Good evening.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to

the book of Genesis.

Let’s begin, if you would, with a word of

prayer,

and then we’ll get into our study.

Our gracious Father in heaven,

we come before your throne grateful for

the day you’ve blessed us with,

grateful for the opportunity that we have

to worship you,

mindful of the gifts and the blessings

that you present to us,

and mindful of how we are to live in

accordance with your will and your word,

that we might be.

Able to serve you in a way that is right

and holy in your sight.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who

are traveling,

those who are away from us. We also pray

that you be with those who

are dealing with illness and injury.

We pray for Riley’s dad that they may be

able to

do something to reverse the course of the

cancer.

Lord, we pray that you be with all those

who are dealing with cancer and other very

harmful diseases, we pray that you give

them the strength that they need

to overcome those things and may the

treatments be available to to help deal

with

those things. Lord, we pray that you

forgive us when we sin and fall short

of your glory. All this we pray and ask in

Jesus’ name.

Amen.

We’ve been noticing some of the occasions

of worship that exist

in Scripture. And as we have been doing

that,

we’ve been noticing some of the things

that we learn about worship along

the way. So we’ve seen a few of those

things.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

So as we look in the text, notice exam and

and examine chapter thirteen.

We got into Genesis chapter thirteen.

No, but w I know who he is.

Know who he is. ~ Judah?

Yeah. That’s all right. That’s all right.

So ~ here in Genesis chapter thirteen,

we read, Then Abram went up from Egypt,

he and his wife and all that he had and

lot with him to the south.

Abraham was very rich in livestock,

in silver, and gold, and he went on his

journey from the south as far as Bethel.

To the place where his tent had been at

the beginning,

between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the

altar which he made there at first,

and there Abram called the name of the

Lord,

called on the name of the Lord.

Lot also, who went with Abram,

had flocks and herds and tents.

Now the land was not able to support them

that they might dwell together,

for their permissions sorry, for their

possessions were so great that they could

not dwell together.

Together. And there was strife between the

herdsmen of Lot Abram’s livestock

and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.

The Canaanites and the Perizzites then

dwelt in the land.

So as you look at the text, you have Abram

coming up out of Egypt.

He’s dwelling in this land, and he is

offering worship to God.

He builds an altar and worships there at

the altar,

and he calls on the name of the Lord.

We’ve noticed this.

connection, this correlation between

calling on the name of the Lord

and the altars being built.

And this idea of calling on the name of

the Lord is

an expression of trusting in God.

It is an expression of so as to say,

we are going to do what God says to do.

When you turn over to Acts chapter 22,

you’ll notice that

Ananias will come to Saul of Tarsus,

this individual who has been persecuting

the church.

He has been disrupting the church.

He has been br going into places,

into houses, and pulling people out and

carrying them off to prison and to death.

And as you look at that, what you find is

that Ananias comes

to Saul of Tarsus because Ananias has been

told by God to do so.

And he comes to him and says, Saul,

why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized

and do what?

Call on the name of the Lord. Ananias is

telling Saul,

who, by the way, has been praying for

three days straight.

Hey, we’re we’re told in the text that

Ananias arrives

and Saul has already been praying.

He’s not saying, you know what,

what you need to do is pray. Saul would

have looked at him and said,

I’ve been doing that. I’ve been praying

for three days.

What else do you want me to pray for?

That’s not what calling on the name of the

Lord is.

It’s not a prayer, it is an action of

life.

It is a decision to do what God said to

do and to trust that God will do what He’s

promised.

It is a reliance on.

The authority of God.

So as you look at the text and as you’re

reading that they’re calling on

the name of the Lord, it is a picture of

reliance.

It is a picture of submission to the Lord.

Now, notice another passage.

Let’s go down to verse 14. That same

chapter,

Genesis chapter 13. And the Lord said to

Abram,

After Lot had separated from him,

lift up your eyes now and look from the

place where you are,

northward, southward, eastward,

and westward. For all the land which you

see I give to you

and your descendants forever. Now notice

something as you’re looking

at the text.

Abram and Lot have just separated from one

another.

And as Abram offered Lot the first choice,

he says, you decide which way to go.

Whichever way you go, I’ll go the other

way.

Right? So he offers Lot first choice.

And Lot looks out and sees the

well-watered plains of Sodom.

And he goes to the place that is visibly.

The better choice, the richer land.

He goes to the place where his flocks and

his herds can clearly prosper

and grow and expand and be enriched,

and that’s where he goes. But what does

the Lord tell Abram

to do?

Which direction does he tell them to look?

All of

W does that include the direction Lot

went?

Yeah, it does.

So Abram has made a commitment to separate

from Lot,

which he will do in the near term.

But this promise to Abram isn’t about the

near term,

at least not exclusively. This promise to

Abram is about more than the near term.

And God tells Abram,

you go ahead and look the direction Lot

already went.

You look north, you look south,

you look east, you look west, you look

every direction you can turn.

And you’re looking at the land that your

descendants will possess.

So he already is giving Abram a

perspective

of the scope of the promise.

North, south, east, and west, every

direction you can look,

that’s where your descendants will be.

But beyond that, as you consider that

Abram and his flocks,

his herds, and his people at that day in

time could never have filled such a land.

They could have gone to the edge of a city

and had space.

They weren’t sufficient enough to fill a

land or multiple cities

or multiple provinces in a land.

So there’s a future look, but add into

that future look.

There’s not a descendant. There’s not a

person.

God can’t even say to Abram, Hey,

look at your son and see what he will

have.

There’s no son.

So as Abram is being told,

look every direction and you’ll see the

scope of the promise.

