Old Testament in a Year: Genesis 12-17

Well, good morning, Refuge family. I'm sad we can't all be together, but you can see there's a lot that's going to be taking place in the month of February here at the Refuge. Today's our last day of Selah. I'm so glad you've logged on and are joining us. Having worship there in your home or wherever you are.

It's going to be a great month of February. I want to remind you we've got our first launch night coming up this Friday night, seven o'. Clock. Philip Smethurst is going to be with us. Going to be a powerful time.

Hey, and just a reminder as well. I know most of you give digitally, you give online, and in moments like this where we're not able to be together, just a reminder, make sure you stay faithful in your giving through the app, through the website, however you normally do that. We would appreciate so much your giving today as well. Hey, chances are most of you are not familiar with the name Harry Calcourt. But he gave us an incredible, infamous example of the difference between belief and trust.

It was in the summer of 1859, where thousands of people had gathered at Niagara Falls because there a man by the name of Charles Blondin was going to walk across an 1100 foot rope that was stretched 160ft above the falls across the Niagara Gorge. Blondin walked across that rope, but he didn't just do it once. Blondin added different elements each time. For example, he walked backwards across the rope and then he blindfolded himself and walked again across Niagara Falls. Then he rode a bicycle, then he did it on stilts.

And every time those thousands of people would cheer louder and louder. Then all of a sudden, Charles Blondin grabs a wheelbarrow and he walks across that rope pushing a wheelbarrow. People erupted in applause. They were cheering loudly. And then Charles Blondin said, how many of you believe that I could do this with somebody inside of the wheelbarrow?

Everybody cheered and yelled, yes, we believe. But nobody volunteered except Blondin's manager, a guy by the name of Harry Calcourt. And Harry got in the wheelbarrow. And Harry went from just believing that Blondin could do it to really trusting that he could do it. Well, today we're looking in our series as we're preaching through the Old Testament.

By the way, if you're joining us, maybe you've never been to the Refuge, but you're joining us today. We are taking the Entire year of 2026 preaching through the entire Old Testament. And today we're Looking at a man In Genesis chapters 12 through 17 who demonstrates for us the difference between belief and trust. Our theme as we go through these chapters today is real faith. Hey, the notes are there on the app, as they are every single weekend.

So pull out your app, get ready to take some notes this morning. Open your Bibles. We're going to begin in Genesis 12:1. Genesis 12:1, it says this. And the Lord had said to Abram, leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families on earth will be blessed through you. So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him.

Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all of his wealth, his livestock, and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran. And he headed for the land of Canaan. We also read this in Genesis, chapter 15, verse 6. It says, and Abram believed the Lord.

And the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. Hey, before we go any further, let's make some declarations together today. Come on, everybody, say it with me. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones.

I will be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. And I am confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it in Jesus name. Abram, who would later have his name changed by God to Abraham, was a very wealthy man. He had a very established life, 75 years old, very established in his home country, when God unexpectedly visits him and tells him to pack up and to leave. But here's the kicker.

God didn't even tell him where he was going in Genesis, chapter 11. Pardon me. In Hebrews chapter 11, which is known as the hall of faith. In verse 8, it says this. It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance.

He went without knowing where he was going. That is incredible faith. Now, the faith journey requires you and I to trust God, even when he's asking us to do things that don't make sense. And as we follow God, there are a few key things that we see in these chapters. Genesis, chapters 12 through 17 that Abram did.

That are key for us. Three things. Number one, build an altar. Build an altar. Look.

In chapter 12, verse 6, it says this. Abram traveled through the land. He's already packed up, packed up all of his family, all of his possessions, all of his livestock. He's leaving his hometown, where he's been for 75 years. And he's going to a place he doesn't even know.

So as he's traveling, it says he traveled through the land as far as Shechem. And there he set up camp beside the oak at Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. And then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your descendants. And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord who had appeared to him.

Watch this. After that, verse 8 says, Abram traveled south and he set up camp in the hill country with Bethel to the west and AI to the east. There he built another altar, and he dedicated it to the Lord. And he worshiped the Lord. He worshiped the Lord.

