Introduction

She wasn’t sure how it would work out. Rosa had a dull, but stable job that paid the bills when her friend Silvy asked her to come work for her startup interior design business. Silvy had skill and passion, but she also had no existing clients, so there was no guarantee that the business would survive long-term.

Before she received the invitation to the new job, Rosa would say she trusted her friend, but now that she would have some skin in the game, trust wasn’t so easy. She really had to consider whether she trusted her friend enough to to put her financial wellbeing on the line.

It’s easy to say we trust someone when nothing serious is at stake.

But trusting someone is much harder when important things are on the line.

Rosa could trust her friend to be a good friend, but it’s a whole lot different to quit your job and work at a new business that has an unknown future. That takes a whole lot more trust.

Today I want to look at one of the greatest stories of trust found in the Bible: The call of Abraham.

At this point in the story, Abraham’s name is Abram. God changes it later, but to avoid confusion, I’m just going to refer to him as Abraham.

Abraham is a 75 year-old childless Aramean who grew up worshiping many gods.

A God he’s never heard of speaks to him tells him that if he picks up his family and relocates to a place yet unspecified, that God will turn him into a great nation. We read the story in Genesis 12Genesis 12:1–5NIV

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “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. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 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. 5 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.

Abraham’s faith isn’t an abstraction. Obeying God meant putting himself and his household at risk.

In the days before centralized governments and human rights, to be safe you had to be among your own people—the people who were honour-bound to look after you.

Back then there were no travel agents, and travelling between throught the no-man’s land between places was risky. There were plenty of bandits willing to rob and kill people.

Even though Abraham has no established history with this God, yet he chose to believe his promise and to obey.

And in this, Abraham is our role model. Like him we’re called to a new life of trust in a place where trust often doesn’t come naturally. And like Abraham, we are invited to discover that when we trust God, God blesses us with a blessing that overflows to others.God’s Blessing Begins with Trust

Every relationship with God must have trust as its foundation.

The world says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

This kind of skepticism is wise in certain circumstances

For example, a scientist working on pharmaceuticals with an idea about a new drug needs to try it out on mice, then primates and finally in carefully observed clinical trials before doctors start prescribing it widely.

But in matters of theology, such certainty isn’t really possible.

There is no way of proving (or disproving God’s existence).

In Matthew 12, there’s a story of how the Pharisees and teachers of the law ask Jesus for a sign to prove he has authority to do what he’s been doing.

To this point, Jesus has done plenty of signs. So he refuses their request. If they don’t believe by now, they’ll never believe no matter how many ‘signs’ he performs.

At a certain point, we must chose to believe. It’s only when we believe that we can see God.

For I seek not to understand in order that I may believe; but I believe in order that I may understand, for I believe for this reason: that unless I believe, I cannot understand.

Anselm of Canterbury

Abraham doesn’t say, “prove you can do these things for me and I‘ll go. He goes and trusts that God will do for him as he promised.

Just like God’s call to Abraham begins with faith, so our call to walk with God must begin with faith. We must trust that:

God forgives. If I think that deep down God is angry at me for the many ways I’ve failed him, I’ll never be able to depend on him.

By faith I must choose to believe that God’s mercy, expressed in Jesus, is greater than all of my past sin and rebellion.

Early in the Russia/Ukraine War, a great deal of the fighting at the front was carried out by mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private militia run by a Russian Oligarch named Yevgeny Prigozhin. About 2 years ago, Prigozhin’s men mutinied against the Russian command and started to drive on Moscow. Putin intervened and convinced the Wagner mercenaries to stand down promising no harm would come to Prigozhin for what happened. Two months later, his plane mysteriously crashed.

If we think that God is like Putin, promising to forgive while secretly plotting our destruction, we’ll never trust him enough to walk with him. So the life of faith requires a firm believe in God’s total forgiveness of our sin.

To live the life of faith, we must also believe God’s promise of eternal life

This kind of life is quantitatively different that what we have now, meaning I will be raised from death to immortality,

But also qualitatively different, meaning that starting now, and completed at the resurrection, I will be set free from the corrupting influence of sin.

Eternal life is also relationally different.

We all experience strained relationships.

But God promises a new life in which we are reconciled to his people. So it’s a life reconciled to God and reconciled to others.

But I can’t ask God for signed, notarized documents proving I’ve been forgiven and that I’ve been given eternal life.

There is no objective way to prove God has forgiven me or given me eternal life

So in order to receive them I have to trust But that’s not always easy. As we see with Abraham

At times Abraham Trusts and obeys God and things go well for him.

His travels from Harran to Canaan seem to go without incident—not a foregone conclusion in that time and place

But at other times, God’s promises seem to run into resistance

Most notably, God doesn’t immediately grant him an heir.

If Abraham is going to be the Father of Nations, then implicit in that promise is that he will have at least one son.

In a patriarchal society, nations would travel through the man’s side—it may sound sexist to us, but that was the cultural reality.

He and his wife were already old when the promise is given, so as the years add up, trusting God becomes more difficult.

Abraham looses his nerve and takes an easy way out (which we’ll look at in more detail in a later sermon).

So we see that along the way Abraham’s faith sometimes fails.

While there are difficult consequences as a result (so much family drama!), God continues to work with Abram.

Eventually, Abraham’s trust is deep enough to withstand the ultimate challenge

After the Isaac is born God asks Abraham to sacrifice him, only intervening to stop the sacrifice at the last second when Abraham had proved his willingness to go through with it.

Abraham shows us that while we need faith to walk with God, that faith doesn’t need to be perfect for God to accept us.

