Auto Generated Transcript
We’re in a series on on blessed together looking at the life of Abraham and and what Abraham did in his pursuit with God, and as God has called him, blessed how Abraham discovered that blessing and following after the Lord, noting in Genesis chapter 12 and verse one, when when Abraham began his journey, it said, Abraham, I will bless you, and through you all nations will be blessed. And just as Abraham is blessed in his pursuit of God, so can we be blessed in our pursuit of the Lord. But it’s amazing. And knowing the reason that God has created us in his image and for his purpose, how quickly we as people can become content and settling in life for lower purposes than what God has created us for. Sometimes the choices that we make in life are simply about living life and have no ultimate desire or meaning, or drive towards why we do what we do. In fact, in Genesis chapter four, just to show us how we live as people, sometimes in the choices that we make tells us a story about Cain and Abel and and King killing his his brother Abel. And after Cain killed Abel, rather than repenting and turning back to the Lord and pursuing his relationship with God, it tells us that that Cain leaves from that land and he goes to the land of nod. And the reason the Bible points for us, the specific place for which Cain is going is because the city in which Cain lives, the city of nod, in which he builds.
As a city of purposeless ness. I got to find a better word than that. A city with no meaning. Kane goes to nod, and the city of nod literally means a place of wandering. A place that really has no reason. A place where where Cain just lived because he has tomorrow and and he even builds a city without ultimate purpose or reasoning. And I think as an American culture, that is the fallacy that and pitfall that we can often fall into as people. And we separate church from state, but make it taboo to even talk and discuss about God, who is the ultimate purpose and reasoning behind everything that we should do. And instead. Settle for the Land of Nod. Now, if you’re here with me this morning, I’m going to I’m going to make an assumption about us. And if it’s wrong, forgive me, but I’m going to assume that. That none of us here this morning want to live life unintentionally, but rather we want to live life for purpose. We don’t want to live for the wrong reasons. We want to make our lives count. We don’t want to lose. In fact, we’d be tired of losing. But we want to do is we? We want to win. But the minute we start talking about God. There’s something within our nature.
That might reject the idea of coming to him rather. And living in him, rather than staying in the land of nod. You know, sometimes when we think about God. God and the concept of him and pursuing him seems like a bigger burden to us than living a life that might be empty. In fact, our picture about God might be of one who is this religious bully who just wants to beat me down into this particular way and and really kill my my. At least the pleasure that I’m finding and the way that I’m pursuing life for my own purpose and gain. Jesus in Matthew chapter 11. When he shows up and begins to share his message, he recognizes. All of us as people have that tendency. To get to some point in our life whether you know you know Jesus or not, whether you’ve trusted in Jesus or not, that when you think about God, there’s something in you that just bucks against whatever he’s calling you to. And for the time that Jesus walked on the earth when he confronted the Jewish people, the the thing that overwhelmed people during that time was this thought of religion. In fact, in Matthew chapter 11, as it describes the life of Jesus and the people around him, it’s as if he’s saying that they’re burdened down by all the 600 plus laws that they’re trying to fulfill to make God happy. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 11.
Terry, click for me. We got some malfunction here. Matthew 11 and verse 28, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus is acknowledging. When we look at him in a world of religious mindset and thinking, and see him as just another to do list of a world that’s just full of just endless things that can throw upon us. That, yeah, it looks overwhelming. In fact, Jesus describes that view as heavy laden. In the part that strikes me and Jesus’s description of this. He says, come to me and you will find rest for your souls. The type of the type of stress that Jesus is talking about in pursuing him in this world. It’s this stress that that fatigues you so much that it’s not it’s not that you’re just physically tired. It’s that this, this feeling of tired goes deeper than the external. It drives down to your very soul, in your heart who you are. You can’t. You can’t find rest. And to think that Jesus is coming on the scene about to preach a message to these people, how they might respond and thinking, man, God, one more thing. I can’t take it. And Jesus in these moments, looking at the hearts of people, he says.