He’s also told to trust in the scope of

the promise that includes a

son that he doesn’t have. To include

descendants as the sand of the seashore

that

he doesn’t have. What’s God calling upon

Abram to do?

Trust me.

Because you’re looking at a land that you

just promised to not go into

and I’m going to give it to you.

You’re looking at a land you haven’t even

yet gone to and I’m going to give

it to you. You’re looking at a land where

you don’t currently dwell,

and it’s going to be yours. And it’s going

to be inhabited by a people,

the first one of which have never even

been born.

God is commanding Abram’s trust.

And here’s why that matters in worship.

Too many times individuals come in

to the assembly to participate with others

that they can see and who sit next to

them,

who sit across from them, who they can

look at,

who they can lay their eyes on,

who they can give a hug to, who they can

greet in person.

And far too often they forget that the one

that they’re there

to assemble with, they cannot lay their

eyes on in person.

They have to trust in his presence.

They have to trust,

not through an emotion, not through a

feeling,

not through going through a service and

and walking away with the feeling that,

~ God was in the presence, our presence

today.

But rather in his promise

When we look at what the New Testament

tells

us concerning acts of worship like the

Lord’s Supper.

What does the New Testament tell us we are

doing in that act of worship?

Remembering Christ. It’s a memorial.

But what’s another word that we often use

to describe the Lord’s Supper?

Communion. What does communion mean?

It is joint participation with someone

in something. When you there there’s

an old preacher joke. ~ it’s it’s not

terribly old,

but it it goes around, makes the cycles.

The preacher students can accord this or

can agree with this.

~ let us all in one accord. Well,

how many people can you fit in a Honda

Accord,

right?

Let us all in one accord. Well,

if you’re all in one accord, you’re in

communion together.

One of the reasons that Paul rebukes the

Corinthian brethren

in how they are participating in the

Lord’s Supper is they’re

not waiting on everybody. Their one

person,

this group is getting there first,

and they have possessions and they have

the things needed for the Lord’s Supper,

and they’re just going ahead and having

the Lord’s Supper.

And then another group shows up and they

don’t have anything,

and they didn’t even save anything for

them.

They’re not in communion together because

they’re doing it out of their

own selfish self-interest.

But it’s not just communion with one

another.

Because Paul makes the point as he’s

writing to the Corinthians

in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you want

to eat,

if you’re hungry, you’ve got a house.

Could you invite somebody over to eat?

Sure, you could. Would you be in communion

with them if you ate a meal with them?

Sure. But that’s not what the Lord’s

Supper’s about.

It’s not about filling a belly that’s

empty.

It’s about a ~

Fellowship an event whereby in which

God and Christians are in communion with

one another.

But that means you have to trust the

promises

of God that the person you can’t see,

can’t feel, can’t touch.

is present in the worship.

So, all the way back in Genesis,

you have these tentacles

of concepts like calling on the name of

the Lord that tell us that even then

God was teaching his people

to worship and to base their worship.

In trust in God’s presence.

And we’re supposed to do the same thing.

If you notice back in the text,

verse 14, the Lord said to Abram,

After Lot had separated from himself,

lift up your eyes now, look from the place

where you are,

northward, southward, eastward,

and westward, from all the land which you

see,

and I give to you and to your descendants

forever.

I will make your descendants as the dust

of the earth,

so that if a man could number the dust of

the earth,

then your descendants also could be

numbered.

Arise, walk in the land through its length

and its width,

for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his

tent and went and dwelt

by the Terebinth trees of Mamre,

which are in Hebron, and built an altar

there to the Lord.

Over and over and over again.

Where Abram goes, what does Abram do?

Builds an altar.

So, skip over to chapter twenty-one.

In chapter twenty one

Isaac has already been born.

And we read in chapter 21, we’re going to

begin down about verse 22.

It came to pass at that time that

Abimelech and Fikal,

the commander of his army, spoke to

Abraham,

saying, God is with you in all that you

do.

So so the background behind this

is the famine that has happened,

and Abraham has

Now gone to a land that is near that of

Abimelech.

And we read verse twenty-three Now

therefore swear to me by God that

you will not deal falsely with me,

with my offspring, or with my posterity,

but that according to the kindness that I

have done to you,

you will do to me and the land in which

you have dwelt.

And Abraham said, I will swear.

Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of

the well of water which Abelech’s servants

had seized. And Abimelech said,

I do not know what who has done this

thing.

You did not tell me, nor had I heard of it

until this day.

So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave

them to Abimelech,

and the two of them made a covenant.

And Abraham set seven new lambs of the

flock by themselves.

Then Abimelech asked Abraham, What is the

meaning of these seven Ewlambs which

you have set by themselves? And he said,

You will take these seven Ewambs from my

hand,

that they may be my witness that I have

dug this well.

Therefore he called that place Bersheba,

because the two of them swore an oath

there.

Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba,

so Abimelech rose with Phikal,

the com ~ commander of his army,

and

And they returned to the land of the

Philistines.

Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in

Beersheba,

and there called on the name of the Lord

the everlasting God.

And Abraham stayed in the land of the

Philistines many days.

As we get into this passage,

we see the events that transpire between

Abimelech and between Abraham.

And there’s this discussion and this

discourse concerning the land.

Concerning the people, concerning their

descendants,

concerning this well, and what someone has

done,

which by the way, there’s going to be a

looping back into this discussion

in the life of Isaac. But as this covenant

is made between Abraham and Abimelech,

and Abimelech goes his way,

you find that as Abraham is dwelling in

the land,

as he stays there in the land,

he plants a tree there in Beersheba.

And he calls on the name of the Lord.

But here Moses gives us something

additional.

Because he says he called on the name of

the Lord,

but then how does Moses describe the Lord?

