Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: Abraham is a hero, but Abraham really is not the central figure in the story of Abraham. The central figure is God.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled "Heroes." Let's listen in as JP gives us part one of Abraham.

JP Jones: If you have your Bibles, would you open to Genesis, the first book in the Bible, Genesis chapter 12. We start today our series "Heroes," and we're going to be spending our time in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the Old Testament, looking at the stories of folks who made a difference for God. Ordinary people who made an extraordinary difference because they experienced God and followed God.

We're going to look at these stories from the Hebrew Scriptures about men and women whose lives were not perfect, but from the good and the bad and the ugly of their lives, we can see what it really means to be in a personal relationship with God and how to experience all that God has for us. The first hero that we're going to look at is Abraham.

Now, Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation. He is the example of faith in the Bible, the man of faith who walked with God, and the Bible says that every person who comes to God by faith is a spiritual heir of Abraham. In Genesis chapter 12, we have the call of Abraham, and throughout several chapters in Genesis, we see how Abraham interacted with God.

It says this in Genesis 12:1-8: The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 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. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

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. 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. 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. 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. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

In Genesis chapter 15, the story continues and says, "After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.' But Abram said, 'Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?'

And Abram said, 'You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.' Then the word of the Lord came to him: 'This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.' He took him outside and said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness."

Then in Genesis chapter 17, this covenant promise is ratified by God. It says this: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.

No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God." Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you." And on that very day, Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them as God told him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, and his son Ishmael was thirteen.

Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day, and every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him that day. So Genesis 12 through 15 to 17, and the story continues throughout the book of Genesis. It’s the story of this man Abraham and his immediate descendants and through them the very nation of Israel and the kingdom program of God that we are brought into as believers in Christ, exercising the same kind of faith that characterized Abraham.

Abraham is a hero, but Abraham really is not the central figure in the story of Abraham. The central figure is God. God who chose Abraham. God who made promises to Abraham. God who guided Abraham’s life. God who was faithful to fulfill those promises to Abraham and continues to be faithful in fulfilling the promises originally made to Abraham.

Actually, Abraham’s story goes back before what we looked at in Genesis chapter 11. In Genesis chapter 11, Abraham is introduced to us as part of a family system of a man named Terah who lived in Ur of the Chaldeans. And he moved to Harran, which is on the border of Syria and Turkey. And in Harran, God spoke to Abraham and said, "Leave your people and go to the land that I will give you."

And God makes a promise to Abraham to give him a land, to give him descendants, and to make him a blessing of influence to the very nations. So while we look at the story of Abraham, what we’re really looking at is God who revealed himself to Abraham. In fact, that’s the first thing I want to highlight for us in our study: that God reveals himself and his will.

It is the very nature of God to reveal himself, to make himself known. There is nothing in this account that even tells us that Abraham was seeking God. Abraham started off in Ur of the Chaldeans, and the religion, the worldview of that people was one of pagan idolatry, polytheism. And so we have every reason to believe that Abraham was a polytheist. He believed what the people around him believed. Then he moved to Harran, and it was in Harran that God revealed himself and called him to the land of Canaan.

You see, Abraham’s story is really the story of every man. It’s a story of being on a spiritual journey. You may be this morning in Ur of the Chaldeans. You may be living a life separate from God, just believing whatever everybody else believes here in Orange County, living life the way everybody else lives, following after the gods that everybody else follows after here.

Maybe you’re in Harran because God has revealed himself to you. He’s spoken to you. He’s called you into a relationship with himself, and he’s revealed some of the purposes that he has for you, and he’s challenged you to follow him. Maybe you’re in the Promised Land. Maybe you have been experiencing the goodness of God in your life, and you have been living and are living in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Everybody here is on a spiritual journey. And wherever we are on that journey, we need to understand what Abraham came to understand, and that is God reveals himself. God reveals himself and his will to us. It’s the story of every biblical character mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament. Take Moses, for example.

Moses was off in the desert in the second half of his life, having run away from Egypt. He was tending sheep, and God appeared to him in the burning bush. And God said, "Take off your sandals, Moses; the ground that you’re walking on is holy ground." And in that experience, God revealed himself to Moses, revealed who he was, and revealed the plan that he had for Moses’ life.