Listen, I recognize. But what you’re going through is stressful. And it’s burdensome. But it’s not me. Because if it were me, you would find rest for your souls. When I was a young kid, which I still look young, so take that for whatever it means. But when I when I was little, I used to play baseball into my teenage years. And and you can call me kid pastor, by the way, if I still look like that to you. But, um, I played, I played baseball, and I went through a period in Little League where it didn’t matter how big the ball was, I just I just couldn’t hit it. And and I was batting third in the lineup, and I started to get afraid. You know, third is a pretty good position. It shows that you’re at least a decent hitter. And I started to get worried that the coach was going to move me around in the order, because I went so many games without without really a hit. And, and so I started to worry so much so that I was, I was a I became afraid to hit the ball. I didn’t want to go up to the plate and swing, because I didn’t want to fail and walk back to the, the, to the dugout. And so I just was concerned, and I didn’t want to go walk up from from the dugout to the plate, didn’t want to practice swing, didn’t want to do anything.
And the funny thing was, I was afraid to hit the ball, but I wasn’t afraid of the ball hitting me and batting behind me was the kid who was always the best hitter in the league. We played on like eight teams together and and I always batted in front of him. And his coach was our coach was his uncle. And and one day he looks at me after my little streak of not hitting and he just says, listen, all you have to do is get on base. He knew I was he knew I wasn’t afraid of the ball. He said, listen, I don’t care what it takes. Just get on base. And I knew wink, wink what my coach was saying. He’s saying, son, take one for the team. If you got to hit one in the skull, get hit by the ball, just get on the base. Because if you can just get on base, the guy coming behind you, he is going to knock you in and we’re going to score. Just get on base. The truth is for us and our relationship with Christ. And this is what Jesus is saying. Listen. There are things, images of God, this fatigue of the world. When you look at God and just think, one more thing added to your list, there is something, something in you that balks in your day, even if you’re a believer in Christ.
If you consider the busyness of your life and you think about time with Jesus and and he quickly prioritizes lower and lower on the things that you feel like you need to get done today because they’re more important. Let me just say this. If you can just get the first base. If you can just take the pitch. If you can just accept what Jesus is bringing to you. And God works it out as he moves in your heart. As we think within our lives. We know God has called us to do something. Here’s how we know if if if Jesus didn’t call us to do things in this world. The moment you trusted in Christ as your Savior and you were redeemed and your ticket was paid and you were bound for heaven, the moment that that happened, Jesus would have just taken you to heaven. But he left you here on Earth. Which says that God has created you for a purpose. In fact, when the Bible tells us that God has made us in his image, maybe the thought within our head should be whatever that image is that God has created me in him for is to be displayed in the way I live my life. But man, I feel burdened. Encouragement. It’s just a step to the plate. And here’s the joy. One baseball season. I had this particular kid in our league who had a hot head, and when you made him mad, he would just throw as fast as he could and he wouldn’t even aim for the catcher’s mitt.
And I knew before the game started, if I go ahead and make this kid mad, I want to be on base every time I get up. So I’d make the kid mad and I would step up to base, and he would nail me in the face and I would get on base. I would walk home like I’ve been in some sort of fight, just whelps everywhere. I’d be like, what happened? My baby? Like, got a baseball ball, you know? Here’s the good news about Jesus’s pitch. Sperm is easy. This yoke is light. It’s not intended to knock you down. But its design is to build you up. Abraham’s life. Is a picture, and especially in Genesis 18 of the way he connects to Jesus and Jesus fuels his passion living for him in this world. You’re never going to do what God has called you to in this world without connecting to the one who empowers you to do it. And so in Genesis chapter 18 and verse one, it says this. Now the Lord appeared to him, talking about Abraham by the oaks of Mamri while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. God comes and he appears to him with these two other angels that are accompanying him. And I just want to share with you this morning that what I believe this to be is the Pre-incarnate Christ.