The first thing that Abram did when he arrived at a new place was to build an altar, worship God and dedicate himself and the new territory to the Lord. Listen to me. When you transition, when you change jobs, when you enter into marriage, if you move to a new city, if you transfer and go to a different school or you start college, I want to challenge you and encourage you. Build an altar. Build an altar, you say?

What does that mean? Like a physical altar in my dorm room? A physical altar in our house. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is that when you transition, that you dedicate yourself and consecrate yourself in every new season for the glory of God.

And that every transition in your life should be accompanied by worship. Here's the second thing that Abram did. Abram was a tither. Some of you might not know that Abram was a tither. Listen, tithing is one of the most important ways that we acknowledge that God is.

First, because tithing is an act of the heart, not of your bank account. The tithe, 10% of your income, the consecrated portion, is to be returned to the Lord. According to scripture, you don't give it. Because you can't give something that doesn't belong to you. It's already his.

And if you keep it, according to Scripture, you're stealing from God, which then brings a curse on you. And according to Scripture, brings a curse on your household. Listen, if I loan you my lawnmower. You want to borrow it? Yours is broke.

You don't have one. I loan you my lawnmower. You go mow your grass. I'm giving it to you to use, but not to keep. Now, if you don't return it to me, if you decide you're going to keep it, guess what?

You're stealing my mower. You're stealing my lawnmower from me. But when you return it, it's not like you're giving me something that you own. No, you're just returning something that you borrowed. That's the same with the tithe.

The tithe belongs to God. He's given it to us, not for us to keep. He's blessed us. But that first portion, the first fruits, dedicated, consecrated to God. And we are to return that to the one who gave it to us in the first place.

Now watch this. In Genesis, chapter 14, now beginning in verse 17, it says, after Abram returned from his victory over Kedal Omar and all of his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shava, that is the king's valley. And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High, brought Abram some bread and wine. Communion. Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing.

Blessed be Abram, by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you. And then the Bible says this. Genesis 14, verse 17. Or, pardon me, verse 20.

Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of. Of all the goods he had recovered. Now, many biblical scholars believe that Melchizedek, this mysterious figure that appears here in Genesis 14, many believe this is an Old Testament appearance of Christ himself. Now, I want to make something clear to you what Abram did with Melchizedek after he had defeated his enemies, after he had the spoils of his enemy. What Abram did was not an act of law, and it was not an act of legalism.

As a matter of fact, what Abram did when he gave to Melchizedek a tenth of everything that he owned predates the law by 900 years. So it's not a law thing. No, this was an act of honor. And. And it was an act of worship.

Listen, as you follow God in every season of your life, at every single transition of your life, in moments of prosperity, like Abram has experienced after a great victory, or in moments of loss or lack, it's so important that you trust God with your finances. It's one thing to say that you believe that God provides. It's one thing to say that you believe God will bless you. It's one thing to say that you believe that God is going to take care of you, but it's another thing entirely to trust him with an act of faith, a demonstration of faith. And that's what tithing is.

It's an act of faith. It's worship. It's honor to the Lord is saying, God, you're first in my life. That's why it's the first fruits. That's why the tithe is the first thing that we give.

It's not at the end, after we see if there's enough to return that to the Lord. Now we do it up front. We do it first. And it's this demonstration of faith. It's not just belief.

It's not just saying, I believe the word of God. No, it's saying, I'm going to demonstrate that not only do I believe God, but I trust God. I trust God with my finances. And I want to challenge you here at the beginning of 2026, let this be the year that you really trust God in the area of finances. You don't just believe what his word says.

You don't just believe that he wants to bless you, but you demonstrate that with an act of faith and with an act of trust. So Abram built an altar. Abram was a tither. Here's a third thing. Abram kept the covenant.

So in our journey of faith, it's so very important that we keep the covenant. All right, long passage of Scripture right here from Genesis. Now 15, beginning in verse 7, Genesis 15, verse 7. And then the Lord told him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession. But Abram replied, O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?

