go-bless-and-be-blessed-sermon-notes

The Biggest Story: Go, Bless and Be Blessed

Genesis 12:1-4

A word I hear a lot these days is the word “settledness”. This word has to do with feeling at home, at peace and comfortable in your situation. The increased discussion about settledness has come about because there are a lot of people all over world who are homeless and feel deeply unsettled. In particular, with the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have migrated from the Middle East to Europe, the European Union has done extensive studies in how to help people to feel settled – how to find a new identity in a new location.

Their studies about settledness focus both on the refugees who are moving in to a new nation as well as on those into whose neighborhoods the refugees have been moving. Their findings were presented at the European Research Conference at King’s College in London. Researchers boiled down their findings to four main needs people expressed if they were going to experience settledness and be at peace:

Likes neighborhood
Good transportation links
Near shops and amenities
No concerns about crime or anti-social behavior

Those four needs make some sense to me. Do they to you? If those things were true of your neighborhood, would you and your family feel settled and at peace? To feel settled surely isn’t a bad thing, is it? Or, is it not?

You may be surprised today to discover that your Sr. Pastor wants you to be unsettled. By that, I’m not saying that it’s bad to enjoy the neighborhood you live in or that you shouldn’t want to have your family live in a place in which crime is not a major concern. I am saying that you will never be fully satisfied and at peace if you think that your purpose for living is going to be found in any thing or in any place in this world. It is the consistent and pervasive message of Scripture that you will only find your reason for living. i.e., that you will only be fully settled (what the Jewish people called shalom) when you live in obedience to God’s call upon your life. That brings us today to Genesis12:1-4, the covenant God made with Abraham 4,000 years ago.

Setting the Stage:

We are three weeks into a series that we are calling “The Biggest Story.” What we are wanting you to see is that the Bible is not a random collection of stories or a potpourri of inspirational insights or a manual of religious rituals and ethical lessons. The Bible is filled with stories, insights and lessons – but they are all placed within God’s story of the world – about the world’s beginnings, about human past and about where everything eventually will end. So, history is not a random flow of events but a coherent story: God is working out a plan, one conceived in eternity past and one that God will bring to completion in the future. And, God draws us into this story when we place our faith in Jesus – and then sends us out as his ambassadors of blessing.

As I often speak about, God’s story began well as he created a world that was very good. But, it went wrong when people walked away from him. Nevertheless, God loves this imperfect world and its people and now is at work in the world to right the wrongs in his creation.

To accomplish this task, early on in God’s story, he chose to plant a people in this world, a people who would reflect his ways in this world. The first people he chose were the people of Israel. As Jeff Lewis pointed out so clearly last week, God chose Israel not because they were already more perfect than other people groups. No, he chose them so that they might become a blessing to all the people groups. Today, I’ll take us back to that text in which God called a man named Abram to be the one through whose family all the families of the earth would be blessed.

I am convinced that if you want to understand the rest of the Bible, you must first understand God’s call upon Abraham. The whole of the Bible’s story is encapsulated in Genesis 12:1-4. Think about it: The God who met Abram in Gen 12 had already revealed himself in Gen 1 as being the God of the entire universe -- not just of Abram, of Israel or even just of this world. As John Stott said, “The Bible begins with the universe – not with the planet earth. So, God did not choose Abraham and Israel and forget the rest of people made in his image. God chose one people in order to bless all others through them.”

What I want you to see today is that a key to God’s blessing coming to all the world is that God’s people cannot get settled in to any one place or career. The principle is this: Settledness in this world does not come about the way most people think it does, i.e., by finding a good job, financial security, a pleasant neighborhood and personal success, etc. Our settledness is found in following Jesus wherever he calls us to go.

The call upon Abram shows us what this looks like. The essential parts of his call are a template for the way all God’s people are called. Abram was called 1) to go, 2) to bless others, 3) thereby to be blessed.

“Go” -- The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you (12:1).

I am convinced that, although many of the specific parts of Abram’s call were just for him (i.e., that he was to leave Ur), the consistent pattern of what I see in the Bible is that when people have a true encounter with God, he always sends them out out to further his mission. So, I say to you, when you meet God through placing your faith in Jesus, you become a person in God’s story and in God’s mission.

