Class Lesson June 9, 2013

Hey Gang,




You know, the Bible is made up of many stories that fit together to tell one story – God’s Story. This 13-week study will help us understand the Bible’s story, our place in the story, and its implications for our lives today. 

Most people are familiar with at least a few Bible stories. They may not, however, see how what may seem to be disparate parts fit together. A person’s inability to understand the larger story affects their ability to see how the stories, accounts, prophecies, history, and other writings are to be understood. Are they independent or do they connect in some way? What is the theme and what message is being communicated? Therefore, this study is important because it can lead us not only to understand the Bible’s overarching message but also to encounter the Lord God who is its ultimate Author. After all, it is His story.





The lessons in this series are:

1. June 2 - God Begins the Story
2. June 9 - God Chooses a People
3. June 16 - God Delivers His People
4. June 23 - God Instructs His People
5. June 30 - God Dwells Among His People
6. July 7 - God Establishes a Kingdom for His People
7. July 14 - God Disciplines His People
8. July 21 - God Restores His People
9. July 28 - God Promises the Messiah
10. August 4 - God Sends His Son
11. August 11 - Jesus Is Crucified and Raised
12. August 18 - Jesus Commissions His Church
13. August 25 - God Completes the Story

Life Goal

You were designed to trust and obey God fully.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you’ve done, or whether or not you think you’re good enough. God takes the initiative to establish a relationship with you and to call you to serve Him in ways you could never imagine. The question isn’t will He call, but will you go?

There is a story about two brothers that lived on either side of a hill. One wealthy but has no family; the other has a large family but limited wealth. The rich brother decides one night that he is blessed with goods and, taking a sack of grain from his silo, carries it to the silo of his brother. The other brother decides that he is blessed with many children, and since his brother should at least have wealth, he takes a sack of grain from his silo and carries it to that of his brother. Each night they go through this process, and every morning each brother is astounded that he has the same amount of grain as the day before. Finally one night they meet at the top of the hill and realize what's been happening. They embrace and kiss each other.

And at that moment a heavenly voice declares, "This is the place where I can build my house on earth." You see, it's this degree of brotherly love that's necessary before God can be manifested in the world. The relationship between a person and another human being is what creates and allows for a relationship with God. If we're not capable of living with each other and getting along with each other, then we're not capable of having a relationship with God.

 

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We see in this lesson God’s first steps in bringing people into a right relationship with Him. God takes the initiative to establish a relationship; our responsibility should be faith and obedience. From this lesson today you should decide whether you are willing to trust God fully and obey Him or not. 

I. HIS PEOPLE FIND BLESSING – GENESIS 12:1-3
The Call of Abram

12 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.


Adam and Eve sinned first, but every person who lived after them made the same choice. Here is a shortlist:

• Cain murdered his brother, Abel (4:1-16).
• Sexual misbehavior became the norm (6:1-3).
• Wickedness characterized humanity to the point that God regretted His creation and destroyed it with the flood (6-8).
• Noah and his sons reintroduced sin after the flood (9:20-25).
• In their pride, people built a tower, showing intent to make themselves godlike (11:1-9). 

What does it tell you about God that He called Abram, even after people continued to sin against Him at every turn?

• Despite the rejection God faced again and again from the people He created, He continued with His plans to redeem us. He took the initiative in restoring and establishing new relationships with people. He chose Abram, calling him to leave his home and relatives to go to a land where God would reveal His plan of blessing one step at a time. Even then, the Lord did not give up on His creation.
• The stage is set for the rest of the story beginning with chapter 12. From that point forward, the biblical story focuses on God’s actions to bring His creation back into right relationship with Himself.

Why do you think God gave Abram a command and a promise without all the details? How is that similar to and different from how He guides today?

• It might have been hard for Abram to listen past that “Go out from your land” part. God was requiring a major life change. Most of us focus on the difficulty in God’s commands instead of the adventure of them. Certainly God promises difficulty (John 16:33) but He also promises resources and power (Matt. 6:33; Phil. 4:13, 19). The adventure of obeying God is delightful beyond measure. You’ll have difficulties on any path, but you’ll create even more difficulties if you try to travel without God, or if you choose the illusion that you know more than God. The rewards of obeying God are always greater than the cost.
• As the people of God, we may well be asked to leave our comfort zones to follow the Lord.
• Even though the Lord calls us to be His people, He does not always reveal all the details of His plan to us at once. But God’s call to be His people is accompanied by His promises of blessing.
• Typically the Lord reveals His plan for our lives progressively rather than all at once. If we obey only because we know it all, that would be acting on knowledge. The Lord wants people who trust Him and will act on faith.

