Going, Not Knowing

I want you to take your Bibles and jump into Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

It is my honor, my privilege to be preaching this morning.

And I don't take that lightly because you got a man of God that shares the truth week in and week out.

Dr.

Lovett, if you're watching with fervor and passion, and uh it's an honor.

In Genesis chapter 12, I want to start you in a study called Friends with God.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Friends with God.

And as you're turning there, a while ago there was a man who was head football coach at UCLA named Pepper Rogers.

Some of you hardcore football fans may remember that name.

It was during the 1970s while he was coaching the team that he came under intense criticism and pressure from all kinds of outlets.

Things got so bad that Pepper Rogers said friends became hard to find.

He said one night to his wife, I feel like my dog is my only true friend.

And he said, Baby, it's not fair.

Every man should have at least two real friends.

Pepper's wife went out the next day and came home to his surprise.

She bought him a second dog.

I kind of want to propose to you through this series, there was a book that I read not real long ago by Kyle Eidelman entitled Fake Fan or Follower.

Maybe you've read that.

And the book in it, it proposes that you're one of those three things in your walk with Jesus Christ.

Either you say you are, but you're really not living it out.

You'd be a fake.

Or you're a fan.

You like attending.

You like going to the game.

You'll cheer others on in their walk for Christ.

You like the way it sounds to be a Christian.

You'll even identify with it.

But to give all is not where you are.

And so then we have the follower, which is a person who would say that they're sold out for Jesus Christ.

To live as Christ and to die as game.

They are living for Christ and they're following him with all their heart.

But I want to propose that there might be one more thing that's missing from that, a deeper level, something with more intimacy.

And I believe that can be found as we search the next four weeks through four secrets found in the life of Abraham.

And I believe that that secret is friendship with God.

And so in Genesis chapter 12, before we dig into this study today, the first secret today is faith.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

I want you to understand that the secret today is faith makes us friends with God.

But before we dig in, we've got to understand that Abraham was indeed God's friend.

And so that's the first point we have.

You can jump right into your outline.

Abraham was God's companion.

And Scripture confirms that to be true.

If you look in Scripture, James chapter 2, verse 23 says, and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

James 2:23

And he was called the friend of God.

If you turn over, you don't have time, but the scripture in Isaiah 41, 8 says, But you, O Israel, are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham, my friend.

And then one more scripture that confirms their relationship.

In 2 Chronicles 20, verse 7, it says, Are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend, forever.

2 Chronicles 20:7

And so we see three different instances here where different writers confirm that Abraham was truly God's companion, his friend.

Not only does Scripture confirm this friendship, but there are hints found in happenings of Scripture.

So letter B here is there's supporting evidence that confirms their friendship.

If you're in Genesis 12, you can look at verse 7, and it says this is the first time something happens in all scripture.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram.

Hang on to that.

This is the first time in the Bible that we see an appearance of God.

The Lord appeared not to Adam, not to Cain or Abel, not to Noah.

Methuselah, bless him.

969 years, he didn't get an appearance of God.

But God appeared for the very first time in Scripture to Abraham.

And so we see supporting evidence of their friendship.

In Genesis 18, this would be interesting for you if you have a second to turn over here.

We're going to learn a little bit more about this in the weeks to come.

But in Genesis 18, you see God conversating with himself in Scripture.

It's interesting.

Genesis 18, verse 17, God is getting ready to throw down fire on the evil that is in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 18:17

And he's having this sort of conversation, and look what it says.

It says, And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?

And so the Lord, speaking to himself, confirms that he is going to tell Abraham secrets.

I remember when Heather started telling me secrets.

That was a prestigious position.

See, I was in a relationship with her long before she was ever in one with me.

She didn't know it, but we were together.

I had a lot of convincing to do, but when she started sharing secrets, I knew I was in the inner circle.

I knew it was more.

It was about to get to where I knew it was already.

And so Abraham is told secrets from the Lord.

And the Lord goes on to tell him what he's about to do.

And so we see evidence that this was a real friendship.

This was a real companionship.

And it's not the only time in Scripture that we see Moses loved God so much and he asked to see him.

And God through the cleft of the rock shows his glory to him.

So we see a sense of friendship in that relationship.

But there is nowhere else in Scripture where God calls a man his friend.

And so this is really interesting.

And I think in the next four weeks, as we look through these secrets, there is no doubt that Abraham was God's friend.

But how did that even get started?

How did a man become God's friend?

Look at Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

And I want to read to you where this gets started.

And it says, Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great.

And you will be a blessing.

I'll bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Let me pray.

Father, bless your scripture, your word.

Hide me, Lord, and get me out of the way.

Speak to hearts today, Lord.

I pray that you would draw people closer, Lord, to you so that they can know the intimacy of a friendship with you, God.

It has to be more.

So, Lord, open our hearts and our eyes to these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And so the second point you have on your outline this morning is this Abraham was chosen by God.

So how did this friendship happen?

First of all, he was just chosen.

Where was he chosen from?

Letter A under that is he was chosen out of wickedness.

He was, and in Genesis chapter 11, we see this buildup, and it's the story of the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

The next thing we see in chapter 12 is this introduction to Abraham.

And so, out of Babel there was a man named Nimrod who led a revolt, a rebellion of an entire nation, and they begin at the Tower of Babel to try to establish this man-made, self-sufficient, self-made religion.

It's really humanism, and their goal was to build a tower to ascend to the heavens, to build a tower to make them God like.

Maybe you're like me and you're asking yourself as you read this, who are these idiots?

They're building themselves a tower and they're saying, we don't need God.

We have intelligence.

Sound familiar?

Technology, science, and reason.

We don't need God.

And it says in Genesis 11 that because of their building up, they brought down the punishment of God.

They're trying to build up, they're seeking to make a name for themselves.

They want religion, church.

Listen, but they don't want God.

It's a sad place that people get in.

They want habits, they want tradition, they want religious structure, but they don't want God.

They are sizing themselves up to see how they compare to Almighty God.

I used to substitute teach when I was in Connorsville, Indiana, and uh one day when I came into the classroom, when you're substitute teaching, if anybody does that, it's not the greatest gig in the world.

I'm just going to tell you.

You come into an environment that a teacher works for a long time to make stable, and when they see you, it's like fresh meat.

So I know that I look imposing to you all.

So this kid walks in, he's bigger than me in the seventh grade, and he comes in and he look he literally sizes me, he looks me up and down in front of my face.

He's like, hmm.

He said, uh, I'm not gonna have much problems, am I, in this class.

I said, what?

He said, you know, if I kind of get out of hand or just talk a lot or do whatever I want, I look at this kid, you know, and I'm like, I don't think we're gonna have that issue.

I try to, you know, give him my best.

That was my best at that moment.

We're not gonna have that issue, punk.

Okay?

And so I say this, and I go on to teaching the lesson, and there was a um, there was a helper in the class, and um, I don't know why she didn't teach it, and I was the helper, but anyway, so I'm in the class and the aid's in there, and I'm going through stuff, and all of a sudden the aide swings around as I'm teaching, and she goes, Who did that?

And and I had seen it flying through the air.

Okay.

He throws one of them little pink rubber erasers, hits her, whoosh, and like I kind of wanted to laugh, but I knew I, you know, I shouldn't.

And so in that moment, I'm like, I gotta do something.

This is, you know, this is my time, and so I grab a chair.

I don't even know what I'm gonna do, but I grab the chair and I drag it across the floor.

Boom! And they're in the middle of an assignment, and and I sit it down, I smack it like that next to him, and he's sitting there, and I look at him and I'm like, You're gonna do your work now, aren't you?

And he's like, Yeah, yeah, I'm doing it.

I didn't have another problem from this kid, but I remember vividly this kid sizing me up to figure out is he gonna get to do whatever he wants to do, or is he not?

And that's the situation.

These guys, they did not want a God.

They wanted their own way, they wanted their own beliefs, they wanted to do what they want to do.

And more than that, if you look into where, just a little bit before that, you see where Abraham is from in Genesis chapter 11, 27 through 32.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

We don't have time, but he's from a town called Ur, and Ur at that time was the epicenter of idolatry.

Man, that's two strikes.

He just came out of the Tower of Babel, this paganism, and now he's from a town named, and you see in Joshua 22 that his family does worship idols.

Abraham wasn't like the one church family that was held back, and he's really godly.

Like it says that his father was involved in idolatry.

And so we see that Tara, his dad, was involved in that.

And in this passage, idolatry and Ur represents something that we deal with.

It represents worldliness.

They live in worldliness.

And if that couldn't all be bad enough, where they live represents idolatry, but the God that they worship is the moon God.

You want to know what his name is?

Sin.

Their God's name is sin.

So you tell me if the God that you're worshiping is named Sin, maybe it's time to recalculate the plan.

Okay?

They're worshiping a God named Sin.

It's time to formulate something else.

John 15 says this, church.

If you are friends with the world, and Ur here represents worldliness, if you are friends with the world, you're an enemy of God.

So God says to them, get out, Abraham.

You've got to get out.

You've got to get out of this wickedness.

You've got to get out, church, of that pit.

You've got to get out of that empty black hole, out of that miry clay, that foundation of sand, that sin-sick state.

You've got to get out, out of Babel and out of Ur and into what he calls Abraham to.

And it's letter B here, into grace.

You see, God just chose Abraham.

We kind of try to dig into it and find out why, but he just chose him.

And grace, God calls him to grace.

Grace is channeled by our secret faith.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says it.

For by grace are you saved through anybody know?

Faith.

First is grace, though don't miss that.

That's important.

It's first God's grace.

We don't get to have faith if we don't first receive God's grace.

