August 3 – Genesis 11:27-12:20, “Go to the Land That I Will Show You”
August 10 – Genesis 13:1-14:16, “To You and Your Offspring Forever"
August 17 – Genesis 14:17-15:21, “And He Believed the Lord”
August 24 – Genesis 16:1-16, “A God of Seeing”

August 31 – Genesis 17:1-27, “You Shall Keep My Covenant”

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Have you ever moved to a new city without knowing anyone there? It can be daunting, to say the least. I graduated from Belmont in 2004 with a clear sense that the Lord was calling me into vocational ministry. I knew that I needed to pursue theological training in graduate school, so I began to discern what school would be best. I had lots of encouragement from the faculty at Belmont to apply to Duke or Mercer or Baylor or Wake Forest. My dad had attended Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Ft. Worth. I knew some folks at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. But I settled on Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham. The faculty were world-class scholars, and the student body was small yet diverse. And, this is key, it was only a three-hour drive from Nashville where my beautiful girlfriend was finishing her undergrad studies (yes, proximity to Morgan was the deciding factor, and I regret nothing).

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I didn’t know anyone in Birmingham. I didn’t know anything about Birmingham. And, a cardinal sin, I didn’t really care about SEC football. I found some roommates from a message board in the Beeson lobby, and my folks followed me down with two car-loads of stuff to help me move in. After dinner, they headed back north, and I was on my own in a strange new world with my new Alabamian roommates (I’m not making this up) – Benny, Bucky, and Randy.

 

In our sermon series for this month, we’re going to see how thousands of years ago, God called a guy with a two- syllable name from a one-syllable town, Abram of Ur, to go to a foreign land. TheLord didn’t even tell Abram which land, only that He would show Abram where to go. And Abram obeyed, forever changing the course of human, global, and theological history. Abram would become Father Abraham, the faithful patriarch from whom the Hebrew nation of Israel would be born.

 

And yet, Abram is not a superhero. In fact, we’re going to see how he waffles between failure and faith. The family that comes from his lineage will be special and set apart as the Lord’s own beloved people. But, in many ways, they are also surprisingly weak and ordinary.

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My hope is that we will be able to relate to Abraham and his family as we, too, follow wherever the Lord may lead us, knowing that (to quote another childhood song), we are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Abraham will stumble on his journey, but his success isn’t dependent on his ability to lead his family to the Promised Land. Abraham’s success rests on his willingness to follow.

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Faith is more than agreeing with a set of facts. Faith means a trusting to the point of action, even if it means moving to a strange, new place. Where is the Lord leading you to go today? Perhaps it’s not a geographic change, but a relationship change, a spiritual practice change, a heart change. Will you put your faith in the One who alone is able to lead you to a land where you can flourish, a land flowing with the milk and honey of grace and providence?

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“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” – Hebrews 11:8
 

Grace and peace,