SERMON: GO TO THE PLACE I WILL SHOW YOU

OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GO SERIES¹

30 July 2017

I.  Introduction

            -- this evening we are continuing in our sermon series, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” where we’re looking at the commands from God in Scripture to “Go,” and considering what would happen if we actually stepped out in faith and committed to doing what God told us to do and going where God called us to go

            -- we started this series by looking at the story of the adulterous woman in John Chapter 8 and considering Jesus’ command to her to “Go and leave your life of sin” -- to “Go and sin no more” -- Last week, we looked at the story of the Good Samaritan and heard Jesus’ command to “Go and do likewise” -- this week, we are going to look at the call on the life of Abram as God spoke to him in Ur and commanded, “Go to the place I will show you”

II.  An Amazing Adventure

            -- let’s look at that passage now -- Genesis 12:1-7

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household 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 went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

      -- when I read this story of Abram, I can’t help but think about the TV show, “The Amazing Race” -- out of all the shows I watch on TV, “The Amazing Race,” is my all-time favorite show

      -- you have seen it -- you know the premise -- it usually starts out with 11 teams of two people who are in some kind of a relationship with each other -- they start out somewhere in the United States and then they are given a clue that tells them where to go next -- and along the way they face challenges and road blocks and detours that they have to solve -- the ultimate reward for winning the race is one million dollars

      -- I think one of the reasons I love this show is that I can live vicariously through the teams as they travel from place to place having great and grand adventures -- I know it is doubtful I will ever travel to Peru or Chile or Argentina or Africa -- so I have to live it out through them and imagine what I would do in their place

      -- at the same time, watching the Amazing Race makes me kind of sad -- I want to travel like them -- I want to do what they're doing -- I told Kim just last night, “I want to go somewhere -- I want to go somewhere different” -- I was looking at these pictures on the internet of Australia and Scandinavia and Europe, and I just had this desire to go -- to travel and go to new places and meet new people and have adventures in distant lands -- to be on a quest like Abram

      -- I felt the same way when I first read the Lord of the Rings and then I feel it again every time I watch the movies -- do you know what my favorite part in the story is? -- it’s not when Frodo throws the One Ring into the fire in Mordor -- it’s not even the great battle of good versus evil or how the Hobbits are applauded at the end as the heroes of the story -- no, my favorite part is at the beginning, when Frodo and Sam set out from the Shire on their quest to bring the one ring to Rivendell -- I so much wanted to go with them -- I just wanted to step out and to do something that mattered -- do you know what I'm talking about?

      -- I believe that God has put this desire in our hearts -- a desire for adventure -- a desire to step out of our humdrum, everyday lives and to be part of a grand adventure -- a great quest -- filled with excitement and danger and with the promise of a great reward at the end -- to help us recognize that we are in the middle of a grand adventure that is bigger than us and we do have an important role to play -- we just have to hear His voice that says, “Go,” and we have to commit to going where He sends

III.  Go to the place I will show you

      -- one thing we need to keep in mind is that when God calls us to “Go” and start this grand adventure, He doesn't always give us all the information up front -- sometimes He just tells us what to do or what is fixing to happen and then He waits until we respond in faith to give us the rest of the answer

      -- look back at verse 1

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

      -- when God first spoke to Abram in the desert of Haran and called him to be the father of a great nation, He commanded him to “Go” with no distinct destination -- God just said, "Get up and Go -- leave your country and go to the land I will show you" -- what this means is that God’s command to “Go” demands a response of obedience and faith on our part

      -- Abram was called to get up and start packing and to actually set out before God would share with him where he was going to go -- Abram was called to show trust and faith in God in response to His call -- Hebrews 11:8 sheds a little more light on this -- it reads, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going"

      -- when God calls and asks you to do something, do you respond in faith and do what He says -- or do you wait for clarification before you start moving? -- what do you think would have happened if Abram had said, "Wait a minute God -- I've got things pretty good here -- I've got all my family and all my things and now you're telling me to pack up and leave without even telling me where I am to go? -- I'm not leaving until I can get good directions"

      -- God's principle is that He calls us to faith and obedience -- not necessarily to knowledge -- sometimes we have to step forward in faith in one area in order to understand why we had to do what He told us to do -- what is God calling you to do right now? -- where is He telling you to go? -- and, here’s the kicker -- are you doing it, or are you waiting for more instructions?

      -- Abram didn't wait -- he was committed to following God and responding to His call to “Go,” even if he didn't understand exactly what was going on -- so in verses 4-6 we see that he took all he had with him -- he took his family -- he took his possessions -- he took everything -- and stepped forward in faith

      -- in verse 2, we see another spiritual principle -- God's calls always come with the promise of a blessing

      -- look back at verse 2-3

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.”