The “go” part of Abram’s call is one that is found each time a person comes to know God, both in the Older Testament and the Newer. In the very beginning, the first people were simply to go and populate the earth. But, after people sinned and God began his work of righting wrongs and making things new, the “going” has had to do with giving witness to him and to working against the effects of sin. When people meet God, God calls us to get out of their settledness, out of their comfort zones and to further his work in this world.

Moses – met God through a burning bush and was sent to go to Egypt so that God’s people might be set free (Exo 3:1-17).
Isaiah – met God as a young man in the Temple and was told to go and tell God’s people about the judgment to come in Isaiah 6 – and he went. Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Four disciples fishing on the Sea of Galilee – were called to repent and believe and, when they did, they were to leave home, and go to preach, to heal, and to be “fishers of men” in Mark 1:14-20.
Paul – met Jesus while on the road to Damascus, Syria (Acts 9) and, when he did, he not only believed on Jesus but was told, “Go! Get out and take the message of Jesus to Gentiles!”

In each case, God says to those who meet him, “I’ll turn your life around and bless you. Then, I’ll send you out.” And, this is not just for those few people in the Bible that I have mentioned. As Paul said in 2 Cor 5:17ff: “Anyone in Christ is a new creation…, one to whom God has committed the message of reconciliation.We all are therefore Christ’s ambassadors.” When you truly meet God through faith in Jesus, you will hear him say, Go!” You become a person blessed by God’s mission who now participates in that mission.”

We often wrestle with how we know where we are to go, don’t we? We wonder how that phrase in v. 1, “Go to the place I will show you” will play out in our lives. I’m not sure how God actually told Abraham and his descendants where they should go. But, the places to which God calls his people to go are very different. Some, like Abram, are called to leave our homelands. Others, like a man liberated from demons in Mark 5, go right back into their homes. Still others, like Zacchaeus, were sent right back into their professions.

So, I will tell you this: Whenever you get up each morning, have the view that wherever you go is the place where God would have you represent him. Whatever person you meet, look at that person as a divine appointment. Be ready to show the love of God – and be ready to speak of Jesus.

And, I can tell you this: God’s call to go will probably be a call away from something that you’ve “settled into” right now. Don’t get too settled into your retirement plans – or, into going home after school and playing video games for the rest of the evening. Be attentive to the voice of God saying to you somehow, “I have something more for you.”

And, of course, many of us really need to see that Abram was called to go when he was 75 years old. We often are thinking about retiring at that age – not going into some kingdom-furthering mission. But, that kind of thinking is not biblical thinking. As long as we have the strength to go, we should ask the Lord each day where he would have us go in order to serve him.

Be ready for this: that, when you go at the call of God, it almost always involves loss – as the world thinks about such things. Look at Abram: He lost his country, his people, and his father’s household. Those European Researchers I mentioned earlier said people needed to “like their neighborhood “in order to be settled. Well, God might send you to a neighborhood that you would never have chosen. The researchers said people need to be near amenities and shops to be settled and at peace. God may call you to a place where there isn’t even a Walmart or Starbucks! And, he promises that you will find your purpose in life, your satisfaction in this world by simply living for him where he has sent you.

When Abraham left Ur, he wasn’t left resource-less. Read the rest of Gen 12 and you’ll see he took his wife and nephew, the possessions he could take, and his servants. But, make no mistake about, his life was no longer his own. He would go where God called him to go and, I’ll tell you, he found a life worth living. And, so will you. Then, when you go --

“Bless” – “You will be a blessing (12:2d).” All the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you (12:3c).”

This is what ministry is about, i.e., taking the blessings – the gifts and resources – God has given you and meeting needs in the name of Jesus. Anytime God blesses you, your muscle response should be, “How might I use this blessing to serve others.”

I was talking with our Director of Facilities, Levi Heidelberg, about this on Thursday. He said, “Pastor Greg, you’ll have to be clear about what God means by blessing.” We naturally think of blessing in terms of money, or a beautiful home or success at school or work. And, those are blessings! When we receive them, we should see them as gifts God gives to be used to bless others. And, in coming weeks, we’ll think more about how God would have us steward those kinds of material blessings to further his work in the world. Today, I just want to show you the way people of God should view any blessing that we have – relational, spiritual, or emotional. God blesses us in countless ways so that we might bless others.