The everlasting God.

See, Moses

is writing these details,

not in conjunction with has they happened.

He’s not walking along beside Abraham and

let me write that down.

Let me write that down.

Moses isn’t alive when Abraham does this.

Who tells Moses what Abraham did?

God does. Peter points this out to us that

the writers,

the prophets of the Old Testament spoke

and wrote as they were moved

by the Holy Spirit. So it is the work of

the Holy Spirit

to decide and to give to Moses and to

others what they

are to write.

So the Holy Spirit deemed it necessary and

useful as these events transfold

to reveal more about what Abraham knew.

When Moses writes the book of Genesis,

who’s he writing it for?

The Israelites. The indication of the text

of Scripture is that Moses will write

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,

and Deuteronomy during the 38 years of the

wandering in the wilderness.

During the time after they leave Egypt,

and between the time they leave Egypt and

the time that Moses dies,

the penning of these things will be

written.

There’s even points in which, as Moses is

interacting with the Lord,

the Lord will tell Moses: write these

things in a book.

But he’s writing them.

And depending upon the time at which a

particular letter was

or particular writing was was written and

handed off,

he’s writing them to the first generation

that left Egypt and

to the second generation that left Egypt.

Why do you think it’s important for the

people who are leaving Egypt

to know about the things that transpired

with Abraham?

Absolutely. It was their record

of the promises made about them.

It was their confidence to know what it is

that they’re supposed

to do. You can turn over to Exodus chapter

three.

In Exodus chapter three

As Moses is tending the flock of Jethro,

his father in law. And as he does so he

sees verse two,

the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a

flame of fire from the midst of a bush.

So he looked, and behold, the bush was

burning with fire,

but the bush was not consumed.

Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and

see this great sight,

why the bush does not burn. So when the

Lord saw that he had turned aside to look,

God called to him from the midst of the

bush and said,

Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.

Then he said, Do not draw near this place.

Take your sandals off your feet,

for the place where you stand is holy

ground.

Moreover, he said, I am the God of your

father,

the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his

face,

for he was afraid to look upon God.

Notice that as God introduces himself to

Moses,

he introduces himself as what?

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

the God of Jacob.

Now there’s an interesting connection here

’cause there’s going to be a time over

in the book of John

Where the Jews are going to ask Jesus,

Are you greater than our father Abraham?

And Jesus is going to respond to them

before Abraham am.

You see, before Abraham ever worshiped and

called

on the name of the Lord, the everlasting

God.

The everlasting God was there.

And long before Abraham ever left Ur of

the Chaldees and ventured through

the land that he would eventually possess

and that his descendants would eventually

possess, the God who was the everlasting

God was there.

And he wasn’t like the fictitious gods

that the people in Abraham’s day believed

in.

They believed in a god of the mountains,

they believed in a god of the hills,

they believed in a god of the valleys,

they believed in a god of the sun,

they believed in a god of the storms,

they believed in a god of the oceans,

they believed in a god of the land,

they believed in a god of this and a god

of that,

that only had they only had power over a

certain thing,

and they could only go so far.

That’s not what Abraham believed in.

You see, Abraham believed in the

everlasting God.

The one without bounds, the one without

end,

the one who has authority over everything.

The one true God.

And Abraham’s worship was connected

to his understanding of who God is and his

nature.

Does it matter if you worship God and

believe that Jesus Christ

is just a created being created by God,

one of the most elevated of beings,

but just a created being? it absolutely

matters.

John will say it matters so much that your

worship isn’t accepted

by him and you’re not in fellowship with

God.

Because when you mess up your

understanding

of the nature of who God is.

Changes your worship. It turns it from

acceptable to unacceptable.

Now, does that mean that we have to

explain every detail

of everything about God before anybody can

actually worship Him?

No. Part of what individuals do.

Is they learn a little bit about God and

they learn a little bit more about

God and they learn a little bit more about

God,

and as they do so, they grow to a greater

understanding of who God is.

The contrast, though, is when someone

rejects what God says about

who God is. When you begin to change what

God said about

who God is, now we have a problem.

Now

Notice that Moses is going to write these

things

so that Israel might know who brought them

out of Egypt.

When Moses is sent into Egypt,

and Moses asks there at the burning bush,

who should I say has sent me? What does

God reply to Moses?

You tell them the I am that I am has sent

you.

But he doesn’t just say that. He says,

the God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob.

God says you you need to connect what they

do know.

Over in Joshua chapter twenty four.

Joshua as the Israelites receive the land

and as things conclude in the time and the

reign of Joshua will present

the covenant to them at Shechem.

And he says verse thirteen,

I have given you a land for which you did

not labor,

and cities which you did not build.

And you dwell in them, you eat of the

vineyards and of the olive groves which

you did not plant. Now therefore fear the

Lord,

serve him in sincerity and in truth.

As Joshua confronts Israel with their

having received the promise,

the promise that they had heard about as

they read and heard

the speaking of what Moses wrote.

The promise that they had heard about from

the lips of their fathers

and their grandfathers and their

great-grandfathers

and their great-great-grandfathers.

And as they realize and should realize

that they now have what God

had promised to Abraham.

He says, fear the Lord. Serve him in

sincerity and in truth,

and put away the gods which your fathers

served on the other side of

the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord.

So the river there,

not a reference to the Nile River.

~ Most times, not all the time,

but most times in the Old Testament

scriptures,

when you read the river, it’s actually a

reference to the Euphrates.

Up in Ur of the Chaldes,

up where Abraham came from. And

so Joshua is saying, your forefathers.

Where Abraham came from served other gods.

How do we know that Abraham’s family

served other gods?