      -- God is telling Abram in this passage that if you respond to my call -- if you do what I say -- then you will be blessed -- and all people on earth will be blessed through you

      -- when you respond in faith to God's call, you will be blessed -- maybe not instantly -- maybe not in the way you expected -- but you will be blessed -- sometimes, it may be years and years before the promised blessing comes to fruition -- but God's word is always true -- if He speaks it, it will come to pass

      -- we live in a microwave age -- we want things done now -- we want to know what we are going to get and when we are going to get it before we'll do anything -- we get mad when our food isn't ready by the time we get to the drive-in window -- we want instantaneous gratification -- but God's principle says that the best blessings take time to develop -- that good things come to those who trust God and go where He commands even as they wait for His promises to be revealed

      -- Abram never saw everything that God promised -- the blessings that were given in this passage -- yes, his name was made great -- he was a blessing to those around him -- from Egypt to Canaan and beyond -- those who blessed Abram were blessed by God -- those who cursed Abram suffered the consequences of their actions -- Abram saw all of these come to pass

      -- but the greatest blessings promised he had to wait on and never saw in his lifetime -- the promise that he would be made into a great nation and that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him -- we see that now in the nation of Israel -- and we realize the blessings of God that came to us through that nation and through Abram -- the blessing of the promised Savior who took away our sin and offered us eternal life

      -- but none of these blessings would have occurred if Abram had not heard and responded to the word of God commanding him to “Go”

            -- one more thing I want you to see before we leave this passage -- look back at verse 4

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

            -- how old was Abram when he heard the command of God to “Go to the place I will show you” and begin this great journey of faith? -- he was 75 years old -- and that goes to show you that sometimes the call to start a new adventure with God -- to hear Him say to you, “Go,” comes later in life

            -- there is no retirement in the life of a Christian -- Abram was 75 years old when he started walking with God -- Moses was 80 when he stood before the burning bush and heard God say, “Go and tell Pharaoh to let My people go” -- even in our day, we see people in their later years responding to God’s command to “Go” -- Corrie ten Boom was in her late 50s when she was called to rescue Jews from the Nazis -- and Mother Teresa continued to minister through her 80s

            -- just because some of us are getting older is no reason for us to think that God’s call has passed -- it could be He is getting ready to use you in a might way right now -- it’s simply a matter of listening for His voice and responding to His command to “Go” when we hear it

            -- you’re never too old for God -- you’re never too old to begin an adventure with Him -- the only thing that can keep you from doing great things for God is an unwillingness to go when He calls

IV.  Closing

      -- Stephen Curtis Chapman has a song about our Christian life called, "The Great Adventure" that I think sums up this idea that God is calling each of us to “Go” and follow Him quite well -- listen to his lyrics as I read them to you

"Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

But I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for

We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams
So saddle up your horses... come on get ready to ride"

      -- we ARE in a great adventure far beyond our wildest dreams -- we just need to open the eyes of our hearts and see the truth of the matter -- to hear God say, “Go,” and to do what He says and start living a life of adventure as God intended

      -- I want to close by sharing with you a few thoughts from the literary genius that we are basing this sermon series on -- I am, of course, talking about Dr. Seuss -- in his book, "And to think I saw it on Mulberry Street," a father tells his son to keep his eyes open when he walks to school and back, because there are great and grand things going on around him every single day

      -- but the son doesn't see with the eyes of his heart -- he only sees the ordinary things of life -- all he saw was a horse and wagon on the street -- so on the way back, he makes up this great imaginary tale of what he could have seen

      -- but at the end of the book, when he comes face-to-face with his father, he has to tell him the truth of what he saw on Mulberry Street -- listen to the close of the story:

      -- "Dad said quite calmly, "Just draw up your stool, and tell me the sights on the way home from school"

      -- "There was so much to tell, I just couldn't begin! -- Dad looked at me sharply and pulled at his chin. -- He frowned at me sternly from there in his seat, "Was there nothing to look at...no people to greet? -- did nothing excite you or make your heart beat?"

      -- "Nothing," I said, growing red as a beet.  "But a plain horse and wagon on Mulberry Street."

      -- at the end of our lives, we are going to stand before our Father and He is going to ask us what we saw on our way home to heaven -- the people we met -- the places we went to -- the adventures that we had

      -- He's going to ask us what we did with our life -- and we're going to have to answer Him truthfully

      -- He has called us to be part of a great adventure -- a great quest -- an amazing race -- He has called us to see through our ordinary lives -- through our day-to-day living -- to the great adventure of life all around us

      -- He has called us to “Go” -- to fight the good fight -- to finish the race -- and to keep the faith

      -- at the end of your life, when you stand before God, what will you say you saw along your path? -- what will you say you did with your life?

      -- every single day of our lives should be an adventure with Christ -- but we have to choose to make it so -- and it begins by hearing the command of God to “Go” and getting up and doing so

      -- let us pray