When God Breaks, In He Sends Us Out (The Story of Abraham)

There have been very few atheists in the history of the world – and there still are very few. 3M out of 309M in the USA – less than 1%. Oh, some try to say there are more, as they want to include those who just don’t know or who are not involved in any religion. But, here, as everywhere in the world, there are few who say they believe there is no god of any kind. Marx and Lenin and Mao may have tried to establish societies without deities but the people who suffered under their totalitarianism still sensed that there are realities greater than themselves and than this material world.

I am not saying that the majority of people believe in the God of the Bible – or even in theism, the notion that God is personal, present in the universe and active in the governance of the world. I’m simply stating that people have always had an intuition that there is some sort of spiritual reality in the cosmos. Because of that, people everywhere and at all times can be found searching for god – whatever “he, she, it or they” may be.

And, the claim of all true followers of Jesus is that we have met God. In fact, we call him Father. We believe that God revealed himself through words located in the Bible – a Bible that opens in Genesis 1 with God declaring, “I am here and this is what I am like.” What we see in Genesis 1 is that the God of the Bible is both transcendent and immanent. Transcendent: separate from and “other-than” his creation -- existing before time and matter were created thus being supernatural. Immanent: deeply involved in this time-and-space world and entering into relationships with people made in his image. The God of the Bible is both there and here.

Now – let’s get to our new series called Turning Points. In his wisdom, God has, for the most part, chosen to reveal himself not through lectures, philosophical propositions, or how-to techniques – but through real life stories. God enters into our lives. And, when he does, things can never be the same as they were before. What changes? Well, that’s what we’re going to be seeing from the Bible. In this series, we will be looking at some of the personal stories of people in the Bible whose lives were turned around and transformed when 1) God broke into their lives, 2) they recognized that in-breaking, and 3) they surrendered in faith to God’s sovereign control over their lives. We will meet real people who met God – not rare mythical or legendary heroes who are somehow above the rest of us. Indeed, one of the shocking (and encouraging) aspects of the Bible is that its human characters are so fully human. The Bible does not hide their flaws from us. This fact offers hope to all of us who still struggle with our failures, sins, and limitations. The Bible declares to us that meetings with God are always encounters of grace. What this means, of course, is that there is hope for us too.

We’re going to start with Abraham in an encounter with God recorded in Genesis 12:1-5. The whole thing is introduced in Genesis 11, which is a rather long and tedious recounting of Abraham’s family history. For 21^st C. Americans, we could be reading all these names and ages and find ourselves nodding off. We’re left at the end of Gen. 11 with a man named Terah taking his son Abram to settle in at a place called Harran. The account is written in such a way as to give us a sense that everything is comfortable – life is settled with the family doing what families do and have done for generations. When suddenly, everything changes in 12:1-4 with the Maker of the Universe breaking into Abraham’s life and saying, “Go, from your country, from your people, and from your household. I am taking over your life now. Go wherever I show you to go.”

It was what always happens when God lets us know he knows us and has a plan for us. It’s a turning point. What I want us to see today is that when this kind of God breaks in, he sends us out – out of our consumer-oriented lives-as usual, into his mission, and into a life of blessing.

Principle #1: When God breaks in, he sends us out.

The LORD said to Abram, “Go... (12:1)” When you meet God as he really is, he always turns you into a person with a mission. You have a reason to live each day. You have something to do that has eternal value.

You see, Abraham believed in God before Gen. 12:1. He was like the majority of people in our world – even like many who go to church. We can believe in God without ever having met him. But when we meet him, then we know what matters in this world – we know WHO matters in this world. What happens is that when you and I meet God, we quickly learn that only one of us can be in control. And, always, this is what happens: God says to us, “I’ve made you for a reason. I’ve made you to make known my glory – my love, grace, mercy – so I am sending you out from a life of living for yourself or from a life of just doing what everyone else does. I’m sending you into my mission for the world.