And 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. So Abram presented all these things to him and he killed them. And then he cut each animal down the middle, laid the halves side by side. He did not, however, cut the birds in half. Watch.

Verse 11. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. And as the sun was going down, and we're going to unpack all this in just a moment. But as the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a terrifying Darkness came down over him. And then the Lord said to Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land.

They will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them. And in the end, they will come away with great wealth. As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. He told Abram, after four generations, your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.

After the sun went down and darkness fell. Watch this. Abram saw a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day. We know this God is a God of covenant.

God takes very seriously our commitments that we make to him. And in Genesis 15, where we just read, this is the first commitment covenant that God makes with man. It's very, very significant. Listen, making a covenant is the easy part. Keeping it, however, is where it gets tough.

So in order for us to keep covenant, there are a couple of things that we have to do. And we see Abram doing it. Number one, we have to chase the vultures. And we read earlier where God instructed Abram to bring these animals. Abram kills them, and then he cuts them in half.

Except for the birds. He lays the halves opposite of each other. Because in the covenant ceremony, the halves of the animals would be laid apart, laid opposite of each other. The blood would flow down to the middle. It would form what was known as a trail of blood.

And the people that are making the covenant with each other would walk that trail of blood. In other words, the covenant would be sealed with blood. So now Abram's prepared for the covenant. He's laid the animals opposite of each other to form the trail of blood. And all of a sudden.

Watch what happens in verse 11. We read it a moment ago. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away. It's no coincidence that Abram, just as he's making preparations to enter into covenant with God, that these birds of prey would come down and try to devour the sacrifice? And the same thing happens to us.

Like, listen, have you ever noticed that when you intentionally try to go deeper with the Lord, and maybe it's happened to you during Selah, maybe as you've been fasting and praying, you're like, 20, 26 is going to be the year. I'm going to go deeper with God. I'm going to become more intimate with the Lord. And maybe you have been attacked from every single side, no coincidence of that. Because the enemy is going to do everything he can to keep you from going deeper with the Lord.

He'll do everything he can to distract you. He'll do everything he can to destroy your sacrifice. So here are these birds of prey that have come in, these buzzards and vultures that are trying to steal the sacrifice that Abram has prepared as he's getting ready to enter into sacred covenant with God. Buzzards, vultures, birds of prey, whatever you want to call them, come in all shapes and sizes. They will try to attack your covenant relationship with God.

They'll try to attack your covenant relationship of marriage here on the earth. And that's why it's so vitally important that you understand this, that covenants have to be protected. And it's our job. It's our job to protect the covenant relationship that we have with the Lord. Now, I want you to notice something.

The Bible said Abram chased him away, chased the birds of prey away. But what Abram did not do was try to become a vulture killer. No, he chased him away, but he stayed focused on what was about to happen. He stayed focused on the covenant that was about to take place. What the enemy would love to do to you and I is to lure us away from the covenant we have with God.

The enemy would love for us to be so distracted that all of a sudden, rather than just chasing stuff away and protecting the covenant, that we decide, well, we're going to become vulture killers, and we just go running all over the place trying to kill them. Now, our job is anything that tries to attack the sacrifice, anything that tries to lure you away from your relationship with God or try to lure you away from your covenant relationship or marriage. We chase that away. But we stay very focused. We stay there.

And life, we know, throws all kinds of distractions our way. But rather than becoming a vulture killer, let's just be vulture chasers. Let's chase them away. That's the first thing that Abram did. Here's the second thing that he did.

He had to endure darkness. Endure darkness. Now, I doubt very seriously that when Abram was preparing the sacrifice for the covenant that he was gonna enter into with the Lord. I seriously doubt that he expected what would happen next. And the Bible says darkness creeps in.

But it goes one step further. It doesn't just say darkness. It says terrifying darkness, terrifying darkness. And that's the goal of the enemy, is to instill fear in us so that we move from the realm of faith into a realm of fear. And oftentimes we hit seasons or speed bumps or places in life where darkness and even terrifying darkness will surround us.

