Sidelines: Abraham

I'm going to try to begin to input some of my Bible study topics from our Monday night, Merge, bible studies into my blog life.  Over the past three weeks we looked at some Biblical characters that we know now, as legit men of the faith, but who started off in obscurity.

Abraham, Joshua, and David all spent time on the sideline, but when God called their number, they stepped out in faith, and even through mistakes and shortcomings still managed to live their life chasing after God.

We can be the same way today.  You may be feeling like your life is trivial and small compared to the other people on “God’s team,” but in the grand scheme of things, we are all important to the Cause of Christ and the furthering of God’s kingdom.

Let’s take a look at our first player, Abraham…

There are three distinct things Abraham did throughout his life to get in the game and get off the sidelines.

 Answer the Call

We first encounter Abraham aka Abram in Genesis 11.  He’s the son of a man named Terah, and we are told he has a wife named Sarai who is unable to have children.  He was headed to the land of Canaan from Ur of the Chaldeans, but his family, his entire family settled in a pl

So, a pretty normal, everyday dude.  Not a king or principality or anything like that.  Just a guy that God tells to get up and move.

Let’s start our story in Genesis 12:1

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The Bible tells us that Abram got up and went.  He followed the instructions the Lord had given him.
So he heads out to the Land of Canaan and when they get there, God makes a promise to Abram.
In verse 7, God tells Abram:
    “To your offspring I will give this land.”
Canaan was inhabited, so Abram pitched his tent in Bethel.
The story goes on, Abram and Sarai get into some trouble in Egypt.  Abram makes some mistakes along the way.
He even gets discouraged.
It is how Abraham reacts in his discouragement that we see his next quality that gets him off the sideline…

B.  Fight through Discouragement

In the opening of Chapter 15, we see his discouragement reach a point where he voices it to God.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”  2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son[b] shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Finally, we see a third way that Abraham got off the sidelines and into the game by his
C.  Willingness to Sacrifice for the Cause
God’s promise to Abraham came true.  He was blessed with a son born to him by his wife Sarai.  Side note, he was also blessed with a son by a servant, but that’s another part of the story.
When it came to his relationship with his son, Abraham still followed the call of God on his life.
So, in Chapter 22, God tells Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

here’s where the record would skip, for someone who wasn’t on mission with what God wanted.
Abraham has waited and waited for God’s promise to come through, and now God wants it back?
The good thing, for Abraham, is he sought God’s will for his life at this point.
Abraham did what God said.  He took Isaac up on a mountain and began building an altar.  Isaac thought it was fishy that there was no lamb or animal for the sacrifice, but Abraham assured him God would provide.  He binds Isaac up and lays him on the altar, and as he is about to plunge the knife into his son, the angel of the Lord appears and beckons him to stop.  God provides a ram to replace Isaac as the sacrifice and then reassures his covenant with Abraham.

Take a look at verse 16…
“By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his[d] enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
So what do we learn from our first character about getting ourselves off the sideline and into the game?

First, Answer the Call.  When God puts a call on our lives, we need to answer it immediately.  Don’t wait around.  God will prepare you, and has probably already prepared you for what He has for you.  Get out there and get to it.

Second, you have to fight through discouragement.  One of Satan’s greatest weapons against Christ-followers is discouragement.  Especially today, we don’t see immediate results, we get discouraged.  We have to know God’s plan in our lives is on His time.  His time is way different than ours.  He sees the whole picture, He sees the end.  We see a minute detail of our lives, we don’t see what is best for us.  Trust Him!

Lastly,  we must have a willingness to sacrifice.   God’s going to ask for some things along the way, and we must be willing to part with them.  Like Abraham, who was willing to part with the thing he’d waited for his entire adult life, we must have a willingness to give God whatever He asks from us.

If he hasn’t already, God is going to call you into the game.  You must be prepared.  There are going to be tough times, when you don’t think you’re qualified, and you may be asked to give up some things, but all that compared to the blessing and glory that is coming your way outshines the issues you may have!