The “blessing” Abraham and his family received in Gen 12 refers supremely to the fact that, through his family line, the savior of the world would be born. Through that family, salvation and entrance into God’s people have been made available to all people. And, we who have received that salvation through faith in Jesus, born in the line of Abraham, are blessed -- are to pass that blessing on to others through our witness.

And our lives should flow into blessing people as Jesus did. Both the Older and Newer Testaments are pervaded by that message. For example, the aliens and strangers who enter a place where God’s people live should know they will find welcome and care among God’s people. The Gentile widow, Ruth, was to find a new place and people of belonging among God’s people. Widows and orphans and the poor and the homeless and those getting out of prisons should know that they will not be ignored but blessed when God’s people live in a city. God blesses his people so that we will be a blessing to those he brings across our paths.

We often miss this point. We, in our consumerist society, often make God’s blessing all about us. We tend to turn a wonderful thing into a self-centered thing. Let me give you an example. I love the song, “No Longer Slaves”, a beautiful song that speaks of our blessings in Christ. It says, “You surround me with a song of deliverance ‘til all my fears are gone. I’m no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God.”

That is true. I find I need to be reminded of those blessings again and again. I sing that song and give praise to God. At the same time, a song like that can leave us simply basking in the blessing without accepting the incredible challenge that we who are blessed are to pass the blessing on to others. We need an additional verse:

No longer a slave to fear – so I’ll go in the name of Christ so that other captives may be set free.
I am a child of God – so I’ll go in the name of Christ so others might become God’s children too.

Your “going” may be God sending you back to your own family, school or place of work – but this time to be a blessing, this time as God’s representative. Your “going” might be to a new school, job or location. Your going might be intentionally to a place where the gospel has not been heard. It might be to teaching our students and children at LAC, or mentoring community children through LACF, or serving the homeless through Door of Hope. Commit to being one who goes in the name of Christ and then, wherever you go on any given day, be ready to bless others. When you do, let me assure you, you will --

Be Blessed – Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High,and he blessed Abram (14:18).

Jeanine Smith, our Director of Smaller Group Ministries, showed me something on Tuesday that I had never seen. After Abraham obeyed God and left his homeland, he faced a huge battle. When it was over and he was victorious but depleted, he was blessed again by an agent of God. It’s found in Gen 14:18.

The one who blessed Abraham was named Melchizedek, meaning “king of righteousness”. He was a priest of the Most High God (El Elyon). Melchizedek’s sudden appearance and disappearance in the book of Genesis is very mysterious. Some think he was an appearance of Jesus in the Older Testament. What I want you to see is that, if Abraham had never left his homeland in obedience to God, he would never have met Melchizedek. When we are willing to go wherever God leads us, we find again and again, that in blessing others, we are blessed. We meet people we never would have met. We experience the presence and work of God as we never otherwise would have experienced it. Jesus said, “I did not come to kill, steal or destroy your life. I came to give you life to the full (John 10). Do you believe that?

You will never find real joy, shalom or “settledness” until you have learned to live for something more than your own interests. When you “go to the mat” in obedience to the call of God, you will find that you experience God and blessing in new and unexpected ways. God blesses you when you are willing to get out and bless others.

My Pastoral Word to You

When you meet God, you are not to get settled into any place, situation or activity in this world – settled in such a way that you find your identity, your reason for living, in them. We who are made in God’s image can find our settledness only in our identity of being God’s people. When we go where God wants us to go and live a life of blessing others, there and only there do we find a life worth living, a place of belonging that cannot be lost.

I want you to learn to take some risks as you follow Jesus:

To enter into the lives of some people you might never have chosen to meet – and love them;
To open up your life for ministry here or abroad, at church or in the neighborhood, with children, students, or adults.
To use vacation time to go on a mission trip.

We are the people of God. We are Abraham’s seed by faith, and the earth’s families will be blessed only if we go to them with the gospel. There is more to live for than your academic degree, your love life, your career advancement. Go… bless others… and be blessed – to the glory of God.