[0:00] Good evening. A warm welcome to the service this evening. We're going to begin this time of worship by singing to God's praise from Psalm 51.
[0:11] Psalm 51 and the first three stanzas in Gaelic. After thy loving kindness, Lord, have mercy upon me for thy compassion is great.
[0:21] Blot out all mine iniquity, me cleanse from sin and thoroughly wash from mine iniquity for my transgressions. I confess my sin I ever see against thee thee only have I sinned.
[0:32] In thy sight done this ill, that when thou speakst thou mayst be just and clear in judging still. These verses of Psalm 51, we will remain seated to sing in Gaelic.
[0:43] And then after that, Donald will lead us in prayer in Gaelic. Gaelic MOLAS Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[2:00] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[3:30] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[5:00] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[6:06] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[7:20] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[8:50] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji .
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[15:44] Amen. Amen.
[16:06] Let's continue to worship God, singing again from Psalm 51. Psalm 51, we sing from verses 5 down to verse 12, the words on the screen.
[16:18] We'll stand to sing to God's praise. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[16:55] Of gladness and of joyfulness
[18:03] Make me to hear the voice That stories where he wants which thou As broken may rejoice All mine iniquities water Thy face hide from my sin Create a clean heart, Lord, renew Arise, spread me within Cast me not from thy sight nor take
[19:06] Thy holy spirit away Restore me like salvation's joy With thy feast let me stay If you could turn now please in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12 We're actually going to read in from chapter 11 and verse 27 There's been a wee while, I can't remember when it was That we went through Genesis The first 11 chapters
[20:07] Over a year anyway But I want to begin a fairly short study tonight In the life of Abraham And we see the beginnings of his family line At the end of chapter 11 And we'll read from verse 27 of chapter 11 Through to verse 9 of chapter 12 So this is God's word This is the account of Terah Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran And Haran became the father of Lot While his father Terah was still alive Haran died in the hour of the Chaldeans In the land of his birth Abram and Nahor both married The name of Abram's wife was Sarai And the name of Nahor's wife was Milca She was the daughter of Haran The father of both Milca and Isca Now Sarai was barren She had no children
[21:07] Terah took his son Abram His grandson Lot, son of Haran And his daughter-in-law Sarai The wife of his son Abram And together they set out from her of the Chaldeans To go to Canaan But when they came to Haran They settled there Terah lived 205 years And he died in Haran The Lord said to Abram Leave your country, your people And your father's household And go to the land I will show you 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 I will bless those who bless you And whoever curses you I will curse And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you So Abram left as the Lord had told him And Lot went with him Abram was 75 years old When he set out from Haran He took his wife Sarai His nephew Lot All the possessions they had accumulated
[22:07] And the people they had acquired in Haran And they set out for the land of Canaan And they arrived there Abram travelled through the land of The land as far as the site Of the great tree of Mori at Shechem At that time the Canaanites were in the land The Lord appeared to Abram and said To your offspring I will give this land So he built an altar there to the Lord Who had appeared to him From there he went on towards the hills East of Bethel And pitched his tent with Bethel in the west And Ai on the east There he built an altar to the Lord And called on the name of the Lord Then Abram set out And continued towards the Negev Amen And may God bless that reading Of his word to us We'll sing again now to God's praise From hymn number 683 I hear thy welcome voice
[23:08] That calls me Lord to thee For cleansing in thy precious blood That flowed on Calvary I am coming Lord Coming now to thee Wash me Cleanse me in the blood That flowed on Calvary For cleansing in thy name I hear thy welcome voice That calls me Lord That calls me Lord to thee For cleansing in thy precious blood That flowed on Calvary I am coming Lord Coming now to thee
[24:09] Wash me Wash me Cleanse me in the blood That flowed on Calvary If Jesus calls me on To perfect faith and love To perfect hope and peace and trust For earth and heaven above I am coming Lord I am coming Lord Coming now to thee Wash me Cleanse me in the blood Thy throne On Calvary I am coming Lord It is Jesus who confirms The blessed work within