In the Old Testament, it often referred to the Pre-incarnate Christ as as the angel of the Lord. The reason. One of the reasons I would say the angel of the Lord is the Pre-incarnate Christ is that once Jesus comes to earth in the New Testament, there is no mention of the angel of the Lord again. This, this angel of the Lord that comes and visits Abraham. He visited Hagar in chapter in Genesis 16 and 17. This angel of the Lord functions as God carries the characteristics of God, and is physically present in a form as Jesus became a form. A man. In fact, the Bible tells us in in John one one through four and in verse 14 of chapter one, Jesus became flesh. No other part of the Trinitarian God was flesh. And Colossians two nine Jesus is the exact representation of God in physical form. Hebrews 13 eight Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and all things were created through him, by him and for him. And in him all things consist. Colossians 115 and 17 Jesus is the only one described to the Triune God who has physical form. In fact, the Bible says and related to the father. It says God is spirit in John 424 and a spirit has no flesh and bones. In Luke 2339 and Malachi three six, the Lord does not change.
In Hosea 11 nine, God the Father was not a man in first Timothy 616. In John 646, no one has ever seen the father in Exodus 3320, no 1st May look at the father and live. And so when I, the Lord, appears with Abraham in this passage, I think it’s it’s his relationship to Christ. Pre-incarnate Jesus being made known. Sometimes people pause before we get into the into the story of Abraham and ask the theological question, what do you do with with passages of the Bible where it says, the father was there? Like acts 755 as a popular passage it says, But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Now, if you’re thinking in your head and challenging whether or not Abraham saw the father here or Jesus here, let me just encourage you to go back and look at the context of passages that you might be calling the father and you might be calling Jesus, such as acts, which is a popular one. Let me tell you how this works. Steven just preached a message to the nation of Israel. He’s about to become the first martyr in Christian history. And so Steven preaches this message on who Jesus is and the reason they need to trust in him for salvation. Because Christ was the Messiah, come to take on the sins of the world, to die for you and I.
That we may experience eternity with him as we place our faith in Christ. Steven just delivered this message to the nation of Israel. People of Israel rejected the message. And as Stevens getting ready to be stoned, he looks up into heaven. And this is the the scene that he describes. He sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God or at the right hand of the father. What Stephen is saying, Stephen is not saying that Jesus and physical form is standing next to the father in physical form, because the Bible told us God is spirit and the spirit has no flesh and bones. What Stephen is saying is that Jesus is standing in the place of honor, that he has been approved and what he has done, he is exactly who you need to trust in. Let me tell you why. During the time of Stephen’s life, during the time of Christ’s life, when a person would throw a dinner party. At the dinner party, there was a seat that was for the guest of honor. The position of that seat for the guest of honor was at the right hand of the individual who was throwing the dinner party. When Stephen looks into heaven. He’s acknowledging. That Jesus is in the position of favor. At the very reason the people are crucifying him. They are denying what God has approved. And Jesus sits in the hand of favor in heaven.
Jesus. Isn’t literally standing beside the father, but figuratively is acknowledging for us. He is in that favored position. Continue to pursue him with your life. And Abraham in Genesis 18 one has an encounter with the Lord and meets with him. It’s important for us to recognize the significance of Jesus and the interaction that we have with him, because the Bible tells us not only does Jesus give us life, but Jesus is life. In John 14 six, I am the way, the truth, and the life is what Jesus says. Not that he just has life, but he is life itself. And through his life he transforms our own. In Second Corinthians, in chapter three and verse 18, it says, but we all with open face, beholding as in the glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. What Paul is saying here is God’s desire for you. Is to look like Jesus. God’s plan for your life. God’s will for your life is to look like Jesus and the way that you look like Jesus. Is meeting with Jesus. Taking the time that to allow God to reflect himself in your heart, that in that you reflect Jesus in this life. Listen, when you walk out of here on Sunday morning, you will live for something. You will reflect something in this world, and it’s whatever you allow your heart to belong to.