Scripture tells us but what what event in

the life of Abraham’s descendant

do we find a issue with idolatry coming

out of Abraham’s family?

All right, when Jacob is returning from

Laban,

Laban, a descendant of Abraham,

~ Abraham’s family, and Laban comes

chasing

after Jacob because what has disappeared

from his house?

His household idols. Somebody

has taken my gods.

And who had taken them?

Laban’s daughters. Rachel is sitting on

them and she’s with child

and she can’t Daddy, I just can’t get up

right now.

Just go sit right here on the camel.

So Joshua says, You know what your fathers

did.

You know what how they worshiped.

You know who they served back in Ur of the

Chaldees.

But he also points out that they didn’t

make it through

the Egyptian persecution and captivity and

time without being

inundated with the sins of Egypt.

He says, you also know that your fathers

served the gods of the Egyptians.

You know, quite often we think about the

events in Egypt

as a lesson to Pharaoh and the Egyptians

about serving

God and about being obedient to God.

But it wasn’t just a lesson for the

Egyptians.

Because the Israelites had been serving

Egypt’s gods.

And Joshua tells us they were.

So he says, You need to serve the Lord in

sincerity

and in truth, and you need to put away the

gods which your fathers served

on the other side of the river and in

Egypt.

Serve the Lord.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the

Lord,

choose for yourselves this day whom you

will serve,

whether the gods which your fathers served

on the ut w that were on

the other side of the river, or the gods

of the Amorites in whose land you dwell,

but as for me and my house, we will serve

the Lord.

So the people answered and said,

Far be it from us that we should forsake

the Lord and serve other gods.

For the Lord our God is he who brought us

and our fathers up out of

the land of Egypt.

From the house of bondage who did these

great signs in our sight and preserved

us in all the way that we went,

and among all the people to whom we

passed,

and the Lord drove out from before us all

the people,

including the Amorites, who dwelt in the

land,

we will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

They answer with the right answer.

No, hey, we’re exclusive. We aren’t

serving the God

of the Amorites because the Lord defeated

them.

Clearly, their gods aren’t the gods.

And we’re not going to serve the gods of

Egypt because the Lord defeated them.

We’re going to serve the Lord

and him alone.

But notice what Joshua says. Verse

nineteen.

But Joshua said to the people,

You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a

holy God.

He is a jealous God. He will not forgive

your transgressions

nor your sins.

Now, was Joshua unaware of God’s

willingness to forgive?

Was Joshua somehow confused about the laws

and the ordinances and

the sacrifices and the things which Moses

had given in the law for them

to do when they sinned and when they No,

Joshua’s not confused.

Joshua’s well aware of who he’s talking

to.

and their rebellion, and their rebellious

attitude and nature,

and their refusal, even in the process of

taking the land,

to do what God told them to do.

Joshua’s point is verse twenty,

if you forsake the Lord

and serve foreign gods, then he will turn

and do you harm and consume you after he

has done you good.

Rather than being confused, Joshua is

actually very well aware of the nature of

God.

And he’s going to declare to the

Israelites the same thing that

the Hebrew writer over in Hebrews chapter

ten declares about the Lord.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the

hands of a living God.

Believe it or not, there’s not a whole lot

of fear in falling in the hands

of a God that doesn’t exist. A God that’s

dead,

a God that’s powerless, a God that can do

nothing.

Not a whole lot to fear from that.

But the Hebrew writer says there’s a whole

lot to fear from the hands

of a living God.

We need to learn as we’re understanding

worship.

That God

Really does exist.

That we cannot show up and worship

him half hearted.

That we cannot pledge half

of our allegiance to the Lord.

That we can just determine to bow before

him in action,

but not in heart.

That we can come to him in doubt.

Turn turn to James chapter one as we

close.

In James chapter one.

James is going to write, just what just as

we noticed

~ this last week in our sermon,

he’s going to write about trials.

But he says, if any of you lacks wisdom,

James chapter 1, verse 5, if any of you

lacks wisdom,

let him ask of God, who gives to all

liberally and without reproach.

And it will be given to him.

But he says, let him ask in faith,

with no doubting, for he who doubts is

like a wave of the sea,

driven and tossed by the wind,

for let not that man suppose that he will

receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double minded man, unstable in all

his ways.

Now, James is not here saying

You need to understand everything.

You need to know everything. You’ve got to

be certain about everything,

or you’re not going to get anything from

the Lord.

Well, if you were certain of everything

and you knew everything

and you understood everything,

why do you need wisdom? Why do you need

more wisdom?

No, he says, if you lack wisdom,

ask it from God. But don’t do it doubting

that he’s able to deliver.

This calling on the name of the Lord is an

integral part of worship.

It is not just a response of salvation,

as we see in Saul’s ~ conversion.

It is a reference to that, but it is more

than that.

It is a continual action in worship

and in life to submit to God and to trust

him.

To know that what he has promised,

he will do.

And to know that when we assemble together

and when we worship the Lord.

We’re not just assembled with the people

who are standing in the room.

That God is present. And as a matter of

fact,

He is the most significant person when

it comes to what we do in worship and how

we do what we

do in worship and how we should feel about

what we do in worship.

People who lose sight of the Lord in

worship invariably find

themselves more focused on what they want

out of worship.

And yet I can’t find any occasion where

Abraham said,

Lord, if I could just worship my way,

if I could just have a little more say

concerning how I you know,

these altars, I’m getting older,

those stones are heavy.

No, not Abraham.

Even by the way, where we were headed

next,

when God says to Abram or to Abraham,

here’s what you’re going to offer in your

worship.

Thank you for your attention.

Good evening.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to

the book of Genesis.