In the book of Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 1 through 3, we’re introduced to this character Samuel, who really plays an important part in the whole development of Israel because he functioned in a prototypical way like Jesus. He functioned as a prophet, as a priest, and as a king. Samuel was the spokesperson to the people of Israel. Samuel interceded for the people, and Samuel ruled the people.

In 1 Samuel 1 to 3, we see the call of God on Samuel. Samuel was being raised as a youth in the house of Eli, and God spoke to him in the middle of the night. He said, "Samuel," called him by name, "Samuel." And after several missteps, Samuel finally realized it’s God speaking to me. And God revealed the plan that he had for Samuel, that he was going to use him in a powerful way and he promised that not one of his words would fall to the ground without accomplishing all that God had promised.

God revealed himself to Moses, God revealed himself to Samuel. How about the greatest Christian who ever lived, the Apostle Paul? He was on a mission against God. He was persecuting Christians. He was going in the opposite direction from God. He wasn’t seeking a relationship with Jesus. He was seeking to persecute people who were in a relationship with Jesus.

On his way to Damascus, the resurrected Jesus Christ appears to him, blinds him, he falls off his horse, he gets up and says, "Who are you, Lord?" And Jesus said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." And through a series of miraculous encounters, Paul comes to know Jesus and becomes the greatest Christian who ever lived. Whether you’re in Ur or Harran or Canaan, whether you’re seeking God or running away from God, the only way that any of us get to know God is because he reveals himself to us.

God is a revealer. The nature of the case, if you were to consider the fact that God is infinite and transcendent and the creator, and we are finite and limited and the creation, there’s a gulf between us and God, and on our own, God would just be a vague idea, an abstract concept. But the reason that we can talk about being in a relationship with God, actually knowing God, is because he’s revealed himself to us.

It’s his nature. In fact, it’s his delight to reveal himself to us. In John’s Gospel, the beginning of the Gospel in John chapter 1, it says no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have beheld his glory, glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus Christ took on flesh so that we could know God, so we could see what God was like. Colossians says he’s the image of the invisible God. And Paul says, writing to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, "Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?

Even so, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God, which Spirit we have received so that we might know the things freely given to us by God." God gives us his Spirit so that we can know him and know all the things that he has freely given to us. God is a revealer, and he reveals who he is and he reveals his plan for our lives.

Here’s a second observation about the God who revealed himself to Abraham: God promises blessing. It’s in God’s nature to bless us, and he promises blessing. You see, God shows up, reveals himself to Abraham, and says, "Abraham, this is what I want to do for you. This is my promise to you. I’m going to bring you into a land. It’s going to be your land. It’s going to be the land of your descendants forever.

And I’m going to make a great nation out of you. Your descendants are going to be like the stars of the sky, like the sand on the seashore. And I’m going to use you to bless the nations. I’m going to make you a man of influence that blesses the entire world." And then God reaffirms that promise over and over and over again to Abraham. God promises blessing.

Now, God’s promises are a reflection of his nature. He’s sovereign. He’s almighty. He’s good. It’s his nature that guarantees the fulfillment of his promise. We make promises all the time. In fact, some of us as guys, we’ve gone to a conference: Promise Keepers. Which is really made up of a bunch of guys who are promise breakers.

This summer, I have made some promises to my kids. Recently sat down with my daughters and talked about the things that we want to do this summer. Talked about our family vacation and what do you want to do and how do you want to do it and where we’re going to go. We talked about some of the events that we want to share in, and I talked about some of the little day trips I want to take.

I talked with my daughters about getting together with them. I’m going to meet with them over the summer the same way I did with my son before he went off to college. I’m going to take them out to breakfast once a week and have a little date, a little daddy and daughter time. So I made these promises to them. I hope to fulfill them.

God has made promises to us. In the New Testament, it says those promises are not only something that we can hope for, those are promises we are guaranteed. In fact, they’re promises, many of them, that are already ours. See, they're promises of blessing. That was the nature of God’s promise to Abraham, a promise to bless you.