And Jesus shows up. In Mark chapter seven, he looks at the Pharisees and the Sadducees that are living the law of the 600 and plus laws that they had to live. And he just says, it’s out of the heart that the wickedness comes in verse 21. Meaning their response was, you know, if I do wrong, let’s just let’s just add another law and modify my behavior. But the problem with that is if you modify your behavior by laws, you will never address the issue, which is the heart. Just because you change what you do. Doesn’t mean your heart will stop longing for idols. Rather than the modification on the outside. Jesus’s desire was to transform us from the inside. There’s a difference in our lives and believing something is right. And believing that something is a way of life. And as you get next to Christ. And you learn what he teaches about life and the perspective that he gives, and you give him the opportunity to work on your life, not only does it become an idea that you believe. But it’s a way of life in your heart. Embracing Christ, allowing by his power to transform you from the inside out. There was a man who went and visited a museum, and he gets to a particular exhibit within the museum, and it’s a sculpture of a lion. And this man spends most of his time in the museum just walking around this lion.
He was he was just taken back by the beauty of of this figure and how detailed, meticulous and how much effort the artist put into just making this lion look lifelike. It just so happened that the artist was within earshot of the statue. And as this man wandered around, this beautiful lion just talking about, the artist came over and he gave the man the opportunity to begin to ask the artist all kinds of questions about how this man did this. And so he just simply asked, I mean, how how does one how does one go about sculpting this beautiful block into a more beautiful statue of a lion? How do you even begin on something like that? And the artist looked back and said, simple. I take the block. And I just chip away anything that doesn’t look like a lion. All right oversimplifies it. We couldn’t do that if we left today. That’s what Jesus desires to do in you. Time with him gives him the opportunity. Prioritizing life to see the significance of what Christ is about and allowing God to chip away from us the things that don’t reflect his beauty, that we may enjoy him and live for the purpose for which he has called us in this world. And sometimes we treat Jesus like he’s. Uh. Get out of hell. Free card. And we gather on Sunday.
We think, yeah, we’re a group of people going to heaven, which is true. And we all cheer. Yeah, that’s a good reason. Hope. Hope is something we need. Hope. That’s people we live for. Hope as people. But God in reality. As he’s preparing a place for you. He’s also preparing you for his place. God is working within our hearts to accomplish his will in the world. And so it says in Genesis 18 and verse two. This is what Abraham does in the heat of the day in verse one and verse two, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing opposite him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them. And he bowed himself to the earth and said, my Lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree, and I will bring a piece of bread, and you may refresh yourselves. After that you may go on, since you have visited your servant. And they said, so do as you have said. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and and make bread, cakes. And Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf, and gave it to the servant, and hurried to prepare it, and took curds and milk, and a calf.
And he had prepared and placed it before them, and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. Abraham knows how important this meeting is with the Lord. And so much so that he even experiences inconvenience of normal, ordinary things in the day to day living of life just to be able to meet with Christ. It tells us in 1801 that it’s in the hottest part of the day when you’re supposed to siesta. Jesus intentionally comes during this portion of the day to reveal where Abraham’s heart is and his pursuit after the Lord. Not only is it the hottest part of the day, but by this point Abraham is 99 years old. He is 99 years old, and he has plenty of people under him to do everything that he is described as doing in Genesis. And yet Abraham is the one in his desire to meet and love and serve the Lord. He gets up at almost 100 years old just to find the ability and opportunity to meet with Christ. Tells us that Abraham had a hand in preparing the food. It tells us that as Abraham’s preparing, Abraham is diligent in his pursuit. He is running in these tasks to meet with the Lord. And in verse eight. He just simply sat and waited. He was standing by them under the tree as they ate.