I have to let you in on something: When we meet God, what is destroyed is our consumer’s mentality – our “what’s in it for me” way of thinking. As Paul put it, “After I met Jesus and learned who he really is, I live no longer for myself but for him who died and rose again.”

You see it in Abraham’s story – and we’ll see it in each of the stories. God said, “Go – get out!” Abraham had to leave his country where he knew people, his culture where he was comfortable, and even his family where he could be with his grandchildren. God didn’t even tell him where he would be going. It was just, “Go. Trust me. I’m going to do great things but you have to go and look for ways to serve me.”

And, this always happens when people meet God. We’ll see Moses who also believed in God but had never met him. Then comes a voice out of a burning bush, which tells him immediately, “Go to Pharaoh. I have work in my mission for you to do. And, no excuses, Moses. Go and serve where I send you.”

The same happens with Isaiah who believed in God and even went into God’s house in the midst of some struggles in his life and nation. He’s blown away by the majesty of God and hears a voice saying, “I have a mission for my people. Who will go?” And Isaiah says, “Here am I. Send me.” We need to see God as he is and know that if the God of the Bible really exists, he is all-powerful and he is involved in this world. When we meet him, he alone can be in control. It’s like the old Ron Howard movie, Cocoon. A group of aliens had come into the world – aliens who were bright and brilliant and beautiful. But they wore human suits. When someone questioned whether they really were aliens, Brian Dennehey pulled aside his eyelid just a bit and a laser-like beam of light blasted forward. That’s what happened to Abraham, Moses and Isaiah. When they saw God as he is, they had to serve him.

And it happened to Paul. He truly believed in the God of the Bible and was trying to obey all his laws. But, then one day he met God in flesh, Jesus. It was a blinding experience on the road to Damascus. And, when God came in, Paul was sent out – to the Gentiles. To plant churches all over the known world.

When we meet God, it is a turning point in our lives. We’re living life like people around us – wanting to become successful or to experience some great things. We’re coasting along – maybe even showing up at church. Then, the laser beam hits us. “God really is and he knows me.” He says, “I have people in your workplace I love and I’m sending you to them. I have people in your school I love and I’m sending you to represent me to them – to tell them of my love for them.”

It’s like a time when the Waybright family traveled down to South Chicago to visit a church we loved. I often preached there and they always wanted Brandon to play the guitar. But it was a church in which there were no chord charts of music scores. The leaders just led out in any song at any time and in any key. This was a bit intimidating to Brandon so, on this morning, he wanted us to go in later. And he didn’t take his guitar. We tried to hide a bit but the pastor and the church leaders spotted us. One of the elders, a very strong man who was a police officer, came back to us, looked directly at Brandon, put his powerful and irresistible hand on his shoulder, and said, “The Lord is calling you into service.” Brandon said, “I can’t. I didn’t bring my guitar.” He said, When the Lord calls, he always provides. The Lord is calling you into service.” So, Brandon served – wonderfully.

Jesus said about all his followers, “As the Father sent me, so send I you.” When we meet the real God, we know who is in control. We lose our consumer’s mentality. We say, “I do whatever. I’ll go wherever. Whatever it takes, I will serve you.” When God breaks in, he always sends us out. It’s a turning point.

Principle #2: When God breaks in, he sends us out to be a blessing to others.

I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing… All peoples on earth will be blessed through you (12:2,3). When God meets us, he wants us to know his forgiveness and he wants us to begin to live abundantly. That is a blessing. But, the impact of his meeting with us is not just for us alone. It’s God’s plan to bring his blessing to the whole world by making us his blessing carriers. In fact, a big part of our own blessing is what happens when our lives begin to be focused on serving others as Jesus serves us.