And so, for by his grace, we're saved through faith.

And Hebrews 11, 8 says this about faith, about Abraham's faith, and this is the title of the message.

And he went out in faith, not going, but not knowing.

So God has this call for him, and that's what faith is.

He's going, but he doesn't know where.

He's going, and that's what faith is.

The Bible says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is not what we can calculate, not what we can make logic of.

It's what we can't see, but we believe.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 7, we live by faith, not by sight.

That is the walk of a Christian.

Is it me?

Or does it just make sense?

For a person to be friends with God, they have to have faith.

You don't see him.

You haven't felt him.

If you have, please tell me.

I want to hear the story.

But he is a supernatural deity in the heavens, and you have to have faith to be friends with this God.

You have to believe.

And let me just say something off the co here on the side.

You have faith.

Okay?

When you get down to the creation, evolution at the beginning of all things, you're placing your faith somewhere.

Either you believe in God with intelligent design, or you believe in nothing that had designed things.

So you have faith.

It's where you want to place it.

You have faith.

And so it says, by faith, Abraham went.

And then it says in Hebrews 11 in the hall of faith, he went, and by faith he believed God.

Somebody say to the person next to you, the secret is faith.

Go ahead.

That's the secret.

It's faith.

He believed God.

Abraham was living in an idolatrous, sinful, wicked land, and God dipped his hand into that hole of sinfulness from heaven and by grace, and he just chose Abram.

Isn't that your story?

Church?

Come on.

Wasn't that your story?

I was blissfully ignorant, living in my sin.

And God reached down.

Listen, he decided.

I didn't decide first.

He decided.

Isn't that our story?

You say, Oh, I love God, Pastor.

You love, but the scripture says, I love because he first loved me.

That's what happened.

Thank God for his grace.

We love him, but it's his grace that channels our faith.

You can have faith because of his grace.

The hymn writers said it this way.

Wonderful grace of Jesus.

It's greater than all my sin.

How shall my tongue describe it?

Where shall its praise begin?

Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching the most defiled, by its transforming power, making him God's dear child, purchasing peace in heaven for all eternity.

The wonderful grace of Jesus, it reaches me.

Newton said it this way about his grace.

Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

That's what's happening to Abram.

He just believed.

The hymns at Calvary says, Oh, that love that drew salvation's plan.

Oh, the grace that brought it down to man.

Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary.

Mercy there was great, and grace was free.

Oh, the secret church is faith.

But it is for by grace through faith.

It's him first, then us.

He called Abram out of wickedness, and that's his call for us.

He says, just get out of that place.

Get out of worldliness.

Get out of where you are.

Get unstuck.

Get your feet on the solid rock.

So grace we see is channeled by faith.

The second thing is it's channeled by his sovereignty.

What does that mean?

Sovereignty answers the question, why Abraham, though?

I get that it's his grace and it's through faith.

But why Abraham?

And it's God's sovereignty.

Sovereignty defined as basically God's ultimate power or God's ultimate purposes.

And this one we don't like, but scripture says his ways are above our ways, his thoughts above our thoughts.

There are things that our human mind just aren't going to understand.

Why did Abraham get to be God's friend?

I don't know.

It was by his grace.

And he chose and decided, but Abraham does have a part, we'll see.

But he just dipped his hand into that sinful place where I can't hardly believe that maybe was there anybody godly.

But he chose that in his sovereignty.

God chose him because he wanted him.

Aren't you glad God wanted you?

I'm so glad my Savior wanted me.

His sovereignty answers why you.

When I think about God's sovereign hand in my story, I can't even hardly believe the things that's happened in my life.

My father was saved in detox when I was four or five years old.

I didn't know the life that I should have known or maybe would have known.

I was in high school and I had an opportunity to go play baseball at a public high school.

I'd been in a Christian school.

And I made the decision for the wrong reason, but I stayed at that Christian school because I liked a girl.

But God had a sovereign plan, you see.

I don't, I have no idea what I would have got into.

I'm telling you, I was on that fence, though, y'all that have been a teenager.

I could have jumped and I could have ran the other way.

But God's sovereign plan.

And then God called me to go to the school, Tennessee Temple.

And that was my, I went to camp, my senior year of high school, and his sovereign hand took me to that camp because I didn't need to go.

I could have made money all that week.

I had a job.

But I went.

That's why I love camp.

I'll give you my camp commercial.

I love camp.

And God just got a hold of my heart and I surrendered.

I said, God, if you want me to go in ministry, if you whatever, just tell me, I'm sick of this.

I said, I'll do whatever you want me to do at this as a senior in God's sovereign hand.

He took me to Tennessee.

I had one college thing on my dresser, Tennessee Temple Union.

The only thing, I don't know if mom threw the rest away, but I thought, well, here's the one that's here.

Must be God.

I hadn't taken an ACT, SAT.

