This is going to be a
short message. I will continue it Wednesday night. The message is called
“LEAVE AND GO”
In Genesis 12:1-4 Genesis 12 God called
a man named Abram—whose name would be changed to Abraham.
The Call of Abram
1
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and
your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2
"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.
3
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
4
So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
This was what God gave
my husband and me when we went into the ministry. And then again,
after we were trained, when He called us to go back to Miami.
Leave your country your people
and your father’s house.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO US TODAY?
It can mean where you grew up,
your friends your family.
But it can also mean:
Leave the old—old thinking—old
habits—old disappointments—old friendships---old ministries—old
pursuits—old interests---
AND GO—WHERE? GOD DOESN’T SAY.
HE JUST SAID “go”
Romans 4:3
says that Abram believed God and
it was counted to him for righteousness.
3For
what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed in (trusted in) God,
and it was credited to his account as righteousness (right living
and right standing with God).
Abram acted on the word of the
Lord, not knowing all the particulars—just knowing that God said
“go”.
1.I will make you a great nation
2. I will bless you
3. I will make your name great
4. And you will be a blessing
5. All the people will be blessed
through you.
You may start as “one” but
will end up as many—a force to be reckoned with—akin to a
nation.
God will bless you personally.
In your finances, relationships, health, emotional well being,
spirituality, family, ministry…etc.
God will make your name
great—respect, honor, due praise.
You will be a blessing to
others. Not just that you will bless others, but that your very
existence and presence will be a blessings to others.
Through you, people will be
blessed. Through your testimony, your sharing God’s Word,
through relationship and bloodline.
It’s easy to get used to patterns,
habits, surroundings, customs, worship patterns. We get used to
things that are physical, emotional, environmental, and spiritual.
We have our preferred ways of worship, and our own little doctrines.
When I say “our own” I am talking about methods of interpreting or
acting out religious customs, traditions, rituals…you’ve got the
idea.
Also, we have our own ideas about
the way ministry should be done and wouldn’t it be funny if God
called us to DO a ministry that was totally different than what we
were used to.
You think it can’t happen? Think
of Paul. He was a Jew of Jews. In Romans 11:1, Paul said:
1I ASK then: Has God totally rejected and disowned His
people? Of course not! Why, I myself am an Israelite, a descendant
of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin!
But, who did God
call Paul to minister to? The Gentiles. (Not that he ever
forgot his brethren according to the flesh).
Romans 11:13But
now I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an
apostle to the Gentiles, I lay great stress on my ministry and
magnify my office,
14In the hope of making my fellow Jews jealous [in order to
stir them up to imitate, copy, and appropriate], and thus managing
to save some of them.
That’s not how I
would have done it. I mean, if I were God,
I would have have sent Paul, who was a scholar and a rabbi to the
Jews, but God didn’t think so. And He was so right because Paul was
not very popular with his own people. They thought he was a traitor.
God sent Peter to
the Jews. But, even that is funny because Peter started his ministry
by being the first one to take the Gospel to the Gentiles….
Cornelius.
See, God loves to get us out of our comfort zones. And, if we will
just let Him do that—IF WE WILL OBEY WHEN HE SAYS ‘LEAVE AND GO” we
will be blessed like Abraham was blessed—to the degree that we obey
God. If we believe God, He will count it to us for righteousness.
The reason we can
obey God without knowing exactly where we’re “going” and without
knowing the particulars of how and when is because we believe that
“all things work together to the good for those who love God and are
the called according to HIS purpose.”(Romans 8:28)
That’s God’s Word.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith involves
believing when you don’t see. “It is the substance of
things hoped for—the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1)
When my husband
and I were called into the ministry God had for us. That’s what
happened. God said “go” and He didn’t tell us where. So we went and,
along the way, He told us. That’s quite a story.
I’m going to leave
you hanging today. Come back on Wednesday night for the conclusion
of this message.