“Us blessing and being blessed as we serve others” works together. I want you to consider this: I am convinced that one of the greatest blessings we experience when we orient each moment of our lives on service to God is that we begin to have no doubts about the reality of God and about our being real children of God. Almost all religious people occasionally have questions, “Is this real? Do I truly belong to God?” I declare to you: No one has joy and shalom like the person who knows that God is working through his/her life. As long as we say, “Well I believe in God” but then we keep living for our own interests, we’ll be filled with uncertainty. It’s because we probably haven’t really met God. We just want some benevolent power to give us what we want! If our main goal in life is to further our own career, our own education, our own pleasure, we may achieve all those things, but we will not experience the blessing of true fellowship with God that God intends. There is no one in history who had more joy and peace than Jesus – and there is no one in history who was clearer that he had a divine mission than Jesus. “My nourishment is to do the will of my Father,” Jesus said in John 4:34.

Self-centered lives are always empty. We were not created by God to find shalom when we live for ourselves. His sending may be right back to your school – but when you go back tomorrow, you go looking to be a blessing – to tell about Jesus or to show the love of Jesus. You and I go into our community but we go looking for opportunities to serve people. We see each encounter as a divine opportunity. We want to help kids struggling in schools or teen Moms struggling to care for children. We know God loves people so we go to love people to. There is no joy quite like the joy that comes from knowing God is using us to bless others. When God sends us out, he sends us out to be a blessing to others.

Principle #3: When God breaks in and sends us out, we must be willing to give up things.

The LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household (12:1).”

As long as there is anything that we think is so important that we cannot give that up if God calls us, we will not know God’s blessing – and we won’t be much of a blessing either. Can you imagine Abraham saying, “OK, God – I’m willing to be a blessing to all people but I have to do it from home – or I have to have these benefits…”

So, I’ll tell you what God told Abraham: Go full in with Jesus and sometimes your family will be offended. Sometimes your friends will complain about the changes they see. Sometimes you may have to give up money to send missionaries or to support the church.

Let’s just bring this home to us at LAC as a whole: We believe that God was calling Pastor Albert to plant a church – and he did too. But, that’s risky. He’s in a church that doesn’t have a 115-year track record of paying its pastors faithfully. And, for us too – we’re in a financial downturn here in California. There’s a big risk in sending someone away. The people in the new church have to take out their wallets when God is in it and they have been entrusted with material things. And we do too. But, as the elder in Chicago told Brandon, “When God calls, he also provides.”

It may be risky – but not to God. For me, what’s risky is disobeying God. We cannot bless others unless we’re willing to lose things. Jesus got out – and he lost his life… only to be resurrected. And the blessing? We who are lost can be saved. When God breaks in and calls us into service, it will cost us our leisure time, it will cost our “comfort zone” living, and it will cost our material possessions.

No one said this more clearly than Jesus: Jesus said to all his followers: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)”

Principle #4: When God breaks in and sends us out, his blessing will be better than any loss.

The LORD said to Abram, “Go… and I will bless you (12:1, 2). The Apostle Paul’s testimony about this was so clear: I had everything that people in my world think is important. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ… I want to know Christ (Phil. 3:7-10).

What will that blessing be like? I can only say, trust and obey God and you will begin to know. But, be assured of this: You and I cannot out give God. His blessing to us will be greater than whatever we give up to obey him. One of the greatest blessings is this matter of knowing that you have met the real God and that this “faith-thing” is not imaginary. When we’re out in God’s service, that uncertainty hardly occurs to us.

Edie Nelson, our missionary to Thailand, pointed this out to me. She said, “I keep hearing that many people who go to church in America have doubts about whether it’s all real and whether they belong to God. If there are people at LAC who have those doubts, send them over here to serve these beautiful people – to help them get out of the slavery of trafficking and to tell them about the love and forgiveness of Jesus. Have them see what God does when they serve and they’ll never doubt again.” What a blessing.

We may never know God’s blessing because we’re still living for ourselves. God is real. He is at work in this world and ready to work both in and through you. But be assured of this, when you let God come in, he will send you out and use you to bring his glory to the world.