A guy was talking about a camp this week that he had his, he had his doctorate, but never had he graduated from high school.

Well, I made it to college.

I was in classes, had never taken an ACT or SAT.

I don't know how, don't ask me.

It's a real certificate in my office, okay?

I have the thing.

But God took me there in his sovereign plan.

He took a girl who is at Liberty, the greatest university in the world right now for Christians, and pulled her out because her aunt became dean of women, and suddenly I meet my wife to be God's sovereign hand.

Isn't he sovereign in your plan?

How did you meet your girl?

How did you get where you are?

He says, I don't know why I got to have that, but man, I'm thankful.

And so God sovereignly did that, and then he decided to take us to Indiana through a pastor I met in Delaware.

And we had 10 years of ministry there.

It was amazing the time we had there.

And God said, Go on a mission trip to Alabama.

I'm like, I never even stepped foot in this place.

They're not going to receive a Yankee.

I'm so confused.

Roll Eagle.

I don't know what I am anymore.

But I know God's sovereign plan was on it, and I love where He's allowed me to be.

He's sovereign in your story.

I don't know why Abraham got to be God's friend.

But God chose, I know that's true.

Ephesians 1, 4 says, according, listen, as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.

Now there's another man in scripture.

God chose Isaiah.

God did not direct his call to Isaiah, though.

Listen, Isaiah overheard God saying, Who will go for us?

And the call of God is not just for a select few, church.

You've been chosen, but have you been called?

The call of God's for everyone.

Whether I hear God's call or not depends on the condition of my ears.

And exactly what I hear depends on my spiritual attitude.

God chose Abraham, and then number three, he called Abraham.

And we see that it said, Now the Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

And so we see God's call to Abraham.

He calls him, letter A, under that, to be separated from the world.

He says, Leave your country, leave worldliness.

We already talked about some of this, but 1 John 2.15 says, Do not love the world, neither the things of the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Listen, he has a purpose for every person in this place, and a destination for every person, and a call.

But he cannot show it to you if you will not leave the world.

If you're friends with the world, you have enmity with God.

Worldliness represents attitudes and actions that will leave God out.

That's basically worldliness.

Whatever you go after, that will leave God out.

And you can fill in the blank with whatever that is.

There's a lot of good things that are worldly things.

And we probably don't struggle on our knees before idols truly, but the idols we have look like good things in our country today.

Making our way, getting our money, getting our place, doing the next thing, being a whatever you gotta fill in the blank there.

But he said, leave your country.

He has a destination for you.

This means, if worldliness means attitudes and actions leave God out, that means your affections are not on God.

In fact, one way I talk to Christians about to know whether or not they're growing is your passions for the world begin to wane.

If you want to know if you're growing as a Christian, the things that you always loved and the worldly pools will begin to lessen.

It's natural.

And the passions for the things of God will begin to dig in deeper.

It's like Jason shared.

As a Christian, I gotta be hungry for his word.

If I have zero hunger for his word, either I don't know him, or I'm loving a lot on worldliness.

I'm focusing my eyes on something that's not meant for me.

And so I there's some things I just don't desire.

I'm 37 years old.

I don't desire to be drunk.

Anybody with me?

I don't desire that feeling.

I don't desire the buzz or the high or the feeling.

I picture people that I know that are my age that are going to clubs.

And I'm like, that's a bunch of ridiculous.

If you wanted to see a good joke, it'd be me going to a club at 37.

You want to see these moves?

I'd have to be drunk, first of all.

I have no desire.

That sounds unbelievably stupid to me.

I can't even picture that.

But there's people with desires that maybe you have as a teenager, and it just keeps going.

I don't have the desire.

I don't want to cuss nobody out.

I really don't.

I don't have that desire.

Because God has changed me.

Now, every now and then I might want to say a word, but I don't want to cuss somebody out.

I don't want somebody to think that of me.

I don't need that in my mouth.

But man, as a teenager, I was stupid about it.

I just said whatever came to mind.

Okay?

I know that God has changed me.

He's called me to be separate, different.

Well, he says, leave your country, be separate.

Then he says, leave your people.

Well, how's that different?

He says, leave your people.

The people of Ur were the Chaldeans.

And what that means is, so to say, to leave the social and environmental situation that seeks to conform you.

Paul said it this way: be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

The groups in your life that keep you from God.

This is a tougher one.

Okay, well, I can leave worldliness, but I gotta leave my friend group too.

Not everybody's good for you, church.

You can be friendly to everyone.

Hear me?

You can be friendly to everyone and anyone and should be friendly.

You don't have to be friends with everyone.

You don't have to be in a group with everyone.

Not everyone's good for the purpose that God's called to your life.

You be friendly, and it'll change people's lives.

But you don't have to have everyone at your house for dinner.

Y'all hearing me?

Not everybody's good for you.

So he says, leave the world.

He says, leave your people.

Then he says, leave your father's house.

What does that mean?

