FATHER ABRAHAM (pt. 5)

God changes our identity by His grace, and we are called to mark ourselves through holy living.

1. God’s Initiating Grace Rewrites Our Identity (“As for me”)  

Our identity rewritten by grace isn’t just a mental concept; it requires a shift in how we live.

2. Our Faith-Filled Response Requires Outward Cooperation (“As for you”)

When we embrace this deep work of grace, it changes not only our daily habits but how we respond to God’s promises.

 3. True Holiness Moves from Questions to Immediate Action (“On that very day”)

Transcript

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You're listening to the New Beginnings Church podcast from Delaware, Ohio. To learn more about New Beginnings Church, visit us online at Delaware NewBeginnings.com. Today's message is from Pastor David Forth.

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We're continuing the life of Abraham, where our theme is this Faith isn't a straight line of perfect performance. It's a messy journey of relying entirely on God's grace. And for people who are perfectionists like me, this is like something I need to hear every day. Amen, perfectionists? It's a messy journey. We aren't perfect. And we see this in the life of Abraham because we see him as a father figure, sometimes the father figure of faith, but we find out that he didn't walk this straight perfect line. And that some of his journey was completely messy and relying on God's grace. Have you ever had your name changed before? Not in marriage. Right? Let's pull the marriage piece out. Have you ever had your name changed? Like a nickname. You know, my name is David. And it gets crossed out because someone else wants to call me something else? You ever done that? When I was in college, this is one of my nicknames that I got was Shoes. And it's simple on how I got that nickname because uh my first couple weeks there, we were playing intramural basketball, and everybody else would come from the dorms in their basketball shoes, and I would not do that because my basketball shoes were my life, and so I wouldn't walk and put them outside. I would have to put my shoes on, so they'd have to wait for me. And that name stuck. Even people today still call me that, and it kind of throws me off when I talk to some of my friends and they're like, hey, shoes. And I'm like, What? It's just one of those funny nicknames. You know, sometimes we get nicknames we don't want. Anybody have a nickname you don't like? Oh, y'all have nicknames you like or no nicknames at all? Okay. Just me then. Just me. Uh, but what happens when God, the creator of the universe, decides to rename you? What happens when God, the creator of this of the universe, decides it's time to change your name and even your life? You ever thought of your relationship with Jesus that way? That he changes your name and he changes your life? Well, in Genesis 17, that we're gonna read today on Abraham, uh, at 99 years old, Abram gets a name change that really he didn't ask for. He knew he was in covenant with God, but he didn't know that there would be a name change, an identity change. And so today we're gonna hear that God changes our identity by his grace. And we are called to mark ourselves through holy living. When we talk about marking ourselves, it means marking ourselves so that people know who we belong to. That through our life, through our actions, through our words, they know. They know that we belong to Jesus. We this isn't anything new. We uh mark ourselves in different allegiances in our lives, right? Think of countries of the world. They have their flags, right? They mark their allegiance to the flags. I mean, we have a pledge of the allegiance in this country. Um think of jerseys, your favorite sports team. You're marking yourself as a follower of that sports team. Even logos, um, different types of, excuse me, uh different types of logos where we go, I'm gonna follow this brand. This was always fun in the 80s. Pepsi and and Coke challenges, you know, they would taste them, and it was all about identity, it was all about allegiance. We can mark ourselves as followers of Jesus through holy living, through making better choices, making choices in love to obey what God has called us and who God has called us to be. This is this shows who we follow. We sometimes have this confusion where he or she does this, but they say they're a believer in Jesus, so which one is it? And sometimes lines begin to be blurred. Well, the way we act, the way we do things should show who we follow. And so we're gonna see God's grace at work once again for Abram, his his call of response to Abram, and Abram's faithful action. Um, and so we're gonna begin with the first part here, Genesis 17. If you want to follow along in your Bibles, otherwise it'll be on the screen from the NIV Bible. Um, and and the first part, the first thing I want us to think of is this God's initiating grace rewrites our identity. This is what we're gonna see in Abram. That God's initiating grace, the grace that goes before Abram, rewrites his identity, rewrites his name, rewrites his calling, so to speak. And the key phrase that I want us to see in these first few verses is this as for me. Can you say that? As for me. Um, and so before we get started, I want to do a little bit of a word study here, because we get to see three different descriptions of God within the first few verses here. In um first they'll say, in verse one, they'll say the Lord, which is when you look at the word study, is Jehovah or Yahweh. And then later on, we will see Almighty God, which is El Shaddai, God Almighty, and then we will see uh the word God again, which then is Elohim. Same God, different ways on how God is described. Okay, this is a relational covenantal God, that is Jehovah, that is who Yahweh, uh absolute God, is Almighty God, absolute power, nothing greater than Him. Elohim, uh, this this uh description of God is authority, creator, sustainer, even judge. So God, in talking with Abram, is saying, Here's who I am. And that's just important to know because sometimes we just say, Oh, it's God. But when we dig a little deeper, we see it's God. And it's God Almighty. So uh let's read verses one through eight here. When Abram was 99 years old, this was about 