Let’s begin, if you would, with a word of

prayer,

and then we’ll get into our study.

Our gracious Father in heaven,

we come before your throne grateful for

the day you’ve blessed us with,

grateful for the opportunity that we have

to worship you,

mindful of the gifts and the blessings

that you present to us,

and mindful of how we are to live in

accordance with your will and your word,

that we might be.

Able to serve you in a way that is right

and holy in your sight.

Lord, we pray that you be with those who

are traveling,

those who are away from us. We also pray

that you be with those who

are dealing with illness and injury.

We pray for Riley’s dad that they may be

able to

do something to reverse the course of the

cancer.

Lord, we pray that you be with all those

who are dealing with cancer and other very

harmful diseases, we pray that you give

them the strength that they need

to overcome those things and may the

treatments be available to to help deal

with

those things. Lord, we pray that you

forgive us when we sin and fall short

of your glory. All this we pray and ask in

Jesus’ name.

Amen.

We’ve been noticing some of the occasions

of worship that exist

in Scripture. And as we have been doing

that,

we’ve been noticing some of the things

that we learn about worship along

the way. So we’ve seen a few of those

things.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

So as we look in the text, notice exam and

and examine chapter thirteen.

We got into Genesis chapter thirteen.

No, but w I know who he is.

Know who he is. ~ Judah?

Yeah. That’s all right. That’s all right.

So ~ here in Genesis chapter thirteen,

we read, Then Abram went up from Egypt,

he and his wife and all that he had and

lot with him to the south.

Abraham was very rich in livestock,

in silver, and gold, and he went on his

journey from the south as far as Bethel.

To the place where his tent had been at

the beginning,

between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the

altar which he made there at first,

and there Abram called the name of the

Lord,

called on the name of the Lord.

Lot also, who went with Abram,

had flocks and herds and tents.

Now the land was not able to support them

that they might dwell together,

for their permissions sorry, for their

possessions were so great that they could

not dwell together.

Together. And there was strife between the

herdsmen of Lot Abram’s livestock

and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock.

The Canaanites and the Perizzites then

dwelt in the land.

So as you look at the text, you have Abram

coming up out of Egypt.

He’s dwelling in this land, and he is

offering worship to God.

He builds an altar and worships there at

the altar,

and he calls on the name of the Lord.

We’ve noticed this.

connection, this correlation between

calling on the name of the Lord

and the altars being built.

And this idea of calling on the name of

the Lord is

an expression of trusting in God.

It is an expression of so as to say,

we are going to do what God says to do.

When you turn over to Acts chapter 22,

you’ll notice that

Ananias will come to Saul of Tarsus,

this individual who has been persecuting

the church.

He has been disrupting the church.

He has been br going into places,

into houses, and pulling people out and

carrying them off to prison and to death.

And as you look at that, what you find is

that Ananias comes

to Saul of Tarsus because Ananias has been

told by God to do so.

And he comes to him and says, Saul,

why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized

and do what?

Call on the name of the Lord. Ananias is

telling Saul,

who, by the way, has been praying for

three days straight.

Hey, we’re we’re told in the text that

Ananias arrives

and Saul has already been praying.

He’s not saying, you know what,

what you need to do is pray. Saul would

have looked at him and said,

I’ve been doing that. I’ve been praying

for three days.

What else do you want me to pray for?

That’s not what calling on the name of the

Lord is.

It’s not a prayer, it is an action of

life.

It is a decision to do what God said to

do and to trust that God will do what He’s

promised.

It is a reliance on.

The authority of God.

So as you look at the text and as you’re

reading that they’re calling on

the name of the Lord, it is a picture of

reliance.

It is a picture of submission to the Lord.

Now, notice another passage.

Let’s go down to verse 14. That same

chapter,

Genesis chapter 13. And the Lord said to

Abram,

After Lot had separated from him,

lift up your eyes now and look from the

place where you are,

northward, southward, eastward,

and westward. For all the land which you

see I give to you

and your descendants forever. Now notice

something as you’re looking

at the text.

Abram and Lot have just separated from one

another.

And as Abram offered Lot the first choice,

he says, you decide which way to go.

Whichever way you go, I’ll go the other

way.

Right? So he offers Lot first choice.

And Lot looks out and sees the

well-watered plains of Sodom.

And he goes to the place that is visibly.

The better choice, the richer land.

He goes to the place where his flocks and

his herds can clearly prosper

and grow and expand and be enriched,

and that’s where he goes. But what does

the Lord tell Abram

to do?

Which direction does he tell them to look?

All of

W does that include the direction Lot

went?

Yeah, it does.

So Abram has made a commitment to separate

from Lot,

which he will do in the near term.

But this promise to Abram isn’t about the

near term,

at least not exclusively. This promise to

Abram is about more than the near term.

And God tells Abram,

you go ahead and look the direction Lot

already went.

You look north, you look south,

you look east, you look west, you look

every direction you can turn.

And you’re looking at the land that your

descendants will possess.

So he already is giving Abram a

perspective

of the scope of the promise.

North, south, east, and west, every

direction you can look,

that’s where your descendants will be.

But beyond that, as you consider that

Abram and his flocks,

his herds, and his people at that day in

time could never have filled such a land.

They could have gone to the edge of a city

and had space.

They weren’t sufficient enough to fill a

land or multiple cities

or multiple provinces in a land.

So there’s a future look, but add into

that future look.

There’s not a descendant. There’s not a

person.

God can’t even say to Abram, Hey,

look at your son and see what he will

have.

There’s no son.

So as Abram is being told,

look every direction and you’ll see the

scope of the promise.