Theologians say it this way that we have an Adamic nature from Adam.

That is this house that we live in.

God calls us to leave this house, this flesh.

No dependence on me, no dependence on my natural man and my natural resources.

God can do through us what we can't do for ourselves.

Now, some of you, church, it'll be a hard battle to leave.

But unless we leave the old, we will never discover the destiny that's in the new life.

So the question for you today is this what do you want?

What do you really want?

Do you want to be close to God?

Because the formula is not magic.

It's pretty black and white.

But do you want it?

Because you will do what you want to do.

It's funny.

People will show up for things they love.

And it just shows.

I've been involved with sports most of my life.

And I've been involved with church for most of my life.

And people will tell me, I can't possibly wake up for that nine o'clock Sunday school.

I'm like, you're a grown person, first of all.

You have a college degree, second of all.

Like, how did you get to that point?

You can't possibly.

You won't.

Why?

Because you don't love it.

But you can get up for the Auburn or the Alabama game and be there for the walk out, whatever it is, and not miss the Tiger.

You know, people can do those things.

But we can't make it to the Sunday school because that's my time.

Like one hour less?

I mean, come on.

You do what you want to do.

He says, lead that flesh.

Some of us will have a battle.

But what do you want?

God's call is to be separate.

Let it be of that is to be sanctified.

Because the scripture says we are in the world, but we are not of the world.

So because we are in the world, we are going to go through stuff.

And he says to Abraham here in the scripture, he says, Go get out of your country, leave.

So the first thing we see to be sanctified, we have to leave security.

Picture Abraham here.

Abraham is 75 years of age.

Not the best time for a relocation.

Right?

He's 75.

It's time for a new start.

He starts packing.

And the neighbors come over.

Hey, Abraham, what are you doing?

Oh, I'm just moving.

Where are you going?

I don't know.

But I'm going.

Sarah comes out.

She's like, Abraham, where are we going?

I don't know, Sarah.

Just pack the mule.

But where are we going?

I don't know.

I told you, I don't know.

I don't know where we're going.

Just don't forget my sandals.

Where are we going?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Everything we know, Abraham, is right here.

It's where we've been our whole life.

What do you mean?

I don't know, but we're going.

Hebrews 11.

By faith, Abraham went out not knowing where he was going.

Most of us operate like this.

See if this is true of you.

Like, God, tell me where you want to take me, then I'll let you know if I'm going.

God, you go ahead and tell me where you want to take me because Africa's off the list.

You know, there's other countries.

I ain't going to God.

You know, there's things off the list.

West Coast, come on, Lord, they're so liberal.

God, and you know this.

Tell me where you want to take me, and then I'll let you know if I'll start packing.

So Abraham's packing and he's going.

He doesn't know where he's going.

And God calls us to leave that security.

Listen, this life is not about security.

He says, leave, secondly, solace.

In America, we love the idea of comfort.

I think comfort's a God for us.

We just love the idea.

Growing up, I was taught that comfort was this big deal thing because my dad had a recliner.

And I wasn't allowed in it.

Because I had not earned my way to comfort.

I had to sit on the stiff old brown couch.

But dad was always in the recliner.

And you know how it is.

I go over to dad, I try to take the remote out of his hand when he fell asleep.

I'm watching that show.

Don't mess with me when I'm in my recliner.

And so when I grew up, got married, I dreamed of the day that I would get a recliner.

Because it meant comfort, it meant I was the king.

It meant I had reached the epitome of success.

And the funny thing is, we bought a piece of furniture from the moving company I used to work for.

And we had it in the house, and somebody didn't pay their storage bill.

It was brand new, so we got this piece of furniture.

I paid$35 for a brand new, I forget, Broy Hill, something.

It was nice.

Anyway, it rocked.

Well, we had the thing for four years, and I'm messing around underneath of it and getting stuff.

And I look underneath and I'm like, You won't believe this?

I pull out, there's there's hardware, and it has reclining things to put in.

I'm like, all this time I never knew.

We pulled the arms out.

Now I can recline.

And it's not just one, it's two of them.

Kids, you're not allowed on either.

I lay down and recline everything.

But I had reached comfort.

Listen, I'm not preaching against your vacation.

I'm not preaching against you having good times.

What I am preaching against is that's not the goal.

That is the world's goal.

But God said to me, to live is Christ.

He said, I die daily.

1 Corinthians, listen to this.

1 Corinthians 15, 58 says this: Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Say always abounding.

Always abounding is not a vacation.

He said, If you do this, then your labor will not be in vain.

God will bless you, but the faith journey, listen, is not a call to recline and decline.

That is not the call.

He calls him to leave solace.

And letter C under that is to be a spiritual blessing.

This gets down to what he says will happen if he leaves.

He said, I'll make you a great nation in verse 2.

Bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I'll bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you, and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed.

And so we see he calls Abram to a spiritual blessing, to be a blessing.