[25:11] By unhing grace to uncomptain Wearing the power of sin I am coming Lord Coming now to thee I am coming Lord Coming now to thee Wash me Cleanse me in the blood That flowed on Calvary All hail All hail Our hyvin All hailaste me tj OCE All hail Verge Onlation Our What Cleans Go With The Hel coming now to thee wash me, cleanse me in the blood and hold on cover me well just as we turn back to the passage that we read together let's pray again and ask for God's help our Heavenly Father we thank you for this evening we thank you for your word as we have read it and as we have sang it and we thank you that you are the God as we heard this morning who reveals yourself to us the great God, the holy God, the eternal God and we thank you that you are the God who calls us to come to you and we thank you that you have made it possible for us to come to you and we recognise with thanksgiving that that has been made possible through the blood of Jesus as we sang the psalm we joined our voices with the psalmist who confessed his sin and we thank you for these psalms, for these prayers where we are led to confess our sin and we thank you that we are promised in your word that when we confess our sin you are faithful and just to forgive us to purify us from all unrighteousness and we thank you for the assurance that not only is our unrighteousness taken away but Christ's righteousness is given to us as we come to believe we thank you for the blood that was shed that makes it possible for our hearts to be cleansed and we pray that each one of us this evening would come in response to that call of Jesus to receive the cleansing that our souls need and we pray for not only that cleansing the first time we come but that ongoing cleansing the grace that is added to grace as we seek to follow you so help us Lord we pray as we would seek to follow you on the path that you call us to and we pray for grace for those who who may be struggling tonight with different things for those whose hearts may be cold
[28:49] Lord we pray that you would touch these hearts for those who may be at a distance from you we thank you that your word is full of accounts of those who who wandered but who were drawn back and we pray for that for any who may be at a distance from you this evening we pray for those who are struggling with different and difficult things in life for those who may be wrestling with illness with anxiety with dark thoughts with addictions there are many things Lord that we are aware of in our community and in our lives and there are many more things that we are not aware of but you see and so where there is need as we come to you Lord and as we come to you on behalf of others that we see in our mind's eye we pray that you would meet them that you would meet us at the point of our need Lord that you would help us as we cry to you we pray for your guidance in this week to come we think of those who may have procedures in hospital scheduled operations we commit them to you we pray for those who who wait for for dates to come we think of Mackenzie and Ian especially as Mackenzie waits for the child to come we pray Lord for your hand to be upon her and Ian also and the wee one that she carries and as we have prayed we continue to pray that in your time that wee one would be delivered in safety and that you would protect
[30:27] Mackenzie and Ian as a couple we thank you for the blessing of these young ones that we see and hear with us and we ask Lord that they would grow up to know you and to trust you we pray for our teenagers as well some who may be anxious about the week to come and exam results we thank you Lord that our identities are not defined by the grades that we get or the jobs that we do or the way that we look we thank you that you have made us in the image of God and that we find our true identity as we come to Jesus so enable us enable them to know that and we pray Lord as they acknowledge you and as we acknowledge you on their behalf that you would direct their path we thank you that you have a plan for our lives and we pray that you would guide us in that we pray now Lord that you would help us as we open your word we pray for the young ones as well as we think about holiday clubs we ask that the meeting before the service tonight would be blessed and that the plans as they progress would be blessed we pray for the young ones that they would come out to the holiday club as they come out to the clubs week by week and we ask that in their early years they would come to understand and respond to the gospel we pray for the salvation of their young hearts and the hearts of their parents as well we thank you that often today what we are seeing is the young ones pointing the older ones to Jesus and we ask Lord that you would be at work in them and through them so hear us and help us as we open your word we pray for Farrakhan as well in Leverborough tonight and we pray that he too would know the help of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher as we open your word here and elsewhere to hear our prayers and go before us we pray in Jesus name
[32:26] Amen well tonight we're studying we're beginning a series a study in the life of Abram Abram who becomes Abraham and I think maybe the first question we could ask is is why do we want to do that why do we want to study the life of a man who lived so long ago probably 4000 years ago around about that time frame and so far away from here and the answer to that question well there could be various answers we could say well Abraham's life is in the Bible and all of the Bible is useful for studying and for correction and for encouragement the word of God is useful for us and so every verse of it should be studied so we could answer that way the way that came to my mind when I thought about why study the life of Abraham actually occurred to me through a song that I used to sing in Sunday school and I won't sing you the song but I'll tell you the lyrics you can probably think of it can you
[33:41] Father Abraham had many sons many do you sing it in Sunday school here many sons had Father Abraham and what comes next and I am one of them and so are you so let's all praise the Lord and if you'd rather go for something a bit more traditional we actually sang a line this morning from Psalm 105 and I didn't choose the places this morning but one of the verses from Psalm 105 jumped out that says in verse 6 O ye that are of Abraham's race so we're connected to Abraham we have an interest in the life of Abraham because he's our ancestral father you could say and all of us have an interest in our family line to some degree