Abraham’s longing was just for the fellowship. You think of what God has called you into this world to do? It requires time spent with him for the energy and idea and the will of to work out according to God’s will. We need the mind of Christ within us. We need God to shape us and form us. In fact, psychologists say for anyone to to live life for a purpose and to live life healthy, they say these five things are necessary within us. We need to feel loved in Christ or loved. We need to feel a sense of purpose in Christ. You have purpose. We need to feel secure. In Christ there is security. You need to feel significance in Christ. You’re important in his image. You need a place to belong in Jesus. You are a part of a family. You are created in this identity, in him. Paul said it this way in Galatians 220, for I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, it’s not I who live, but Christ who lives within me. Meaning said in the terms we use today. I leaned into the pitch with my life and Jesus drove me home. I love Christ is painting for us in this picture. Matthew 11, he looks at a world religiously worn out and says, I, I am the strength that you need. If you brought notes, the if you have notes in your bulletin this morning, you’ll see that point number one is this life is about getting to Jesus.
I am transformed by my relationship with Christ. Will not live as God has called us to live, without allowing ourselves to be molded in the image of Jesus, which all happens by the strength of Christ as we trust in in him. And the truth is, as Jesus works himself in you. You can’t help but reflect him in this world. Which is why base number two this morning is this. If my family is blessed by my relationship with Christ. Um, when I was just getting married, I had the same conflict in my life as as when I was about to have a kid. And that was I didn’t feel exactly prepared to do what I was about to do. And you all have been there, right? Making a move, big life change, whatever, whatever it is that you’re deciding where you feel like you’re on the edge of a cliff, about to step off into something that you know is supposed to be joyful for you, but not knowing where it’s going to lead. It’s a gut check moment. And truthfully, you can read all the books you wanted to. I mean, I had done it. I read all the books on marriage and parenting and that meant I was perfect at it. All you have to do is read a book and you’re an expert. According to Facebook. I remember when my my son was born for the first time, and I.
And for the first time, the only time my first son was born. I go to the hospital. I go to the hospital. I’m holding him thinking, okay, in two days I think they’re going to let me walk out with this. And. And then the time came and I start walking out. I’m like looking over my shoulder thinking, you know, are they going to come after me? I mean, why would you do this? Where is the manual on how to raise this thing? I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m doing here. You know, it just feels weird the first time you change a diaper, you’re like. Everyone’s watching you like the nurse. Make sure you do it right. You know, it’s weird. It’s weird doing that. And you’re thinking, man, I’m in charge of a life. This is so crazy. How am I going to do this? I can remember I went home and took my son downstairs, and. And I’m rocking him in his crib. One of those nights where your eyes are all cracked out from being up so late you don’t even know what’s going on. And you’re just thinking, worrying in your head. How am I going to be a parent? How am I going to be a good parent? I’m going to see this kid. There’s so many things he could fall into in this world, so many problems he could face, so many hardships he could go through.
I don’t even know if I can do this. How am I going to control my child? How am I going to be there when I can’t be there to tell him what he needs to do and help him make his decisions? God, how can I have his mind so he can’t make his decisions? I can make them all for him. Lord, I don’t want to know what he’s going to decide. I want, you know, just stressing myself out. And then I started reading Ephesians and Philippians because I realized my stress level was too high for what it needed to be. And. This is what I began to realize is, as Paul began to unfold his prayers for the church of Ephesus, especially. I noticed his heart desire for the people of Ephesus was the same heart desire that I carried for my son, and what I wanted for his life. And Paul’s prayers and all the things he could be worried about. And Paul’s prayer is the one thing that Paul said. One continued theme in his prayers was that the people of Ephesus would come to know Christ. Is in that moment. All the concern that I had for the steps of my life just became relieved. Because I realized. If my son knows Jesus. And he walks with Jesus. God shapes the path that he takes in this world. If I would just walk with Jesus.
I will show my son Jesus. And God will shape the path that I take in this world. I’m going to reflect something. I’m going to live for something. Time with Christ. Just leaning into that pitch and allowing the power of the Lord to reflect himself in me. Allows God to reflect himself into my family. In fact, when it comes to the life of Abraham, it says this by faith when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, dwelling in tents, for he was looking for the city which has its foundation, whose architect and builder is God. By faith. Even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive, and even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. He goes on in Genesis chapter 18, talking about that life. Then they said to him, Where is Sarah, your wife, talking about the angels? And Abraham said, there in the tent. And he said, I will surely return to you at this time next year. And behold, Sarah, your wife will have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age. Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord? Being old also.