Part of that, the first thing about that is a national blessing.

He said, I'm going to give you a great name.

Don't miss the importance and the depth of this statement.

His wife, Sarah, if you do not know, was barren.

Sarah could not produce children up to this point in their life.

And God says to Abraham, I am going to make your descendants like the stars of the sky.

Don't miss the miraculousness of this statement.

Barrenness was a great disgrace to a lady during this time.

I'm not sure from looking back, this may be the first account we see of it.

But it was a great disgrace grace, and oftentimes throughout the Bible, a man would divorce a woman if she could not bear him children.

And God said to them, Abram, I am going to bless you, and the number of children you have are going to be like the myriad of stars in the sky.

You won't be able to count the blessing.

And church, let me tell you about our blessings that God gives us when we leave whatever we're holding on to in worldliness.

He blesses us that way.

Count his many blessings, the song says.

First, it's a national blessing.

Then the second part of that blessing is personal.

It includes gain.

If you look in Genesis 13, it says this.

Then Abraham, he went up from Egypt with his wife and all that he had and lot with him into Sarah.

And verse 2, Abraham was rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

God included a personal blessing.

God, listen, church, God does not condemn wealth.

But he doesn't put wealth on some pedestal either.

People work hard.

The Bible says, to whom much is given, much is required.

But it also includes within that personal blessing what I believe is the greatest blessing, which is, this is a mouthful, the chance to be a blessing.

The glory of being used by God as an instrument to bless others.

Don't you want to be used?

Don't you want somebody to need you?

Don't you want to be involved in helping change life?

When I stand up here and watch these testimonies, it's like my cup overfloweth.

I can't hardly take.

I want them to keep talking, but I almost can't take it.

I want to cry.

I'm the crier.

It's beautiful to be able to be used of God.

But it also included a national, a personal, and an international blessing.

I don't know if you understand this, but there's three major world religions that look back to Abraham as their father.

Christianity, all the Jewish people, Judaism, and the Islam faith.

All the Muslims.

They believe from Ishmael, which is part of the story.

Abraham tries to make it work with his handmaiden because him and Sarah hadn't had babies, and they have this child through the handmaid, and it produced Ishmael.

And that is the father of the Islamic people.

And so all of these major religions point back to one guy.

This international blessing.

Listen, he was called to be separated, sanctified, and to be a spiritual blessing.

Just like this, there was a violinist named Nicholas Paganini, great violinist who took his violin and willed it to the city of Genoa.

On a condition that this violin, that they would display it, and that nobody would ever play it.

Now, there was something he didn't understand.

The wood of an instrument like this, while used and handled, just wears slightly.

But when you set it aside, it immediately begins to decay rapidly.

Be a blessing, church.

Y'all understand the picture here?

Don't sit on the sideline lines.

Don't come in and be a fan.

Be a follower.

Be a friend of Jesus and be used.

Be a blessing.

It began to decay rapidly because it wasn't being used.

I want to tell you, you've got a purpose and a call on your life.

Be used.

By faith, Abraham took God at his word, and he would go on to receive that blessing.

And we're going to see, but it didn't all happen immediately.

He would have his faith challenged.

And that's our fourth point.

Abraham was faced with great challenges.

A faith we've heard the pastor say that cannot be tested, cannot be trusted.

John Piper says this my trials grounded my faith in ways that prosperity and abundance never could.

Maybe you didn't catch it, I'm going to say it again.

My trials grounded my faith in ways that prosperity and abundance never could.

Not every blessing looks like a blessing.

Some blessings are a challenge.

Abraham was faced with great challenges.

We see here, letter let our number four, the great challenges.

We see underneath that letter A, he had a midpoint detour.

In verses four and five, we catch up with Abraham.

He departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.

And Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Aaron.

I want you to hold that.

You could read that.

And here's the writing style here is important.

You'll see writers in scripture say things that are kind of a big deal if you're reading and looking for a detail, but it wasn't a big deal in the sense of the big picture.

He says that he stopped in Haran and he gives Abraham's age.

And it's not a big deal to the big story, but in the story, he's in Heron.

God calls him to go to Canaan.

He stops in Heron and he's there for 25 years.

Would you call 25 years a long time not going where you're supposed to be going?

It's a small detail because he wants to tell you the big deal that's coming, but he stops there.

This is for the person here today that surrendered.

You said yes to the God of the call of God and you didn't know how.

But somehow along the way, you got a detour.

You got off track.

Might be that people here family persuaded you to stay.

Might be that you were getting ready to leave that country.

I don't know why Abraham stopped here.

We know that his brother died.

His brother is Haran, and he decided to stop there, and that he lives there till his father passes.

God said, Get out of your country, and he said, Your father's house.

He was leaving the country.

Pack it up, Sarah, we're going.

And he didn't know where he was going, but along the way, he said, My family's going to come with me.

And so we see this detour.

