Is He Your God?
READ: Genesis 17:1
CHALLENGE: Walk Before Me
V1 – When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.
13 years have passed between chapter 16 and 17. That’s a long time. God now reaffirms the covenant – His solemn promise to Abraham to build him into a nation and to give him the land of Canaan. God Almighty wants to be our God!
1 Peter 2:9-10 – But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
You’re a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. Now you are the people of God! In this first part of chapter 17, we see God’s desire to be our God. We also see our responsibility in the relationship and the importance of God’s promises. Our present and future is clearly tied in with God.
- OUR GOD IS KNOWABLE
- God is Powerful
God identifies Himself as “God Almighty” coming from the Hebrew, El Shaddai. The word Shaddai is used multiple times alone but only 7 times in this way, as El Shaddai. The word Shaddai is a divine title on its own and means All powerful. Combined with the Hebrew word for “God”, it is translated God Almighty! And because God IS all powerful, He IS able to keep the promises He’s made.
Jeremiah 32:17 – “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”
This truth helps us keep our sanity. Nothing is too hard for the Lord! In this chapter, God is about to do the impossible as Abraham and Sarah will soon have a child. We serve a God who is able to do anything He so chooses. He can keep promises, control the future, answer prayers, provide, protect, deliver, redeem hopeless situations, encourage, and heal the brokenhearted and marriages as well.
He’s so powerful that Paul found that he could do all things through God who gave strength. And this can be our experience as well. God is all powerful! He’s strong. He makes you strong to face your present and the future too.
Since our creator reveals Himself and defines Himself by both word and deed, we can’t make God be what we want him to be. We don’t tell him who he is, He tells us!
I don’t walk into the grocery store and say, “You’re a car dealership” – sell me a car! The business defines what the business is and what it wants to be. I don’t go to a plant place and demand to buy an Apple phone. Why do we think that we can dictate who God is? We don’t define God – He tells us and shows us that He is the Almighty. I can’t lessen him by referring to him as the man upstairs because He’s not a man. I can’t limit him by referring to him as an intelligent designer as if he wound up a clock and walked away. Or that he’s some unknowable generic Supreme somebody up there somewhere. Or as if God can be customized for us.
We don’t create God any more than I create the world we live in. I can’t suddenly decide that I’ll have some gills and be able to breathe under water. The truth is that I cannot breathe under water without oxygen. You can’t make your own world.
God reveals Himself. And he proves himself by the things that he has done.
- God is is Personal
God is a God who appears. He talks. He says to walk before him. All of this indicates that God Is relational and personal and nearby as opposed to far away.
There are powers in this world that have no personality. One is electricity. It’s impersonal. Electrical current cannot differentiate a plug going in the socket or a little child sticking a fork into the outlet. It cannot think, or plan, or decide, or feel bad. It’s power without personality!
This is not God. He’s not just a power or force. He’s personal. He’s so personal that He wants to be our God. He wants that connection. Adam and Eve used to walk with God in the Garden of Eden and that was a beautiful relationship. It says that Enoch walked with God. Abraham is called the friend of God. Jesus called his disciples, friends.
Psalm 34:18 – The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
God is personal. I have experienced God directing my steps and answering prayer and pouring out blessings. I pray every day believing that He hears me. I love reading the Psalms and seeing how David was continually relying on God.
Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
He is God Almighty and we trust in Him and seek Him. A fair question would be, “Do you really know him”? That could be answered by how you live. He is God, but is He really your God? Are you seeking your daily direction from Him?
- OUR GOD EXPECTS US TO WALK WITH HIM
- Walk Before God Faithfully
What does God want? He says to “walk before me”? The word indicates movement. Your walk is your conduct with the flow of your life being observed by God! Your walk is seen by your actions and I’m personally much more interested in a person’s walk than their talk. I’ve seen people quote Scripture and talk God but live like a puppet of Satan. Therefore, I go by what a person does, not by what they say.
I’ve had to tell people in the past, “Please stop telling me what you’re going to do and show me”. I don’t want to hear it, I want to see it. I’ve heard pious talk come out from the mouths of people who do awful things, so words don’t impress me much. God didn’t tell Abram to “talk before me”. He said, “walk before me”.
Isaiah 29:13a – The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.
We live before God and He is watching. I know with my grandson, he walks in my sight and I had better not leave him out of my sight. Plus, I’m super interested in what he’s doing. I planted asparagus and I check on them daily to see what has sprouted up. Why is my presence there? It’s important to me. God is interested in our lives so he’s watching as you’re important to him.
Acts 17:27 – God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Did you catch that? God is close to us. In God we move and have our being! His presence is a reason that we’re alive. He’s there all the time. In fact, Jesus said we will give an account for every idle word that comes out of our mouths. Sometimes I think I’ll be talking to God for a long time about that! I’ve had plenty of unnecessary words and need to be careful because I’m in his presence.
When you work in the world, there can be a profound difference between how you work when the boss is watching and when he wasn’t. When someone was inspecting the work, it was best foot forward. God is watching! If we go off on a tirade, He saw that. If you sneak a peak at porn, He saw that. Nothing is hidden from God. “Walk before me”!
And we’re to walk faithfully. The verb here emphasizes a continuity of action thus the translation, faithfully. We walk with God in view day after day! Think to the first part of the 10 Commandments. We have no other gods. We don’t make idols. We don’t use the name of the Lord in a vain way, we keep his Sabbath Day. One out of seven, we are worshipping. We relate to God continuously as we walk with Him. Our walk should be consistent – it’s a way of life.