Sarah was actually happy she was having a baby. Really old. All right, that’s what it says. She’s having pleasure and old. And having a child. Like. I know some of you would like your husband, 100 years old, to have a baby, and you guys go fisticuffs over each other. But in this, in the culture and what Sarah and Abraham’s heart is and having a child, they’re so, so thankful for what God’s doing. And so as Abraham steps out in faith and pursuing the Lord, not only not only is Abraham blessed, but so is his family. Can I tell you this morning? God’s plan for you is for your family. If you if you’ve started a family, you have a family. If you’ve got a wife, you’ve got a kids. When you make that covenant, God says his desires that two become one. And then God says as as two become one. If if God blesses with children, God’s desire for that family is to be a blessing throughout the earth. It tells us in Genesis two. That through them all. Um, God would multiply and subdue the earth in Genesis 127 and through them all of the earth will be blessed. And in Genesis chapter 12 and verses one in the life of Abraham. God’s desire is to work in your family. But not only does he reorient your family, he reorients you with a church family whose pursuit and likeness is also found in the Lord and what he desires.
In fact, Galatians chapter six and verse ten says, let’s do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. And God’s plan isn’t to take your family and segregate yourself from the rest of the world and say, God called me to my family, but rather take your family into the world, that through you, not only are you a blessing to your family, but you’re a blessing to all people. There’s a story I heard of a young boy who stayed up late. He was really a young kid. He shouldn’t be out of bed at this late at night. But his dad’s coming home late from work, and he’s sitting up waiting for his dad, and his dad walks in the door and he asks his father, dad, how much money do you make? An hour. As that was offended. You want to know that answer? And he told his son, you know, I make I make $20 an hour, son. His dad had been working overtime countless hours for a long period of time, and. And the sun, then looks up at his dad and goes, okay, dad. Well, can I have $10? And his dad’s just frustrated having just walked through the door and he sends us he sends his son to bed. He said, son, just go to bed. I can’t believe you’d even ask me that question.
Thinking the reason his son asked the question of how much he made is just so his son could turn around, ask him for a little bit of that money. So he tells his son to go to bed. He’s frustrated and he goes and he sits down. He starts thinking about it, and he realizes he was a little rough with his son. So he goes downstairs. He walks into his son’s room, he goes, son, you know, I don’t I don’t know what you wanted this for, but I just want you to know, I responded, a little irritated. And I’m sorry for that. And and here’s, here’s $10, by the way, what did what did you want to do with that son? And and the young boy laying in his bed reaches under his pillow. And he starts to pull out all these wadded up dollars and he counts his money. And he looks at it and he hands it to his dad, and he said, dad, it’s it’s exactly enough. He said, what is this, son? He says, it’s $20. Can I have an hour of your time? God desires to shape his will in you. His purpose in you. So that you have the opportunity and the blessing. Of reflecting the beauty of who he is in this world. I mean, you hear that story and it tugs at your heartstrings no matter where you are in life, because you look at that moment and you think, man, I want to live.
I want to live for what it’s all about. I don’t want to lose in that situation. I want to win. And I’m telling you. Just lean into the pitch. And Jesus is on the same end with the same amount of money. Or more than that having, having, having bought your life with his own just so you would lean into that bitch. And reflect the beauty of who he is in this world. Not only. As our family relationships, both spiritual and physical, blessed by our walk with Christ, so is the world. Truth of the matter is, we think to ourselves, we can’t afford to spend time with Christ. But the reality is you can’t afford to not spend time with him. In Genesis 18 and verse 13 it says, I want to read that 18 and verse 18 it says that since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, this is the Lord saying this, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed, for I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him. And God has worked in Abraham to work in his family to bless all nations. And through the relationship. All people are blessed. Can I tell you more than anybody? Abraham knows what it means to be bankrupt.