And Haran, he is there with Tarah, his father.

And after Tarah dies, that's when we see Abraham continues.

The theologians believe that was about a 25-year detour.

So that's the first thing we see.

We see this detour.

The second thing, letter B, is a test in disappointment.

So if you'll go on down to verse number 10.

So Abraham is going.

And then verse 10, we hit this.

Now there was a famine in the land.

And Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there.

So he's going, he's headed.

His dad passes, and we'll get back to it in verses kind of six through eight.

He stops, he makes a monument to God, puts a tent there, he makes an altar there.

But then disappointment happens.

Immediately we see a test.

And it makes me think I've got friends right now.

God opened a door immediately, a good door for them.

And then a disappointment happens.

Have you ever walked through a door you knew was God's door, and then there's a disappointment to follow?

It's like it takes the wind out of your sails.

God wants to test us.

A famine is caused by a lack of hydration to the land, but as writers would have it, sometimes it's a punishment for disobedience, sometimes it's a test.

Listen, Christian, there's just going to be times in your life where there may be drought.

And God wants to test your faith.

There's people right in this building now that have a famine.

I'm sure of it.

God's wanting to test your faith.

You know, this is the first mention of famine in Scripture.

Abraham, who just answered God's call, his call, he doesn't get it right.

He believes God has faith, but when disappointment strikes, and that's what I think happens to a lot of Christians, there's a statistic now that says that there's 40-ish percent of Christians who believed in God that are not attending church anywhere.

I forget the name.

They gave it a name.

It's like they've given up on it.

Disappointment struck, and then the call of God in their life was put to the back shelf.

And some of you are here, and some of your testimony, I'm so thankful for our church.

Some of your testimony is I was away from God and I met this church, and something about it drew me back.

There was people, there was the love of God.

I'm so thankful for that.

But that's why it's important for you to keep living your life of faith.

It's so important to become more than a follower of God, to be intimate.

Why?

Because when famine strikes, you want a friend.

Psalms 33, 18 says this about famine.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him and on those who hope in his mercy to deliver them from death and to keep them alive in famine.

Psalms 37 19 says, And in the days of famine they will be able to be satisfied.

CCW, God has a call, but he wants to know that when it gets hard or Difficult, you're not going to turn your back.

He wants to know that you're going to get your food from the bread of life.

He wants to know that you will hunger and thirst after righteousness.

He wants you to, as Scripture says, as the deer panteth for the water, your soul will long for him.

That is intimacy.

It takes faith.

It takes trust.

Think about it.

What helps difficulty for you more than that friend you can throw your head on their shoulder?

Think about the friends God's given you in your life.

When you can cry on the one that loves you in your difficulty, no answer, no prescription, no pill, nothing helps more than that friend.

Callie has a new little puppy.

And we took her to the vet, and I kind of mentally knew what was coming.

We knew she had to get shots.

But they began to.

It's so little, it's the cutest little thing.

It's a teacup Yorkie, and it will steal your soul.

My wife has never cared about an animal that I know of, and this thing gets up in the bed, lays on her soul, and sleeps.

Okay?

This is like we've had it three weeks.

I'm like, what is happening?

For all the life I've known these people, I don't know what's going on in my life.

So we take this cute thing.

I'm telling you, it's just like that big.

It hops like a bunny.

So we get in there, and the doctor's going through something and testing it, and the dog goes, you know, yelps.

He gets her.

And Callie just, I'm sitting next to her, and her head just flops down on me.

And she's just crying.

Because, you know, her baby's hurting.

But I'm consoling my baby.

What is better than that moment when you're going through something and you have that?

Right?

That's what God is.

We run to so many other things, but that's who he is.

He created you for a relationship.

That's what he wanted with you.

He wants you.

And he wants to be that father.

The Bible says it, the Abba, Daddy.

That's what he is.

But we get some disappointments.

And where do we turn?

You see, Abraham kind of failed in this area.

He ran down to Egypt.

And we don't have time to go through the scripture, but let her see under that.

It's a time of deception and discipline.

Abraham gets into Egypt and he's before the Pharaoh.

And you can read it in your time.

It's verses kind of 10 through 20 there.

But he takes his wife and she's beautiful, and he's walking her through there.

And he makes a plan in his mind.

He says, I gotta get past this.

And so he takes her and he says, Sarah, please tell him you're my sister, which was just a half-lie because they were kind of half siblings.

But he says, just tell him that.

And so he does, and he goes in with her, and when it gets down to it, he's reprimanded by the king because God, who supers even when we try to make plans.

Somebody say amen.

Even when we try to do it on our own, he supersedes and sees where we are.

He still loves that we listen to his call.

God intervenes and he sends a plague on the Pharaoh.

And the Pharaoh wakes up and says, What is all this?

He figures out what's happened and he says, Why did you tell me she was your sister?

I could have taken her to be my wife.

Why did you do this?

And he says, Go on your way.

