Sunday Worship Service April 14, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Hebrews 11:8
Hymn JBC # 10 We have come into His house
The Lord’s Prayer
Offering
Hymn JBC # 124 This is my Father’s world
Offering
Scripture Genesis 12:1～7
Prayer
Sermon [Set out on a journey in obedience to the Lord’s Word]
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 327 Lead on, O King eternal
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude


We commence (begin) our walk of the new fiscal year 2024. This year, our church is trying to learn anew the bible from the beginning to the end over the course of a year in the worship service sermon.
Last week, we have heard the words of God’s creative work from His Word, the beginning of [Genesis] chapter 1 of the Old Testament which is the very beginning of the entire bible.
[In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth]. It is this word of God that made the whole world and is the power that moves our world even now.

We believe by faith that God’s word has all the power and the source of hope.
Today, let us listen together to God’s message from [Genesis] chapter 12 from the scene where Abraham who was commended and said to be “the father of faith” from the Israelites leaves his homeland in obedience to God’s word.
Let me read verses 1～3 of today’s passage once again.

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

　In here, a repeated word in what the Lord had spoken to Abraham is [blessing].
The Lord commands Abraham “Leave your homeland and go to the land that I will show you”. (In chapter 12, his name is still “Abram”. Later, he receives a new name “Abraham” from God. Today, he will be called “Abraham” for consistency)
Not being revealed where he was really going, his specified destination, the Lord at any rate commanded Abraham “Go to the land I will show you”.

To my idea, it was a severe order. I can picture in mind that to obey that command was never an easy decision to make even to Abraham.
It is because to stay in a familiar place (homeland) was more pleasant and safe. However, the Lord commanded Abraham to “go”.
And so even Abraham obeyed that Word of the Lord, left his homeland and went on a journey.
I believe that Abraham, not being revealed of his specific destination, still obeyed the Lord’s Word and went on a journey because he was confident of the “blessing” from the Lord God to him in His command.

To him, no matter how severe the journey, the path is, to live receiving the Lord’s grace with firm belief of His blessing which is the believer’s path of life, is better than safe, familiar, pleasant living.
The Lord promises Abraham to bless him. The Lord Himself blesses Abraham, and before long he becomes a source of blessing, is a Word of hope beyond compare that was given to Abraham by the Lord.
“Blessing” means that God walks with us and He himself considers our life, our existence so significant.
We can receive God’s blessing through His Word (the Scriptures). It is the confidence and joy that “God the Creator of heavens and earth considers “this existence of mine” so significant.

There is the “benediction (a prayer of blessing)” at the end of our worship service. “Benediction” is where the sermon speaker as a representative of everyone proclaims that there is God’s blessing.
After the worship service, each one of us receive God’s blessing, blessed by God, and as we firmly believe that “God will walk with me also this week and that He considers me important”, we can leave the church filled with joy.
Why does the Lord God bless Abraham so much and us now as well? Why does God give us much importance?

Later, the Israelites who were people of the bible came to believe that they were of special existence and the only ones chosen by God.
If we read the story of the Old Testament, God surely chooses the nation of Israel, reveals them Himself and His Name, and leads them.
However, the nation of Israel was chosen by God not because they were special and excellent.
And even us Christians now, we were chosen by Christ and made to be believers who believe Jesus Christ not because we were superior or of excellent personality.

It’s a little long though but let me quote below Old Testament’s [Deuteronomy] chapter 7 verses 6～8.

6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

God clearly states that He had chosen the Israelites NOT because they were more numerous than other people, which means that they were stronger than other people, superior and with excellent talent.
It was “just” because the Lord loved you. It is because God who created the heavens and the earth, and who created us just loved us one-sidedly.
That hope and promise was confirmed to us even more through the One called Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was crucified, forgave our sins, had given us salvation and eternal life not because we were excellent.

It relies on the Lord God’s unconditional and limitless love for us. God has forgiven our sins that we cannot wipe away by ourselves through Jesus Christ.
Sin also includes being immersed in a sense of superiority with the thought “I am excellent more than others”. Conversely, by comparison with people, one cannot acknowledge his own preciousness that God has loved, and being fixated on feeling of inferiority as well is included.

However, your worth is in one thing, that Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross and has given up everything even His own glory for you.
We can live in the hope that “even us sinners are forgiven of sins through Jesus and can partake of God’s blessing”. Could there be any greater blessing and joy as this?
Let us rejoice together for God’s blessing, the unlimited blessing given through Jesus Christ.

I have mentioned earlier that to Abraham, to leave a homeland where he got used to live, and that to set off on a journey not knowing specific destination was not an easy decision to make.
We are taught that in obedience to God’s Word, at times we are asked to go to a place that God reveals and leave that place that to us is comfortable and safe.
At that time, we must trust in God’s Word and blessing, and move ahead.
There are those of us who live in the area where they were born and raised till the end of their life, moreover, someone leaves the place where he/she was born and raised and live somewhere till life ends.
However, to obey the Word of the Lord is, for everyone, to leave the place where we are now, and the decision and act to go a different place goes along.

That just doesn’t refer to go to a truly distant place. It means that when we hear the voice of God and make a new act, leave your present self, grow beyond who you are now and live in obedience to what the Lord reveals.
When we renew the decision to stand on the Word of God, listen and live by it, we are going to carry out a spiritual set off on that journey even if it’s not the anytime literal trip.
　So, beyond that journey where we make a step, a blessing that the Lord has prepared waits for us. With such hope, we can walk each day and go on a journey.
And one more thing that we are to keep in mind, is that the walk to set off on a journey in obedience to God’s Word will never be a path of loneliness.
Abraham made the decision to set off on a journey in response to the Lord who firstly spoke to him directly, but there were people that set off with him.

Sarai, wife of Abraham, Lot his nephew, also [those that joined them in Haran] found in verse 5.
As to Lot, Abraham’s nephew, it is written in the passage prior to chapter 12 that Abraham’s father, Terah had 3 sons.
Chapter 11:26 [When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran]. Verses 27～28 […Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans]
If verse 27 was written as in order, Abraham was the eldest son, Nahor the second son and Haran the third son. Since Lot is Haran’s son, then Lot to Abraham is the son of his youngest brother, meaning his nephew.

To Abraham, his (Lot’s) existence was like his own son, and so as the eldest brother he must have had the duty to raise Lot.
Abraham set off on a journey with his nephew Lot, his wife Sarah and the people that joined them in Haran.
Which means that Abraham who went on a journey with his family and kinsmen had their cooperation and support during the journey as well.
　This group of families, Abraham’s kinsmen must have certainly prayed together, set off from Haran and continued their journey supporting one another.
Even us the church’s walk that is trying to put the teachings of Jesus into practice, to believe Jesus Christ as Lord, listening together to the words of the bible and obey it, we are God’s family that were called by the Lord that we should walk the journey of faith “together” and not to walk separately one by one.

We stand on the Word of the Lord and set off on a journey by His Word. That walk is not a lonesome one, but it’s a walk together with fellow believers who look up to Jesus Christ as the Savior.
Though we usually live in different places, let us never stop gathering at church every week on the Lord’s Day, to offer worship service together, to worship God together and let us keep on praising the Lord.
The Lord God promises to give us great blessing through His Word. Let us walk together the new fiscal year of hope believing that promise.