Maybe it's when you lost your job, maybe it was financial pressure. Maybe it's when you walked through a divorce. Maybe it's when you got a bad diagnosis. You had a season of your life where you were very sick. And that phrase, terrifying darkness, you can relate to that because maybe that's what happened to you.

But verse 12 and 13, it says this. As the sun was going down and Abram fell into a deep sleep and a terrifying darkness came over him. And then the Lord said to Abram, you can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land. I love that God gave him a promise in the midst of the darkness where they'll be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. Oftentimes, this is where people break covenant.

It's when darkness sets in.

It's in those moments spiritually where we can't even see our hand in front of our faces. It's when the darkness is so thick that you can almost feel it. And a lot of people in those moments, they break covenant. They allow fear to take over. And they shift from faith into a place of fear.

Listen. All covenants have these three ingredients. It's in your notes. All covenants have these three ingredients. Dreams, darkness and destiny.

Dreams, darkness and destiny. And the only way that we'll ever experience the destiny of God is if we do what Abram did. And that is to endure the darkness. But listen, it gets better. Because here's the third thing that happened.

Abram had to seal the deal. He sealed the deal. I love what happens next. Watch this. God seals his covenant with Abram in a very strange way.

It's easily overlooked by us in verse 17 if we're not careful. But here's what verse 17 says. We read it a moment ago. It says, after the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the carcasses. We can almost picture this in our day of special effects and cinematography or cgi.

This, like, smoking fire pot just moving through the air. This flaming torch moving in between the carcasses. But it was so significant. This smoking fire pot represents struggle. It's a sign of torment.

It's a sign of affliction. God was letting Abram know in front of the covenant that there would be struggles. And we all know in our relationship with The Lord. It's not all rainbows and roses. Like, there's affliction, there's trouble, there's struggles, there are hardships, there are things we don't understand.

In marriage, it's the same way. It's not a honeymoon forever. It's struggle and hardships and conflict and things that we have to work through. And that's what God was showing Abram on the front end of the Covenant relationship. John 16:33.

These are the words of Jesus. He says this. I have told you all of this so that you may have peace in me here on earth. Jesus says, you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart, because I have overcome the world. Jesus says, now here's where it gets better.

That smoking fire pot represents struggle and hardship and affliction. But there's also a flaming torch. Guess what it represents. It represents the presence of God. That in the midst of the struggles, in the midst of the faith journey, in the midst of these moments where we say, do I just believe God, or can I really trust God?

In the midst of the terrifying darkness, there's a flaming torch. It's the presence of God. It's the promise of God. I will never leave you nor forsake you. It's the promise of God.

Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be with you. My rock and my staff will comfort you. The flaming torch that Abram saw was God's way of letting Abram know that even in the midst of the struggles, even in the midst of 400 years of slavery that was about to come to the people of God, to the Jewish people, to the Israelites, that His presence would always be with them. And listen to me today, God's presence will always be with you. It doesn't mean that you're gonna understand everything that happens, but you can be assured of this.

You can trust God. Hear me? You can trust God that he's always there with you, that he is always faithful. I believe in this year, God's calling us to move from just belief, trust. There's a difference.

Harry Calcourt showed us that thousands of people believed that Charles Loden could walk across Niagara Falls pushing a wheelbarrow. They even believed he could do it with somebody inside. But nobody trusted him enough to get in the wheelbarrow. Except for that one man by the name of Harry Calcourt. And when, at the age of 75 years old, God interrupts Abram's life and tells him, I want you to pack up.

I want you to Go to a foreign land, and he doesn't even tell him where he was going. Abram trusted God. He didn't just believe him. Listen, in ancient days, nomads would mark land by driving a stake into the ground, and it would secure their tents. They would pound that stake into the ground, securing their tents.

And every stake represented stability. Every stake was a statement. This is where we belong. This is where we will stay. This is where we're gonna remain.

This is where we're gonna raise our families. This is where we're gonna build life. So it was interesting when Abram, who had driven many stakes like this in his lifetime, many different times, he had driven stakes in the ground, making statements. But on this particular day, Abram's not driving stakes in the ground. God visits him.