We need to trust God enough to take the next step forward

And, like Abraham, as we walk with him, he leads us into deepening faith.

Just as God called Abraham to trust him, he’s also calling you to trust him.

Maybe you’re a religious outsider who has never surrendered your life to Jesus.

You’re not sure if all this “God-business” has any value

But you’ll never know unless you trust God enough to humble yourself and ask

To come to God, God doesn’t demand that you convince yourself to the point where you have no doubt

But that you trust him enough that you’re willing to walk with him in spite of your doubts

I still have doubts: As long as I’m a finite creature and he is an infinite God, there are going to be things I can’t get my mind around.

So trusting God doesn’t mean that I have to have it all figured out.

The opposite of faith is not doubt but disbelief.

If you want to embark on this journey of faith, come talk to me after the service or call, text or email me.

I’d be happy to talk with you about it.

Maybe you’re not new to faith, but God is calling you deeper than you’re comfortable going

Maybe he’s calling you to volunteer to do something you feel inadequate to do.

Maybe he’s calling you to a new kind of generosity that you’re not sure you can maintain.

Maybe he’s asking you to forgive someone for something they did to you that you think is unforgivable.

Maybe he’s asking you to cultivate a friendship with someone you’d normally try to avoid.

When we walk with God, he is always leading us to keep trusting in ways that are outside of our comfort zone.

This isn’t because God enjoys making us uncomfortable, but because as we follow him in more and more costly ways, we become more and more sure of his faithfulness.

And as we become more and more sure of his faithfulness, we can more easily live in joy even when the world around us would otherwise fill us with fear.God’s Blessing Ends with Sharing

A life with God must begin with faith. But faith isn’t the purpose, its just the necessary precondition. The purpose is blessing.

God is the God of all and doesn’t play favourites.

While Abraham has a unique part to play in God’s plan, God’s affections are not exclusively for Abraham and his descendants.

Abram’s call is ultimately about a blessing for the entire world

the community God is going to build through Abraham will be the one into which Jesus is born,

and Abraham’s family will serve as the launching pad of God’s mission to the rest of the nations.

Paul understands that the promise to bless the nations through Abraham was a preview of the Gospel to come:Galatians 3:8–9NIV

8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” 9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

God’s decision to bless Abraham, wasn’t about Abraham alone, it was really about blessing to all the people of the world.

There were some Jews in Jesus’ day who were offended that Gentiles would be allowed to join the people of God.

They had forgotten that God is God of all and cares for all, not just for those who presently find themselves on the inside.

Just as they were tempted to try to keep God’s blessings for themselves, so we can be also.

But God’s blessings are meant to be shared with others.

The message of God’s mercy isn’t for us alone, but for those on the outs with God.

God has blessed us with Mercy, so that we can be merciful to others.

Both in sharing the good news that God grants forgiveness and new life to us if we trust in Jesus

But also that in being merciful, even to our enemies, we become a flesh-and-blood expression of God’s mercy for sinners.

The material blessings we have are meant to be shared with others. As we trust God by being generous with the blessings he gives us, God can increase that blessing, so that we have even more we can share.

Paul, discussing an offering collected form the churches in Greece to bless the church in Jerusalem, reminds the Christians in Corinth:2 Corinthians 9:6–8NIV

6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Notice that the reason for our abundance isn’t primarily our comfort, instead, the focus is on good works

Just as God blessed Abraham to make him and his family and instrument of his blessings to others,

So he blesses us in order to bless others.

If we believe that God pours out blessings on us as we faithfully pass the blessing along, we’re free to serve others.

Our world lives under the cloud of scarcity, the idea that there can never be enough

but God provides abundance.

If we don’t trust in that abundance, we won’t be free to share with others.

But I feel I have to clarify here: God’s abundance doesn’t mean that I can have everything I want because many of the things I want won’t be the blessing I believe them to be.

They aren’t abundance after all

If I believe abundance comes from affluence, I’ll think God is short-changing me when he doesn’t deliver on my expectation.

We probably all know people who have lots of money and are miserable. Wealth isn’t a guarantee of satisfaction in life.

But If I understand instead that God wants me to have connection—that being in a community of love with him and others is true blessing,

then I will see that God is always giving me opportunities to have that blessing.

He gives me opportunities to learn to love, and to be reconciled, and to share my life with others.

When we understand and seek true blessing found in community, that blessing always overflows to others.

Abraham went on to bless others during his life

Because God has blessed him, he can confidently rescue the residents of Sodom after they are taken captive by a marauding army.

Later Abraham uses his special relationship with God in order to intercede for the righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Likewise we can use the blessings God has given us to bless others.

If I’ve been given surplus time, I can use it help others

If I’ve been given a spacious home, I can use it to extend hospitality to those who don’t often receive it.

If I’ve been given administrative gifts, I can use those to help people who need them

If I have been given artistic abilities, I can use those in service of others.

Every blessing God has given us is something we can share with others, and build up treasure for ourselves in heaven.Conclusion

So in the life of Abraham, we see what a life with God is all about.

It always begins with trust in God, even if that trust is imperfect.

Jesus tells us that God can even use faith the size of a mustard seed.

Faith allows us to step out of our comfort zone, allow God to show he’s trustworthy. And from there faith becomes easier.

In this way, through our lifetimes, our trust in God grows.

And while we must trust God to walk with him, the point of all that trust is blessing.

Just as Abraham’s blessing was meant to give blessing to the whole world

So our blessings are given to bless up and bless others

When we pass on the blessings God gives, he fills us with more so that we become a pipeline of blessing into the world.

So let’s learn to walk in trust and to share the blessing God pours out on us, so that God can commend us as he commended Abraham.