The Hebrews 11 and verse ten says, he was. He’s tired of her. He was looking for God, who’s who’s his building, and his architect is forever. He wanted a life of purpose and meaning, if anyone understood, stands what it means to walk with God and see the beauty of God working in his life in this world, it’s Abraham. Abraham was living in the land of ur. His name was Abram, named after a false god. He was in idol worship and and God shows up and delivers him by his grace. When Abraham leaves the land of her, he he stops short of God’s call, not going into the Promised land, and His father passes away. And then when he gets to the Promised Land, there’s a drought, and he decides to go beyond God’s will in the land of Egypt. And he discovers that his wife is taken in Egypt. And God continues to show his grace, even after Abraham goes to war. When he’s feeling vulnerable after that battle, realizing life, life is just so precious. In Genesis 15, God shows up and communicates to him and gives him his grace. Even after Abraham takes the concubine Hagar and goes against the Lord and and God’s decision to to bless He and Sarah through having a child and trying to produce a child on his own with Hagar. Apart from the Lord, God continues to forgive.
In Genesis 18, God shows up again in his life, giving him an opportunity just to lean into the pitch. Through you. All nations are blessed. God gives us this picture about us in this world. He says in Second Corinthians 519, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Not counting their trespasses against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. And so the neighbor Paul says this about us, therefore. We are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. The story goes like this Jesus came. Jesus died. Jesus reconciles the world to him. How does Jesus move in this world with that message? To deliver us over to him, that we might find redemption in him? Well, it’s through his people he created in his image. In fact, this passage calls you his ambassador. The job of an ambassador is to go to a foreign land to represent the leader of the country. He left. Or he’s a part of. Still, I should say. You as an ambassador are placed on earth. God, if it was just about saving you, taking to heaven would have done that long ago. But he kept you here for a purpose. You are in a foreign land belonging to a home that this world is is not your own. But God’s desire as you’re here is that as you connect to him in relationship with the beauty of what Christ has done, seeing his grace deliver you over and over and continue to come to him, no matter how many times you fall on your face and finding a God that embraces you, a God that desires to work in you, a God that continues to pitch to you just so that you can make it to first base.
That he can deliver you home. You represent that as you spend time with him, you will represent something in this world. God has called you to represent Christ. Let me close with this story. There’s a young lady. His name was Katie Davis. At 18, as she graduated high school, she decided she wanted to go to Uganda in 2006 for a missions trip, and so her church sent her on this mission trip to go to Uganda. And we think to ourselves sometimes, you know what? What am I capable of of doing in the Lord? And maybe Katie thought the same thing, but in 2006, she went to Uganda. She loved the ministry there. She. She worked with young kids who who were uneducated, living on the streets there in a very poor area in Uganda. And Uganda is poor to begin with. But this is extreme poverty. And and the next year Katie goes back again and she spends a summer there and, and she works there throughout the summer at the age of 19.
And she teaches these young kids in school. She she brings them in, she teaches them. She loves on them. As the summer was over when Katie went back home in 2008 at the age of 20, she decided that she was going to find sponsors for these children that she met on the street. And and she moved back that same year to the, to the country of Uganda. And she brought 150 kids off the street. She fed them, she taught them, and she discipled them in the Lord. Today, over 1500 children are a part of this ministry. She’s adopted 13 of her own and it’s called Amazima International Ministries, which in English means Truth International Ministries. Was it 26 years old? God’s using her. To impact thousands of people. But you know how that journey begins. Lean into the pitch. Like you don’t know what God wants to do in your life. We certainly know he wants to make an impact in this world through you. And the only way we see that impact, and the only way the burden of life gets light, is through the time we spend with Christ and His strengthening in our lives. As he forms his image in us and through us. So here’s your encouraged this morning. Don’t play baseball. But just get the first. Just get to first base. And God will send you the rest of the way home.