[34:44] John Angus who spends a lot of time in graveyards I used to do that job once upon a time cutting grass and doing graves and I was amazed by the number of people who would wander into graveyards and they'd be looking at all the stones and I'd speak to them and very often they were Americans and when you would say to them what are you doing here they would say well we like to look at the stones and we're looking for our ancestors you know I'm a Macdonald and I'm a Macleod and I'm looking for my ancestors I'm looking at my family line and we have an interest in our ancestral line and in Genesis 12 we're shown you could say where our ancestral line our spiritual family line began because all God's people all those who are saved all those to use simple language for the young ones all those who are friends of God who are Christians we can trace our family history back to to father
[35:51] Abram and so tonight I want to just take a few minutes and think about how God called Abram to follow him so four points if I have the time before seven o'clock we'll look first of all at God's call and then we'll think secondly about the challenge of that call thirdly we'll think about God's grace that's revealed in and through that call and finally we'll see Abram's faith as he responds so first of all God's call and if you look at verse one I'm not going to go into chapter 11 but just really pick up at chapter 12 so first of all God's call the Lord had said to Abram that's where it begins so the first thing we see here is that it begins with God just as Ian preached this morning the revelation of God the call of God through the burning bush the initiative was with God and in this story also we see we hear that the call to
[37:04] Abram comes from God he is the one who takes the initiative we don't read anything about Abram being on a spiritual journey where he climbed a mountain or booked himself into some new age retreat he doesn't appear to be trying to find himself or find the path to enlightenment no Abram he's just getting on with life he's married to Sarah they have no children and then something changes in his life there's an awakening in the soul of Abram because God has decided in his sovereign will that he will call Abram to follow him see the initiative is with God it's God's call and there seems to be implied in this verse a persistence in the call it says there a kind of strange term the Lord had said to Abram and it suggests that Abram may have been hearing the call of God for a while and is at this point realising that he can't ignore it but he must respond to God's call so that's a little about the call of Abram and I think we could say that even though this happened a long time ago and a long way from here we can identify with this because this isn't just the way
[38:56] God worked back then this is the way that God still works that still God wakes up sleeping souls you know people like Abram people who are just busy getting on with life here you know busy with work preoccupied with hobbies pursuits maybe building a house getting married plans to get married settling down no real thought of God no concept of eternity life is just going on as it always goes on and then maybe suddenly or maybe gradually there's an awareness of God that comes into their lives there's a sense not just of the here and now but there's a growing sense of the hereafter there's a soul thirst that they realize that this world just cannot quench there's an interest in opening the
[40:02] Bible when the Bible for for months or years just sat on the shelf untouched there's a realization perhaps that the sermons that were slept through for years or decades now seem to be actually pointed and connecting with your life and when that happens what is going on well God is calling calling you just as he called Abraham and you and I have to respond to that call just as Abraham did so we see God's call we hear God's call to Abraham and we know that God works in this way in the here and now maybe he's working in that way in someone's life here just now the voice of God has been heard and if that's the case respond
[41:14] I'll stir his time but for the believer the person who's already responded to the call of God this should stir something in us also and it's a sense of wonder it's a sense of thankfulness and praise that God would call us just as he called Abraham remember what Jesus said to the disciples in John 15 he says to them you did not choose me but I chose you and that's the amazing thing that God would choose to call us to be his friends to be his children to be those who are adopted into his family so if you're a child of
[42:14] God if you're one who has responded to the call of God to trust him give thanks to him for what he has done in waking up your soul and drawing you to himself and as we think about perhaps some of those people that we love those who are close to us who are in a state of sleep just night pray for them and keep on praying for them that God would do this work of waking up souls and calling people to follow him so first of all there's God's call and secondly there's God's challenge and we hear it as we step through the verse we start slow but we'll gather pace don't worry
[43:17] God says to Abraham at this point in this call verse 1 leave your country your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you and sometimes in fact usually to respond to God's call can be difficult it can be costly speaking to someone this afternoon who for a period was in Japan as missionaries and they spoke about those who became Christians and when they became Christians in Japan their families and their communities would pretty much distance themselves from them because they considered Christians to be those who turned their backs on their national culture so it's a costly thing in some parts of the world to respond to the call of Jesus to trust them and with
