Story 2 09/18/16–Highland—Meute
The Story: “God Builds a People”
Selections from Genesis (Chapter 2 of The Story)
Pearl: God chose a particular people through whom to work his grace for all.
Function: To show that God advanced his plan of redemption by choosing an unlikely people to relate to and through. They were an unremarkable people and this suggests he can work his power and grace through anyone who trusts him.
“Previously” in The Story…we learned about the origins of creation as Adam and Eve were the crown of creation made in the “image of God” to relate in harmony with God. They had within them the ability to go with God or deviate from his way. They chose to depart from his way and sin became a part of the spiritual DNA of humanity. So even “in the beginning” God began his project to restore the broken relationship of God to creation, of God to our human ancestors. Today we are introduced to Abraham and Sarah.
Can you remember the pain of standing around as a child when teams were being picked for a game? If you were ever the last one picked it was not easy to hear name after name being called and watching everyone move to one of two teams only to stand there before everyone as the last pick. Maybe you even had the sense that they would prefer not to even pick you. If you can relate to this then you understand how people tend to pick the most talented, good-looking, smart, capable people possible.
We will see today that the Lord does not operate this way. Indeed, he began his reconciliation of all things by choosing a man and a people that were very unlikely and unremarkable. He chose Abram and Sarai, two elderly people, through whom he would draw near to a people for a covenant relationship.
1. Abram and his wife Sarai were in no way familiar with the God who is revealed in the bible. We understand that Abram and Sarai worshipped the gods of their ancestors and of the region in which they lived-Ur—modern day Iraq. Abram and Sarai were Iraqis!
2. But then God made himself known to Abram and told him to leave his homeland and travel to a new land. God told Abram that he would make his descendents as numerous as the dust particles of the earth!
a. The outstanding character trait of Abram which certainly moved God to pick him was this: Abram obeyed God and he left. He went out from what was familiar and toward the unknown because he trusted the God who loves us.
3. Abram was an unlikely choice.
a. He was quite “up in years.”
b. So also was his wife Sarai “up in years” and she had never born children.
c. Abram did not know God but worshipped the pagan gods of his ancestors.
4. Yet there was something about Abram which made him a natural choice for God.
a. Abram believed that God would do what he promised. He demonstrated living faith. This always blesses and moves the Lord! Romans 4 states: “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:21-22).
b. I love preaching on Abram because he is the biblical model of our posture before God: complete, trusting faith.
c. Abram was a man that no one would choose to be the father of many nations. This is why the Lord chose him: God does not see as we see. God looks at what we cannot see. God looks at the heart of people. God chooses to use people who must trust in him and not their own strength and giftedness. God uses people who trust him for their strength and ability. So Abram was the choice of the God who loves us.
God advanced his plan to restore all of humanity by choosing a couple to make himself known to and therefore a people to make himself known to. God chose a particular people to relate to as his very own people.
1. God advances his purposes by relating to people. He chose Abram and Sarai.
a. When God relates to you he changes you. This is why he changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s to Sarah. When you enter into a relationship with God you are changed.
2. God revealed his plan to build a people in a four-fold manner:
a. This new nation would be great—that is, it would be exceedingly numerous. Even down the road in the drama between Moses and the Pharaoh of Egypt you see that the Pharaoh fears the Jews, why? Because they were exceedingly numerous and could therefore be powerful as a people.
b. God would make Abraham’s name great. It is great to this day. Abraham is seen as the father of three of the world’s biggest faith traditions: Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
c. God would so closely relate to his chosen Abraham by blessing all those who blessed Abraham and he would curse all of those who cursed Abraham.
d. Lastly, God would bless all the nations of the world through Abraham and through the new nation. By relating to this “special people,” “special” because of God not because of anything inherent in them, he would reveal himself to all nations. He would reveal his heart and his plan to “win creation back,” that is, to “restore all things.”
As is typical between God and people, things got off to a rocky start. The interaction between Abraham, Sarah, and God was messy.
1. While Abraham was the poster-child for trusting faith, Sarah was not. When Abraham told her that they would be the parents of as many descendents as the dust of the earth, she laughed. She thought the idea to be ludicrous. She looked at herself and at her husband, and while he was the apple of her eye, she did not see them having any children at their age and especially since she was barren.
a. Thus you have the key: she looked at herself and at her husband. Where should she have looked? She should have looked to the Lord to see the possibilities of God and the promises of God being fulfilled. When you look at yourselves you lack hope; it is when you look to God that you see possibility. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote: “I can do all things through [Christ] who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).
2. Since Sarah did not trust as completely as did Abraham she inserted herself and she leaned on human understanding. She gave her servant Hagar to Abraham to bear the child through whom she thought God would establish his promise. And Hagar did bear a son whose name was Ishmael. This was not the child through whom God would work his restoration per se. He did say, and this is informative for us, that he would make a great nation of Ishmael. (Many believe this nation to be the Muslim people). This reveals to us that God is at work in all nations of people, even beyond those who relate to him solely through Jesus the Christ.
The ultimate test came when God instructed Abraham to take his child, Isaac, born to Sarah in her old age, the “miracle child” to the mountain of sacrifice to be slain as a sacrifice to the Lord. Even in that dark moment, Abraham followed the Lord’s instructions.
1. Abraham took his son, Isaac, a teenager at the time, and climbed Mt. Moriah to obediently offer his only son as a sacrifice. When Isaac asked him where the lamb for sacrifice was, Abraham responded, “The Lord will provide.”
a. Most scholars believe that the mountain which they ascended was in Jerusalem and so was the same hill on which 2,080 years later God’s one and only Son would be offered up as the ultimate sacrifice for sin on the cross.
2. Abraham passed the test, the ultimate test of faith. Abraham showed God that he would trust God in all things. Abraham trusted God that he was able to do what he promised. And so Abraham gave all who would be among his descendants an example in which to follow.
You don’t have to be remarkable. You don’t have to be straight-A students. You do not have to have the highest IQs to be used by God. You are urged to trust in him who is able to do that which he promised. Put your trust in the God who revealed himself in Jesus the Christ.
God’s people are unremarkable. The God you worship is the one who is remarkable. God will do that which you cannot do in your own strength.
The God who made all things, this God who loves you, will do what he said he will do. Your role is to trust him in all things. Your role is to cooperate with him in all things. This pleases God!
And so this is how God’s plan advances!