He’s also told to trust in the scope of

the promise that includes a

son that he doesn’t have. To include

descendants as the sand of the seashore

that

he doesn’t have. What’s God calling upon

Abram to do?

Trust me.

Because you’re looking at a land that you

just promised to not go into

and I’m going to give it to you.

You’re looking at a land you haven’t even

yet gone to and I’m going to give

it to you. You’re looking at a land where

you don’t currently dwell,

and it’s going to be yours. And it’s going

to be inhabited by a people,

the first one of which have never even

been born.

God is commanding Abram’s trust.

And here’s why that matters in worship.

Too many times individuals come in

to the assembly to participate with others

that they can see and who sit next to

them,

who sit across from them, who they can

look at,

who they can lay their eyes on,

who they can give a hug to, who they can

greet in person.

And far too often they forget that the one

that they’re there

to assemble with, they cannot lay their

eyes on in person.

They have to trust in his presence.

They have to trust,

not through an emotion, not through a

feeling,

not through going through a service and

and walking away with the feeling that,

~ God was in the presence, our presence

today.

But rather in his promise

When we look at what the New Testament

tells

us concerning acts of worship like the

Lord’s Supper.

What does the New Testament tell us we are

doing in that act of worship?

Remembering Christ. It’s a memorial.

But what’s another word that we often use

to describe the Lord’s Supper?

Communion. What does communion mean?

It is joint participation with someone

in something. When you there there’s

an old preacher joke. ~ it’s it’s not

terribly old,

but it it goes around, makes the cycles.

The preacher students can accord this or

can agree with this.

~ let us all in one accord. Well,

how many people can you fit in a Honda

Accord,

right?

Let us all in one accord. Well,

if you’re all in one accord, you’re in

communion together.

One of the reasons that Paul rebukes the

Corinthian brethren

in how they are participating in the

Lord’s Supper is they’re

not waiting on everybody. Their one

person,

this group is getting there first,

and they have possessions and they have

the things needed for the Lord’s Supper,

and they’re just going ahead and having

the Lord’s Supper.

And then another group shows up and they

don’t have anything,

and they didn’t even save anything for

them.

They’re not in communion together because

they’re doing it out of their

own selfish self-interest.

But it’s not just communion with one

another.

Because Paul makes the point as he’s

writing to the Corinthians

in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you want

to eat,

if you’re hungry, you’ve got a house.

Could you invite somebody over to eat?

Sure, you could. Would you be in communion

with them if you ate a meal with them?

Sure. But that’s not what the Lord’s

Supper’s about.

It’s not about filling a belly that’s

empty.

It’s about a ~

Fellowship an event whereby in which

God and Christians are in communion with

one another.

But that means you have to trust the

promises

of God that the person you can’t see,

can’t feel, can’t touch.

is present in the worship.

So, all the way back in Genesis,

you have these tentacles

of concepts like calling on the name of

the Lord that tell us that even then

God was teaching his people

to worship and to base their worship.

In trust in God’s presence.

And we’re supposed to do the same thing.

If you notice back in the text,

verse 14, the Lord said to Abram,

After Lot had separated from himself,

lift up your eyes now, look from the place

where you are,

northward, southward, eastward,

and westward, from all the land which you

see,

and I give to you and to your descendants

forever.

I will make your descendants as the dust

of the earth,

so that if a man could number the dust of

the earth,

then your descendants also could be

numbered.

Arise, walk in the land through its length

and its width,

for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his

tent and went and dwelt

by the Terebinth trees of Mamre,

which are in Hebron, and built an altar

there to the Lord.

Over and over and over again.

Where Abram goes, what does Abram do?

Builds an altar.

So, skip over to chapter twenty-one.

In chapter twenty one

Isaac has already been born.

And we read in chapter 21, we’re going to

begin down about verse 22.

It came to pass at that time that

Abimelech and Fikal,

the commander of his army, spoke to

Abraham,

saying, God is with you in all that you

do.

So so the background behind this

is the famine that has happened,

and Abraham has

Now gone to a land that is near that of

Abimelech.

And we read verse twenty-three Now

therefore swear to me by God that

you will not deal falsely with me,

with my offspring, or with my posterity,

but that according to the kindness that I

have done to you,

you will do to me and the land in which

you have dwelt.

And Abraham said, I will swear.

Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of

the well of water which Abelech’s servants

had seized. And Abimelech said,

I do not know what who has done this

thing.

You did not tell me, nor had I heard of it

until this day.

So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave

them to Abimelech,

and the two of them made a covenant.

And Abraham set seven new lambs of the

flock by themselves.

Then Abimelech asked Abraham, What is the

meaning of these seven Ewlambs which

you have set by themselves? And he said,

You will take these seven Ewambs from my

hand,

that they may be my witness that I have

dug this well.

Therefore he called that place Bersheba,

because the two of them swore an oath

there.

Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba,

so Abimelech rose with Phikal,

the com ~ commander of his army,

and

And they returned to the land of the

Philistines.

Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in

Beersheba,

and there called on the name of the Lord

the everlasting God.

And Abraham stayed in the land of the

Philistines many days.

As we get into this passage,

we see the events that transpire between

Abimelech and between Abraham.

And there’s this discussion and this

discourse concerning the land.

Concerning the people, concerning their

descendants,

concerning this well, and what someone has

done,

which by the way, there’s going to be a

looping back into this discussion

in the life of Isaac. But as this covenant

is made between Abraham and Abimelech,

and Abimelech goes his way,

you find that as Abraham is dwelling in

the land,

as he stays there in the land,

he plants a tree there in Beersheba.

And he calls on the name of the Lord.

But here Moses gives us something

additional.

Because he says he called on the name of

the Lord,

but then how does Moses describe the Lord?