You know what Ephesians chapter 1 says for every believer in Jesus Christ? Ephesians 1 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ." You see, if we’ve come into a relationship with Christ, the promise of blessing is already ours. We have been blessed.

And there are more promises, because 2 Peter chapter 1 says, seeing that by his divine power and glorious nature, he has given to us precious and magnificent promises that by them we might become partakers of the divine nature. God’s given us promises. This book is filled with promises. I hope to fulfill the promises I’ve made to my children, but I’m finite and I won’t fulfill every one of them.

God is infinite. God is perfect. God will fulfill every promise. Every promise he made to Abraham has been fulfilled, is being fulfilled, will be fulfilled. Every promise he makes to us has been fulfilled and will be fulfilled. God promises blessing. In 2 Corinthians 1:18 to 22, it says this: "But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not yes and no.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and by Silas and by Timothy, it wasn’t yes and then no, but in him it has always been yes. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are always yes in Christ." Isn’t that good news? Every promise that God has made is yes in Christ because God promises blessing.

Here’s a third thing that we see about God in his interaction with Abraham: God is the sovereign Lord. God is the sovereign Lord. God chose Abraham. Think about it. Of all the people who were living on the earth, all the people who were living in the Middle East, all the people who were living in Ur of the Chaldeans, God chose Abraham.

There’s nothing in the text that says that Abraham was seeking after God. There’s nothing in the text that says that Abraham had rejected the idolatry of his culture and was pursuing a relationship with the one true Creator. No, God sovereignly chose Abraham. He chose Abraham to be in a relationship with him, chose Abraham to be the one that he’d bless, chose Abraham to be the one that he would use to bless the nations.

Don’t get torked out by trying to have a nice theological package in understanding God and your relationship with God. Be a worshiper and praise God that he’s sovereign.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we’d like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today’s date. We’ll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you’d like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653.

Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That’s 949-916-0250. For your gift of twenty-five dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP’s new book, *Facing Goliath*. Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653.

Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We’re going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today’s message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We’re in a series talking about heroes. We’re looking at how God takes ordinary people and does extraordinary things through their lives. The Bible is filled with stories of heroes, men and women who trusted God and because they trusted God, God used them to advance his kingdom purposes.

God wants to do that today. God is looking for people today who will trust him and because they trust him, he can use them for his kingdom glory. God wants to use you. God wants to use me. God wants to take our lives and transform us to become like Jesus Christ and then through us, use us to advance his kingdom.

You see, the story of Abraham is really the story of every person in the Bible and every person in history. It’s really the story of God. The reason Abraham was a hero is because of who God was and who God is. God is the sovereign king of the universe. God rules, he’s in charge. God chooses people for salvation and chooses people for his kingdom glory.

God is choosing people today. God’s choosing you. If you’re hearing this message, it’s because God wants to say something to you personally. If you’re hearing this message, it’s because God is giving you an invitation to respond to his kingdom promise. You can be a hero today in this generation if you’ll believe God, if you’ll trust God, if you’ll step out in faith and obey God.

That’s the story of Abraham. It’s really the story of God. Is your life a story of God? Is your life a story of God’s grace and God’s sovereignty, God’s power, God’s miraculous work? It can be if you will open up your heart to Jesus Christ, if you’ll say yes to Jesus Christ, if you’ll ask God to do a sovereign work in your life, he will do it. If that’s your desire, I invite you to ask him right now.

Lord, I believe that you are the sovereign God. I believe that you’re in charge, you rule, you’re the King of the universe. And I believe that you have a plan for my life and a plan for history. I ask you to use me. Make me a hero, God. I pray that you will forgive my sins, that you’ll live in my life as the Lord of my life.

I pray, God, that you’ll open my eyes to see the opportunities around me. I pray, God, that I’ll be a person who represents you, who serves you, who is a witness for you. God, use me to be a world changer. Use me to be a hero in the lives of people pointing them to Jesus Christ. I pray, God, that the light of Christ will shine in me and through me and that you will use me to change this world for your glory. I pray that in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com.

We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.