[44:18] Abram as we read this verse and as we read this verse in the context of wider scripture it's clear that Abram wrestled with the challenge of these words to leave his country to leave his people to leave his father's household and go to this land that he didn't know where it was and Stephen in Acts chapter 7 in his final sermon he makes reference to Abram and he says in verse 2 the God of glory appeared to our father Abram while he was still in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran leave your country and your people God said and go to the land I will show you so he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran after the death of his father God sent him to this land where you are now living says Stephen to those who were gathered so as we read these verses and we think about them in the context of wider scripture we learn we learn what goes on in
[45:28] Abram's life God calls Abram hears God's call and he seems initially to respond in obedience to God's call when he's living in Ur so he packs his bags he gets on the road and he heads off on the road of obedience but rather than go all the way to the land that God was intending to show him Abram and those who were with them they get stuck they go as far as Haran and they stop there for a period we don't know how long but it was a reasonable length of time because it was long enough to accumulate possessions and people and that shows us that Abram he wrestled with the challenge of God's call because there was a cost to it he gets stuck on the road as he seeks to follow
[46:32] God and I wonder if any of us can identify with that I would be surprised if any of us would not be able to identify with that but I wonder is anyone here tonight stuck in Haran perhaps we we heard the call of God to follow him to commit our lives to Jesus and we did we became Christians we trusted the Lord we repented of us and we started to follow and we were following at pace as the Lord was leading us on we were following closely but now perhaps for some as as we hear God day by day calling us to to move on with him to grow in grace to stay close to him maybe for some of us we're falling behind as Abraham did we're getting stuck we're moving down through the gears maybe we've stalled well if that's the case then Abraham teaches us as we as we see him at this point packing his bags again at age 75
[48:07] Abraham teaches us that regardless of the challenge when God calls he keeps on calling when God calls us to follow him as was said in the children's talk this morning it's to keep on following it's to finish the race even when there's a challenge and there's a cost so we're told in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us and we have the Old Testament example of what that looks like in this verse Abraham he needs to be uprooted not just once but twice he has to be uprooted from his country and his people and his local pub God calls him out he's got stuck he's stalled and the call of
[49:12] God the challenge of God is to get moving again this is something that we know when we respond to God's call when we begin to follow Jesus there will be places and there will be people and there will be interests and there will be idols that we have to we have to leave behind because we know that they would always be pulling us away from following Jesus closely there's always a cost there's an ongoing challenge and for us the challenge is not to leave our country perhaps and leave our families but it may mean leaving a relationship I don't know it may mean leaving
[50:15] Instagram or Netflix or eBay or something at least for a while there's a challenge to God's call and that's true and that's true on and respond and it's true every day after that remember what Jesus said to the disciples Luke 9 23 he says whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me for whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me will save it what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self their very soul so there's God's call to Abraham and secondly there's God's challenge as he responds and has to for a second time respond to this call and the third thing here is we see
[51:24] God's grace the Lord says to Abraham go to the land I will show you and then verse 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 I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you so these words from God are immense Abraham he's just an ordinary man with a wife who's getting up in years as he is and no child and he's given this promise that's so great it's almost impossible for him to take it in God promises him land a land that he could call his own home and God promises him children and not just one or two children but a great nation of children offspring verse seven and God promises him protection the protection of his presence
[52:29] God says to Abraham I will be with you and I will bless those who bless you I will bless your blessers literally and I will be against those who curse you the Lord says to Abraham you will have my personal protection over your life and then God promises him a legacy he tells Abraham that his life would have significance that his life would be remembered all peoples verse three on earth will be blessed through you it's an immense promise it's beyond what he could take in and the reasonable question for us to ask would be what did Abraham do to deserve all this and the answer is nothing there's absolutely nothing in
[53:36] Abraham's life or in the life of mankind in the world at this point that would merit this blessing from God and if you were to flick back through Genesis we're not going there don't worry all we see is gloom Genesis three the fall into sin as Adam and Eve mistrust God and shake their fist at him Genesis six to eight the flood where the world is so dark and depraved that God says I'm going to bring waters in and wipe the whole thing out other than those who are in the ark and fast forward on a little bit more to Genesis 11 we would think after the flood after such punishment that mankind would take heed and be in a state of repentance but no by Genesis 11 there's the building of the Tower of Babel man's pride is in overdrive he's shaking his fist at God again and saying