13 years after where we stopped last week with Ishmael, uh, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty. This is where he says, I am El Shaddai. I am God Almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. Just reiterating what he has promised him in the past. Abram fell face down, and God, Elohim, said to him, As for me, this is my covenant with you. Did you catch the as for me? As for me, God's saying, As for me, this is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations, no longer will you be called Abram. Your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful, I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God, your Elohim, and the Elohim, the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God. So a key phrase that we want to know here is this as for you, but also this. This is a key note is that even before God asks anything of Abraham, what does he declare? I am El Shaddai. I am God Almighty, I am Almighty God. What is he doing? I am God that gets to set the boundaries. I get to set the covenant because I am Almighty God. And because I'm Almighty God, you can do this. And so he sets, if you will, sets the bar. Before he even asks uh Abram, who is well past this, what we might call natural possibilities of having a family, God says, I am El Shaddai, I am God Almighty. And then he says, What? Walk before me. Faithful and blameless. That's hard. That's that's a bar. But he's God Almighty, and this is what he's asking him to do. I want you to walk, continue to walk in faithfulness. I want you to walk in obedience, I want you to walk before me. Because as for me, this is my covenant. Who initiates the covenant? God initiates the covenant. How does God initiate the covenant? With his grace, with his love, with the future in mind, with the line of the Savior in mind for the freeing of the world from sin. And so God initiates the grace, and he initiates the call to Abraham that kings will come from you and nations will come for you. So now I am going to change your identity. I'm gonna change your name, I'm gonna change who you are, and you're gonna go from Abram, which means exalted father, to Abraham, which means father of a multitude or father of nations. Not just an exalted father, but a father of generations. How would you like that change of your life? How would you like the pressure of that on you? But here's the thing: this is God's grace. This is God's grace going before him. God alters Abraham's identity before the promise is even there. When was the last time that you were exalted for something without doing something first? It doesn't happen. God claims his grace goes before Abraham for the generations, even before they can claim him or choose him as their God. You don't have to, he didn't have to wait for a legacy to be written because God is already writing it for him. It's like in the military. If you served in the military, you served in any type of branch or service that has ranks, you have to do so many things to raise rank. You have to be good, you have to do all these service projects, you gotta do, you gotta take tests, you gotta do all these things. And how you raise rank, it also changes how people respond to you and respond to your authority and the respect you have. Well, Abraham doesn't have to earn this. God freely gives it to him. He says, a nation, nations will come from you, and you will be the father of nations. We cannot earn a status God has already granted to us by grace. Our identity is not based on our performance, it's not based on our wins or our failures, it's not based on our current limitations, it is based entirely on who El Shaddai says you are. And Jesus says, You are a child of God. Jesus says, You are heirs of Abraham. This is what Paul writes about when we believe we are adopted into the line of Abraham. That is our identity. I mean, what a gift. What a gift that was freely given to us, and all we had to do was choose if we would accept it or not. It'd be like that really cool Christmas gift that someone says, Hey, I got a new car for you. Do you want it or not? So much greater, though. Eternity, salvation, eternity and eternal life with your Lord and Savior. Believe. As for me, as for me, this is my covenant. Oh, I think we also have to remember this piece that our identity rewritten by grace isn't just a mental concept. I think there's many times, and here's what I mean by this first part, is there's many times we go, I'm covered by grace, so I can do whatever I want. Kind of a get out of jail free card. It requires grace, it requires a shift in how we live. It requires a shift in how we live. And that's our next part that we're gonna see with the story of Abraham. Our faith-filled response requires an outward, an outward action or outward cooperation. Because God goes from, as for me, this is my covenant. Now he says, as for you. As for you. Here's Genesis chapter 17, verses 9 through 16. Then God said to Abraham, as for you, you must keep my covenant. Walk before me, faithful and blameless. Keep my covenant. You and your descendants after you, and for for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep. Every male be the sign. So God's saying, This is what you must do. This is how you mark yourself. Every male among you must be circ or shall be circumcised. You are to go are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner, those who are not your offering. What they're talking about is their servants and slaves. They're part of the household, so they must be marked as well. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. So whoever says, I don't want to do this, has declined to be in covenant with God. And then God also says this: God says to Abraham, he says, And as for Sarai, your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai. Her name will be Sarah. And I will bless her, and will surely give you a son by her. Now, this is the first time that God has said, the heir of the nations to come will come from Sarah. And so we'll we'll hear Abram's response here. Um, but this, God is saying, as for you is our outward cooperation. As for you, you must keep my covenant. Grace is free, but a covenantal relationship is costly. It's costly. God calls on the circumcision of males. So why is this? Well, we heard right in scripture that it's a sign, it shows people who you belong to. Circumcision was a deep-rooted reminder in the flesh. It wasn't just a memory thing or something on a scroll written with your signature, but something that the males who were the head of the household would wear every day, reminding them that they belonged to God. It reminded them the covenant that they were under to walk before God faithfully and blamelessly. And this is for generations. Friends, grace is free. I don't want you to hear that it's not. Grace is free, but grace isn't opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning. You can't earn grace. I can't earn grace. Grace is free. Because we have grace, we put the effort in into what we call sanctification, growing in grace, growing in love of God of neighbor and neighbor, or simply put, holy living. Grace is free, but grace isn't opposed to effort. Grace isn't opposed to changing our lives, it's opposed to thinking we can earn God's grace. In Genesis 15, just a couple chapters ago, God had a covenant with Abram by what? By faith. Now, God, who dictates the covenant, he's calling Abraham into obedience, into being marked. He's into a holy living, into holiness. And the mark for people to know would be circumcision. Jesus did this too. He didn't use the word circumcision. But Jesus talked about grace and free grace and not being able to earn grace. And he also talked about a response, an outward response. You're forgiven. Go and sin no more. Or he would say, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. That sounds very, very close to walk before the Father faithfully and blamelessly. Uh even uh Paul goes into detail with this as well. And because when we talk about circumcision, and I'm not gonna get into that, too painful of memories. No, it's a joke. Um there was this time when the church first started after Jesus ascended and the new church was there. There was this argument. We're not gonna get into too much detail on it, on if Gentiles had to be circumcised like the Jewish people who believed in Jesus. Well, Paul writes about that, and and I think this is this is important for us to hear. Here he says in verse 25 to 29, circumcision has value if you observe the law, which the Jewish people did, the Gentiles didn't. But if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So he says, if you're circumcised and and you're fulfilling the law, you're fine, but if you're breaking the law, then why do it? So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, Gentiles, and they're doing well, they will not will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you, who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. This is the key verses here. A person is not a Jew who is only is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is circumcision of the what? The heart, by the spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God. And then he writes to to the uh to Colossians in Colossians chapter 2, verse 11. In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh, whole self, was put off when you were circumcised by who? By Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith and the working of God who raised him from the dead. So for Gentiles, for people who believe in Jesus, what is our circumcision? The circumcision of the heart, our whole selves. And so what we hear in the Old Testament still bears witness in the New Testament. God asks us to be circumcised every day. He wants our hearts circumcised every day. He wants the comfortable places in our heart circumcised, he wants the hidden pieces, the dark pieces circumcised from our heart. He wants the sinful areas circumcised from our lives totally cut away so that we can better bear the image of God. and walk before him faithfully and blamelessly. He doesn't stop with Abraham though. Now comes to peace with Sarai. Sarai, which means princess, has her name changed to Sarah, which many things means mother of nations. Abraham now is told that she will be what? The bearer of kings to come. This is where God is saying, it's you and Sarah. Here it's you and Sarah. When we embrace this deep work of grace like we see in Abraham and Sarah's lives, it changes not only our daily habits, but how we respond to God's promises. And this is our pivot, if you will, into sanctification, to holy living, which is the next piece here. True holiness moves from questions, the questions we have, into immediate action. And the key phrase here is on that very day. Let's hear the last part verses 17 to 27. Abraham fell face down. He laughed and said to himself, Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90? And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael might live under your blessing. Then God said Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael I have heard you I will surely bless him. I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of the twelve rulers and I will make him into a great nation but my covenant I will establish with Isaac whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year. When he had finished speaking with Abraham God went up from him on that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money every male in his household and circumcised them as God told him Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised and his son Ishmael was thirteen. Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day and every male in Abraham's household including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner was circumcised with him. I'm going to make fun of my sister a minute here because she's not here my older sister when I I don't know she was 12 or 13 she decided to bake a cake mom you know where I'm going with this she decided to bake a cake so she gets all the ingredients like we're supposed to do the eggs you know the flour everything puts it in a bowl following the instructions detailed just how it is and she gets to the point where it says mix by hand yes she mixed by hand. She took it literally now we we might laugh at that and go well that's weird. Some of us germaphodes might go yeah I don't want any of that cake but the fact of the matter is it worked the cake was made sometimes God tells us and asks us to do things and we think sound kind of silly. And sometimes we don't do them and sometimes we do them just because we do. When God tells Abraham that Sarah will be the one to have the son to be the heir of the nations Abraham falls face down and laughs. Now it's it's interesting with with the historians and theologians some say he's laughing in doubt that this is a laughter of doubt but as we'll see next year or next year next week in Sarah's story she laughs and God kind of calls her out on this Abraham's not really called out on this and so a lot of people a lot of other historians theologians think this is kind of like that nervous laugh like you're kidding me right you know maybe a little bit of doubt in there but more just kind of like really seriously mix it by hand that's how we're going to make a cake kind of what we're talking about. And that's kind of where I the party I fall into but here's what I know is that Abraham does offer an alternative if only Ishmael might live under your blessing. Now maybe he's doing that to protect himself from Sarah's wrath if he said oh sure we'll do this but uh if only but here's what he's doing this was last week again we talked about plan A and plan B. God says here's the plan A. What's Abraham doing? He goes well Ishmael's already here we don't need to have another kid my translation there. We don't have to have another kid here. And so he wants to do plan B. And we all do this too. We want to give God our backup plans. Well God I know this needs to be done I know this this ministry needs filling I know this ministry needs help but that's not for me to do that's not for me to do that's for someone else to do let's let's uh let me give you my backup plan God because I have my own ideas and my own plans on how I want to serve you and the things that I want to do. And yet we can look at verse 23 on that very day on that very day when God comes the day and goes yes it is going to be Sarah and you will have Isaac and don't worry Ishmael's going to be taken care of Abraham on that very day obeyed God. He didn't say hey give me a week I need to pray on this God I need to pray on this. I need to pray on you to this God I need to think about this let me talk about with my family on that very day Abraham took his whole household and they obeyed striving for holiness doesn't mean we can't have a moment of hesitation it doesn't mean that that we can't have a little bit of doubt. Holiness means that despite our laughter despite our fear despite our plan B's our feet still move that we continue to walk before the Lord and obey what God has called us to do and who God has called us to be we don't strive for holiness to make God love us. We don't strive for holiness to save ourselves we run towards the Father we run towards holiness because he first loved us even when we were stranded in our own wilderness that we created ourselves. Abraham's ultimate legacy wasn't that he was a perfect man who never doubted and never laughed at God. It was that he had faith and obeyed even in the mess I think it would be wise if we stopped waiting for the perfect feelings. I think it would be wise if we stopped saying that's not for me to do I think that it would be wise if we stopped waiting for a hundred percent certainty or even if something sounds logical because we can read the Bible and go, well some of that doesn't sound logical but it does sound like God we need to obey what God has asked us to do. Even if it doesn't make any sense there's people in my life in my my past life that if they knew I was a pastor they'd be like well that's weird what happened there love to tell them that story sometime God can handle your questions God can handle your doubts God can handle your nervous laughter but here's what else he does he honors your steps of obedience your walking before him and I believe that this building in this land that he that he has blessed this congregation with just a few years ago is honoring the obedience of those who have come before us so what area of your heart must be circumcised get rid of the word need because need gives us a way out it needs to but I don't want to what area of your heart must be circumcised where have you been giving God your safe manageable backup plan instead of trusting in him completely God has initiated a standard of holiness in our lives he has given us a step of faith for you when he says as for you so what as for you have you ignored or just straight up said no to culture is obsessed with self-made transformations and self-made images we use diet fads productivity hacks financial gains um rebranding ourselves we just can't be ourselves we got to brand ourselves now we work ourselves to death trying to initiate a plan that may not be God's plan for us but the gospel tells us the most eternal turning points in our life is when God shows up and he interrupts us and he says as for me here's what I'm doing as for you fill in the blank as for me as for you and the response on that very day let's put this in perspective with with the verse everybody knows John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life as for me I love this world so much that I gave my one and only son as for you that when you believe on that very day you will not perish but have eternal life do you see how it works what if our decisions what if our visioning what if our personal and family lives and even our secular and our job life was based on this grace of Jesus where God says as for me as for you and on that very day where we are obeying God not because we have to but because we want to God has changed your identity he's changed my identity by his grace through his son Jesus you are called to mark yourself as his circumcise your heart let people know who you belong to that you belong to El Shaddai Elohim.

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Last week we talked about El Roy the God who sees us Jehovah Yahweh this is who we belong to may we walk before him faithfully and blameless not because it saves us but because we are saved and we are living in the new identity that we have received through Jesus Christ thanks for listening to the New Beginnings Church podcast for all our messages sermon notes and the latest updates visit Delaware Newbeginnings dot com we'll see you next week