The LORD'S Faithful Promises Call Faith-filled People
To where is the LORD calling you? From what is the LORD calling you? As Abram learned in Genesis 12:1-8, "The LORD'S Faithful Promises Call Faith-filled People." March 20, 2011.
Life in Haran was good for Abram. He really had no reason to leave. When his father died he had left him with a wealthy inheritance in Haran. Servants, armies, livestock, real estate, investments. Abram’s only poverty was that he and his wife, Sarai, remained childless. At times he would find her under their favorite tree or in her room crying because she was reaching the age where childbearing would no longer be possible. Abram himself was already 75 years old, and honestly had his doubts about having any children. One day it all changed. Imagine his curious concern when “the Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’” “Leave? But Lord … Why? Where? What about? Who’s going to? It doesn’t make sense.” Abram’s inner voices of confused skepticism and natural resistance to change must have been short-lived because the Bible continues matter-of-factly, “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him … and set out for the land of Canaan.”
To where is the Lord calling you? From what is the Lord calling you? I understand that we don’t expect the Lord to appear to us, point in a direction, and say, “Go!” like he did to Abram. But often our callings (vocations) are not any less obvious. If you have children then your calling is to be a parent, and if you go to school then your calling is to be a student, if you have neighbors then your calling is to be a neighbor, if you have strengths and talents – and we all do – then your calling is to use them faithfully.
Growing up in Mesopotamia, Abram had watched his father test God, vacillating between worshiping the true God and pagan idols, depending on circumstance and convenience. He had learned from his father’s late-in-life conversations – and perhaps repentance – to place his trust only in the Lord God, no matter what. So Abram became a man of great faith, commended all over the New Testament as a patriarch who models what it is to follow his callings with faith, like this accolade in Romans 4:20, “[Abram] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.” And in Hebrews 11:8,11,17, “By faith [Abram], when called to go to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going … By faith even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – [Abram] was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise … By faith [Abram], when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.”
The childless 75-year-old husband of a barren 65-year-old wife heard the Lord say he’d have as many descendants as the stars in the sky, and without trying to count the stars he believed it. Then the proud father of his one and only son heard the Lord demand that he plunge a knife into Isaac on a sacrificial altar for the Lord, and he was willing because he believed the Lord could still somehow keep his promise in a way he didn’t fully understand. This wealthy rancher and real estate developer heard the Lord call him to leave it all behind and move to some foreign country where nobody would know his name, so he listed his house, held a rummage sale, packed his boxes, in the process served as guardian for his nephew Lot, and believed it would all work because the Lord said so.
Have you ever attended a time management seminar led by some time management guru and you left feeling intimidated by this perfect model of time management you knew you’d never be? Have you ever read a book about more sales or better relationships and it actually dragged you down into the dumps even more because you realized you simply don’t have it all together like the perky person who wrote the book? Do you find yourself listening to Abram’s story, wishing you could have a faith like his but figuring you probably never will? You and I are much more like Abram than we sometimes think we are, but we need to look at the right details and listen for the right words. If we put too much stress on what Abram did, on his extraordinary behavior in obedience to the Lord, then our reaction is an amazed but discouraged, “Wow! I could never do that.” But if we look at and listen for what the Lord did for Abram and what the Lord promised to Abram in his words, it changes our reaction because we have the same faithful Lord and we hear the same powerful Word. “I can do that … I can trust in that Lord … just like Abram.”
Even the strongest people (like King Saul) can have a weak faith, and even the weakest people (like the poor widow who donated to the temple everything she had to live on) can have a strong faith – because faith is as strong as its object. Faith doesn’t depend on the person doing the believing but on whom or what the person believes in. For example, you may not understand a thing about the ignition system of your car yet you believe that when you turn the key it will crank up. On the other hand a mechanic who’s been called to tow away a different car that won’t start hops in the driver’s seat and turns the key without nearly as much confidence that it’ll start. You have a stronger faith! He’s an expert who knows a lot more about cars than you do, but the object in which you trust is much more reliable than his.