We learn elsewhere that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I’m not afraid of Lake Erie but I have a healthy respect for large bodies of water. So, I’m watchful as to kayaking. I pay attention to wind direction and speeds. Respect. Judging by what I see from some people, they need a little more fear of God. Who God is, impacts who I am. God is Almighty and I walk before Him reverently.
- Be Blameless
To be blameless means to have integrity. The fundamental idea is to be complete as in, there is nothing missing at all. So, if someone gives you a million dollars to take to someone – there’s a million when you get there. It’s complete and that’s integrity.
When you do a job, you do it completely. Are you in the days of relying on your children to sweep, rake, or wipe off a table? How’s that going for you? I remember those days of …. but there’s still dirt on the floor. Or there are still crumbs on the table so that job was not done completely. It’s not “blameless” because there is something to say about it.
To be blameless means that when God calls us to clean up an area of life, we clean it up. And there are no crumbs left. We are whole-heartedly following God. The word naturally moves toward that which is ethically sound, upright.
Let’s consider Daniel. Daniel is a great man. They wanted to accuse him of something but he wasn’t corrupt. He was so honest in his dealings that they could not entrap him. The only way to get him into trouble was to make a law outlawing his faith and prayer life. Daniel was not allowed to pray to God but he kept doing it anyway, Why? He was blameless before God and they threw him into a den of lions! If we get blamed it should be for doing the right thing!
Spiritual leaders are to be above reproach and that means that we’re not giving our critics a bunch of reasons to point the finger at us. Let’s say that you owe someone money for work done, integrity would mean paying them. You shouldn’t have that reputation of not paying your bills.
Showing up at work consistently without calling in sick when you’re not sick, that’s integrity. Blameless is putting in a full day’s work. You’re honest when you’re there. How you interact with the opposite sex is important. If you’re married you should act like you’re married and not be saying off color things or flirting. It’s integrity.
Psalm 101:3-5 – I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. 4 The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil. 5 Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate.
He wanted to be blameless so he said, don’t look at what’s vile. Have no part with the faithless. Have nothing to do with evil – don’t promote it or put your stamp of approval on it. Silence gossip and don’t slander. There’s so much right here to challenge us.
Part of being blameless for Abraham would be not mimicking the godless culture around him. Don’t fall in line with the world. Stand out! Don’t do inappropriate or unwise or sinful things that cause blame to come flying your way.
I think of blameless as keeping God’s laws and that’s a safe way to begin thinking about it. Keep God’s word to the best of your ability. Your blameless walk comes out of your walk with God.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 – Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
- OUR GOD DESERVES REVERENCE
Vv2-3 – Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. 3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,
God is impressive and He deserves reverence. Abram fell down before him. And he knew God well but he was never nonchalant. He showed respect and God deserves that. When John saw Jesus in the book of Revelation, he fell down, as if dead. As Isaiah said, “Woe do me, I am a man of unclean lips”.
When Peter encountered Jesus after the great catch of fish, he fell down. When we encounter God, we’re on our face.
Revelation 1:17-18 – When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
Paul said in Philippians 2 that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
Do we have the reverence that God deserves? If we’re praying and looking at our cell phones, we can do better. If we’re constantly distracted, perhaps he’s not getting the respect He deserves. I know my wife doesn’t like it if I’m distracted and God is our creator. He wants our attention and reverence.
He’s God and we’re not. I love the awesome reverence for the sheer power of God. What faith in God – I bow! I surrender!
- OUR GOD HAS OUR FUTURE IN HIS HANDS
Vv4-8 – “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram[b]; your name will be Abraham,[c] for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 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 and the God of your descendants after you. 8 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.”
- Our Future is Based in God
He’s making a covenant and I’m secure in that. A covenant is a solemn agreement between God and man. It’s binding. He tells him, you will be the father of many nations. His name meant the father of many. Now his name means the father of multitudes. Everyone looking around might think, you have one child and you’re nearly 100. Your time has come and gone. A father of multitudes … please. How will God pull that off? By his sheer power.
Look at how many times the word “will” is used.
- Will be father of many nations
- Will be very fruitful
- Will become nations
- Will have kings in the family line
- Descendants will have covenant as everlasting covenant
- I will give the land as an everlasting possession
- I will be their God.
Will happen! Your future is tied with God, not merely your own human effort. The promise elevates Abram so much farther than he would be on his own. God meeting him in the future is the source of strength and hope. Don’t look at where you are right now, look at where you’re going to be!
What elevates your future? Relying on the promises of God. He has a plan for your life. There is forgiveness. There is a better life. There is healing. There is change. There is hope.
God’s promises elevate! The fishers of fish would be fishers of men. Elevated. Sinners to saints – elevated. Darkness to light – elevated! Death to life – elevated! Broken to fixed – elevated. Hurting to healed – elevated!
What is God’s new covenant with us? It’s found in Jeremiah 31. It was enacted by Jesus. He will forgive our sins!
Jeremiah 31: “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me,from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Jesus instituted this at the last supper. The last supper where Jesus met with his disciples and said that the new covenant was in his blood and promises the forgiveness of sins. Think about the power of salvation. We have eternal life in the future and a new life right now. We have the strength to overcome all things!
Abraham was in a seemingly hopeless situation, yet God was going to do something that defied the odds and show off His endless power. When it seemed there was no way to fulfill the promise of having a child, God will!
Can God work in your impossible situations? What do you believe and are you living out those beliefs?