And then Abram starts doing the opposite. He starts pulling stakes up one by one. I imagine his neighbors were watching, going, what in the world is the old man doing? What is Abram doing now? And with each stake, it was an act of faith.

He pulls each stake up out of the ground that's holding his tent up. That represents the stability that he's enjoyed for many, many years. And then Abram gets to the last stake, the last stake, everybody's watching and knows if he pulls that stake up out of the ground, the whole tent is going to collapse. And then there's no turning back. And Abram puts his hand on that last stake because he trusted God.

And he pulls that stake up out of the ground. The last stake, that last final moment, the last declaration of not only do I believe God, but I'm going to demonstrate it, that I trust God. Here's what I believe. God wants you to move from a declaration of belief to a demonstration of trust. What I want to ask you today is, what is that last stake for you?

What do you have in your hand that represents Plan B? That represents that last stake where you know if you pull that last stake up out of the ground in 2026, there's no turning back. And the enemy wants to paralyze you with fear. The enemy wants to make you think that if you pull that stake up out of the ground, it's all over for you. And the reality is, in this year, in 2026, God wants to lead you to a new place.

God wants to take you somewhere that's even better than what you've known before.

Abram trusted God. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew who was leading him. And we might not know where God's taken us in 2026. But we can trust that he's the one who's going to faithfully lead us step by step. And I believe he's leading us to a great place.

Let me ask you this. In what ways is God asking you to trust him more in 2026? What's that last stake for you? Come on. I want us to pray.

Come on. Bow your heads right there where you are, right there in your home, wherever you're watching, if you're watching us on Pando. Come on. Right where you are, right there in your cell. I want you to bow your heads.

I want us to pray. Father, first of all, I want to thank you that you are trustworthy. God, that in terrifying darkness, in moments that we don't know where we're going to go, in times that we don't understand what you're requiring of us, you are trustworthy. And I'm asking you, God, that in 2026 we would move from belief to trust God, that we would be those who, in every transition, we build an altar, we dedicate ourselves and consecrate ourselves for the glory of God. And every transition in our life is accompanied by worship.

Lord, I pray this year we would trust you with our finances like never before, regardless of what happens with the economy or with tariffs or with our jobs or with whether or not we get the pay raise, regardless of what happens that we would say, we're not just going to believe your word, we're going to trust you. We're going to demonstrate our faith by returning what belongs to you, like Abram did with Melchizedek. We're going to be tithers. We're going to be faithful to give offerings over and above our tithe this year. Because we know, God, that you always bless obedience.

And then, Lord, we're going to chase away any birds of prey, any vultures, any buzzards, anything that try to steal the sacrifice or that try to lure us away from our covenant relationship with you. God, I pray that for every person right now that's watching, I pray, God, that every person would endure the darkness. Even for those right now who maybe are surrounded by thick darkness, by terrifying darkness. I pray, God, that in the midst of affliction, in the midst of struggle, they would see a flaming torch. They would experience the presence of God.

They would feel you, even though they might not be able to see you. They would feel your presence in the midst of. Of the darkness. And I pray, oh God, we would do everything in our power to keep the covenant relationship that we have with you, we would seal the deal. We would experience your presence.

We would know God. Even in moments of affliction where Jesus told us, in this life, we're going to have many trials that we would understand. There's always going to be a breakthrough and a victory that you bring to us if we just stay faithful. So God help us. I pray today to stay faithful.

Speak to hearts right now, God, I pray if there's anybody watching who's not in a relationship with you that today would be the day that they repent. They invite you into their heart. They. They would receive you as Lord and Savior. If there's anybody who's watching today, God, they need a healing in their body.

I pray you do that right now. If they need a miracle in their finances, do that right now. If they need clear direction from you, if they're in a season of transition, whatever it might be, God just take people from belief to trust, and I thank you for that. Today, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Hey, God bless you. Thank you again for joining us today. Reach out to us. You can email us.

If there's anything we can agree with you in prayer about. If there's anything you need, make sure you let us know. God bless you.