GOSPEL ACTIVITY
PIC OF FAMILY – Lilia and Caraline and Madelaine
DOLLS-DRAMA-DISNEY
CHINESE - Mulan
This morning we are going to talk about how Gospel Identity FUELS Gospel Activity
and look at a brief story in Genesis 12
Genesis 12
1 Then the LORD told Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's
house, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will cause you to become the father of
a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to
others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families
of the earth will be blessed through you."
In this passage, God gives Abram a mission and a blessing….
The mission: Leave everything you know and trust me—follow me
The blessing: I will provide everything you need and I will provide for the entire world
through you…
We have to read this passage of Scripture in light of the previous chapter – in Gen.
11 there is a familiar, but often misunderstood story: the account of the Tower of
Babel
3 Things to Note:
 They weren’t only building a tower – they settled to build a city
 It wasn’t about getting TO heaven…it was about getting the divine down to
them – Ziggurat
 WHY ARE THEY BUILDING THIS CITY?? VERSE FOUR: make a name for
ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth
IN GEN 11, Humankind had a mission: build a city that would give them power and
significance and security and stability…and as a part of that they created a place for
the DIVINE to come and bless what they had done…
And in Genesis 12, God tells Abram to do the EXACT OPPOSITE…
God is telling Abram to get out—he leaves no question as to what he is asking of
Abram….LEAVE everything and everyone you know and depend on
Don’t settle into one place, don’t trust in yourself, don’t trust in human
accomplishments, don’t trust in a common language---trust in me.
Trust me even when I won’t say where you are going…
But then notice that God promises, I will make you famous---I will make your name
great…THIS IS the VERY THING that the builders in Genesis 11 were trying to
accomplish…
…the mission in Genesis 11 is initiated by humankind and the divine blessing is
something to be earned by the accomplishments of humankind
WE HAVE A MISSION – LET’S GET GOD TO JOIN IN
…the mission in Genesis 12 is initiated by God AND the divine blessing is freely given
by the grace and sovereign choosing of God…
GOD HAS A MISSION AND WE GET TO JOIN IN
In Genesis 12, we learn something very important about the way God works: God
brings us in to send us out… he calls us to himself so we might join his mission of
renewing all of creation and rescuing humanity… he blesses us so that we can bless
others… Gospel Identity FUELS Gospel Activity
HUDDLE
If you are a Christian, God has brought you in to send you out…
 not to just get you to heaven
 not just to make your life better
 not just to make you nicer
 not just to give you a new social life
 not just to rearrange your calendar
 not just to change how you dress
 how you vote
 what you watch
 where you go…
 not just to make you comfortable…
HE BROUGHT YOU IN TO SEND YOU OUT—to receive the blessing and to be the
blessing
Bill Kirk: 100 years from now the only thing that will matter is who is in
heaven and who is in hell – and if it’s going to matter then, it better matter
now
Ah now there’s the problem with Christians – always trying to tell people
what to believe and sharing their views with others – can’t they just keep it to
themselves…
The Atlantic
Michael, a political science major at Dartmouth and an atheist: "I really can't
consider a Christian a good, moral person if he isn't trying to convert me." As
surprising as it may seem, this sentiment is not as unusual as you might think. It
finds resonance in the well-publicized comments of Penn Jillette, the atheist
illusionist and comedian: "I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't
respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell and people
could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think
that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially
awkward.... How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that
everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"
Gospel Activity: DECLARATION AND DEMONSTRATION
 Declare ONLY – won’t work – no relationship, no realness (is it
true? Does it work?)
 Demonstrate ONLY – one more existentially satisfying endeavor to
cross off the bucket list of a meaningful life – it has to be
intellectually credible as well
God brings us in to send us out GOSPEL IDENTITY FUELS….
What is the blessing?
JACOB EXAMPLE…CARALINE ICE CREAM SANDWICH…
The blessing of God establishes our worth, our significance…gives our hearts the
approval and acceptance we crave and need…God’s chooses us!
We are all searching for it…Apart from the blessing of God, we pursue blessing
elsewhere….the search can take many different forms, but it’s all aiming for the
same thing---THE BLESSING!
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Athletics---do anything to be great (workout, sacrifice relationships, cheat
knowing there’s a high risk of being caught…)
Success and wealth – men and women who lay their family, their health, their
integrity on the altar of career and success
Academics---it’s the ONE thing I know I’m good at
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Doing good – two ladies at SBUX – working for a charity…they didn’t have a
sense of self apart from their work…
Religious activity—God owes me!
You can’t join in on the mission of God if you aren’t deeply convinced that you have
received the blessing of God
Why? The pursuit of the blessing becomes your mission.
There are people sitting in churches who can’t join in on God’s plan to make
everything new and to bring the blessing of good news to a broken world because
they’re obsessed with pursuing a blessing through their own accomplishments and
achievements…they aren’t assured that they have the blessing
How can we be sure we have the blessing?
Fast Forward in Abraham’s story…Genesis 15
 God reminds Abraham of his promise
 Abraham – I don’t have a son!
 God – Look at the stars?
 Abraham – How can I be sure?
9 Then the LORD told him, "Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female
goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10 Abram took all these
and killed them. He cut each one down the middle and laid the halves side by side. He
did not, however, divide the birds in half.
God and Abraham are making a covenant with each other (v 18)
In Old Testament times the covenant was at the foundation of social relationships.
There are several big differences between contracts and covenants. One being that
contracts exchange property or possessions, covenants exchange persons.
In a contract, you exchange something you have - a skill, a piece of property, money. In
a covenant you exchange your very being, you give your very self to another person.
Marriage is a covenant. The man swears an oath to the woman, "I'm yours forever." The
woman swears an oath to the man, "I'm yours forever."
In the Ancient Near Eastern world –One common form of covenant was between
suzerains and vassals…LORD AND SERVANT…
Lord-Servant Covenants
I will serve you—I will protect you
I will be loyal to you—I will provide for you
I will choose you above all others—I will cover you
So God and Abraham are reaffirming this covenant with one another:
God: I will be your God and you will be my people….
Abraham: You will be our God and we will be your people
Cutting animals in half was a normal part of the covenant ceremony
Hebrew word for COVENANT is BERIT: “to CUT a covenant”
PART OF THE COVENANT CEREMONY:
The servant would walked between the cut pieces—“If I break the covenant then I will
be broken and bloodied like these animals..”
17 As the sun went down and it became dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a
flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.
God passes through instead of Abraham!
IF YOU BREAK THIS COVENANT—THEN I WILL BE BROKEN AND BLOODIED
On the cross—that is exactly what happens..
God brings us in to send us out
God sent Jesus out to bring us in!
This story in Gen 15 reminds us of this truth of the Gospel: God kept his promise to us
because Jesus kept our promises for us.
THIS TRUTH CHANGES US
Once we have the blessing of God we can join the mission of God…TWO WAYS
Open our hands
Don’t look for the blessing of significance or security through money
Spenders vs. Savers
Open our hearts
Are our hearts hospitable or hostile toward the outsider? What type of sinner do
you keep on the outside of your heart?
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Comfort and Convenience – Stay away from the bad people….Who is our Chi
Alpha for?
Control – the messiness of broken lives….
When we open our hands and our hearts: The mission matters most
Christopher Wright writes, “It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his
church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission was
not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission.”
God Brings us in to send us out – Gospel Identity FUELS Gospel Activity