The Seven Separations of Abraham
(The majority of these notes come from a sermon series by Dr. Kelley Varner)

Hebrews describes what heroes of the faith did.  

Hebrews 11:33-35
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

What activated their ability to achieve these things?  Faith.  Abraham in the bible was singled out for his faith.  

Romans 4:3-5

3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
 
We are going into a series called "The 7 Separations of Abraham." Through learning about his faith we will learn not only how to please God, but how to become heroes of the faith.

We are only going over the first two separations tonight.

I'm going to give you the main point to everything that I want you to get tonight.

Separation brings you to revelation which brings you to a greater dimension of worship

Separated from his Country

Gen 12:1

The Call of Abram

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

This is the Separation!

God called Abraham.  Call - means invitation.  God called Abraham… God invited Abraham to come up to a higher level in Him.

Interestingly enough, the bible doesn't mention anything about Abraham's background. To God it was inconsequential - Nothing in his life made him qualified.  What we do know about Abraham was that he lived in country of Ur of the Chaldeans.  Abraham's people were moon worshipers… they worshipped the darkness.  Sidenote: Later on you'll find that when Abraham has Ishmael, Ishmael leaves and worships the God of his mother who was one of Abraham's servants.  His mother was from Ur.  Islam comes from Ishmael and on several islamic countries flags you'll see a crescent moon.  But we'll get to that story later.

Verse 2 God says to Abraham:

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.”
 
This is the revelation!

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

Hebrews 11:8 - Abraham went out not knowing where he went
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Faith and obedience go hand in hand.  Sometimes God calls you to go to places that are totally unfamiliar to you.  Because if He showed you, you wouldn't go.

God never calls you out of something without calling you into something. God called Abraham out of Ur to a new land.  A promised land.  Get out from your country.  Get out and move across the boundary lines.  Every country has boundary lines.  Any place where you are confined.  What is limiting you in your relationship with God?  Leave those things.  Break the traditions of your fathers and stop worshipping the moon, the traditions of men that limit what God can do in your life.  Some of you feel confined.  God wants to lead you where He led Abraham… to a city with no walls.    

Separated from Kindred

Gen 12:1
12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you…

Mark 3:31-35

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 
32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”  
33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.   
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Who is your family?  Familial relationships can hold you back.  They say that blood is thicker than water.  But the Spirit is thicker than blood.

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

These are hard words but what God is saying here is that nothing can come between you and Him.  It's about putting your priorities in order.  Spiritual family can hold you back as well.  Anyone who comes along and tries to limit what God wants to do in your life, is someone you may have to separate from.  This even goes for people with great families… loving families… even church families.  And by you separating from them, you in turn may be the one to show the way to your family about what it means to love God and follow Him.

Gen 12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

This is the greater dimension of worship!

Abraham built an altar and worshipped.

So Bethel was on the west, and Ai on the east: Abraham went from the east to the west.  Bethel means a house of God.  Ai means a heap of ruins.  Walk toward the house of God.  Walk toward communion with Him.  That's what God wants.  Everything behind you is a heap of ruins.  You can't go back to who you were.  You can't go back to your old country… you can't go back to your old family.  You will become a heap of ruins.  In worship we see where He has brought us from (Ruins!) and we see where He is taking us(Communion with Him!)   Abraham memorialized where God had brought him.  The next time you're in worship think about where God has brought you from.  And then think about the promises that He's made to you.  It's great to remember both things.

Philippians 4:13 
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

So separation brings you to revelation which brings you to a greater dimension of worship!

Have you separated?

It doesn't happen overnight.  It's a process.  Have you begun to separate yourself from your country, from the things that are limiting you in your relationship with God… from your family… from anyone that wants to get in the way of your relationship with God?

Galatians 3:15
15 Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,”[i] meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.God has promised you things.

God has promised to  make you into a great nation, to bless you;
God has said HE will make your name great,
    and that you will be a blessing.
3  God says He will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you He will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

 Is Jesus Christ your God?  Then guess what… these promises are yours.  You are a co-heir with Christ.  God is your father.   Think about those promises.  Why are you sitting around when God has given you the world?  It only takes faith.  Faith is the activator of the power that the Heroes in the bible had.  It doesn't matter where you've come from.  It doesn't matter who you used to be.  God is calling you… God is inviting you to go deeper with Him.  Are you available to do what God wants you to do?  Are you ready to be free to be who God has called you to be? Are you ready to be a hero in God's kingdom?