In the three Bible verses that report the Lord’s call to Abram the Lord uses the phrase “I will” six times and the word “you” twelve times. When the Lord calls Abram the Lord is speaking to Abram, not vice versa. This is not a conversation. Yet sometimes parents say, “Lord, I don’t want to be a responsible parent today,” and children say, “Lord, I don’t want to be a son or a daughter who’s part of this family today.” Sometimes Christian citizens say, “Lord, the tax laws are so confusing, I’ll just do it my way,” or Christians whom God blesses with a job say, “Lord, I’m not going to give any greater effort until they treat me with respect.” We commit two opposite sins because of two similarly incorrect assumptions about our callings from the Lord. The first assumes, “The Lord hasn’t called me, so I can do what I want.” We ignore the Lord’s callings for our more selfish paths. The second mistake assumes, “The Lord hasn’t called me, so I can’t do what he wants.” Here we put so much pressure on ourselves to perform in our vocations that we bail and fail because it’s too overwhelming. All the while the Lord is holding out his hand hoping we’ll reach out by faith and take it.
Remember, when the Lord called Abram, it wasn’t meant to be a dialogue because the Lord wanted to assure Abram, beyond a doubt, of his faithful promises. He did, and Abram believed. If the Lord is calling you to be a parent then he promises that you’ll have the wisdom and stamina you need to be a good parent. Do you have a parent? If the Lord is calling you to be a son or a daughter then he promises that you have the honor and respect to be a caring contributor to the wellbeing of the family. If the Lord is calling you to be a Christian spouse then he promises that you have what it takes to love your husband or wife like Christ, for a lifetime. If the Lord is calling you to be a single – never married, divorced, or widowed – then he promises that you’re a whole person who can find fulfillment that doesn’t depend on the marriage relationship. Do you have income or investments? Then the Lord is calling you to use wealth wisely and be generous and willing to share, and he promises to provide for you and prosper you. Do you have gifts and strengths unique to you? We all do. Then the Lord is calling you to use them faithfully, and he promises to bring forth fruit as you sow the seeds of your strengths in serving others. His faithful promises call you to faith-filled following.
My seminary professor, John Jeske, writes in the Genesis volume of The People’s Bible (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, pp. 118-121), “It might seem almost unreasonable for God to ask a 75-year old man to leave his home and relatives and to travel to an unknown destination. To build in Abram a willingness to follow his call, God gave Abram a promise or, more accurately, a whole cluster of promises. And that is a truth which is in itself worth noting. God deals with us, as he dealt with Abram, not in terms of demand but primarily in terms of promise. In his marvelous conversation with Abram, God had really said all that there was to say. All Abram could do was to speak the ‘Amen’ to what God had promised. The Bible calls this ‘faith.’”
Let’s take a look at the seven promises the Lord gave to Abram, and how they built in Abram a willingness to follow the Lord’s call. “I will make you into a great nation.” The Lord promised to provide millions of descendants to a childless man he just told to leave home. “I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” The Lord promised to provide for and prosper the son of an idol worshiper who would be a stranger with no business contacts in a foreign land. “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” The Lord promised Abram a position in his company as an ambassador for the Lord, and he’d support Abram no matter what. Finally, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” The Lord promised that a great descendant would be born to his family and this great descendant would hold such power and promise that he’d save not just Abram but all sinners. This final and greatest promise caught Abram’s attention more than all the others, and he looked ahead and believed in Jesus as the promised Savior. “Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). To Abram the Lord gave a credit of righteousness through his faith in Jesus Christ. To you, the Lord credits the same righteousness through your faith in the same Jesus Christ. He credits you after you fail to follow his calling for you. He credits you after you try to follow but mess up again. He credits you after you choose your own way and then wish you hadn’t. He credits you with Christ, the one who followed his calling to the cross, and then to the tomb, and then to the right hand of God where he now calls you to follow. By faith.
After a long journey Abram arrived in Canaan. “There he built an altar to the Lord and called out the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued …” Abram became a man of faith because the Lord built him up with his faithful promises. Built up by your Lord like Abram, leave behind whatever is not your calling and pursue that which is. Built up by your Lord like Abram, build an altar of vocation to him in your home, at your work, among your friends, in your private life and there call out to the Lord who first calls you with his promises. Set out, like Abram, and then continue on your faith journey – yours and the Lord’s. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on March 20, 2011
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