The everlasting God.

See, Moses

is writing these details,

not in conjunction with has they happened.

He’s not walking along beside Abraham and

let me write that down.

Let me write that down.

Moses isn’t alive when Abraham does this.

Who tells Moses what Abraham did?

God does. Peter points this out to us that

the writers,

the prophets of the Old Testament spoke

and wrote as they were moved

by the Holy Spirit. So it is the work of

the Holy Spirit

to decide and to give to Moses and to

others what they

are to write.

So the Holy Spirit deemed it necessary and

useful as these events transfold

to reveal more about what Abraham knew.

When Moses writes the book of Genesis,

who’s he writing it for?

The Israelites. The indication of the text

of Scripture is that Moses will write

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,

and Deuteronomy during the 38 years of the

wandering in the wilderness.

During the time after they leave Egypt,

and between the time they leave Egypt and

the time that Moses dies,

the penning of these things will be

written.

There’s even points in which, as Moses is

interacting with the Lord,

the Lord will tell Moses: write these

things in a book.

But he’s writing them.

And depending upon the time at which a

particular letter was

or particular writing was was written and

handed off,

he’s writing them to the first generation

that left Egypt and

to the second generation that left Egypt.

Why do you think it’s important for the

people who are leaving Egypt

to know about the things that transpired

with Abraham?

Absolutely. It was their record

of the promises made about them.

It was their confidence to know what it is

that they’re supposed

to do. You can turn over to Exodus chapter

three.

In Exodus chapter three

As Moses is tending the flock of Jethro,

his father in law. And as he does so he

sees verse two,

the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a

flame of fire from the midst of a bush.

So he looked, and behold, the bush was

burning with fire,

but the bush was not consumed.

Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and

see this great sight,

why the bush does not burn. So when the

Lord saw that he had turned aside to look,

God called to him from the midst of the

bush and said,

Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.

Then he said, Do not draw near this place.

Take your sandals off your feet,

for the place where you stand is holy

ground.

Moreover, he said, I am the God of your

father,

the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his

face,

for he was afraid to look upon God.

Notice that as God introduces himself to

Moses,

he introduces himself as what?

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

the God of Jacob.

Now there’s an interesting connection here

’cause there’s going to be a time over

in the book of John

Where the Jews are going to ask Jesus,

Are you greater than our father Abraham?

And Jesus is going to respond to them

before Abraham am.

You see, before Abraham ever worshiped and

called

on the name of the Lord, the everlasting

God.

The everlasting God was there.

And long before Abraham ever left Ur of

the Chaldees and ventured through

the land that he would eventually possess

and that his descendants would eventually

possess, the God who was the everlasting

God was there.

And he wasn’t like the fictitious gods

that the people in Abraham’s day believed

in.

They believed in a god of the mountains,

they believed in a god of the hills,

they believed in a god of the valleys,

they believed in a god of the sun,

they believed in a god of the storms,

they believed in a god of the oceans,

they believed in a god of the land,

they believed in a god of this and a god

of that,

that only had they only had power over a

certain thing,

and they could only go so far.

That’s not what Abraham believed in.

You see, Abraham believed in the

everlasting God.

The one without bounds, the one without

end,

the one who has authority over everything.

The one true God.

And Abraham’s worship was connected

to his understanding of who God is and his

nature.

Does it matter if you worship God and

believe that Jesus Christ

is just a created being created by God,

one of the most elevated of beings,

but just a created being? it absolutely

matters.

John will say it matters so much that your

worship isn’t accepted

by him and you’re not in fellowship with

God.

Because when you mess up your

understanding

of the nature of who God is.

Changes your worship. It turns it from

acceptable to unacceptable.

Now, does that mean that we have to

explain every detail

of everything about God before anybody can

actually worship Him?

No. Part of what individuals do.

Is they learn a little bit about God and

they learn a little bit more about

God and they learn a little bit more about

God,

and as they do so, they grow to a greater

understanding of who God is.

The contrast, though, is when someone

rejects what God says about

who God is. When you begin to change what

God said about

who God is, now we have a problem.

Now

Notice that Moses is going to write these

things

so that Israel might know who brought them

out of Egypt.

When Moses is sent into Egypt,

and Moses asks there at the burning bush,

who should I say has sent me? What does

God reply to Moses?

You tell them the I am that I am has sent

you.

But he doesn’t just say that. He says,

the God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob.

God says you you need to connect what they

do know.

Over in Joshua chapter twenty four.

Joshua as the Israelites receive the land

and as things conclude in the time and the

reign of Joshua will present

the covenant to them at Shechem.

And he says verse thirteen,

I have given you a land for which you did

not labor,

and cities which you did not build.

And you dwell in them, you eat of the

vineyards and of the olive groves which

you did not plant. Now therefore fear the

Lord,

serve him in sincerity and in truth.

As Joshua confronts Israel with their

having received the promise,

the promise that they had heard about as

they read and heard

the speaking of what Moses wrote.

The promise that they had heard about from

the lips of their fathers

and their grandfathers and their

great-grandfathers

and their great-great-grandfathers.

And as they realize and should realize

that they now have what God

had promised to Abraham.

He says, fear the Lord. Serve him in

sincerity and in truth,

and put away the gods which your fathers

served on the other side of

the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord.

So the river there,

not a reference to the Nile River.

~ Most times, not all the time,

but most times in the Old Testament

scriptures,

when you read the river, it’s actually a

reference to the Euphrates.

Up in Ur of the Chaldes,

up where Abraham came from. And

so Joshua is saying, your forefathers.

Where Abraham came from served other gods.

How do we know that Abraham’s family

served other gods?

