LIVING IN THE NEW ERA
We as a family of churches – Regions Beyond are carrying a
word for us and that is a ‘Promise of a New Era.’ While we were spending time
last week seeking God asking “what does this new era look like.”
The word says that we are in a new era – not a new
season because seasons come and go and we know what a season is going to look
like. A new era is something absolutely new and different – there is no
prototype that has gone before us and we have never been this way before.
I am going to speak to you about someone who was called to
live a life in the new era where there were implications and costs involved. Let us see how he and his family responded.
Gen 12: 1 – 3
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.[a]
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.”
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.[a]
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.”
God wants every man and woman to carry a
promise of God in the new era. The call of living
in the new era is amazing – you don’t know what is in front of you and
sometimes it’s confusing, breathtaking, at times it can be ugly.
It can
be like trying to build a plane in the air. Abraham was in a place where he was
relying on God for what’s coming next. He came from a house of idol worshippers
where he and his father Terah were idol worshippers when God got a hold of him
and said “I want you to live in a new era.”
God gave him some very big promises
– so big that they were to play a vital role in the universal plan of
redemption. His role was to be part of God’s big picture where God would
reconcile man back to himself. Let’s look at scripture and see what this was
all about.
Vs 1 The Lord said to Abraham
1)
God is the origin
of the call over our lives.
It’s simple, but sometimes we forget. Abraham
had done nothing to receive this call on his life. When God speaks, stuff
happens. When God said “let there be light”, there was light. When God called
Abraham there comes in the picture of the redemptive plan of the universe –
God’s people being called back to God.
The Bible is full of such stories like Moses
in the wilderness. He saw the bush that was burning but not being consumed by
the fire and there was no smoke. He went there and God spoke to him. He came up
with lots of excuses but God called him to do something and he did. Samuel got
up and went to Eli and said “did you call me?” Eli said no until he understood
that it was God who was calling him and he responds.
Andrew and Peter
were on the boat and Jesus said “come follow me and I will make you fishers of
men and they left their boats and their nets to follow Jesus. Saul became Paul
in a moment. Now there’s my story.
If you are sitting here today wondering if
Jesus really exists and died for your sins, today is the day of salvation. Give
him your heart and he will be yours forever.
We need to be absolutely sure that it is God
who has called you because when challenges come, you will need the
strength, the grace and the courage from God alone.
2) The Call is costly.
Our battles are going to get more difficult. We
are living in times where times are gonna become very difficult, but our victories
are gonna become easier because it is God who will fight for us.
Vs 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.
Sometimes the call is literal, it actually
requires us to leave our family and our household and go.
But many
times, God is actually saying “leave your comfort zone.” We have become very comfortable – it is about me: my wife and
children, my job, etc. and I am comfortable. That’s when God says come on –
move on. Things are not about us.
Leaving our comfort zone can look very
different for each one of us. Sometimes it can be about Sunday morning – the
alarm goes off and you are on the serving team, you feel someone else can
replace you, and you rest. The serving team needs you – the buck stops with
you. Sometimes it can be about Sunday afternoon – on Sunday afternoon I want to
chill, I want to rest. I know that Colin and Navaz call for hospitality, but
maybe I can rest and do it next week.
Then next
week becomes the next and it never happens and we get comfortable. God says
let's come out of our comfort zone. Getting out of our comfort zone can also be
about sharing the love of God with our friends.
I am friends with this person and we are
comfortable. I don’t want the friendship to get awkward or for us to get
disconnected so let Jesus be out of the conversation here - but God says to come out of the comfort zone.
By asking him to leave his country, God was
saying leave your comfort zone that you are in and to leave his people and his
familiarity.
By asking him to leave his Father’s household,
God was asking him to leave every security that comes with living under a
protected roof. God was saying “make me your security, make me your dependable
one, you can rely on me, I will be with you forever, I will never leave you.”
The scripture talks about the call being costly – Peter and Andrew left their nets, Matthew left the table to
follow Jesus. There was a man who Jesus said to come follow him.
The man said, “let me bury my Father and then I
will follow you.” It wasn’t that his Father had just died and he had to carry
out a funeral service. What he really meant was let my father get old and die,
let me grab my inheritance, then I will follow you. Then Jesus said “If you
hold on to your life, you will lose it, if you lose your life for me, you will
find it.”
. There is a cost involved and the cost may
look different for everyone. It may look like no promotion. We are coming into
times where people may look at your name and your belief system and say I don’t
want this man or woman to go ahead in life and there will be a choice that will
be in front of you. Will you follow Jesus or will you leave Jesus out of the
equation. You will know when you are being ashamed of the Gospel.
The call is costly but it doesn’t end there. God
is Faithful – he promises us that he will never leave or forsake us. There is a
purpose behind the call – there was a purpose behind Abraham’s call.
3) Purpose
of this call.
God said to Abraham
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great
In those times, making your name great was not just being
famous, but it meant that people will know you and the purposes of God in many
generations to come. Today we are still talking about Abraham in 2019 which
means God has been faithful – he has kept his word.
All the families of the world will be blessed through
Abraham – and that is great. God’s ultimate purpose by calling us is much more
than just us being blessed. We are blessed to be a blessing. It is far better
to be a blessing than to be just blessed.
The rest of the world wants big houses and cars. For us God
is saying “I want you to be a blessing.” Imagine someone dies and everyone
says: “this lady was such a blessing to our community, to our city.” That’s
what God wants for us.
Once we get a hold of
that, everything – the way we do life, our attitude changes. The way
mums and dads raise their children would completely change. Everything around
us would change when we realize that God has called us to be a blessing.
How can we be a blessing? What does that mean for us?
If we line up with God’s purpose, we will be a blessing.
God’s ultimate purpose is people from every tribe tongue and nation came to
know Jesus. Jesus said go and make disciples, baptize them in the name of the
Spirit and I will be with you till the end of age. That is God’s ultimate
purpose. When our lives align with this purpose of God, he is glorified and our
purpose on Earth is fulfilled.
Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again), Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment