was faith. He needed to know the creator God. He needed to be redeemed from all of his problems. He needed a cure for his unbelief.

A pharisee in the first century AD faced his own problems. He too lacked the comfort of knowing God and suffered from unbelief. His name was Nicodemus. Late one evening he came to see Jesus. It was dark. In John's gospel darkness is always a symbol of unbelief. Nicodemus did not believe. But he wanted to know more about Jesus and what Jesus doing. So one evening Nicodemus emerged from the darkness of unbelief and entered into the light of the world in Jesus Christ.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. In his typical fashion, Jesus said this in a way that causes us the think. His language was ambiguous. What Jesus said could mean either “born again” or “born from above”. Of course this confused Nicodemus. How could anyone reenter his mother's womb and be born again? But Jesus meant that to have a relationship with the creator God you must be born from above; you must be born of the Spirit. This means that faith is a gift. God dispatches the Holy Spirit to plant within you the gift of faith. You are born from above by the Holy Spirit and believe that Jesus is Lord.

This is what happened to Abram. The Holy Spirit came upon him giving him faith in his creator. And the creator God told him to leave this place of loneliness and despair and go to a place of rich blessing. But first Abram had to act on his faith. God refused to tell him where he was going. Abram had to take the first step by faith alone. And that is exactly what Abram did. He left Haran and traveled to the place where God led him. And he found himself in Canaan, the very place where his father had wanted him to go. And there Abram was blessed with more than he had ever imagined. Sarai would give birth and his descendants would number more than all the stars in heaven, more than all the grains of sand on the beach.

This is the promise made to us. If we stop following our own lusts and begin following God we too will be richly blessed, more than we could ever imagine.

After talking with my parents, friends and pastors I decided to follow God and see to where it might leave. I left my home, church and friends and drove to California to study at Fuller Seminary. There I found my calling as a Presbyterian pastor and met my wife, Grace.

After his encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus continued to question his faith. He wasn't sure what he was called to do. But God had a most important mission for him. On the day that Jesus died someone needed to help Joseph of Arimathea to remove Jesus' dead body from cross and place it in the tomb. At the risk of great sacrifice for himself and his family Nicodemus was there outside the gate caring for Jesus body after his death.

What Abram and Nicodemus both discovered was that once you receive the gift of faith and all the blessings of God you now have the responsibility to be a blessing for others. That is your true vocation as the adopted children of God. You are blessed by God to be blessings for others. We usually think of ministry as something that happens here in the church. I am a minister so I must do ministry. And all the groups we have on Sunday mornings and afternoons, Wednesday evenings, choir practice, early morning prayers and board meetings are all ways of doing ministry. But in our Reformed tradition we believe that ministry does not stop at the church door. Rather ministry continues throughout the week wherever believers are present. You see you are all missionaries of Jesus Christ. You may be the only Christian missionary that the people in your office, or those in your civic group, or people you meet at school will see this week. So it is important to remember that you have been given the gift of faith and you have received blessings from God and now as a missionary in your home, or school or office, or club, you are called to be a blessing for others. So bless the people you meet this week with the good news that you have heard in church and invite them to join with us in questioning God about our faith and growing together as God's people.

Our ministries extend far beyond the eastern shore. As God told Abram we have been blessed to be a blessing and in us all the families of the world will be blessed. On Palm Sunday we will have the opportunity with Presbyterian churches across the country to bless families around the world with our One Great Hour of Sharing. Your contributions will bless poor families in America with the Self Development of People program. Your contributions will bless hungry families to become self sufficient with the Presbyterian Hunger Program. And your contributions will bless families that have been struck by disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis through the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program. As we go though Lent you will hear more about the One Great Hour of Sharing. Remember that God said in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for all the blessings we have received. Show us how we can use these blessings to bless others. Amen.