Scripture tells us but what what event in

the life of Abraham’s descendant

do we find a issue with idolatry coming

out of Abraham’s family?

All right, when Jacob is returning from

Laban,

Laban, a descendant of Abraham,

~ Abraham’s family, and Laban comes

chasing

after Jacob because what has disappeared

from his house?

His household idols. Somebody

has taken my gods.

And who had taken them?

Laban’s daughters. Rachel is sitting on

them and she’s with child

and she can’t Daddy, I just can’t get up

right now.

Just go sit right here on the camel.

So Joshua says, You know what your fathers

did.

You know what how they worshiped.

You know who they served back in Ur of the

Chaldees.

But he also points out that they didn’t

make it through

the Egyptian persecution and captivity and

time without being

inundated with the sins of Egypt.

He says, you also know that your fathers

served the gods of the Egyptians.

You know, quite often we think about the

events in Egypt

as a lesson to Pharaoh and the Egyptians

about serving

God and about being obedient to God.

But it wasn’t just a lesson for the

Egyptians.

Because the Israelites had been serving

Egypt’s gods.

And Joshua tells us they were.

So he says, You need to serve the Lord in

sincerity

and in truth, and you need to put away the

gods which your fathers served

on the other side of the river and in

Egypt.

Serve the Lord.

And if it seems evil to you to serve the

Lord,

choose for yourselves this day whom you

will serve,

whether the gods which your fathers served

on the ut w that were on

the other side of the river, or the gods

of the Amorites in whose land you dwell,

but as for me and my house, we will serve

the Lord.

So the people answered and said,

Far be it from us that we should forsake

the Lord and serve other gods.

For the Lord our God is he who brought us

and our fathers up out of

the land of Egypt.

From the house of bondage who did these

great signs in our sight and preserved

us in all the way that we went,

and among all the people to whom we

passed,

and the Lord drove out from before us all

the people,

including the Amorites, who dwelt in the

land,

we will serve the Lord, for he is our God.

They answer with the right answer.

No, hey, we’re exclusive. We aren’t

serving the God

of the Amorites because the Lord defeated

them.

Clearly, their gods aren’t the gods.

And we’re not going to serve the gods of

Egypt because the Lord defeated them.

We’re going to serve the Lord

and him alone.

But notice what Joshua says. Verse

nineteen.

But Joshua said to the people,

You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a

holy God.

He is a jealous God. He will not forgive

your transgressions

nor your sins.

Now, was Joshua unaware of God’s

willingness to forgive?

Was Joshua somehow confused about the laws

and the ordinances and

the sacrifices and the things which Moses

had given in the law for them

to do when they sinned and when they No,

Joshua’s not confused.

Joshua’s well aware of who he’s talking

to.

and their rebellion, and their rebellious

attitude and nature,

and their refusal, even in the process of

taking the land,

to do what God told them to do.

Joshua’s point is verse twenty,

if you forsake the Lord

and serve foreign gods, then he will turn

and do you harm and consume you after he

has done you good.

Rather than being confused, Joshua is

actually very well aware of the nature of

God.

And he’s going to declare to the

Israelites the same thing that

the Hebrew writer over in Hebrews chapter

ten declares about the Lord.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the

hands of a living God.

Believe it or not, there’s not a whole lot

of fear in falling in the hands

of a God that doesn’t exist. A God that’s

dead,

a God that’s powerless, a God that can do

nothing.

Not a whole lot to fear from that.

But the Hebrew writer says there’s a whole

lot to fear from the hands

of a living God.

We need to learn as we’re understanding

worship.

That God

Really does exist.

That we cannot show up and worship

him half hearted.

That we cannot pledge half

of our allegiance to the Lord.

That we can just determine to bow before

him in action,

but not in heart.

That we can come to him in doubt.

Turn turn to James chapter one as we

close.

In James chapter one.

James is going to write, just what just as

we noticed

~ this last week in our sermon,

he’s going to write about trials.

But he says, if any of you lacks wisdom,

James chapter 1, verse 5, if any of you

lacks wisdom,

let him ask of God, who gives to all

liberally and without reproach.

And it will be given to him.

But he says, let him ask in faith,

with no doubting, for he who doubts is

like a wave of the sea,

driven and tossed by the wind,

for let not that man suppose that he will

receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double minded man, unstable in all

his ways.

Now, James is not here saying

You need to understand everything.

You need to know everything. You’ve got to

be certain about everything,

or you’re not going to get anything from

the Lord.

Well, if you were certain of everything

and you knew everything

and you understood everything,

why do you need wisdom? Why do you need

more wisdom?

No, he says, if you lack wisdom,

ask it from God. But don’t do it doubting

that he’s able to deliver.

This calling on the name of the Lord is an

integral part of worship.

It is not just a response of salvation,

as we see in Saul’s ~ conversion.

It is a reference to that, but it is more

than that.

It is a continual action in worship

and in life to submit to God and to trust

him.

To know that what he has promised,

he will do.

And to know that when we assemble together

and when we worship the Lord.

We’re not just assembled with the people

who are standing in the room.

That God is present. And as a matter of

fact,

He is the most significant person when

it comes to what we do in worship and how

we do what we

do in worship and how we should feel about

what we do in worship.

People who lose sight of the Lord in

worship invariably find

themselves more focused on what they want

out of worship.

And yet I can’t find any occasion where

Abraham said,

Lord, if I could just worship my way,

if I could just have a little more say

concerning how I you know,

these altars, I’m getting older,

those stones are heavy.

No, not Abraham.

Even by the way, where we were headed

next,

when God says to Abram or to Abraham,

here’s what you’re going to offer in your

worship.

Thank you for your attention.