He doesn't want any more messing around with this plague.

And so it's a time of deception and discipline.

He lies, he's been reprimanded.

But the point there, the key for me, is that the Lord had not forgotten Abraham.

And listen, he never forgets you.

And so we see the exciting part next.

A return, letter D, to destiny.

I'm going to read verses one through four again, then in chapter 13.

Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot and with him to the south.

Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

And he went on his journey from the south.

Listen to this.

As far as Bethel.

That's verses six through nine in chapter 12.

He went to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning.

Between Bethel and Ai.

Listen to this.

To the place of the altar which he had made there at first.

And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

Abraham returns back to his destiny.

I don't know what happened in them 25 years.

I know that he hit a detour, and I know that there was disappointment that followed when he hit that famine, and he decided to take his family into Egypt, but something snapped.

He got a word from the Lord.

I don't know what happened, but he went back to the first place.

He went back to the call of God.

He went back, listen, church, to the altar that he had built.

He got on his knees before the Lord.

Listen, in Revelation, it says that the church had left its first love.

And it gives us a formula.

It says, they're doing good, they're loving, and they're kind, and people are seeing them as the type of church that they should be, and they stand up for the right things, but they left that first love of God.

Have you ever been to that place?

You've said or prayed the prayer, oh God, restore to me the joy of my salvation.

There's some people in here, I'm just going to say it, that I hadn't hardly seen them smile.

There's some church folk here that you asked them anything, and you never hear anything's great.

Like, how was this?

How was that?

Okay.

They got the like the Eeyore complex, it was alright.

Like, I would take the Pastor Danny version.

If he's eaten anything, it's the best thing he ever had in his life, which you know isn't quite, you know, but this lasagna's amazing, you know.

And then as people, it was alright.

I'm like, good grief.

God's but this is what he says, and and because God calls that lukewarmity, he hates it.

And he says, Remember your first works, repent and return to what it was.

That's the formula.

And so Abraham took a step of faith back to the altar.

There's some folks here today.

Maybe you just need to get down here before God.

He went back to the altar.

He took a step of faith back.

And then he called on God.

Someone needs to return by faith.

Listen, Genesis 15, Romans 4, Galatians 3, all say this about Abraham.

That faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

A few translations state it this way: that Abraham believed.

His secret.

This faith secret was that he believed that what God said was true, and by faith he took him at his word.

You today may need to really believe.

Maybe you need a gut check inside and say, I say I believe, but my steps haven't showed that I really have faith and believe.

Maybe you need to come get back with God, cry out to him like Abraham.

Maybe you've had disappointment.

Maybe you've had famine.

Maybe you've had a detour.

But God is still right there.

He chose you and he called you.

Her name was Dorothy.

Dorothy was living a great life until one day her world got flipped upside down by a tornado.

Dorothy found herself in a magical place.

But she had a problem when she got to that place.

She had no idea how to get back home.

And so as she began walking her path, someone told her, if you will just get to the Wizard of Oz, he can tell you everything you need to know to get back to where you need to be.

And so she said, Now the secret is just follow the yellow brick road.

And so Dorothy began.

She followed the yellow brick road.

She followed, she even began a song about it.

She said, I'll follow the yellow brick road.

I'll follow, she got a pep in her step.

I'll follow the yellow brick road.

Along a yellow brick road, she met some other people that had a mess in their life.

She met a lion who was scared to death.

And she met a tin man and a straw man and I don't remember all their problems.

They all had problems.

She said, Let's make a small group.

She said, You got problems, and I got problems.

Let's join together and make a CCW small group.

And what we'll do, we'll talk about our problems and then we'll follow the yellow brick road together.

And so that's what they did.

They followed, but on that yellow brick road, guess what happened?

Problems struck.

There was monkeys, flying monkeys, crazy monkeys, monkeys coming out of everywhere.

They were following the yellow brick road, but monkeys were getting in their way.

But they kept marching forward.

And they finally, as they met together, they got to the Wizard of Oz.

They knew if they could just get to that point.

And the Wizard of Oz said, girl, let me tell you all you have to do.

He said, if you'll just click your heels together three times and make your statement of faith.

If you'll just believe, you'll get back to where you need to be.

And I want to tell you something.

God says this, church, if you'll leave where you are and move towards me, if you will leave the world and live under me and look unto me, the author and finisher of your faith.

If you'll believe in me, I will get you where you need to be.

Except home is not Kansas.

You know, we're all homesick for something.

We're homesick for eternity.

We have a big hole of destiny.

But the only way we can get there is by faith.

The only way we can get to our destiny is by true belief that God has a call for you.

By true faith.

Church, I want to challenge you this morning.

If you could answer this question in truth, have you been friends with God?

Have you been intimate with God?

I mean, you've been deep in his word.

You've been hearing his voice.

Like Jason said, He said, I just yearn to be back in his word.

Have you been close to God?