The name Abram means "father of multitudes." The irony of Abram/Abraham having a name associated with fatherhood is seen in that he was not a father.

Why Abraham? When God looked down upon the earth at all the men of the world, why did He choose Abraham?

• Because of his faith - where was the proof of that?
• Genesis 18:18-19

 

II. HIS PEOPLE OBEY – GENESIS 12:4-7

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people he had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.



It’s ironic that, as we age and mature in our faith on so many levels, many of us become less willing to take giant leaps of faith than when we were younger. Why is that? Others of us become more willing to take giant leaps of faith because we more deeply trust God’s character. 

In Jamaica they say: "De olda de moon, de brigher it shines" (The older a person is, the wiser.) Is this true of our faith?

 

In what ways are some believers tempted to spiritually “retire”? What brings about that mindset? What’s wrong with that mindset? What can I do about it?

• God told Abram at the age of 75 to go, so he went. It seems simple, but we don’t know the inner struggle that took place. The important thing is that, with or without inner struggle, Abram obeyed.
• Obeying God required Abram to leave what was comfortable and familiar. Abram had to have had questions.
• When Abram got to Canaan, God appeared to him and told him that this was the Promised Land. They had traveled at least 450 miles and it had undoubtedly been a long, hard journey, but the overwhelming response was that God had been faithful, and worship was priority. Abram built an altar to the Lord.

Abram chose to believe God’s promise even when following Him seemed difficult. God calls you to obey Him even when you don’t fully understand. 

Abraham's call had two conditions:

1. Leave his native land and his father's house.
2. Believe and obey only God.

This is our call as well in our spiritual journey - same call, same condition and same promise!

How do you use questions to obey rather than to delay obedience? How does noticing the blessings help to continue to follow God when it is difficult?

• The Lord continues to reveal Himself when His people respond in faithful obedience to His call. 

III. HIS PEOPLE CHOOSE FAITH – GENESIS 15:5-8, 13-17
5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. 7 He also said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?”


13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. 15 But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” 17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals.


Genesis 12 is remarkably significant in God’s story. Genesis 12:1-4 may be the most unifying text in the whole Bible. For God’s saving power is encapsulated in it, namely to bless the whole world through Christ, who is Abraham’s seed. The rest of the Bible is an unfolding of it, and subsequent history has been a fulfillment of it. Chapter 15 contains even more of the promise. God didn’t call Abram because Abram was good or perfect. God called Abram because God knows what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. And Abram responded in faith.



Over the years, how have you learned to trust God’s insight and direction? What keeps you obeying even when you’d rather do something else? What brought you back around when you did disobey? How does faith equal obedience?

• For some reason, we fall into the trap of believing that God only chooses the most gifted and awesome people for close relationship with Him. Maybe it’s our own guilt or just another excuse, but no matter the reason, to believe that is to believe a lie. Abram wasn’t made righteous because he was a great guy. He was made righteous because he had faith that God is great. It wasn’t his leadership qualities, charisma, or intelligence that God gave as a paradigm of the Christian experience; it was his faith (Rom. 4:3, 22-23; Gal. 3:6; Jas. 2:23). That same faith is available to you.

You and I have the opportunity to be a part of the grand story of God of bringing people into a right relationship with Him. God has taken the initiative. We enter the story by responding to Him in personal faith and obedience. We continue the story as we bring His blessing to others by living faithfully as His people.



Think for a moment about your own call from the Lord – the call to salvation or a call to service. How was it similar to God’s call of Abram? As you look back, in what ways has the Lord’s plan for your life unfolded and resulted in blessing that exceeds anything you would have ever thought?



What area of your life, or what life situation, is currently offering the greatest challenge to your blessing in the Lord’s plan, purpose, and promise?



What steps will you take to renew your faith in the Lord and to live in obedience to Him, even in the face of the challenge? 

God chose a man of faith - Abraham and his descendants were the Jews as His people.

It's interesting that Abraham is the biological father of three faiths. Christians (2 Billion) Jews (12 Million) and Muslims (1 Billion) make up almost half of the worlds population. The Jews were the first Monotheistic people. 

 

Prayer of Commitment

My heart is filled with praise to You, O Lord, for the call to be Your child, for the blessing of Your promises, for the opportunity to serve You – all at Your initiative, by Your grace, and for Your glory. Amen.

This is only the second lesson in this series and how interesting to see how God intended things to be - if only we would obey.

See you Sunday,

In His Love,

David & Susan

Ya Mon...Everything gonna be alright!