[54:50] I will be like God I will make a name for me so there's nothing in recent events that would merit the blessing of God and then if we zoom in on Abraham's life and look at his family there's nothing that would cause God to want to bless him and love him the clearest picture we have of Abraham prior to this call comes from Joshua and in Joshua chapter 24 and verse 2 Joshua said to all the people this is what the Lord the God of Israel says long ago your ancestors including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor lived beyond the Euphrates river and they worshipped other gods so that's as much as we know about Abraham he's not a church going clean living seeker of God he is a committed pagan he's a determined worshipper of other gods so why does Abraham find that God shows him such kindness and such love why does
[55:59] God show such favour to Abraham and the answer is because God is gracious and we can't go any further back than that the answer to why God does this for Abraham is found in the character of God in the love of God in the grace of God and then if we were to look at the line of Abraham as Matthew details it in Matthew 1 and if we were to follow that line from Abraham all the way through you know where it takes us it takes us to Jesus who is the saviour who is our saviour who offers
[57:00] God's grace to us not because we are deserving of it not because we are lovely not because there is anything attractive in us but because God is love because God is gracious and because God is a God who saves wretches like Abraham and like you and like me God's call to Abraham God's call to us God's challenge to Abraham as he calls him to follow and keep following a challenge that's coming continually to us and God's grace grace that was shown to
[58:06] Abraham and we see God's grace as we fast forward to Calvary shown in far greater measure as we think about Jesus and all that he did for us we don't have time to look at Abraham's faith tonight but we'll say maybe a word about that on Wednesday evening let's pray our heavenly father we thank you for your word to us we thank you that in the bible as we open the pages we hear the call of God to us and we pray that each one of us would be responding as Abraham responded we pray for anyone tonight who may never have responded to the call of God to come in repentance and faith and we ask that even this evening whether very young or whether up in years as
[59:13] Abraham was getting we ask Lord that there would be a response of faith and we recognize the challenge we know the pressures of the world and the flesh and the devil we know how our souls so often will rebel and war against your call we know how the enemy will tell us of the great cost but we thank you Lord that there is no other way than the way of Jesus where we find salvation and satisfaction and joy for our souls so whatever the challenge whatever the cost whatever the thing may be that is holding us back from following or following more closely we pray that you would give us that clarity and that strength to be always repenting and always seeking to turn and stay close to you and we thank you for your grace we cannot explain it we do not understand it but we thank you that as we trust in
[60:30] Jesus we are promised it so show to us Lord that grace we pray as we confess our sin as we look in faith to your son our saviour and we pray these things in Jesus name and for Jesus sake amen we're going to sing to conclude and we're going to sing a new hymn tonight we've got a visitor with us Rachel who plays this one at Smithton and we heard this often at Keswick Stuart was there Josh was there so there's a few of you who know this one fairly well it was on the Facebook page as well the rest of us will catch up as we sing it so we'll sing now the words on the screen what gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer what gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer there is no more for heaven not to give he is my joy my righteousness and freedom my steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this
[62:03] I hold my hope my hope my hope is only Jesus for my life is holy bound to his oh how strange and divine I can sing all is mine yet not I but through Christ in me the night is dark the night is dark but I am not forsaken for by my side the Savior he will stay I labor on in weakness and rejoicing for in my need his power is displayed to this I hold my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will lead oh the night has been won and I shall overcome yet not I but through
[63:23] Christ in me no fate I dread I know I am forgiven the future sure the price it has been paid for Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon and he was raised to overthrow the grave to this I hope my sin has been defeated Jesus now and ever is my plea oh the chains are released I can't say I am free yet not I but through Christ in me with every breath
[64:31] I long to follow Jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will renew me until I stand with joy before the throne to this I hold my hope is only Jesus all the glory evermore to him when the race is complete still my list shall repeat yet not I but through Christ in me when the race is complete still my list shall repeat yet not I but through
[65:46] Christ in me yet not I but through Christ in me yet not I but through Christ in me yet not I but through Christ in me and I may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forever more Amen